Mini-Campaign Planning

[Magogue]

Well, So I finally have the opportunity to run a mini-campaign of The One Ring around May, and trying to choose a main plot.

I promised a Hobbit campaign. A story that shall start with a hobbit or two going from the Shire to a grand adventure, and generally sharing more in themes and atmosphere with the Hobbit, than with The Lord of the Rings (or the Jackson Hobbit movies).

Anyone has a good tale to share or recommend?

[Magogue]

Another option - I liked the Darkening of Mirkwood very much. How do I bring a home-loving Hobbit into it?

[Rich H]

I started a mini-campaign in The Shire for 3 players - all hobbits. Personally, I'd start it in the Shire and progress east if you felt the need. There's plenty of adventure to be had along the way.

The opening couple of sessions introduced the shire and it's various hobbit families and personalities through a summer festival which included them all coming together and playing hobbit cricket in the yearly Four Farthings tournament.

From there, during autumn, a large company of hobbits (the PCs included) travelled north to the shores of Lake Evendim where they traded grain crops and vegetables for game and other goods with the northmen hunters (really rangers of the north) as well as engaging in some fishing while there. Early winter winds came down from the north though along with winter wolves led by a great warg which the Company of Three managed to fight off.

Upon their return to the Shire, one of the characters had received a letter from his sister in Bree; she needed help in clearing her husband's good name for he had been accused of cattle theft. The culprits were really two stone trolls who the PCs dealt with and meeting Gandalf they were informed that other evil was at work and Bree was in danger.

Getting lost in the hills just south of Bree, while tracking a bandit lookout, they strayed onto the Barrow Downs. There they faced an evil Wight; defeating him, and under Gandalf's advice (he turns up just when he's needed!), they laid out the treasure in the sun and returned to Bree to tell of the adventure and others too [it's here that I broke out Hobbit Tales and ran it as part of the game].

... I had plans to take the party eastwards into the Trollshaws and on to Rivendell but my other regular campaign started up and this one's been left on the back burner for now.

[Magogue]

Oh, That's sounds a great game, and somewhat what I looking for (Although for now I am aiming for the contrast between the Cozy Home and the Great Quest).

I wonder, though, should I be able to start the game with those slice-of-life "couple of sessions" you described. Usually I manage to achieve them after the players are well bonded to their characters by loss and battle.
How did you managed to dramatize all those family squbble and grain trading?

[Falenthal]

It would be set in another period of time, but I once made a long-adventure (not really a mini-campaign) in which the players accompanied the brothers Marcho and Blanco from Bree to Fornost so that they could ask king Argeleb II for a piece of land where the growing hobbit population could settle and call their own. Up to here, this was something that really happened. In the tolkiengateway you find a summary of the facts:

"The Shire was a fertile and well-tilled part of Arnor, but deserted during the waning days of the Kingdom when it was known as the splinter-realm of Arthedain; where the Shire was, it had been the hunting grounds of the King of Arnor. The Hobbits (who lived in Dunland and parts of depopulated Cardolan and Rhudaur) got official permission from King Argeleb II at Norbury (Fornost) to settle the lands. This was finally done in Third Age 1601 (Year 1 in Shire Reckoning) by Hobbits from Bree, led by the brothers Marcho and Blanco."

Remember that, though travelling along the Green Road was secure this days, there was a Cold-war going on with Angmar, and the players could encounter the remains of orc attacks on isolated farms or things like that.

In my adventure, the request was made during the Lithe-days, so that we could include some city-encounters and an adventure during the festivities. The player characters met Argeleb II, but also Gandalf, during the Court meeting. They had also to convince the dúnedain advisors who where against the free present to such little creatures as Hobbits. After the lands of the Shire-to-be where granted to them, Blanco and Marcho went back to Bree to inform the fellow hobbits. The players, though, were send to the land of the Shire (still unnamed) to secure the place and explore where they could begin to build their hobbit-holes. When arriving there, they found a group of sylvan elves lead by a noldorin elf who used to dwell there. The characters made contact with them, and the elves accepted that their days where over and agreed to leave the lands to the newcomers. But they also showed them the secrets of this land, bringing them to the Old Forest. I made up that the Old Forest was beginning it's darkening, and the player's found Old Man Willow, who by then was an Ent poisoned by a Giant Spider who was losing it's sanity and becoming the tormented tree we see in the Lord of the Rings. I even introduced Radagast in the encounter with Old Man Willow, still an Istari who cares for the living beings outside Mirkwood. He had followed the trail of the Giant Spider, that came from Mirkwood, one of Shelob's Brood. They had to fight the Giant Spider, but the Old Man Willow was lost forever.

The adventure ended when the group went to the Brandywine bridge and meet Marcho, Blanco and the first hobbit settlers.

A lot of useful information (though not official or canonical) can be found in the Arnor, The People supplement for MERP. I haven't read The Shire supplement, but I guess you can find even more things there.

As for the encounters the party had during their travels, I tried to relate them to the backgrounds of the characters:
-A Dúnedain Ranger who was sent on his first mission to Bree to bring the news to the Hobbit Brothers and escort them back to Fornost... and also to deliver a secret letter to the daughter of the town-healer.
-The daughter of the town-healer, who received a secret letter on his 18th birthday, telling her that she was adopted and that, should she want to know more, she should travel to Fornost during the forthcoming Lithe-days. This way she discovered that she had some magic talent and that the "weird things" that sometimes happened to her where the expression of wild magic flowing through her. Part of her adventure was learning how to control it into spells.
-Two Bree-Hobbits, friends of Blanco and Marcho. One of them had lost his father not long ago, and wanted to travel out of Bree to see if he could discover anything about him. Which he did along the Green Road...
-A pariah dwarf, always drunk and with a crow as only friend. He never talked about his past, but had grown very fond of the race of the Hobbits. In fact, he had been a slave in the Mount Gram mines and was being used by Angmar as a spy while the orcs held his mother hostage. He had to inform and angmarin outpost of everything he learned via his crow, that disappeared for a few days and appeared again all of a sudden with some new instructions for the dwarf. During the adventure he had to decide if he was going to keep the secret from his companions or if he was going to trust them and ask for help.

Well, it's become a very long post, but I hope it helps you someway!!

[Rich H]

I wonder, though, should I be able to start the game with those slice-of-life "couple of sessions" you described. Usually I manage to achieve them after the players are well bonded to their characters by loss and battle. How did you managed to dramatize all those family squbble and grain trading?

The 'introduction' centred around the cricket tournament, so there was a game there to be played rather than just characterisation and interaction. I wrote up some rules for it here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/795 ... ricket.pdf

... If you take a look at that, you'll see the structure lends itself to interaction and RPing opportunities - eg, I picked two teams of 11 cricketers and there was interplay between them all, and spectators/stall vendors, throughout the tournament. Players can bond to their characters because they enjoy playing them, and that isn't just established in a battle; especially for hobbits! Having them play in such a prestigious cricket event is certainly another way, and far more in keeping with hobbit sensibilities!

EDIT: I also put together a Guide to the Shire which may be useful to you - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/795 ... 0Shire.pdf

[Beran]

I probably would start them out as members of Borderers in the Northfarthing and eventually work my East from there.

[Rich H]

I probably would start them out as members of Borderers in the Northfarthing and eventually work my East from there.

Think the correct term is 'Bounders'. One of my PCs was one of those - but in the South Farthing. Later in the game I was going to use that to tie in Sharkey and his ruffians.

[Beran]

Bounders, of course. Thank you for the correction, I didn't have my book handy when I wrote that.

[Falenthal]

Bounders are a very nice way to introduce hobbit players to new adventures.
Also, a Bounder has probably some of the hobbitish "wanderlust" inside him and make for good PCs. Like Robin Smallburrow said:
"I went for Shiriff... Gave me a chance of walking round the country and seeing folk, and hearing the news...".
A Bounder character can be a connection to the Dunedain Rangers and the troubles from the outside world.

Also a postman can show interest in getting to know the farthest corners of The Shire, which can develop into a curiosity to see the rest of the world. And he can be one of the firsts to know about Bilbo's Party ("you know what, we are hiring a lot of volunteers to deliver all of this mailing Bilbo is sending and receiving. I tell you, something's going on in Bag's End...").

And I can imagine a delivery boy from Longbottom who has to deliver sacks of tobacco to some bad looking boys in Sarn Ford. "Something weird is happening here. I haven't seen this men around here before, and I assure you they're up to no good. The Shire is running out of Longbottom Leaf because this fellas are taking it somewhere south. I have a bad feeling about this...".