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Greetings,

I am seeking a little direction and help. I am new to TOR, and relatively new to role playing games. I have a small group of players (3-4 players). What is the best campaign to start? I have the Darkening of Mirkwood, and the Ruins of the North. I also have one player that wants to play a Ranger of the North. If I start with Mirkwood would the Ranger be out of place or effect the balance of the game? Is the Ruins of the North to hard of a campaign for starting characters and players? Thank you in advance for helping me. I know this probably seems like rudimentary set of questions.

Mike

First off, hello and welcome! I'm glad you found us, and hope you have as much fun with The One Ring as we do.

As to which book to use, you've two very different products. Darkening of Mirkwood is an epic campaign that will last thirty years of game time. It doesn't have fully detailed adventures, but sketches that the LM is expected to expand. Ruins of the North is an adventure anthology that doesn't have any strong connections between the adventures. But each adventure is fully fleshed out, and there's a variety of different feels to each adventure (due to the variety of authors).

For either campaign, the Ranger should not be a big deal. They're relatively balanced with the other heroes, due to their inability to refresh Hope from the Fellowship Pool and their slower advancement. So, no, I don't think they'd negatively affect the game.

Prior to getting going on either game, it might be worth looking at doing an introductory game. Of course, I recommend my own The Theft of the Moon, but I know others have had success with adapting one of the early adventures from Tales from Wilderland or other fan adventures like Blood in the Water or To Journey's End. You could go into either of your main choices after that. Or, if you have it, Theft is well suited to lead as an introduction into Of Kinstrife and Dark Tidings from Tales, and that's the first adventure that might introduce the campaign arc. Also, for newer players, the arc of Tales from Wilderland allows a chance at an unambiguous win, whereas Darkening of Mirkwood (as it name implies) has kind of a downer ending (though the PCs have a chance to delay the Shadow, they won't defeat it).

I was in the same position you are a year or so ago. I was new to role playing games and didn't know how to come up with an adventure on my own. I started with the Marsh Bell, followed by the first adventure from tales From Wilderland, Don't Leave the Path, and then adapted Words of the Wise (which used to be available as a free download) to fit my group. At that point, I had become pretty comfortable LMing adventures and decided to integrate Darkening of Mirkwood along side of Tales from Wilderland. I do think running Darkening of Mirkwood was a little more intimidating, because it required a lot more work on my part to flesh out the adventures. Zedturtle's theft of the moon is a good place to start too, especially if you want to begin in the Anduin vales, or after Don't Leave the Path.

My advice, wold be to run a couple of prewritten, detailed adventures until you get comfortable with the various game mechanics and see how they can be used. Then start adding your own or fleshing out Darkening of Mirkwood.

Thank you for the information. I am actually looking to get tales from wilderland. After reading "The Theft of the Moon", that sounds like a great place to start. Good work on that one Zedturtle. I hope to post the results of our first adventure. This has been a great forum with lots of inspiration and information.

Thanks,
Mike

magicmike wrote:Thank you for the information. I am actually looking to get tales from wilderland. After reading "The Theft of the Moon", that sounds like a great place to start. Good work on that one Zedturtle. I hope to post the results of our first adventure. This has been a great forum with lots of inspiration and information.

Thanks,
Mike

Theft of the Moon works great after the first chapter of Tales from Wilderland. Whereas if you do Theft first you then have to get everybody over to Laketown to start TfW.

Or just have everyone meet at the festival, and then launch into either "Of Leaves..." or "Kinstrife...". But "Don't Leave the Path" sets up some stuff that can pay off much later, if you have a group who likes playing through the 'metaplot'*.

- - - - - - - -

* that's almost too strong a word, but then again Darkening is sketched out in the core rulebook, so we've known a bit about what was happening from the beginning.

Just wanted to welcome you as well, magicmike!

You've already got great advice on multiple adventures. The only thing I'd add is that you might consider skimming through the various adventures ahead of time, to get a good feel for what's coming up. I've tended to only read the outlines, and I kind of wish I'd delved a little deeper.

I thought the idea of introducing Irimë (from "Those Who Tarry No Longer" in Tales from Wilderland) earlier on is a brilliant one, as it makes more sense why she'd trust a disparate group of PCs to escort her to the mountains. Getting a chance to introduce NPCs earlier, or even to occasionally combine similar ones, can be a great way to create continuity and a through-line between unrelated adventures.