Just finished Darkening of Mirkwood last night...

[Corvo]

Same here: I'm at 2960... and we managed to play just two sessions between november and now ( ). I think we started at the beginning of 2013.

Sooo. Your first session started about a decade and a half after the fall of Arthedain and Angmar; and your second session ended at 2960? That must be one heck of a campaign! And a world record for a Fellowship Phase of just under 950 years. Are everyone Elves?

Now I get it!

2013-2017 A.D, to cover 2936-2960 Third Age

[mirkwoodfalcon]

Same here: I'm at 2960... and we managed to play just two sessions between november and now ( ). I think we started at the beginning of 2013.

Sooo. Your first session started about a decade and a half after the fall of Arthedain and Angmar; and your second session ended at 2960? That must be one heck of a campaign! And a world record for a Fellowship Phase of just under 950 years. Are everyone Elves?

Now I get it!

2013-2017 A.D, to cover 2936-2960 Third Age

Curious, does that mean you played through the events of The Hobbit in 2941? How did your players interact with that tale?

[mica]

Currently in 2959 and playing about 3 sessions per in-game year so expecting to finish sometime next year. There are many tangents as the waves created by the fellowship ripple out and actions/in-actions come back to bite them.

There are a few bits that could have been explained a bit better such as opening the road which describes merely completing a few fellowship phase actions then years later in the campaign mentions Mogdred's help will open the road in a mere decade...

For this reason I have taken to name/place searching in the PDF to see if they play a part in the future. All in all though it is an excellent campaign and the players seem in no rush to finish it.

[Otaku-sempai]

Now I get it!

2013-2017 A.D, to cover 2936-2960 Third Age

Ah, clarity strikes! I thought that your first session was last November, so 2013 seemed like it had to be the year at the start of your campaign. Misunderstanding on my part! Too bad; that might have been epic. But I'm still curious about your starting several years prior to Thorin Oakenshield's Quest of Erebor.

[Glorelendil]

Another reason why Middle-earth dates should all be written using Elvish numerals.

[Corvo]

(...)
Curious, does that mean you played through the events of The Hobbit in 2941? How did your players interact with that tale?

It is an all-Barding Fellowship, but we call them Dalemen, because... well, because Bard wasn't yet king at the time

Anyway, they were Dalemen-in-exile living in the shadow of their former kingdom in the old Upper Marches (south-east of Esgaroth).
They fought beside Bard the Carpenter against Easterling raiders in 2938, when Bard took command once the thane of Sywur was wounded.
Bard's growing popularity raised the envy of many, and the suspicions of the old thane, so Bard was sidelined and had to suffer many slights. In the end, Bard left the lands of Sywur to relocate in Esgaroth, among his wife's relatives.
In '41, the Heroes dared to speak in defence of Bard in the great hall of Sywur: it was a tense affair, but in the end their lord relented and bade them return Bard. So our Heroes were in Esgaroth when the Scourge of the North burnt the city, fighting with Bard.
Afterward, they were at the Battle of the Five Armies, and one of them was on watch when a plucky Hobbit sneaked past him. Twenty years later his friends are still mocking him for his failure!

PS: they harbor profound distrust for Gandalf. In their eyes, his meddling caused the destruction of Esgaroth, and it was only the valour of their King that saved the day. Saruman, on the other and, is a really trusty fellow...

[Otaku-sempai]

PS: they harbor profound distrust for Gandalf. In their eyes, his meddling caused the destruction of Esgaroth, and it was only the valour of their King that saved the day. Saruman, on the other and, is a really trusty fellow...

Does that really track though? Gandalf was away South when the company arrived in Lake-town; he appeared in Dale at the camp of Bard and the Elvenking well after Esgaroth was destroyed. How much would they really know about his involvement in Thorin's quest? It seems to me that they should instead honor Gandalf for his efforts in the Battle of Five Armies, starting with alerting the Free Peoples to the imminent threat of the goblins and Wargs.

[Corvo]

PS: they harbor profound distrust for Gandalf. In their eyes, his meddling caused the destruction of Esgaroth, and it was only the valour of their King that saved the day. Saruman, on the other and, is a really trusty fellow...

Does that really track though? Gandalf was away South when the company arrived in Lake-town; he appeared in Dale at the camp of Bard and the Elvenking well after Esgaroth was destroyed. How much would they really know about his involvement in Thorin's quest? It seems to me that they should instead honor Gandalf for his efforts in the Battle of Five Armies, starting with alerting the Free Peoples to the imminent threat of the goblins and Wargs.

The Hobbit told 'em
And later Balin confirmed it: btw, they and Balin were friends since '39, when they saved him in the Long Swamps...

[bigsteveuk]

Did you only run DOM or did you intertwine TFW?

Any tips or recommendations?

Hoping to start of combination of the two myself this year.

[mirkwoodfalcon]

Did you only run DOM or did you intertwine TFW?

Any tips or recommendations?

Hoping to start of combination of the two myself this year.

We actually started out with TfW in 2014 and finished that up in about a year. It's a great module pack, especially for newcomers to the hobby (as all of us were back when we began!) We ran straight through it, doing all 7 adventures, before starting DoM.

One recommendation I have, and I can't emphasize this enough, is to feel free to substitute out villains and locations for things that the players are already familiar with. Even if the adventure mentions some awesome-sounding new Orc Chieftain, it's often more satisfying to replace him with an adversary that got away from the company in a previous encounter. We did this a whole lot during Darkening of Mirkwood, completely changing the location or person described in a given scene, and it worked out great! My players were a lot more invested in the story that way, and I wish I would have done that more with TfW when we ran that.