DoM Catch Up (Spoilers)

[Majestic]

Nicely done! My characters didn't take any items from Radagast except the Mirkwood Cordial, but I'm sure had I had them captured they would have come up with an excellent escape plan (as they did in Tarry).

[farinal]

Let's revive this thread a bit, I really like the idea and want to see other people's campaigns.

Due to me leaving the country for a year and returning recently our sessions were interrupted and we just started to the DoM today. We have finished the Folk-Moot and we previously finished the Tales from Wilderland.

The Shield-maiden of Black Tarn in my campaign has been changed to a Woodman woman the party already knew and had an adventure together before. So I put her in that position instead of someone they do not know. Which worked really well I think. They had a stake in supporting her cause in the Moot.

So the decisions were YES to Black Tarn and Mogdred but NO to the Sunstead which came a bit surprise to me.

Also they are intrigued by the Bofri for reclaiming the Old Road.

I will see how it will go in the next sessions but for a first session of the Campaign it was a nice start with establishing the basics and with zero combat.

[tomfish]

So the decisions were YES to Black Tarn and Mogdred but NO to the Sunstead which came a bit surprise to me.

Also they are intrigued by the Bofri for reclaiming the Old Road.

Excalty the same here ! Actually for Mogdred it was more a "YES BUT" and I think he will hold a grudge against the characters, but not a deadly one.

I also had one of the player character fall deeply in love with Amaleoda, the Shield Maiden from Black Tarn, with rumors of her having one river daughter amongst her ancestors.

[Mim]

On a side note, how did you handle Tyrant's Hill Ernst-Jan? Did you write the fortress yourself or have you lifted it from another module?

Because I gave the players a lot of room to determine a strategy I fleshed out Tyrant's Hill in quite a bit of detail, basing most of it on one of John Howe's old Dol Guldur sketches. The details were all my own speculation. I was thinking of putting it up here for other groups' benefits after cleaning the document up a bit.

Howe's work is an excellent idea, though a bit large and imposing for Amon Bauglir, IMHO. I thus plan on using Castle Orlmond from The Reach of the Shadow in DoM and tweaking it a bit. For example, I may use the tunnels from the fort in Harder Than Stone in RotN.

This provides a great example of one of the few but frustrating flaws in this game - not enough maps!

[farinal]

So the decisions were YES to Black Tarn and Mogdred but NO to the Sunstead which came a bit surprise to me.

Also they are intrigued by the Bofri for reclaiming the Old Road.

Excalty the same here ! Actually for Mogdred it was more a "YES BUT" and I think he will hold a grudge against the characters, but not a deadly one.

I also had one of the player character fall deeply in love with Amaleoda, the Shield Maiden from Black Tarn, with rumors of her having one river daughter amongst her ancestors.

Haha really strange because one of my players also has a thing for that character in terms of romance and also it was a very close vote Mogdred got accepted thanks to just one player tipping the balance at the last minute and creating even a bit of party tension

[panzerattack]

We've just finished the Council of the North. Some of my players were distressed that they failed to save Queen Una.

I've been trying to fit one game year into one session, to keep things moving at pace. Doesn't always work out like that, but that's what I aim for. I've also started running things a little out of order, to take into account player actions.

I've been writing up session reports for our game. If you're interested in reading them, you can find the list (so far) here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/1 ... t-mirkwood

[barefoottourguide]

I am very excited. We will begin as soon as saturday for one group, later this fall for another.
Garrett

[Majestic]

It's fun to hear/read others' tales as they go through DoM. Like panzerattack, we just finished the Council of the North.

The one major event I missed (due to the fact that I didn't have Darknening yet, and the company in those years was playing through Tales) was the Folk Moot, so it's very interesting for me to learn what happened with others.

For mine, I read through it and went with what I thought was the most likely outcomes (IIRC I made some rolls and sort of went with what felt appropriate) . So Ceawin established Sunstead and Amaleoda got a blessing for establishing Black Tarn Hall, but the Woodmen rejected Mogdred (IIRC I made some rolls and sort of did what I thought made sense in the campaign).

In the Council, Mogdred made his plea to help the Dwarves rebuild the Old Forest Road, but was soundly rejected (thanks in large part due to the PCs, two of which represented their people on the Council). It doesn't help that, since his initial being turned down at the Folk-Moot, he and his men have been making raids on the Woodmen moving between the Western settlements and Sunstead.

[farinal]

We just finished the Questing Beasts, the Beorning player had an encounter with Gollum while he was in Night-goer Bear form, it was fun and interesting. The party was also acquinted with the She Elf captain from the Lake-Town archery contest some years ago so it was a nice connection to the story.

They also met with the two dwarves and they are interested in the Greydelve. The deer wasn't killed during the hunt and got away. I liked the adventure but it was a bit vague at some points. Let's see how it will go with the next year.

[farinal]

I also ran the 2950, the Last Good year yesterday and the company ventured into the Dol Guldur with Radagast. The shadow tests were quite tough and one player had to spent the next fellowship phase with Radagast to recover his inner strength. It was a nice adventure but maybe a bit anti-climatic because I saw that my players were really on the edge for some combat in the area but it didn't happen. Also it was a bit difficult to play Radagast in the Dol Guldur because my players were keep asking the Wizard should roll for some "Search" rolls too

I am really excited for the next one with the East Bight and Barrow-wights since I think that is my single favourite adventure in DoM and I have the sound from Christopher Lee (RIP) chanting the Barrow-wight chant at the ready for the session!