Working on a Campaign

[gumisatypeofcandy]

Hey there,

I am new to the system and the game and am starting up a campaign with seven really enthusiastic players this coming Sunday. The group will even include some new players to the hobby so I want to leave a good impression.

I am running the Darkening of Mirkwood campaign and really want to focus on the idea of family- the bonds you create and the things that tear them apart. It is my hope that this will give the game a really human dimension. There are plots in the book- like anything involvong Mogdred and his father- that will really fit well into this idea.

It is interesting to note that there are no human culture player-heroes. Just three elves, two dwaves and two Hobbits. So needless to say this adds an interesting dynamic with the theme I want to emphasize- mainly because they have to have some sort of tie and emotional connection to the Woodsman and their fate.

Anyway, that is just context leading into my central question. I have decided to run To Journey's End and the Eagle's Eyrie (the fan made adventure by Richard Harrison) as an introductory adventure to the game, theme and setting. The dwaf PCs are quite business savvy and I believe that opening up the Old Forest Road would be a good hook for him. I also wanted to draw more from "Don't Leave the Path" for this adventure and this is where I am hitting the wall.

The merchant and his young son, their bond and tragic story arc, are very compelling to me and fit in nicely with the theme I want to go with. I would like to change their story slightly so that they are looking to move to Woodland Hall- not just trade with them. I am hoping that having the young boy at the start of the game and watching him as he grows (especially as the PCs are generally longer lived then mortal men) will be a compelling through line for the game and will help the players develop an emotional bond with the Woodman folk. I was thinking of having them stumble across the merchant's camp, find a survivor from the band of adventurers he hired and find out that these folks are caught beneath the sunken city. Hopefully, my group decides to help.

The game would continue from there leading to a few different encounters- it will probably go over two maybe three sessions.

The problem is this: I cannot conceive of why the merchant would choose to travel over the Old Forest Road or use Girion's Steps or anything when he could go a safer route along the eastern eaves and then across- maybe a little longer but in theory safer. the Marsh Bell write up indicates that some merchant's do do this but they are rare, well armed (which I am sure he can be) and most likely not taking their nine year old kid. The story arc is a really compelling start but I may be forcing this shoe on the wrong foot so to speak. So before I decide to just stick to "to Journey's End" as written I would like to see if anyone has any suggestions on how I can make my idea work. I figure he would have to be desperate and perhaps slightly mad from grief but that is all I got so far.

Any help at all would be appreciated

[zedturtle]

It pains me to say this, but you might be better off just extending "Don't Leave the Path" rather than rewriting "To Journey's End". But if Baldor can't rely on being given access to the Elf Path (especially with so many dwarfs in tow), he might leave it up to his guides which way to go. In that case, the Old Forest Road becomes quite viable again, especially if you pre-prep the dwarf players so that they know they'd like to reopen it. The elves could easily be wanting to scout closer to southern Mirkwood, now that the Necromancer seems to be gone. And the hobbits... well they're probably up for anything.

[Glorelendil]

I know you were asking a different question, but my advice would be to run a Marsh-Bell first, before jumping into a "campaign". TOR is different from most RPGs, plus you have some newcomers to the...sport, so I'd give everybody a chance to see what the game is like and how it works. I would not be at all surprised if several of them didn't say "Oh....I get it now" and want to create new/different characters.

Once the fellowship settles down you can figure out how to make all the family stuff work. And you could have them encounter Baldor and his son at some point in Marsh Bell.

[Majestic]

You could always make timing a factor. In other words, if Baldor starts out near Lake-town (as in the adventure), and if he needs to get to Rhosgobel (or one of the Woodmen towns) before the weather turns bad/Winter hits, it might mean he has to stick to going through Mirkwood, rather than around it.

[Rich H]

Welcome to TOR!

I'm just going to pull out a couple of elements as quotes from your post and respond directly to them for clarity and ease of reference...

I am running the Darkening of Mirkwood campaign and really want to focus on the idea of family- the bonds you create and the things that tear them apart. It is my hope that this will give the game a really human dimension. There are plots in the book- like anything involvong Mogdred and his father- that will really fit well into this idea.

I think that's a great idea. Making campaign plots personal to the PCs is a really good way of engaging them and what better way of doing this than with someone's family, extended or otherwise.

It is interesting to note that there are no human culture player-heroes. Just three elves, two dwaves and two Hobbits. So needless to say this adds an interesting dynamic with the theme I want to emphasize- mainly because they have to have some sort of tie and emotional connection to the Woodsman and their fate.

Interesting. Just be careful that each culture doesn't form strong internal bonds with the characters within those cultures but at the expense of the characters from other cultures in the fellowship. It's going to be very easy for the three Elves in your group to just pick their Fellowship Focus as another elf for instance rather than pick a Hobbit or Dwarf PC. Be mindful of creating strong links between those subgroups of PCs that have occurred during the creation of the PCs.

Anyway, that is just context leading into my central question. I have decided to run To Journey's End and the Eagle's Eyrie (the fan made adventure by Richard Harrison) as an introductory adventure to the game, theme and setting. The dwaf PCs are quite business savvy and I believe that opening up the Old Forest Road would be a good hook for him.

Obviously this is an excellent choice. There are elements that I used from "Don't Leave the Path" in it so it will work as a replacement to that and the Marsh Bell. Incidentally, I used the Sunken City and the marshdwellers in a later adventure I ran which involved the PCs and a company of dwarves returning to the marshes in order to find and investigate the city with a view to reclaiming it; the first step to re-establishing the Old Forest Road. It played out pretty well - I'll have to write it up some time.

Just a head's up regarding "To Journey's End..."; please look over/review the game system elements of that adventure - especially the travel rules/times. It was written before *any* material about the Old Forest Road and the depths of Mirkwood had been published by C7 so you may very well want to make some changes to it. As a whole it still works, even now after all the new material has been published and the rules have been revised.

The merchant and his young son, their bond and tragic story arc, are very compelling to me and fit in nicely with the theme I want to go with. I would like to change their story slightly so that they are looking to move to Woodland Hall- not just trade with them. I am hoping that having the young boy at the start of the game and watching him as he grows (especially as the PCs are generally longer lived then mortal men) will be a compelling through line for the game and will help the players develop an emotional bond with the Woodman folk. I was thinking of having them stumble across the merchant's camp, find a survivor from the band of adventurers he hired and find out that these folks are caught beneath the sunken city. Hopefully, my group decides to help.

Okay, as you're in this for the 'long haul' and planning to run a campaign, here's what I did with Baldor and his son, Belgo, in my game. I didn't use them in "Journey's End..." but after running "Kinstrife and Dark Tidings" I integrated the encounter with Baldor as the PCs made their return journey, west to east, along the Elf Path. In that journey, the PCs still:

* Came across Baldor and Belgo being assailed by brigands at the start of the journey - the merchant had actually employed them to return with him as guards, transporting goods from the Woodmen to Laketown. I made the brigands remnants of the defeated force from "Kinstrife".

* Baldor drank from the elf stream, lost his mind, and fled into the forest.

* The PCs therefore gave chase and rescued him from the spiders that he had been accosted by during his mad wanderings. So, I could use the encounter from "Don't Leave..." here with no real problems.

* Having lost his mind, the relationship with Belgo was there to witness and explore; this got the PCs personally engaged with the young lad and motivated into trying to find a cure for Baldor. And, as they were travelling eastwards in my game rather than the other way, this naturally dovetailed into...

* ... Introducing a meeting with the Elves who watched over the borders of their realm. There, they met a captain of the elves, and I also introduced Irime (the elf princess who is the key NPC in "Those Who Tarry No Longer") who was visiting the captain along with Prince Legolas. The PCs, during a social encounter, explained Baldor's plight and impressed the Lady Irime greatly with their kind and courteous words and deeds (again, useful for running "Those Who Tarry...") and the elves agreed to take the merchant into their care - the idea here being that Baldor may be taken to Rivendell.

* Based on this, one of the PCs (a Barding), adopted Belgo into his house and over time he will become a loyal kinsman, grow in stature and be involved in later adventures. One of the players is already musing over whether to use him as an actual character in the future if need be.

So, you get the themes of loss and family all introduced in the above along with the early introduction of a key NPC for a later adventure - an oft quoted key issue with that adventure.

I can't stress enough how perfectly the above all worked in my campaign. I personally find "The Marsh Bell" and "Don't Leave the Path" a little weak as complete adventures but really like some of the encounters contained within them; therefore using the above structure adopts and uses those elements I like but gives a stronger narrative to them and involves the players and their PCs more in personal relationships (Baldor, Belgo, and Irime) as well as loftier goals (ie, the journey to the eagles and later the mission to investigate the sunken city).

Hope that all helps.

[gumisatypeofcandy]

Thanks, everyone! I aprreciate all the points and clarifications. I am also senstive to the fact that involving new players to the hobby and starting a new system in general will be challenging.

As my players are friends I have known for some time I know that they are in for the long haul (time permitting of course). So perhaps I can afford to be patient and not rush to throw all of this stuff at them in the first couple of sessions. I think a slow and steady approach may work better here. So after some consideration I will stick to Journey's end and play it as straight as possible.

Thanks again everyone- and if people are interested I will let you know how it goes!

[Majestic]

I definitely am looking forward to hearing how it goes for you!

[bluejay]

Gat to hear about you starting your campaign and I love the family theme. It works very well within the scope of DoM. I think if you also extend it to include 'clan as extended family' then it's particularly appropriate.

One quick point I want to make is about the choices of the characters. It's absolutely your game so this is just a suggestion but the following (spoiler!!) facts are probably relevant:

Darkening focuses heavily around the woodman culture and honestly I think having at least one in the group helps.

The massive 30 year timescale barely affects the races in your game with the minor exception of the Hobbits. For men this is arguably long enough for a father and son to go from fighting age at 16 to almost retirement in their 30s. Given your theme of family I would think this is an exciting opportunity to truly play through generations of the same family, something the longer lived races miss out on for the most part.

Darkening is largely set around the West and South of Mirkwood and for the most part Erebor is out of the mix. There are a couple of dwarf-centric adventures but they are in the minority.

Hope this is useful info.

Cheers

James