What Adventure should I use?

[plotulus]

So would it make sense to go through Tales from Wilderland before heading off into Darkening of Mirkwood? Oh and thanks for Warm Welcome.

[Falenthal]

So would it make sense to go through Tales from Wilderland before heading off into Darkening of Mirkwood? Oh and thanks for Warm Welcome.

I think Tales is a mini-campaign in its own right, with a villain and a climatic ending of its own. Therefore, running it and afterwards the Darkening might feel awkward to the players ("We defeated a dragon and a whole army of orcs, goblins, wolves and an undead a few years ago. Are you telling us that you're worried because there might be some orcs in the forest?")

My personal option was to use the adventures from Tales to fleshen out the different plots hinted at in Darkening, or to develp further the adventure seeds found there.

If you have the time to read, and feel it might be worth it, here's the link to my own campaign (so far). Maybe you'll find some ideas there.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2453#p22369

[zedturtle]

I've heard of folks interweaving the two, so that Tales takes quite a bit longer and comes between the events of Darkening, causing all the bad stuff to come to a head at once.

For my group that's currently playing Darkening, they did go through Tales first. As Falenthal points out, it's a bit awkward... helped a little bit by several of the players having new characters (one death and a couple retirements as we closed out Tales). Also, I tend to try and drop hints about 'the larger picture' and why heroes such as they are concerned about these things.

[Majestic]

I more or less did this (ran Tales before Darkening), though I started mixing in the events from Darkening as we worked through Tales, so there was a bit of a transition. It worked well and I didn't feel there was an awkward jump.