Hello! and advice for new Loremaster?
Re: Hello! and advice for new Loremaster?
Thanks Garrett, I'll check that out!
Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima!
... but you can call me Mark.
... but you can call me Mark.
Re: Hello! and advice for new Loremaster?
In case anyone is interested in how my game's been going, here's what we've done so far. The company consists of a woman of Dale, a hobbit of the Shire, a dwarf of Erebor and an elf of Mirkwood.
We started out with The Marsh-Bell, ending the first session with them about to fight the Marsh-Ogre, as I'd mentioned above. The fight went reasonably well, although the hobbit did manage to get wounded despite the Injury TN being only 12! (Perhaps only having a leather corslet and buckler makes him too vulnerable to wounds, especially when his Body score is only 2.)
Galion and his elves arrived just as the fight ended; he and the party's elf had a reasonably courteous conversation, even if Galion was somewhat disgusted with the company his countryman was keeping! He told them about seeing a group of dwarves pass this way a few days ago. They disappeared in the night; he thinks they suspected he was following them.
Galion having left the company to their own business, they searched the campsite and the party's dwarf discovered a box hidden in a tree stump, containing a valuable jewel and a note hastily stuffed into it, bearing Dain's seal and addressed "To whom it may concern", explaining that the bearer of this note is his emissary.
(I had decided against the whole subplot about the Lord of the Eagles but I kept the jewel as a potential gift for the dwarves to give to anyone whose favour they might want to curry! I also added in a couple of younger dwarves who had accompanied Balin and Oin: Floi, who will die at Moria in a few decades, and Lofar, who has been killed and eaten by the Marsh-Dwellers.)
We followed the rest of the scenario pretty much straight. Two of the company succumbed to the marsh-bell's enchantment, the other two followed them and they fought off half a dozen Mewlips -- I mean Marsh-dwellers! The hobbit was unlucky enough to be wounded a second time in this fight, which put him out of action. They rescued Balin, Oin and their young companion Floi, finding only some fresh-looking dwarven bones in the fireplace to show what had become of Lofar. Hearing more Mewlips coming, our heroes fled back into the marsh and escaped upriver.
The third session consisted of wrapping up that scenario with the journey home etc., doing the Fellowship phase, and starting the next adventure. I'll cover that in a separate post.
We started out with The Marsh-Bell, ending the first session with them about to fight the Marsh-Ogre, as I'd mentioned above. The fight went reasonably well, although the hobbit did manage to get wounded despite the Injury TN being only 12! (Perhaps only having a leather corslet and buckler makes him too vulnerable to wounds, especially when his Body score is only 2.)
Galion and his elves arrived just as the fight ended; he and the party's elf had a reasonably courteous conversation, even if Galion was somewhat disgusted with the company his countryman was keeping! He told them about seeing a group of dwarves pass this way a few days ago. They disappeared in the night; he thinks they suspected he was following them.
Galion having left the company to their own business, they searched the campsite and the party's dwarf discovered a box hidden in a tree stump, containing a valuable jewel and a note hastily stuffed into it, bearing Dain's seal and addressed "To whom it may concern", explaining that the bearer of this note is his emissary.
(I had decided against the whole subplot about the Lord of the Eagles but I kept the jewel as a potential gift for the dwarves to give to anyone whose favour they might want to curry! I also added in a couple of younger dwarves who had accompanied Balin and Oin: Floi, who will die at Moria in a few decades, and Lofar, who has been killed and eaten by the Marsh-Dwellers.)
We followed the rest of the scenario pretty much straight. Two of the company succumbed to the marsh-bell's enchantment, the other two followed them and they fought off half a dozen Mewlips -- I mean Marsh-dwellers! The hobbit was unlucky enough to be wounded a second time in this fight, which put him out of action. They rescued Balin, Oin and their young companion Floi, finding only some fresh-looking dwarven bones in the fireplace to show what had become of Lofar. Hearing more Mewlips coming, our heroes fled back into the marsh and escaped upriver.
The third session consisted of wrapping up that scenario with the journey home etc., doing the Fellowship phase, and starting the next adventure. I'll cover that in a separate post.
Last edited by Earendil on Thu Mar 26, 2015 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima!
... but you can call me Mark.
... but you can call me Mark.
Re: Hello! and advice for new Loremaster?
Sounds like your campaign is off to a great start! How are you and your players finding the game?
Re: Hello! and advice for new Loremaster?
I was a bit disappointed with the options available for Fellowship phase undertakings in the core rules. At the moment the heroes don't have enough treasure to raise their standing, and dont have enough shadow points to be worth Healing corruption yet. Nor does it make sense for them to receive titles or gain a patron at this point since they're still in Lake-Town. They could have spent treasure on raising standard of living, but I'm not really happy with that taking up an Undertaking; it seems like something you just do.
Fortunately the Lake-Town sourcebook has a couple of new options, so our Hobbit went gathering herbs (he has Herb-Lore) and our Barding and Dwarf spent some money at the Market Pool. The Elf went to Thranduil's Halls to search for answers about the sunken city where the Mewlips dwelt (a new option from Darkening of Mirkwood.)
Anyway, with our first Fellowship phase done, we moved on to our second adventure. For this, I used The Dragon's Ring, which I found in Robin Smallburrow's resources. I made some changes, downgrading the power (and history) of the eponymous Ring, using the rules for magical objects from Rivendell. I also mixed in some elements of both Don't Leave the Path (which I'll be running next, though with a different introduction) and Trouble at Eel Tarn (which I found on here somewhere, but I don't remember where. Sorry!).
The company are enjoying the of Dragontide, partying on the lakeshore on the second evening of the festival, when a woman's scream splits the air. They can't see what's happening as there's a small stand of trees and bushes in the way, but no-one else seems to be near, so they rush to the rescue. They see a mixed group of goblins -- some small, some larger -- facing off a against a young woman armed only with a knife. A young man lies prone on the ground between her and the goblins. Of course our valiant heroes rush to the rescue!
They defeat the goblins, but something strange happens -- when the leader turns to flee, a bank of mist rolls in off the lake and obscures him for a moment, and when it clears he's gone, even though there's no cover he could have ducked behind, only open ground and the lake itself. Even if he had dived in there, there should be an obvious disturbance of the water. In fact he seems not to have left any footprints, even though there are plenty of goblin footprints coming up from the south. They had stopped at a place where treasure from Smaug's corpse had washed up on shore, evidently looking for valuables.
The woman is distraught at the death of the young man, who was her betrothed, Lifstan. Her name is Ragna, and she explains that they had both lost all their family in the dragon's attack 5 years before, and all they had was each other. They were alone in a quiet corner away from the festivities because he had just proposed to her, using his mother's ring. At that point the goblins had attacked, killing Lifstan and snatching the ring. Ragna begs the adventurers to see that the goblin leader is brought to justice and the ring recovered, as it is all she has to remember Lifstan by.
They meet with the Master of Laketown to ask for help hunting down this goblin. He agrees to supply them with ponies and equipment from his armoury, and to ask Gloin if his ravens can keep an eye out. The next morning, the heroes set out...
(The sudden attack by the lakeside was from Don't Leave The Path, though it was human ruffians there -- when I run that adventure I will simply have Baldor approach the adventurers because he has heard about this incident and thus considers them trustworthy. The theft of the wedding ring was from Trouble at Eel Tarn. It made sense here because the goblin leader already has a magical ring so it makes sense he would be attracted by the glint of Lifstan's ring, thinking it too might be magical.)
Fortunately the Lake-Town sourcebook has a couple of new options, so our Hobbit went gathering herbs (he has Herb-Lore) and our Barding and Dwarf spent some money at the Market Pool. The Elf went to Thranduil's Halls to search for answers about the sunken city where the Mewlips dwelt (a new option from Darkening of Mirkwood.)
Anyway, with our first Fellowship phase done, we moved on to our second adventure. For this, I used The Dragon's Ring, which I found in Robin Smallburrow's resources. I made some changes, downgrading the power (and history) of the eponymous Ring, using the rules for magical objects from Rivendell. I also mixed in some elements of both Don't Leave the Path (which I'll be running next, though with a different introduction) and Trouble at Eel Tarn (which I found on here somewhere, but I don't remember where. Sorry!).
The company are enjoying the of Dragontide, partying on the lakeshore on the second evening of the festival, when a woman's scream splits the air. They can't see what's happening as there's a small stand of trees and bushes in the way, but no-one else seems to be near, so they rush to the rescue. They see a mixed group of goblins -- some small, some larger -- facing off a against a young woman armed only with a knife. A young man lies prone on the ground between her and the goblins. Of course our valiant heroes rush to the rescue!
They defeat the goblins, but something strange happens -- when the leader turns to flee, a bank of mist rolls in off the lake and obscures him for a moment, and when it clears he's gone, even though there's no cover he could have ducked behind, only open ground and the lake itself. Even if he had dived in there, there should be an obvious disturbance of the water. In fact he seems not to have left any footprints, even though there are plenty of goblin footprints coming up from the south. They had stopped at a place where treasure from Smaug's corpse had washed up on shore, evidently looking for valuables.
The woman is distraught at the death of the young man, who was her betrothed, Lifstan. Her name is Ragna, and she explains that they had both lost all their family in the dragon's attack 5 years before, and all they had was each other. They were alone in a quiet corner away from the festivities because he had just proposed to her, using his mother's ring. At that point the goblins had attacked, killing Lifstan and snatching the ring. Ragna begs the adventurers to see that the goblin leader is brought to justice and the ring recovered, as it is all she has to remember Lifstan by.
They meet with the Master of Laketown to ask for help hunting down this goblin. He agrees to supply them with ponies and equipment from his armoury, and to ask Gloin if his ravens can keep an eye out. The next morning, the heroes set out...
(The sudden attack by the lakeside was from Don't Leave The Path, though it was human ruffians there -- when I run that adventure I will simply have Baldor approach the adventurers because he has heard about this incident and thus considers them trustworthy. The theft of the wedding ring was from Trouble at Eel Tarn. It made sense here because the goblin leader already has a magical ring so it makes sense he would be attracted by the glint of Lifstan's ring, thinking it too might be magical.)
Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima!
... but you can call me Mark.
... but you can call me Mark.
Re: Hello! and advice for new Loremaster?
Hi Andrew! So far so good, is how I would characterise it. It's certainly far and away the best Tolkien RPG I've seen!Andrew wrote:Sounds like your campaign is off to a great start! How are you and your players finding the game?
There were a few rocks and shoals early on, mostly due to me making silly mistakes. For example, the hobbit got wounded for the second time while fighting the Mewlips, and I said he was dying. In fact as I later realised, he was just unconscious, as he hadn't gone to 0 Endurance. One of the players was unimpressed with how harsh the system was, feeling it was too easy to get killed in an introductory scenario. Once I realised and explained my error, he relented.
As I mentioned above, I'm not too happy about the lack of good options for fellowship phase undertakings in the core rulebook. There are lots more in the supplements, which helps considerably (but also makes it hard to keep track of them all, so I made and printed a list) but I'd still like more non-location-specific options.
The system is different from anything we've played before. This is only a problem because it makes it hard to evoke a Tolkienesque flavour while I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the rules and the flow of the game, and constantly needing to explain rules to the players. The way the players are expected to take over the narration sometimes is unfamiliar too, and hasn't really happened much yet; they're still mostly looking to me for guidance and I keep forgetting about it! But I think everyone is starting to relax and enjoy the game more.
Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima!
... but you can call me Mark.
... but you can call me Mark.
Re: Hello! and advice for new Loremaster?
The game definitely becomes smoother (both for you as LM and the players) the more you delve into it.
I really like your writing style, Earendil. It makes your summaries really fun to read!
I really like your writing style, Earendil. It makes your summaries really fun to read!
Tale of Years for a second, lower-level group (in the same campaign).
Re: Hello! and advice for new Loremaster?
Thank you!Majestic wrote:The game definitely becomes smoother (both for you as LM and the players) the more you delve into it.
I really like your writing style, Earendil. It makes your summaries really fun to read!
It's hard to give a quick(ish) summary and still indicate how much fun we had. The players were especially amused to find out that Galion was Thranduil's former cupbearer who had let Bilbo sneak Thorin's company away under his nose ... and now he's guarding a bloody swamp! It's one of the nicest touches in the scenario; I always think it's great to bring in little references like that, as long as it's done well.
In contrast, my own attempt to do the same elicited only groans, when Flói (rescued along with Óin and Balin) said "Balin, one day you'll be the death of me!"
(In case you don't remember, Flói is one of the Dwarves who go with Balin to reclaim Moria. The Book of Mazarbul mentions him being killed by an orc-arrow and buried near Mirrormere.)
Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima!
... but you can call me Mark.
... but you can call me Mark.
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