SHADOW OVER THE LAMP OF BALTHI – ADVENTURE

[Rich H]

Btw, I’ve sent Rich the Caran Guar attempted translation materials. Maybe he will do some good with that interesting adventure published in French e-zine Marauder. The last act of the campaign is coming out in the next issue (hopefully a few weaks away).

... I'll try turning my attentions to it this week while I'm away from home - will give me something to do in the hotel!

[Rich H]

Rich, Beleg great thoughts! I have now plenty to think about. Thanks. Also, I’ll try to put my hands on that MERP material! Maybe some interesting of ideas could be paraphrased.

Like many old MERP products many items for sale aren't cheap but here are a few on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sacat ... _PrefLoc=2

[Meneldor]

I am pretty sure I saw that supplement in a decent shape in my local" Half Price Books" not that long ago. It may still be sitting on the shelf waiting for me, I better call the store! I trust you when you say there are some ideas that could be used for that particular plot. I will give it a try but would rather not to "borrow" too much since this outline is already a bit similar to "Word of the Wise" (especially in the beginning - hunting and later - defending of the stronghold).

I really hope I will soon find in the "Heart of the Wild", if not all the answers regarding Werewolf and the Lamp, then at least some ideas I could use here!

Thanks,
M.

[Rich H]

I am pretty sure I saw that supplement in a decent shape in my local" Half Price Books" not that long ago. It may still be sitting on the shelf waiting for me, I better call the store! I trust you when you say there are some ideas that could be used for that particular plot.

Don't buy it yet then, I've just PM'd you a link. Enjoy!

I will give it a try but would rather not to "borrow" too much since this outline is already a bit similar to "Word of the Wise" (especially in the beginning - hunting and later - defending of the stronghold).

That's true but sieges and attacks on strongholds are a pretty regular occurrence. How many times did Tolkien use them in his stories, 'on and off camera', so to speak? As long as such things have different event happening around them or different things at stake then I reckon it's okay.

I really hope I will soon find in the "Heart of the Wild", if not all the answers regarding Werewolf and the Lamp, then at least some ideas I could use here!

Me too. Really want that book and I'm glad I don't start running my game again until 12th July - that way I'll only have a couple of weeks until I get hold of the PDF!

[Meneldor]

Don't buy it yet then, I've just PM'd you a link. Enjoy!

Thanks!

Ha! So I wasn't too sy-fy thinking about the "Sleeper"! There was an agent in the service of Shadow in that module planted many years before the attack on Beacon Towers - the "somewhat hipnotized" in the past cook under the spell of the Easterling wizard. Now I have to figure out how to tweak it in TOR’s low magic environment so it doesn't sound out of place. I think I have an idea...

That's true but sieges and attacks on strongholds are a pretty regular occurrence. How many times did Tolkien use them in his stories, 'on and off camera', so to speak? As long as such things have different event happening around them or different things at stake then I reckon it's okay.

Yep. True enough..

[Robin Smallburrow]

Meneldor

Have you seen the fan-created campaign adventure "The Hunting of the Wolves" by JamesRBrown (a regular on this forum) who addresses this very idea of yours??

Robin S.

[Garn!]

Thanks Robin for mentioning JamesRBrown's project. For some reason the general idea felt familiar but I couldn't recall where or why.

[Meneldor]

Hm… Thank you for bringing that to my attention Robin. I thought at some point in time I had downloaded all of the fan created material there was on the boards, but no, I haven’t read thru all of the the JamesBrown’s campaign ideas until today, when you mentioned it. Excellent piece of an outline! I enjoyed reading it. I hope one day it will be finished as a ready to play adventures.

What can I say? On one hand I feel good that my peanut brain works a little bit alike the greater minds, on the other, my spontaneous ideas are far from new, fresh and brilliant. It looks like on every corner there was something similar to something somewhere else. It’s discouraging thought. I’ve found it somewhat familiar to the Words..., Rich to Dark Mage..., now there was earlier the Lamp of Balthi as a center piece of the Hunting... In the end the fresh idea of mine might be that goofy terrain race, which probably highly unlikely could have even been considered by the Woodmen folk!

My conscious inspirations were: LM Book, The Wolf Biter from the TofW , Tolwen’s reflection that Woodmen were scouts for the White Council Army, and Caran Gaur’s introduction of descendant of ancient bloodline of Huan (I've read only the bits and pieces of Silmarillion), the Hound of Valinor, when I was thinking about Radagast having on his disposal that kind of beast as a Mount (as Gandalf had Shadowfax).

[Rich H]

Don't worry about it being similar too others in idea and/or execution, why does that matter? It doesn't, you're working on something and asking for advice and if you publish it then it's ANOTHER free fan made adventure. Slight variations of similar ideas are no bad thing as campaigns may struggle to fit one in where another is more applicable. So, just because others may have done (or thought of) similar things don't let that put you off. I think you have the basis is a pretty epic adventure that if done right could be used within campaigns to define the fate of the Woodmen of Mirkwood.

[Garn!]

Meneldor,
I strongly agree with Rich H's comment.

Just because someone else wrote something similar doesn't mean that you cannot make a valid contribution. While, taken individually, the ideas you had might not have been original, your implementation might well be. More importantly, it might have just the right twist that someone else desperately needs in order to mix and match between published and home-grown adventures. Middle-earth has elicited an extremely broad mix of perspectives and differences in fundamental concepts, game styles and goals.

And if you really think about it, we're probably all just re-hashing ideas Tolkien considered and never wrote down!