The Darkening of Mirkwood was amazing!

[bluejay]

As part of the campaign we commissioned full colour artwork of our main characters from none other than Jon Hodgson himself. Absolutely fantastic!

Here are the three main characters: -

Jarl the Barding Slayer

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bqjdqzk9kqe9j ... r.jpg?dl=0


Miríel the Wood Elf Warden

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t7uo3wvs5o6ni ... r.jpg?dl=0


and finally Cobb Grubb the Hobbit Treasure Hunter

https://www.dropbox.com/s/suwfwcqto6j66 ... r.jpg?dl=0

You may recognise the last picture as being reused subsequently in Ruins of the North!

[bigsteveuk]

Wow great to hear such positive feedback, you have got me well stoked for my game, which will hopefully get of it's feet this year.

I noted you weaved together the same adventures I am planning to.

(including Tales of the Wilderness, The Marsh Bell and Words of the Wise)

And wondered if you could list the order you ran them in, offer any advice as to running order, maybe things you would have changed.

Cheers,

Steve

P.S Love the portraits

[Andrew]

That sounds like an "Achievement Unlocked" there James! Good work. We're still only in the second year of the campaign, so have some way left to go.

How did you guys get on with Nightmares of Angmar? What are you going to do next? Make new characters, or take a break from Middle-earth?

[zekrish]

I've been playin DoM for about a year now but I don't quite share your enthusiasm. Don't get me wrong, it's a great atmospheric campaign, but it has some problems. I think the campaign sometimes can be abit railroaded, with beautiful scenery mind you, but sometimes i think player involvement and agency is lost in the Plot.

[bluejay]

Steve we ran Tales before DoM was released. I forget the exact order but we ran the Marsh Bell and Words of the Wise fairly early in that campaign. I then ran DoM afterwards. Glad you liked the portraits. We paid to get them printed and having them was a cool part of the game! They'll always be remembered!

Andrew we did pretty well on Nightmares but the group had a lucky piece of guesswork when they arrived at Angmar which really made their life easier. Now we have some new characters starting up and we are going to play Hard As Stone. I've tied in a loose end from DoM which will be part of this adventure. We'll play the new guys through Ruins of the North and see where it goes from there.

Zekrish, I do see your point but my campaign veered off the path significantly a few times. As a result I had to move things around a bit and rework some sections but that was worthwhile to avoid it feeling railroaded. I see DoM as mostly a framework with lots of scope for change within there.

[Andrew]

Good luck playing Ruins of the North with novice heroes - it's a bit tougher than Tales from Wilderland!

[Majestic]

Thanks for the great info, bluejay, as my group has barely tackled the first few years of DoM (we're in '51). Your enthusiasm really makes me excited to continue deeper into the book!

[Ernst-Jan]

What I would not give to be able to play more than once every month or so...

We are progressing, however. Council of the North, next adventure. I enjoyed your writeup, bluejay!

[zedturtle]

I've been playin DoM for about a year now but I don't quite share your enthusiasm. Don't get me wrong, it's a great atmospheric campaign, but it has some problems. I think the campaign sometimes can be abit railroaded, with beautiful scenery mind you, but sometimes i think player involvement and agency is lost in the Plot.

Well, I understand some of what you're saying, since with any campaign that will last that long it becomes hard to cover every contingency. But, it also benefits from an experienced Loremaster that is willing to work with the plots and tweak/rewrite things. I've been reviewing the adventures, and I'm fairly positive I'm going to flip-flop a couple of years, in order to make things line up better. Of course, once players interact with the plot, all bets are off... you just hopefully dangle enough carrots (or threaten them with enough sticks) to get them back in the vicinity of the plot. Or rewrite, few little of the campaign requires that it be certain individuals that take actions, just that certain things eventually happen.

[bigsteveuk]

Steve we ran Tales before DoM was released. I forget the exact order but we ran the Marsh Bell and Words of the Wise fairly early in that campaign. I then ran DoM afterwards.

Did you find it flowed ok, as I know a lot of people have integrated them into a single campaign?

Did you need to change any of the dates or details in DoM?