finally got a game going

[killianred]

Greetings all! Just wanted to say I really like this game, and I hope you guys keep putting out books for a long time. We are playing through the Marsh Bell, and the group is just to the point where they meet the Mewlips. I played the recording of Tolkien reading the poem for the guys while they were spending the night with the lake men at the Stair of Girion, as if one of the lake men were reciting it. Totally cool. I was a little surprised that the group really got into wondering why the rotting river is so rotten. They want to investigate and find out what is causing the pollution, or whatever it is I want to begin the "Tales from Wilderland" next, and have the guys participate in Dragontide from the Laketown sourcebook. I am thinking about having a fellowship phase for about a month after Marsh Bell, then run an adventure into the mountains to investigate the rotting river. Got a few ideas, maybe some sort of woodland spirit they can help to start bringing back green life to the dead land. then another fellowship phase including Dragontide, and a new adventuring phase at the beginning of the next year starting Tales of wilderness. Sound like a plan?

[Hermes Serpent]

Good to hear that your players are throwing themselves into the game. There have been one or two threads on the old forum regarding the Rotting river. Suggestions included some action by goblins in the Mountains of Mirkwood that contaminated the waters so going to the river's source to investigate would be a great player driven plot.

Your timeline sounds fine however I would say that don't go for a too frequent Fellowship phase as the characters may not have generated enough AP and XP to make a Fellowship phase only a time for improving skills etc. Think of some other things that they can do like roleplaying interactions with NPCs to give some depth to those characters and allow you to place any number of plot hooks for the upcoming Adventuring phase. I think that the one longer or three shorter adventures phases per Fellowship phase works well and with one to three months of time passing during the adventure allows for plenty of opportunities to gain AP's. Keeping track of time passing is more important during a TOR game than in the usual run of RPG's due to the seasonal travel effects and the end of year/winter phase where standing is checked.

[killianred]

sounds like good advice, Thanks!