Darkening of Mirkwood Assessment

[Fëanor]

I´ve my pdf!


I love you guys.

[daddystabz]

Filthy hobbitses!!!

I´ve my pdf!


I love you guys.

[Ferretz]

This book looks to be a treasure hoard of story and campaign material. It's very much in style with the Great Pendragon Campaign, which is a big pluss.

One thing I really like with this is that the characters are cast as the main heroes. Their actions really do affect the outcome of things. In the Great Pendragon Campaign, one thing I didn't like too much was that the characters was more "along for the ride".

It's epic. Looking forward to running it if I find the right group for it.

-Eirik

Hi Eirik, can I quote your post on the Darkening of Mirkwood page on the C7 website? And if so, how would you like your name to be credited?

Sure thing! Just use my name, Eirik Bull.

-Eirik

[DavetheLost]

Just downloaded my copy. Wow! Many great tales are here for the telling. The art is very evocative of Middle Earth. I think this is a fantastic way to give the Player Heroes a real stake in the events leading up to the War of the Ring.

I agree that this is like the Great Pendragon Campaign, only better. The players are definitely the heroes of this saga. They may get to rub shoulders with some of the greats of Middle Earth, but it is their actions that will decide the outcomes. In giving the book a quick skim I saw Beorn, Gandalf, Radaghast, Saruman, and Nazgul but none seemed to overshadow the players' roles. Very much in keeping with the way these characters appear in Tolkien's novels. They are the Great and Wise but this is not their tale.

With thirty years covered by this book it should set a group up with a campaign to last a very long time. If a Fellowship flies through one year per session it will still take over six months of weekly play to finish Darkenning. Add the Marsh Bell, Tales from Wilderland and Word of the Wise and it stretches to nine months of weekly play if every adventure is completed in a single session! I very much doubt that some of these adventures will be completed in a single session and this time line makes no accounting of any side plots the individual LoreMaster brings into play. Conservatively I would say that there is at least a year (real time) worth of steady play already available from C7.

This book is definitely for the LoreMaster though. There are only a handful of pages that should be of direct interest to players, those concerning Holdings and new Fellowship phase options. The rest of the book consists of the Tale of Years and descriptions of new foes. In my opinion for a player to read this book before play would spoil a lot of the enjoyment of the adventures to come.

For those who worry about potential conflicts with Tolkien's novel as a result of player actions, or a railroady straightjacket of a plot, fear not. Both the time and place assure great freedom for original campaigns to develop. Tolkien only hinted at what happened in Mirkwood between the two novels. If the players do nothing to intervene then events will unfold just as Tolkien set forth. If the heroes succeed they can brighten the Shadow over this part of the world, if they fail it may deepen. Either way they can tell a grand tale and help shape the prelude to the Great War of the Ring.

[Jon Hodgson]

Just downloaded my copy. Wow! Many great tales are here for the telling. The art is very evocative of Middle Earth. I think this is a fantastic way to give the Player Heroes a real stake in the events leading up to the War of the Ring.

I agree that this is like the Great Pendragon Campaign, only better. The players are definitely the heroes of this saga. They may get to rub shoulders with some of the greats of Middle Earth, but it is their actions that will decide the outcomes. In giving the book a quick skim I saw Beorn, Gandalf, Radaghast, Saruman, and Nazgul but none seemed to overshadow the players' roles. Very much in keeping with the way these characters appear in Tolkien's novels. They are the Great and Wise but this is not their tale.

With thirty years covered by this book it should set a group up with a campaign to last a very long time. If a Fellowship flies through one year per session it will still take over six months of weekly play to finish Darkenning. Add the Marsh Bell, Tales from Wilderland and Word of the Wise and it stretches to nine months of weekly play if every adventure is completed in a single session! I very much doubt that some of these adventures will be completed in a single session and this time line makes no accounting of any side plots the individual LoreMaster brings into play. Conservatively I would say that there is at least a year (real time) worth of steady play already available from C7.

This book is definitely for the LoreMaster though. There are only a handful of pages that should be of direct interest to players, those concerning Holdings and new Fellowship phase options. The rest of the book consists of the Tale of Years and descriptions of new foes. In my opinion for a player to read this book before play would spoil a lot of the enjoyment of the adventures to come.

For those who worry about potential conflicts with Tolkien's novel as a result of player actions, or a railroady straightjacket of a plot, fear not. Both the time and place assure great freedom for original campaigns to develop. Tolkien only hinted at what happened in Mirkwood between the two novels. If the players do nothing to intervene then events will unfold just as Tolkien set forth. If the heroes succeed they can brighten the Shadow over this part of the world, if they fail it may deepen. Either way they can tell a grand tale and help shape the prelude to the Great War of the Ring.

I'm going to be awfully repetitious for a little while, forgive me... Dave can I quote your post on the website? And if so what name would you like the quote attributed it to?

[Rich H]

... I don't know how some of you guys post such accurate and insightful comments when the PDF has only just come out. Can't disagree with any of you though!

I'm currently too stunned and amazed by just how good Darkening is to be able to give any constructive assessment. I'll try and post more coherent thoughts later but just wanted to say well done to C7 and everyone involved in producing this book. It looks to be the best of the products so far, maintaining the high standard of TOR but then knocking it for 6! Just... just brilliant.

EDIT: Just a quick thought though... I thought the Great Pendragon Campaign was the best campaign/supplement produced for an RPG and I believe I was right until The Darkening of Mirkwood came along. It really is *that good*.

Unbelievable work gents. You should be very proud.

[Valarian]

It's mine, my precious. Now I just need to have a read and see what campaign "foreshadowing" I can do in my 2989 campaign.

[DavetheLost]

Jon, you are more than welcome to quote my posts. Dave Crowell is a fine attribution.

[Jon Hodgson]

Jon, you are more than welcome to quote my posts. Dave Crowell is a fine attribution.

Thanks!

[doctheweasel]

Is the timeline/story broken up into sections?

I plan on pitching this to my group for our next game, but we are fickle enough (and there are too many good games to play) to want to commit to the whole thing all at once. If there were natural breaks, it would be an easier sell since I could better estimate how long we would play for — answering the question "how long would we play for" with "I don't know" is usually a strike against a new game pitch.