Winging it as an LM in TOR

[nazgul_2000]

I just wanted to praise the game for giving me the freedom and confidence to completely "wing it" as a LM the other day when I had a small turn out for our regular game. We have been playing through the adventures in Tales from Wilderland, having just finished Kinstrife and Dark Tidings in the previous session. We decided to wait for the whole group to assemble to start up the next adventure, so I needed some filler to tide over the smaller group for one session. A side trek, if you will.

Normally, I'm a pretty detail oriented LM/DM/GM. I'm not real comfortable just making stuff up. I like to have notes, maps, NPC motivations, etc. all planned out. I had no time to do any of this though. But, having LM'd this game for a few months now, I felt confident making something up as I went along. Here is how it played out . . .

I reminded the party that while they won the climactic battle in Kinstrife, Valter the Bloody did escape. They waited a few days to mend their wounds, and then they set out to find him. I had Heart of the Wild open in front of me, and I decided that whichever way the party went was going to be the same way Valter did. If they searched west of Anduin, I was ready to flip to the West Middle Vales chapter to set the scene. The party decided to head back to Stonyford first (the battle was fought near the old ford), so I had them take Oderic with them (he had been rescued by the party and subsequently acquitted at the Carrock). When the village elders came out to meet them again, I did a spontaneous social encounter, with Oderic's reception in the balance. If the party failed the encounter, he would have been treated with scorn. But they had many successes, so I informed them that after some convincing, Ava and the others welcomed him back with open arms.

The party talked to the villagers for clues of Valter's whereabouts. I saw an old quarry turned Woodman outpost (Stonehallow) explained in Heart of the Wild, so I decided Valter and about 10 survivors would hunker down there. As the party approached, I decided that two Woodmen would still stand guard, but secretly, Valter was hiding within. He was using the Woodmen as a rouse by holding their wife and children captive in the caves. I asked for awareness rolls as the party addressed the Woodmen, who said they were under orders not to let anyone in - the party detected that something was amiss, but could not determine what.

As it was now evening, the party set up camp in a small forested area not too far from Stonehallow. Knowing something was awry, they made a fake campsite, not unlike Strider and the Hobbits did in Bree. They hid in the trees and waited. Sure enough, five outlaws quietly left Stonehallow under cover of darkness and attacked the (empty) camp site. The party attacked from the trees, and easily defeated them.

They approached Stonehallow again, and this time the Woodmen guards let them in, knowing that Valter's reckongin was at hand. The party found him and his remaining band in a cave. One guard held two women at spear point. I had recently finished The Children of Hurin, and I've been wanting to copy the scene where the orcs killed their prisoners as soon as they were attacked - but the party must have suspected that, because they held the initiative and killed the guard first.

I did not get to run Valter in the previous session, so I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, he missed with each of his swings, while the party brought him down in three blows.

I'm not sure if I'm going to run Those Who Tarry, so I foreshadowed the Gibbet King by having the party find a severed but somewhat preserved head with Valter's possessions. They previously found such a head when they defeated the Goblin Chief in Of Leaves and Stewed Hobbits.

So there you have it, a completely enjoyable game that had a little bit of everything (social encounter, battle, journey rules (albeit a short trip)). I was so impressed that none of it was scripted at all. Yes, I'd given it some thought, but normally that would not be enough for me to comfortably run a gaming session. Hats off to TOR!

[Glorelendil]

I love reading other people's game session reports. Thanks for posting!

[Morgoth]

Thanks for sharing. I might use this in the future.

[shipwreck]

Agreed, thanks for sharing!