Combining Those Who Tarry with Of Leaves and Stewed Hobbit

[Elroval]

I was wondering if anyone has combined Those Who Tarry with Of Leaves (or at least elements of both) when running a game? If so, how did it go?

I'm thinking I might try and do this somehow, as the journey is going to be covering similar territory. I'd be interested to hear anyone's experiences with this, if they'd feel like sharing.

[Rich H]

I haven't but I'd be interested if someone has. Not because I'd do the same but because they are very different adventures - their themes and atmosphere vary significantly so my initial reaction to combining them is that they'd be at best jarring and at worse weirdly schizophrenic.

[Elroval]

Good point Rich. They are indeed very different in atmosphere and theme.

My only reaon for thinking of combining some elements is that I have one player who I think would enjoy Of Leaves, and his character is a Hobbit with connections to the two Brandybuck brothers. We missed that adventure out though, due to the group choosing to go to Beorn's territory straight ater Don't Leave the Path.

I didn't really want to run Of Leaves after Those who Tarry, because the overall tone of the campaign becomes darker from this point onwards, and I thought throwing Of Leaves in at that point might in itself be jarring - and also distract from the developing theme of the Gibbet King.

But on reflection, I agree with you. I can't really see it working to combine the two. I may think of some other way to introduce Dody and Dindy later on, if I decide not to run Of Leaves.

[Rich H]

Just to qualify but I think 'Of Leaves...' is a fantastic adventure and incredibly entertaining but, much like yourself, wouldn't run it in a campaign with the other adventures. It feels like The Hobbit whereas the other scenarios feel more like The Lord of the Rings; the two feel very different. I'm sure that people have successfully included 'Of Leaves...' in a campaign with all the other adventures, I just don't feel comfortable doing it myself as I know my players would find it jarring and too different. However, I'm totally sure it makes for an amazing tournament game and I'm positive that playing it as such has sold many copies of the RPG.

I have introduced the inn and the Hobbit-brothers into my campaign though and will likely centre some interactions and/or encounters around their locale when the opportunity arises.

[Falenthal]

Just to qualify but I think 'Of Leaves...' is a fantastic adventure and incredibly entertaining but, much like yourself, wouldn't run it in a campaign with the other adventures. It feels like The Hobbit whereas the other scenarios feel more like The Lord of the Rings; the two feel very different. I'm sure that people have successfully included 'Of Leaves...' in a campaign with all the other adventures, I just don't feel comfortable doing it myself as I know my players would find it jarring and too different. However, I'm totally sure it makes for an amazing tournament game and I'm positive that playing it as such has sold many copies of the RPG.

I have introduced the inn and the Hobbit-brothers into my campaign though and will likely centre some interactions and/or encounters around their locale when the opportunity arises.

Exactly my thoughts and what I've done, both with my campaign (where the brothers and the inn exist) and with the adventure (which I've used in several demos to wonderful results).

[Deadmanwalking]

It happened in our game along with the rest of Tales From Wilderland. Worked fine for us.

It's thematically distinct enough that mixing it with Those Who Tarry seems like a terrible idea, but not so much so that they can't occur to the same people. Just not at the same time.

Really, it happened relatively early in the campaign, and while it was amusing in its way, it wasn't actually particularly tonally different from most adventures we'd had by that point. They got progressively darker from there, but that seems sort of appropriate since we are (Tales From Wilderland stuff aside) playing Darkening of Mirkwood.

Starting out on a slightly lighter note, or at least having such moments relatively early on, makes the darker stuff later seem more of a change, which seems to fit the theme well from what I know of it (I'm a player, not the LM...though I've played through all of ToW at this point and skimmed the written adventures. Still no idea what's going on in DoM beyond some very vague generalities, though).