One adventure per year pacing

[jacksarge]

My players have just completed "Don't leave the Path" and have travelled down to Woodland Hall - one of the PCs is from there, and managed to give back the Wolfbiter Axe. After reading the various comments on this thread I'm not sure if I ought to encourage them to return to their homes - 2 men of dale & 1 Wood elf, plus the Woodsman- and spend the rest of the year there doing "everyday stuff", and have them meet back the next year... or have a fellowship phase in Woodland Hall leading on to "Of leaves & stewed Hobbit"? It does seem a long way to travel all the way back to Dale, only to come back to the Anduin vale the next year for the next adventure. Would that seem too artificial? The TFW book seems to fit better with hanging out in an area until the adventures for that region are done.
I'm open for suggestions- I'm new to LMing, and haven't run anything like this since the mid 80's when I played AD&D as a teenager.

[edwardp]

My players have just completed "Don't leave the Path" and have travelled down to Woodland Hall - one of the PCs is from there, and managed to give back the Wolfbiter Axe. After reading the various comments on this thread I'm not sure if I ought to encourage them to return to their homes - 2 men of dale & 1 Wood elf, plus the Woodsman- and spend the rest of the year there doing "everyday stuff", and have them meet back the next year... or have a fellowship phase in Woodland Hall leading on to "Of leaves & stewed Hobbit"? It does seem a long way to travel all the way back to Dale, only to come back to the Anduin vale the next year for the next adventure. Would that seem too artificial? The TFW book seems to fit better with hanging out in an area until the adventures for that region are done.
I'm open for suggestions- I'm new to LMing, and haven't run anything like this since the mid 80's when I played AD&D as a teenager.

I'm sort of in the same situation. My group also just finished "Don't Leave the Path", or at least arrived at the Forest Gate in Western Mirkwood.

I'd like them to move on to "Of Leaves", and to me it makes sense as they would be travelling right past there on the way to Woodland Hall.

Thoughts or comments?

Thanks!
-Ed

[Valarian]

As I see it, the story of the Lord of the Rings consists of a number of adventure / fellowship phases.

Lord of the Rings in terms of Adventuring & Fellowship phases:
Leave Bag End to travel to Rivendell - fellowship phase in Rivendell
Leave Rivendell and travel through the Mines of Moria - fellowship phase in Lothlorién
Frodo & Sam get no further fellowship phases, just one long adventuring phase - get very weary.
Merry & Pippin get a fellowship phase in Fangorn as guests of the Ents.
Aragorn, Gimli & Legolas get a brief fellowship phase in Edoras.
There could also be a brief fellowship phase in Gondor before the assault on the black gate.

[zedturtle]

My players have just completed "Don't leave the Path" and have travelled down to Woodland Hall - one of the PCs is from there, and managed to give back the Wolfbiter Axe. After reading the various comments on this thread I'm not sure if I ought to encourage them to return to their homes - 2 men of dale & 1 Wood elf, plus the Woodsman- and spend the rest of the year there doing "everyday stuff", and have them meet back the next year... or have a fellowship phase in Woodland Hall leading on to "Of leaves & stewed Hobbit"? It does seem a long way to travel all the way back to Dale, only to come back to the Anduin vale the next year for the next adventure. Would that seem too artificial? The TFW book seems to fit better with hanging out in an area until the adventures for that region are done.
I'm open for suggestions- I'm new to LMing, and haven't run anything like this since the mid 80's when I played AD&D as a teenager.

I'm sort of in the same situation. My group also just finished "Don't Leave the Path", or at least arrived at the Forest Gate in Western Mirkwood.

I'd like them to move on to "Of Leaves", and to me it makes sense as they would be travelling right past there on the way to Woodland Hall.

Thoughts or comments?

Thanks!
-Ed

When I ran it; I explicitly made the goal "deliver Baldor, Belgo and the goods to Beorn's Hall". And, of course, they passed by the curious looking Easterly Inn on the way there. It made things more seamless that way.

[Otaku-sempai]

He served a number of years as a rider of Rohan. Then, again for a number of years, as a guard of the White Tower in Minas Tirith. Both as "Thorongil". He then passed in to the Eastern lands for a number of years. Followed by a hunt for Gollum. Followed by the events in the LotR books. Sounds like a fair number of adventures to me.

Just to clarify, it seems that Aragorn's exploration of the East and South of Middle-earth took place before his service as Thorongil to Rohan and then Gondor. His greatest feat as Thorongil was a raid on Umbar in TA 2980, where he destroyed a large part of the Corsair fleet, before he reunited with Lady Arwen in Lothlorien.

A pair of Tolkien characters who also had very long adventuring careers were Elladan and Elrohir, the twin sons of Elrond. Their focus was the hunting of Orcs in revenge for the injury of their mother in 2509. They also presumably helped to train many a Northern Ranger, especially Aragorn and at least several of his direct ancestors.

[Stormcrow]

Lord of the Rings in terms of Adventuring & Fellowship phases:
Leave Bag End to travel to Rivendell - fellowship phase in Rivendell
Leave Rivendell and travel through the Mines of Moria - fellowship phase in Lothlorién
Frodo & Sam get no further fellowship phases, just one long adventuring phase - get very weary.
Merry & Pippin get a fellowship phase in Fangorn as guests of the Ents.
Aragorn, Gimli & Legolas get a brief fellowship phase in Edoras.
There could also be a brief fellowship phase in Gondor before the assault on the black gate.

Right. And what you've got there is a single quest (with side-branches) that has to be performed in stages, not a series of separate adventures loosely connected merely by having the same bunch of people in the next place that needs do-gooders.