Troublesome Campaign Idea...

[Jez]

So the basic campaign idea would be the Fall of Umbar, in the opening decade of the Fourth Age. I have no problem with running a campaign with an already decided outcome (if you insist on following canon); the question of the campaign isn't whether Umbar will fall, but how; whether the player characters will survive the campaign, and the extent they are responsible for the events that unfold.

The smart money would be to find out what heroic cultures my players want to come from and THEN set to work creating them, but as far as I can tell this is the short list of possible choices:

• Men of Minas Tirith
• Knights of Dol Amroth
• Privateers of Pelargir
• Rangers of Ithilien
• Elves of Edhellond (though its not clear if the ancient harbours still had elves at this time).
• Riders of Rohan (Éomer rode with Elessar in the southern campaigns).

Dwarves from the North (I'm guessing the Lonely Mountain) also came to Minas Tirith and rebuilt the gates out of Mithril and could easily get caught up in the campaign, and Elves came to Ithilien to repair the centuries of damage, and could easily get involved as well; my hunch is that they were Lorien Elves, though. Hobbits would be a real stretch of the imagination. But not impossible.

[Beran]

Once again Rich comes through. Thanks mate!

[Glorelendil]

We have never, nor will ever, discuss the terms of Sophisticated Games' license.

Thanks for answering; that's what I would have assumed, but since I'm new to these forums I didn't know if something had come out previously.

[Robin Smallburrow]

Giblet

As someone who has similar views to you, I have written an adventure for TOR set in Umbar called "A Kidnapping in Umbar, available on my sig below. I am currently play testing it, the PCs have just survived an attack of zombies on their guesthouse. Also, keep an eye out for more from me, as I am just putting the finishing touches to a campaign guide for Harad which I will upload to this forum in a few days

Robin S.

[Elmoth]

the PCs have just survived an attack of zombies on their guesthouse.

[Rich H]

the PCs have just survived an attack of zombies on their guesthouse.

Sounds like a Gamma World scenario I ran where a town had been taken over by Mutant Zombie Plant-things... Turns out a sentient computer in charge of manufacturing at an ancient Chicken Strips packaging firm had decided to splice Chicken DNA with sunflowers to horrifying results (well, for the PCs and townsfolk at least). The result, Gunfight at the o'KFC Corral!

[Mim]

Giblet Blizzard: Rich, Elf Crusher, & some of the others have already steered you toward links that may help, so I'll only add two quick answers to your questions concerning your Umbar plot - excellent idea, BTW (Robin did a great job on that as well):

1. Legolas brought Elves south from Eryn Lasgalen (The Wood of Greenleaves - they renamed Mirkwood). That said, if one of your players wants to create an Elf from Lórien, he/she could always be a heroic exception.

2. Gimli did forge gates of mithril & steel for Minas Tirith - from the Aglarond (Glittering Caves). You can have fun weaving a tale around that & how your Dwarf hero gets drawn into the Umbar adventure.