Running "Tales" with 3 players

[zedturtle]

Alrighty, here goes:

Overall:

I would encourage them to take characters who can possess multiple roles and have high survivability: a Beorning with Twice Baked Honeycakes, a Hobbit with Fair Shot (by the book, so they can use it with a Bow), and a Woodman with Hound of Mirkwood are about ideal.

Don't Leave the Path

Before doing the scene with the initial ruffians, make sure your heroes (especially your Beorning) understand how Hate, Intimidate Foe and Craven interact. That way, if they do get into combat, they have a good chance of a quick win.

Give Baldor some stats: Courtesy: 3, Quarterstaff: 2, 12 End, etc. Let him help out with getting into the Elven-halls and with any hazards along the way.

Give the heroes a chance to capture Baldor before he goes off into the woods and gets spider-captured. If they're lucky, he gets caught and the commotion attracts a small party of attercops. If they fail, then run it as written but have the hermit show up as well... let this lead directly into Part Five, skipping over the thunderstorm.

If they captured and contained Baldor whilst dealing with the spiders, run the Hermit as written.

For the Thing in the Well, run it pretty much as written... probably automatically make Belgo go into it, so as to keep all the heroes' options available to them, combat-wise.

[[ Breaking this up per adventure ]]

[zedturtle]

Of Leaves and Stewed Hobbit

Consider lowering the threshold for getting Bilbo's Letters of Introduction, especially if you have a Hobbit. Make Shanker be a better person than he's written up to be... he can help with the Night Wight and the battle at the Ringfort.

If Shanker or Iwgar survive the battle, they might aid in the search for Dindy. Neither will be brave enough to risk their necks by interacting with the goblins directly, but might be persuaded to stay with Dindy in the kitchen while the heroes try some damn-fool plan.

[zedturtle]

Kinstrife and Dark Tidings

Most of this adventure can be played straight, as there's no challenge to be scaled, until Part Seven at the least. Having Williferd, Helmgut or Hartwulf tag along with the PCs would be interesting... especially Helmgut, but that might put you into an awkward spot with Oderic.

You should be careful with the Outlaw Patrols... either make them easier to hide from, or scale down the threat they might bring (e.g. make them two archers and one warrior, or vice-versa). Perhaps lower the stats for Faron, or make him easier to trick. For Oderic, either lower the TN or encourage the players to use their traits to maximum effect to convince him of the rightness of their cause.

Be careful with the battle and don't be afraid to have Beorn show up a little early, if needed. Oderic's trial should be able to be run as written.

[zedturtle]

Those Who Tarry No Longer

[ There are some among us who would say, do not run this at all. I would say that it is your choice, but tread carefully, for the paths are treacherous and 'it was all a dream' is rarely well-received. ]

I introduced Irimë in the Elven-King's halls back in the first adventure... you might do the same. It helps explain why she might be willing to put her (incredibly incomprehensibly long) life in the hands of these adventurers. I might adjust the table on page 68 to be a total of all three adventurers, but I'm a big softie.

I would have the Orc attack drive them to the Ruins (this is the GK's plan) and skip the Eagles entirely. This also removes one of the two hopeless fights... or at least redirects it into a plan of action from the PCs ("quick, let's run into this spooky abandoned place, they'll never follow us!").

Have Irimë invite them into the dream, and ask for their aid as the GK assaults her. Make sure the players know that it's a dream sequence, use fast cuts to imply lots of time passing... this is one time where the intention of the adventure is to make the heroes feel doomed. Hopefully your players will be strong enough into the game that they will not deny her and mayhap she will gain a victory.

[zedturtle]

ignore this duplicated post, why would I do such a thing?

[Glorelendil]

Oh, I like your changes to Tarry.

Irimë could meet them in Thranduil's halls and in a Galadriel-like scene she could offer them something that might make their coming trials a tiny bit easier. Hints/riddles, or something more tangible. Not sure yet.

[zedturtle]

Oh, I like your changes to Tarry.

Irimë could meet them in Thranduil's halls and in a Galadriel-like scene she could offer them something that might make their coming trials a tiny bit easier. Hints/riddles, or something more tangible. Not sure yet.

Or, it could be some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. "When I met you in the halls of the King, a foresight was upon me that I would meet you again, and you would help me in my journey." I.E. The heroes are being selected because they managed to survive this long, and she's already met them earlier.

If you do go for the hints/riddles thing, I think it should be related to the Thing in the Well. That seems to be something that she might actually care about, and have advice to deal with.

[Majestic]

I like it, zed! Had this been proposed earlier, I would have probably included that in my game.

[Falenthal]

Besides giving the players some NPCs to go with them, defined by the adventure (remember that Heart of the Wild has plenty of NPCs for every region), here's what I did when GMing for a group of two players:

We created 4 characters, and it was their pool of heroes. Depending on the adventure ahead, they selected two of those heroes. In the pool there was a fighter, a bard (good for social and urban adventures), a thief and a ranger (for outdoors adventures).
Sometime they just played the whole adventure with those two characters, but with time we discovered new ways of having fun: if the other two characters were in the same town/city, they could switch characters if the situation was right. For example, the bard and the thief could discover in a urban adventure where some smugglers where hidden, thanks to their social and subterfuge skills. But when it came to the moment where the smugglers had to be captured, the bard changed to the fighter (who was a city guard) for the arrest.

Also, sometimes we could make chapters of an adventure: while two characters where resolving some situation, we could switch the perspective to the other two and play a different part of the same plot. Imagine the adventure "Dark Tidings" from ToW. As LM you can introduce the group of 4 characters to the moment when they find the boat with the dead beornings and the tracks of a fugitive. 2 characters can chase the fugitive (the best hunters), and the other 2 can go to see Beorn and inform him. There, you can play as chapters in a novel, changing from one point of action to the other when you see fit ("Oh, you just failed your Stealth test with an Eye! The army of bandits will surely see you, and they don't seem friendly... But let us change to your comrades, who are comfortably sitting with Beorn in his warm house...").

And another option is to make entirely different adventures with each pair sometimes. In Darkening, there are adventures in the Valleys of the Anduin, and other concerning Dale, Bard and his heir. Maybe there can be a Beorning, a Woodman and a Hobbit who prefer to run the Anduin Vales adventures, while a Barding, a Dwarf and a Lake-towner are more suited to the ones around Long-Lake.

[Bram Corolev]

Those Who Tarry No Longer

[ There are some among us who would say, do not run this at all. I would say that it is your choice, but tread carefully, for the paths are treacherous and 'it was all a dream' is rarely well-received. ]

I introduced Irimë in the Elven-King's halls back in the first adventure... you might do the same. It helps explain why she might be willing to put her (incredibly incomprehensibly long) life in the hands of these adventurers. I might adjust the table on page 68 to be a total of all three adventurers, but I'm a big softie.

I would have the Orc attack drive them to the Ruins (this is the GK's plan) and skip the Eagles entirely. This also removes one of the two hopeless fights... or at least redirects it into a plan of action from the PCs ("quick, let's run into this spooky abandoned place, they'll never follow us!").

Have Irimë invite them into the dream, and ask for their aid as the GK assaults her. Make sure the players know that it's a dream sequence, use fast cuts to imply lots of time passing... this is one time where the intention of the adventure is to make the heroes feel doomed. Hopefully your players will be strong enough into the game that they will not deny her and mayhap she will gain a victory.

I'm honestly not sure why so many groups have problems with this adventure. I introduced Irime early in the campaign the first time they visited Thranduil's halls. They were familiar with her and at least one of the companions had a crush on her. Later, we usually have music playing in the background while we play and I subtlety made the eagle rescue match up to Horner's ROTK soundtrack of when the eagles appear for the rescue at the end of the movie. You could have cut the tension with a knife. Finally, I made it obvious to the players that they were in a dream sequence by speeding up the narrative. The hobbit alone avoided capture by the easterlings and the story shaped to him being solely responsible for their survival buy smuggling food and water into the slave train.

Of the entire Tales of Wilderland campaign we played, this adventure was what made my players buy in. When we wrapped up the adventure they were exhausted but also determined to seek out this new danger and protect Wilderland.