Eriador my way

[Láthspell]

Saruman may not reside in Eriador strictly speaking, but his sphere of influence at this point in time likely encompasses, Enedwaith, Dunland, and Eregion. Also with the the Shire/Bree-lands, centrally located, the Grey Havens in the West, Rivendell in the East, and Fornost in the North, it might be nice for your players to have a Patron in the South of Eriador, as well, so personally, I wouldn't entirely discount Saruman.

[PST]

As far as developing settlements and 'people for the heroes to care about' we have Tolkien's 100 leagues quote to contend with, which I'm going to be wavy-handed about. Nothing the size of Bree, nothing new but some old settlements, cities, towns and villages might still linger as very faded remnants of their former glories. Which is, in essence the overall feel of the whole region, faded glory, the lost and near-forgotten lands that once-were.

Man, am I glad you posted this - I'm struggling with many of the same issues. In particular, how are you handling the 100 leagues problem in terms of one of these forgotten villages?

Briefly, I'd also like to insert a patron and/or sanctuary somewhere between The Shire and Rivendell for the reasons you share, but it's tricky to stay (mostly) canon. One idea I'm considering is using this quote from page 32 of Rivendell:

Few now remain; certainly no settlements exist east of Bree that are larger than a hidden hamlet or well-defended farmstead.

Supposing such a "hidden hamlet or well-defended farmstead" exists within or near the Bree-land (in whichever direction fits) during the period of 2954-2977, but vanishes by the time the Hobbits reach Bree in 3018? It's similar to the point in TfW about the Easterly Inn subsequently disappearing (without further protection).

It's a stretch and I'm curious to hear what you decide.

In brief, because there'll be a longer post about this when I come round to detailing other settlements and inhabitants, i'm sort of hand-waving and doing some judicious stretching of my interpretation. Firstly most of Eriador is entirely undiscribed in LoTR, in particular anywhere north or south of the road is barely touched on, and post weathertop we have the hurried journey while pursued by the Nazgul. Secondly i'm mentally inserting 'of note' into the '100 leagues' as well as sticking to the interpretation that places the 100 leagues starting in the middle of the Shire rather than its borders, otherwise there's a contradiction with the Dunedain dwelling in The Angle (albeit the more you read letters/HoME etc. the more contradictions you encounter).

In the North of the Angle i'm sticking the dunedain's main fastness.
Some forester/shepherd hamlets dotting the east side of the trollshaws, north of Imladris, these being a source for 'You've et a village and a half between yer, since we come down from the mountains.'

I'm playing with the idea of also adding Fennas Drunin in the southern part of the angle (from Merp) albeit substantially altered, small mostly dunnish village.

In the north of the lone lands will be a handful of hunter-trapper meagre settlements, probably one of any size (3-400 people) with some troubles.

Tharbad will still have some inhabitants, though they'll be fisher-folk living a poor life. Along the Gwathlo will be a few fishing settlements, with one trading outpost and maybe a couple of dozen dwellings as the largest of these.

Probably going with some settlements far to the NW of Arthedain, on the border of Ered Luin. Might not come up in the campaign though i'd guess it would feature if they go down the Lossoth-Palantir-Saruman plotline. Idyllic small silvan settlements, some numbers of dwarves and some men living a mostly pastoral existence untouched by war/strife.

I'd like to do something with the Forsaken Inn but I don't want to replicate the Easterly Inn at all (which is one of my players favourite places).

Edit: Not as brief as I'd thought, evidently. Far to the South of Enedwaith and Minhiriath will be some small settlements and fishing-type villages and Dunland will obviously have hill-top forts and so on. Likewise Rhudaur will be dotted with hill-men villages, though those aren't going to be friendly to an Elf, a Dwarf, A Hobbit and a Ranger.

Things i'm not doing:
Putting any other Sanctuaries in. One thing that makes Eriador harder than the Wilderland, even without the nightmare that crossing Mirkwood can be, is the lack of sanctuaries. Safe places to rest and recover will and probably should be few and far between so I can't offer a solution to you on a safe place/sanctuary between Bree and Rivendell on the road. LoTRO has a place called Ost Guruth which you could mine for ideas (though it's not really all that fleshed out in the game). While I might have some small settlements, they'd be meagre places where sharing their food with the company would put them at risk, albeit that makes for interesting roleplay.

[Angelalex242]

...would any players WANT Saruman as a patron? Again, Metagame. Every player ever knows good old Chris Lee is turning to the Dark Side, and figure taking his advice is a good way to rack up shadow points by the bucketload.

[Láthspell]

This may be a bit of a spoiler but...

In the Darkening of Mirkwood, when the characters meet Saruman they actually have no choice but to accept the White Wizard as a patron. (The power of the Voice of Saruman, and all that.)

Also, you should join the Dark Side... I hear they have cookies.

Of course, they could just be the type of cookies they track your actions and preferences to report them back to MCP... I guess, Saruman should have used a third party router and made a point to delete his history when using the Palantír. Anyhow...

End of Line

[Angelalex242]

There's not even a corruption check against the Voice? I'd at least give players a wisdom check (TN 20) to decide listening to Saruman's a bad idea.

[Mim]

Thank you PST. You're obviously giving this a great deal of thought, and your players will (hopefully) appreciate your effort. You raise a number of points that open up scenario possibilities.

I like your point about the Troll's munching on the villagers - and thus the hamlets in the Trollshaws.

You bring-up another idea about the people in the Lone Lands, as well as throwing a monkey wrench into it (albeit a canonical one ) about their not having much to offer to bedraggled heroes one step ahead of an unsavory end.

I hadn't considered fishers or fowlers living in Tharbad, but their just visiting the ruins from time to time. I'll have to give this one a second look.

I also have holdings up in the Ered Luin including my former Dwarf, who has cleansed an old watchtower and can warn the others of raiders. I suppose many of us weigh the palantíri quest, but what an adventure!

My only disappointment (though I understand your reasoning) is the lack of sanctuaries within Eriador. Francesco added some but it's still going to be challenging for heroes to survive. I realize that's the whole point, but it's still a tough call to see how many potential TPKs we can incur in this game, depending on how strictly any of us LM.

[Otaku-sempai]

Saruman may not reside in Eriador strictly speaking, but his sphere of influence at this point in time likely encompasses, Enedwaith, Dunland, and Eregion. Also with the the Shire/Bree-lands, centrally located, the Grey Havens in the West, Rivendell in the East, and Fornost in the North, it might be nice for your players to have a Patron in the South of Eriador, as well, so personally, I wouldn't entirely discount Saruman.

Sorry, I did not make myself clear. I did not mean that Saruman should not be a Patron at all; I only intended to note that he was not based in Eriador, but at Isengard.

Yes, there are very few Sanctuaries in Eriador: Rivendell; the Shire; the Grey Havens; and the Dwarf-colony in the Ered Luin. Perhaps the main settlement of the Dunedain (if it can be found). Bree (or Bree-land) probably should not be included.

[Mim]

You're probably right about Bree not fitting in as a sanctuary, however, I sure hope they're working on a sourcebook like they did for Lake-town. They're working on the Bree-folk as a culture, and IMHO, it would be a wonderful link to the culture AND fit nicely as one of their "surprises"

[PST]

There's not even a corruption check against the Voice? I'd at least give players a wisdom check (TN 20) to decide listening to Saruman's a bad idea.

Why is it?

Obviously this all depends on the timeline of any particular campaign, but it's arguably not until 2051 when Saruman starts to really lust after the ring. 2053 is when he sets up spies/agents in Bree and Southfarthing, but that could just be because he suspects gandalf is hiding 'something' from him (and he is, afterall, the head of the order).

It's not until 3000 when he uses the Palantir in Orthanc when we can definitively say he'd been ensnared/turned evil.

Arrogant, proud, selfish etc. before hand quite possibly, but I don't think he's not a bad guy until 3000

Edit: 2951/2953, damn typos.

[PST]

Yes, there are very few Sanctuaries in Eriador: Rivendell; the Shire; the Grey Havens; and the Dwarf-colony in the Ered Luin. Perhaps the main settlement of the Dunedain (if it can be found). Bree (or Bree-land) probably should not be included.

I think the problem with Bree as a sanctuary is that I don't see it as somewhere you stay for a long period of time. You pass through Bree, you might go and return several times but it's not a place of rest and relaxation (though you could make the same argument about Mountain Hall or even Beorn's as not being somewhere to spend a winter). So I'm torn on it. It doesn't feel right, but that leaves 2 probably sanctuaries in Eriador proper, both very close to one another (Rivendell and the Dunedain fastness in the Angle). I'm still pondering Bree as a sanctuary though so may waver and switch my mind if only to relieve the problem of weighting the map and travel etc.