First Age campaign, and optional rules?

[cybergreen]

I've purchased the second edition book as well as several of the supplements, but I've not run the game before.

I'd like to run a ~FA 400s campaign, but I'm not sure how best to go about getting maps for that. Has anyone else run a FA campaign with some success?

Also, are there any parts of the rules I should look into house ruling from the bat so I don't end up with an awkward or frustrating situation when we actually sit down to play?

Thanks in advance.

[Otaku-sempai]

For maps of Arda in the First Age you might start with the late Karen Wynn Fonstad's The Atlas of Middle-earth.

[Majestic]

Welcome, cybergreen.

I've been playing for a few years, and this game has less need for house rules than just about any I've ever seen. I've personally got one (and it's extremely minor).

I've got another RPG that I've been running for over three decades, and I've got a full 26 page document of house rules, just as a point of comparison.

[michael.harrel]

There's also great big first-age world map in the first issue of Other Hands magazine. It's an outline and some geological features and you'd need to fill in the details, but it might be helpful as well. (I'm using another map in the series as the basis for my Fourth Age chicken-scratches).

Karen Wynn Fonstad's book will also be a must-have for this.

And please do give us lots of updates about the campaign; I'd be interested to hear all about it!

[Otaku-sempai]

One thing to note about the Dwarven cities of Belegost and Nogrod in the Ered Luin: The Silmarillion places both cities in the Northern Ered Luin on the eastern side of the range, opposite Mount Dolmed, with Belegost about 20 miles north of Nogrod. In her revised edition of The Atlas of Middle-earth, Fonstad placed Belegost about 150 miles south of Nogrod citing Tolkien's The Shaping of Middle-earth as her source. For myself, I stick with the locations given in The Silmarillion.

[Blubbo Baggins]

I was (or perhaps am still but it's on the backburner) considering running a FA campaign as well.

I lined out the following ideas and thought they create a (potentially) great backdrop for the campaign:

The game starts at the Dagor Bragollach; opening scenes would be the battle. Hopefully the PCs survive. Probably I'd run it using JamesRBrown's Mythic Battles. The PCs wouldn't necessarily all know one another or be together (I'd let the players decide). However, if there are PCs who don't know one another, they could meet at the aftermath of the battle, which would begin their adventures.

The initial campaign would have a 17-year time span (in game) to run - that is, 17 years before Nirnaeth Arnoediad; after which adventuring might be possible, but also probably terribly dangerous...

Also, my plan was to have the players be Men (the 3 houses of Men will be separate cultures), Elves of Doriath (ie more akin to Mirkwood Elves), Dwarves (possibly), and the Druedain (they are definitely present!). In other words, no Noldor Elves as adventurers. I'm not against the idea per se, but if no Noldor elves are playable, it will allow the players to be under the service/leadership of one or more of the Houses of Men. I want it to be a man-centric campaign, where the Noldor are still seen as otherworldly, and where Orcs are still a real threat. (Ie no Balrog fighting here!).

I have put together initial ideas/mechanics for these new cultures (Beorians, Hallethians, Hadorians, Doriath Elves, Druedain), but they need tweaking and flavor text.

Here are the events from FA 455 (Dagor) to 472 (Nirnaeth)

455-456: Dagor Bragollach, Death of Fingolfin, Fingon becomes High King of the Noldor.
457: Sauron captures Minas Tirith (original flavour) makes it into Tol-in-Gaurhoth (definitely a place for the PCs to visit, either before 465 or after).
458-459: Húrin and Huor hang with Turgon in Goldolin (easily ignorable by us).
460: Barahir et al. are slain. (If you want the PCs to start in the service of Barahir, they might already been sent away when this happens.)
462: Galdor bites it. Orcs invade Hithlum (fun stuff).
463: Bór and Ulfang ally themselves with Maedhros and Caranthir (fun political stuff as they try to decide if they can really trust the Easterlings and whether or not the PCs can trust the sons of Fëanor).
464: Túrin born, Beren and Luthien hook up. (Completely ignorable)
465: Brandir born (boring). Quest for the Silmaril (not in our scope, though will have an outside effect on things).
466: Lalaith born (not relevant). Beren dies (for the first time, not in scope).
467: Luthien dies (for the first time). Beren comes back to life (not in scope).
468: Maedhros tries to form a more perfect union (lots of politics and potential!).
469: Lalaith dies (not in scope). Maedhros drives Orcs from Beleriand (good fight scene opportunities).
470: Dior born (not in scope). Huor weds Rían (probably not relevant, but maybe its our last good scene before the end).
472: Nirnaeth Arnoediad. (The End).

There ARE other possible time periods. For example, after Hurin is released from Angband, you could have a small campaign of men searching for him / trying to restore Hithlum/retake it from the Easterlings. Or go way back, to FA 20, Mereth Aderthad (Feast of Reuniting), lots of possibilities for adventurers to come together and help in a time of relative peace. Not much happens between FA 20 and FA 310 when Men arrive in Beleriand. But because canon is wide open, so are possibilities. This would be an Elven-centric campaign, of course, and have very different feel. But because canon events are absent, it might be more difficult to maintain a First Age feel.

[aramis]

Would not the sindar and noldor beable recover hope normally in that era?

[Otaku-sempai]

If you might set any of your campaign in the Undying Lands then you might need a write-up for the Vanyar as a heroic culture and you are going to need to be prepared to use various Valar and Maiar as NPCs.

[cybergreen]

Hello all! Thanks for the replies!

Good grief, I wish I was a lot more familiar with Middle Earth History! All these dates, while not wholly unfamiliar, are a bit outside the scope of what I need to necessarily consider, I think.

Since my original post, I have purchased the Atlas of Middle Earth, scanned in the four leaves of the Beleriand map, and overlaid a properly-scaled hex grid. Erasing irrelevant (to the PCs) locations and color-coding the map will be a hassle yet, but I've had a good time with it thus far.

@Otaku-sempai - Thanks for the tips, a bunch.

@michael.harrel - Thanks for the secondary reference!

@Blubbo Baggins - Thanks for the dates, though I'd likely be starting them very early 400s, though I don't know how canon it would be. I asked the players to design a premise for the story themselves. It appears the game will begin with the remnant of a warband in allegiance to House of Marach attempting to return home after an awfully grisly series of skirmishes. They have little useful intelligence to find their return path, and we don't know yet whether anyone will play an elf (or how that would work narrative) or where their beginning or ending point is, or what their return adventure will entail.

[Blubbo Baggins]

That seems like a good time period to me, I think I had also considered it.

Yes, there are more events detailed in those dates than necessary, actually, but wanted to put the idea for the campaign in context.

Sounds like you have a great start!