Best Patron and Premise for Multi-year Campaign?

[Stan Shinn]

What is a good Patron and an Adventure Premise that will give us the right excuses to roam all over Middle-earth and play ALL the published TOR adventures? I'm mulling over having the party being based out of Laketown, and having Gandalf being our patron. Occasionally he (or a messenger of his) would contact us and give us a 'mission', and these missions would take us all over the place.

One consideration is that in our campaign we have four players who are willing to take turns running games. We'd like to keep the same characters (if possible) and run through ALL the published adventures from Cubicle 7 as part of a multi-year campaign. Since we're occasionally swapping Loremasters, we need a common setup to hand out the quests and keep us pointed in the right direction, so that when we hand off the baton to the next Loremaster, they can pick up the reins from a known adventure setup.

Anyway, for those who have read or played many of the adventures and setting books, what is your advice on a Patron that can get us through all the adventures below?

Adventures and Setting Books by Region

1. Eriador
   - RIVENDELL (TOR)
   - RUINS OF THE NORTH (TOR)
   - BREE (TOR)
2. Wilderland
   - THE HEART OF THE WILD (TOR)
   - TALES OF WILDERLAND (TOR)
   - THE DARKENING OF MIRKWOOD (TOR)
3. Erebor, Lake-town and the Dale-lands
   - LAKE-TOWN SOURCEBOOK (TOR)
   - TALES OF WILDERLAND (TOR)
   - THE DARKENING OF MIRKWOOD (TOR)
   - EREBOR (TOR)
4. Rohan and Gondor
   - HORSE-LORDS OF ROHAN (TOR)
   - OATHS OF THE RIDDERMARK (TOR)

[Grey Seer]

Adventures and Setting Books by Region

1. Eriador
   - RIVENDELL (TOR)
   - RUINS OF THE NORTH (TOR)
   - BREE (TOR)
2. Wilderland
   - THE HEART OF THE WILD (TOR)
   - TALES OF WILDERLAND (TOR)
   - THE DARKENING OF MIRKWOOD (TOR)
3. Erebor, Lake-town and the Dale-lands
   - LAKE-TOWN SOURCEBOOK (TOR)
   - TALES OF WILDERLAND (TOR)
   - THE DARKENING OF MIRKWOOD (TOR)
   - EREBOR (TOR)
4. Rohan and Gondor
   - HORSE-LORDS OF ROHAN (TOR)
   - OATHS OF THE RIDDERMARK (TOR)

Don't forget The Laughter of Dragons

[Otaku-sempai]

Well, there's nothing restricting a company from having more than one Patron, though conflicts of interest between Patrons could arise. Suggestions:

Eriador: Elrond, Gandalf, Círdan of Mithlond (you may need to work him up yourself*)
Wilderland: King Bard, Beorn, Thranduil, Radagast, Gandalf, King Dain.
Rohan: King Thengel, Saruman.
Gondor: Ruling Steward Ecthelion, Saruman, Gandalf.

* I did a write-up of Círdan for my own home-brewed gazetteer of Western Eriador and Lindon in the House Rules forum.

[Majestic]

I've run Tales from Wilderland and am about halfway through the 30-year Darkening of Mirkwood campaign. I'd consider Radagast over Gandalf, if I were you (if you plan on focusing on Wilderland and those named adventures). Most of the focus in on Mirkwood and the Woodmen, though there is also a lot of focus on the Woodland Realm. Occasionally one interacts with Laketown or Dale or Erebor, but for the most part your adventures will take place in and around Mirkwood. Beorn is another possibility for a Patron.

And as has been mentioned, it's okay to even have more than one Patron. And multiple Sanctuaries are encouraged as well.

I wouldn't worry too much about having a central 'Quest Depot' where the heroes always return to. The way adventures work in TOR has them often taking an entire Fellowship Phase afterwards to recover, sometimes with some PCs returning home or venturing to another locale. However you decide to do things, it shouldn't be too tough for one GM/LM taking over for another...

[Stan Shinn]

Great feedback everyone! I will keep folks posted on how the campaign develops

[Rich H]

What is a good Patron and an Adventure Premise that will give us the right excuses to roam all over Middle-earth and play ALL the published TOR adventures

I personally think that's a mistake as it would feel a little forced in my experience/opinion. I think a better option could be to use differing characters for different regions of Middle-earth. The advantage of this being that players could have a bit of variety in player different cultures/callings/etc and also there could be an opportunity of bringing them together in a climatic ending to the campaign, weaving the different campaigns into one, and letting the players player their favoured PC.