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Hey all,

I'm preparing a one session campaign for my brother and his roleplaying group. It's a birthday surprise - "Surprise! All you RPG friends are hear and I've prepared a LOTR campaign for us to play tonight!" I've been preparing for months now. I'm pre-making character via Skype with all his friends and will have a beefed up ranger character ready for him to use.

I'm custom tailoring elements from Rivendell and Ruins of the North together. The adventure will start in Rivendell and (hopefully) climax in fighting the Steward of Carn Dum with my brother's Ranger character riding a fell beast!

I wanted to ask for help with a few things.

• How can I make the game easy enough for new heroes to go up against some serious enemies? Lower the overall TN? Give characters more points to spend when we make character? Strong magical items?
• Do you guys have tips on how to ensure we complete the story? I'm flying in from out of town and we'll only get one session.
• How many events/encounters/battles do you plan for in an normal 4-6 hour playing session? My brother loves combat so I would rather have him
• Any general tips for a new LM? I'm sure there are whole threads on this but figured I'd ask.

Thanks in advance!

I have 2 points:

1. To make the game easier for new players, simply lower the Endurance amounts and Hate points for adversaries. This will make them a little weaker and you can also justify it narratively by saying they have been injured, just recently come from battle, or anything you'd like. I wouldn't recommend giving them a lower Attribute level, less Skill or taking away Special abilities because to me, these are the things that really define the creature and make it unique.

2. For a successful one-shot, create an Adventuring phase outline of no more than 4 parts and include one heroic venture as the main focus of each part: combat, journey, or encounter. I would use all three but have two combats. So, maybe an outline that looks like this:

Part 1: Encounter (This will set up advantages they might need for a journey or combat.)
Part 2: Combat (This should be small scale but give them a good introduction to how combat works.)
Part 3: Journey (This will test their Travel skill and introduce them to the land of Middle-earth.)
Part 4: Combat (This should be their greatest challenge and may include 'magical' or triggered events.)

Each part may include other activity than the main heroic venture, but only in a small way. For example, a journey could include a hazard episode, an encounter may lead to a series of tests (prolonged actions) or a player-hero intervention, and a combat may lead to a mini encounter or even a pre-battle council of war or preparation for the battle.

Don't forget Preliminary rolls prior to each of the main heroic ventures so the player-heroes can earn bonus Success dice. When they do spend those dice, it will bring even more flavour to the game as you should require them to narrate the advantage they have gained.

If you have the Hobbit Tales card game, use the cards (as outlined in the rules) to create any Hazard episode that might be triggered. Heck, if you have time, include one anyway as part of the journey since this is a one-shot. If you don't have the game, just use the charts for hazards in the core rules.

No need to worry about a Fellowship phase, Advancement points or Experience points as this is a one-shot.

Good luck with your game and return back with a report! I would like to see a summary of your outline and what took place.

I agree with most all of what James is saying. I would mention that I think that Hope is often spent like water in one-shots and thus you might not need to reduce enemies' stats too much.

I do agree that you should ignore AP, XP and the Fellowship Phase. You might even want to ignore the Fellowship Pool... for simplicity, and also not using the rule actually means that Rangers aren't penalised, which might matter to you if you want this game to highlight their good stuff.

I do agree that pregens are definitely the way to go. Having a few XP (say enough to get to Wisdom 3 / Valour 2 or vice-versa) is a good idea. I'm not sure what character sheet you're using, but I often try to squeeze in some reminder text next to the abilities, for example "King's Blade (On a Great or Extraordinary Success, spend 1 Hope to make a Piercing Blow)". That can go a long way to making things flow smoother.

Remember that a group of heroes against a single foe (even a Great Size one) is often bad news for the bad guy. Use that to your advantage.

Don't worry about teaching rules until they come up. That way you can get into the game as fast as possible: "Roll these funky dice and if anything funky comes up, we'll talk about it then."

Have fun! (And please come back and tell us more about it.)

Thanks for the input guys! OK using James' advice I've reworked the outline into what I have below. Thoughts?

Setting - Beginning of the fourth age.

Intro - Rivendell: Company meets Elrond and learn about their quest: scouts have reported a faith green light glowing from Angmar and Elrond fears some of ally of Sauron may still remain in the north, buried deep in Carn Dum. The company may spend time in Rivendell preparing and exploring if they wish. Afterword they are told to search the Trollshaws for a camp of Rangers to find Gandalf, who is essential to their quest.

Encounter - Trollshaws: Company travels north (easy travel). Company must get in good favor with the Rangers and if they do they camp at the Refuge of the Dunedain. They learn Gandalf has left to deal will a pack of evil wolves that have been eating farmers’ sheeps and goats in the Cold Fells. If the game is moving fast the LM may add a side quest: explore castle ruins and run into a troll and his treasure hoard.

Combat - Company comes across wolves with a wolf chieftain attacking a small Hill man farm. After combat, they meet Gandalf (who arrives near the end of combat) and camp at the farm. The farmer tells them of a winged creature terrorizing the land. Gandalf reveals more of the story: there is an evil servant in the north who has grown in power and may have one of the lost seeing stones. “We must recover this for King Elassar.”

Travel - First proper travel. Hazards along the way could include: Bog Soldiers at the Burial Bog, Magpies stealing equipment near Mount Gram, and harsh weather further north in Angmar - all depending on time.

Encounter - The company arrives at Carn Dum. They must explore to find the entrance and then explore the fortress. Gandalf goes away Obi-Wan Kenobi style to look for something they will need later. They find a dungeon with mostly empty cells but one massive chamber has a chained up small black dragon (thought to be extinct in these parts!). Through an encounter, the company and especially the ranger can convince the dragon to help them if they free him. If the ranger does really well he can even ride the dragon. They learn from the dragon that the Steward of Carn Dum has grown into a powerful Wraith-Lord and that he has made a hobby of capturing and enslaving creatures in his dungeon. He prized beast is a fell beast trained by the Witch-King himself.

Final Combat - The company must fight the Wraith Lord. The ranger and his dragon battle the Wraiths fell beast in the air above the castle while the company must fight off minions long enough for Gandalf to dispel the Wraith. Upon destruction of the Wraith-Lord they recover the Palantir and head south.

Setting: Okay, so you've got a pretty major challenge here, if your brother and/or friends are LotR-nerds. Gandalf, Elrond, and lots of other folks sail away into the West at the end of the Third Age. So either in your game, they didn't leave (or didn't leave so quickly) or maybe you move this back into the Third Age, which makes the Palantír a bit tricky, but not insurmountably so.

Okay, I'm going to go through your outline and make some comments.

Intro: I'd try to cut this down as much as possible. Open in-media-res with the heroes in council with Elrond. There's no need (mechanically) for a shopping trip, and I'd be leery (especially if they're coming from a more gear orientated game) of encouraging them to prepare too much. All the prep can be dispensed with a single sentence, which gets you closer to rolling dice.

Travel 1A:I'd insert a simple Journey here. Elrond's already told them to meet the scouts at X location in the Trollshaws, so you can have everything precomputed. Roll a few Travel tests and use this to explain how the basic mechanics work. Remember, like James said, do the Preliminary Roll first.

Encounter: This seems like a good idea. It should be a low-stress Encounter, but give the heroes a chance to gain some benefit from it (like maybe there's a Snow-troll den they are told about, that they then can avoid, or maybe the Rangers' advice gives them an extra Bonus Die when it's time to do preparation.

Travel 1B: I'd continue this as part of the original Journey, with the Rangers being a prepared Encounter and then the Wild Wolves and the Wolf Leader being a prepared combat.

Gandalf Scene: The idea of the Palantír kind of comes out of nowhere. Maybe have it be a bit more explicit... there's something terrorising the countryside and it finds even the hidden caches of the Rangers. Gandalf suspects some powerful magic at work.

Travel 2: Sounds good. Be cautious of too many Hazards/prepared events, but I do think you need to have some things for the heroes to interact with.

Carn Dûm scene: You've got Ruins, so you've got Jon's awesome map of Carn Dûm. I wouldn't get too bogged down, but it might be worth doing a few Explore/Search/Awareness rolls to explore the dungeon a bit. Dragons don't really have colour in Tolkien (they do, just not like D&D), and in theory your winged dragon is a bit of a discrepancy, but no one has all the facts and the narrator of The Hobbit could easily have been wrong about Smaug being the last winged one.

Meanwhile, Gandalf is hunting for the Palantír. Maybe it was one of the Northern Stones, recovered by some evil thing from the northern seas. Again, this gets tricky, but you can certainly make your game work however you like and don't need to feel bound to canon.

Encounter with the Dragon: If you've got Tales from Wilderland, take a look at that for inspiration with this encounter. It certainly should have a chance of turning very bad. I'm really not sure about the whole 'riding the dragon' thing, but it certainly could happen... the Steward could have fitted him/her with a saddle in an attempt to tame it.

Final Combat: Sounds very epic. My only real concern is that it seems like you've got a strong vision of an end-scene and sometimes that can be a bad thing... railroading the players to get to foreseen end point can sometimes be very frustrating from them. I recommend that you be prepared for things to go odd, especially once you let them loose in Carn Dûm. Maybe if they decide to search the dungeons instead of fool with the dragon, they can end up finding the spell to unbind the Wraith's physical form, and Gandalf gets to end up riding the dragon .

Great input! Thanks!

Setting: I'd love to use Gandalf the Grey so let's say it's TA 2950, right before Sauron declares himself in Mordor. Any suggestions on the Palantir? Like how it could make sense? Or an artifact that could replace it instead?

Intro: I like cutting it down. I'll open mid meeting. I might let them explore a little but, but I'll make sure gear is covered so they aren't "shopping".

Travel 1A: Simple journey sounds like a great way for them to learn the rules of travel.

Encounter: Rangers' advice = bonus dice. Perfect!

Travel 1B: Can you clarify what you mean by

I'd continue this as part of the original Journey, with the Rangers being a prepared Encounter and then the Wild Wolves and the Wolf Leader being a prepared combat.

? Do you just mean have the details ready and hope they roll a hazrd? I'm not sure how to splice that into the travel.

Gandalf Scene: I'll try to tie the Palantir in more. Loveng these ideas!

Carn Dûm scene:

Maybe it was one of the Northern Stones

- my thoughts exactly - recovered by an ocean diving drake.

Encounter with the Dragon: I'll definitely use that bit of interacting with a dragon from Tales from Winderland. I know riding a dragon isn't too cannon in Tolkien... but my brother is gonna love it! One of the players coming said he wanted to ride a dragon so bad in a D&D campaign they did last year and didn't get too...

Final Combat: I agree it's sounds very "set" but I'm pretty quick on my toes and I think I can craft a good adventure that is close enough to the outline.

Thanks so much!

As Zed says, the Palantir is a little tricky because if it had been found, it would be mentioned in LoTR. It depends of course, on how closely you want to adhere to canon.

An alternative idea is a dark weapon "Morgurthir" (S: Black Death Jewel) which was created by Morgoth at the end of the First Age in mockery of the Elessar (which is the green jewel Galadriel gives Aragorn in the LoTR). Believed lost, the Wraith Lord has recently found it in a deserted Troll hoard. Whereas the Elessar is about healing, this one has the capability to create plagues across Middle Earth - like the Black Death in medieval Europe which killed around a third or so of the population. In this scenario, Gandalf heads north to investigate stories of illness amongst the hillmen, and then the Adventurers follow as per your story.

Dragon's in Middle Earth are cruel, proud and strong (think Smaug) so this one will need to unbend big time to allow it to be ridden. You could make it an Eagle instead - still pretty tricky, but more likely I think. Again it depends on how closely you want to keep to canon.

At the end of the adventure, the PCs return the Morguthir to Rivendell where it is destroyed and the threat ends.

Hopefully that gives you some alternative ideas

FF

As to the palantíri, the Seeing-stone of Osgiliath was lost and never accounted for. For all anyone knows, it might have been found and captured by agents of Sauron and taken to someplace such as Dol Guldur or Carn Dûm, giving the Enemy two such artefacts.

Limithron wrote: [*]Any general tips for a new LM? I'm sure there are whole threads on this but figured I'd ask.[/list]

I don't know if the players have played The One Ring, but for demo games I always do this to introduce them to the mechanics:

Explain to them only 3 rules before starting to play-
1) How to roll for any kind of test: Feat die + any number of success die equal to the skill tested (or Valour, or Wisdom, or Weapon, or Armour,...). The sum must be equal or greater than a number I'll tell you, usually 14. Having 3 ranks in anything (rolling 3 Success die) means you're fairly good at it.
Explain here that a Gandalf means autosuccess, an Eye means 0, and 6s mean that the success is of a greater quality than usual. For any other consequences of the number/runes, you'll tell them when necessary.

2)Now that they know how to roll, explain how Hope points are used: you add an Attribute to the final result, so that Hope points are only used if you know they'll be useful. They can't be recovered during the adventure.

3) Explain the Traits and Specialties, that allow you not to risk a test if invoked in an appropiate form when a test is required. Other uses of the Traits can be left off the game for now.

Now take a quick look at everyone's character, so they know what they're good at and what their Traits are.

Everything else from the mechanics can be explained only when needed during the adventure.

Ok guys I'm making some great progress on the preparation for this thing... but I had a few questions about beefing up the players.

I'm basically using the first and last adventures from Ruins of the North as a guideline for this one off. At the end the players will face a knock-off of the Witch King and/or the Barrow Wight king. I want them to be tough enough to get through the entire adventure, but not without a scratch.

Any suggestions for how much to level up character before we start? From other threads I was thinking:
12 XP to spend
24 AP to spend
Starting with half the normal Hope points so Shadow things have a chance of happening and Hope isn't used for every test.

Thoughts? The last Ruins of the North adventure suggests characters have at least a 4 in either Wisdom or Valor.

Thanks!