And so it begins...

[Turloigh]

After too many months of waiting, my group finally has decided to give Decipher's LotR game a try.

Let me tell you something. When first buying and reading the rulebook, I was very enthusiastic, even though some things struck me as odd. Player Characters are much more powerful than I preferred, the combat system looked clumsy, and the whole system was rather rules-heavy. Still, I trusted it would work.

Then I discovered the reviews on RPGNet, and the discussions here and on Decipher's message board. Some players used the system with great success, while others found it downright unusable. Between these extremes, the majority seemed to use a lot of tweaks and house rules to make their game work. And that's what I'm grateful for!

When I started my game last Sunday, we profited a lot from the experience of other people.
- I offered my players all the orders and packages found at Valinor,
- I used something from the "Compendium" found at the Heren Turambarion,
- I included a few of Scottomir's "Rules and Revisions",
- I replaced the "mook rule" with the "Combat Pacing" from Hall of Fire #2 (actually, I already had devised something very similar of my own, but their version is better!)
- and I gave the characters whatever they can get from the "Starting Gear" list (whoever made that).

Maybe the game wasn't that well playtested when first published, but it certainly is now. Thanks to you, folks!

If you're interested, I'll introduce you to the characters and tell you how the first game turned out to be. I was planning on using "A Rescue on the Barrow Downs" (special thanks to you, Neal!) but I may have to improvise something until I get the party to Bree.

So much for my first post,
see you later!
Turloigh

[Ineti]

Sounds good. Welcome! If you have any spellcasters in the group, check out the spell cards I put together a while back. They're on Valinor (http://sauron.misled.us).

And if you have any questions, fire away. We'll do our best to answer them.

[Turloigh]

Got them already, been there too. Thanks, again!

[Turloigh]

This is a summary of our first two play sessions, and we haven't really started the adventure until the third. Herein unfolds how three unlikely heroes meet and start out on a journey. If you don't care, don't read further, but thanks for looking in.
Sorry for the length... and even more sorry for getting my past and present tenses confused. As you may have guessed, English is not my native language.

It is the year... well, I haven't decided yet, but something around 2941.
In the Gap of Rohan, there is an inn where the Riders of Rohan like to stop when they patrol the area - as they do today, at noon on a cold day in February.
The Rohirrim notice the only two other guests, obviously complete strangers. They sit at the same table, but remained silent since the Riders entered.
One is a tall but slender, almost frail-looking young man with a pretty face who, while wearing expensive clothes, lacks the entourage to be expected from a noble.
The other looks even stranger. He is also slender, but smaller, clad in strange furs and leather, and if it wasn't for the layer of dust with which he is covered, he would look like a savage plainsman from the East. The Rohirrim near him start to notice the odor of a man who hasn't taken a bath in several weeks, but before they can say anything about it, something happens.
Another Rider has entered the Inn - one who looks by far to small for his chainmail, and for the big sword he carries on his back. When he removes his helmet to talk to the Innkeeper and order a beer, they see it's not a "he" at all, but a pretty maiden, no more than 16 or 17 years old.
The patrol leader, a big bearded Rohirrim warrior named Eogarth, tells her to return home and bring the armour back to her big brother before he notices that she stole it. The girl's face turns red with anger as the rest of the Rohirrim laugh at the joke.
They exchange a few more insults before the girl spills a mug of beer on one of the Riders. They struggle to hold her and teach her a lesson, but then, the good-looking stranger comes over and tries to soothe them with kind words. When that fails, he changes tactics and threatens Eogarth with a dagger, forcing him to let the girl go.
Suddenly the room falls silent. Rohirrim warriors are drawing their swords and menacingly approach the young man. Even the savage-looking stranger - who until now tried hard not to get noticed - speaks up now, heavily accented, and tries to calm everyone down. Quickly, the young man loudly orders beer for all. The Innkeeper, just as quickly and loudly, confirms the order, and the barroom brawl is averted at the last moment.

Then, finally, the three would-be heroes are sitting at the same table, introducing each other...

The handsome young man calls himself Eglenngil. While he gladly offers his services as a healer to anyone, he avoids questions about where he came from, and keeps silent about the reasons why he left. He has a beautiful voice, speaks the Elven tongues, and knows a lot of songs and lore. He might be a Dúnadan (but so far, nobody asked him). He rides a beautiful white horse that knowable people would identify as an Elven steed. The fact that he doesn't get wet in the rain adds to the air of mystery around him.

Galadhwynn of Arnfest is the name of the Rohirrim girl. She is the daughter of a baker, and trained hard to become a warrior, but since she's female, everyone's giving her a hard time about it. While she rides like the wind, her combat skills have yet to be tested, and she is prone to overestimating her power. She rides a mare, fairly average by Rohirrim standards. The large sword that she carries is of Elven make, which Eglenngil almost instantly recognizes. The sword, and a necklace of similar style, were found with Orcs who were killed near her village.

The savage-looking stranger goes by the name of Chono (Mongol for "little wolf"), and it takes some questioning before he reveals the fact that he is really a barbarian from an Easterling tribe of horse-nomads. He came to Rohan by sheer accident, as the result of a year-long odyssey, and has already enjoyed the hospitality of a prison where the Rohirrim tried to determine if he was a "spy" (a word that doesn't exist in his language). At the moment, he is still covered by a layer of dust that helps him keep a low profile, although he loves poetry and could be quite eloquent if he knew the language better. He rides one of those ridiculously small, barely tamed nomad horses.

Eglenngil tells the others that his business in Rohan didn't turn out as expected, and he will return to Bree. For some reason, Galadhwynn seems eager to leave Rohan, and asks to accompany him to wherever this "Bree" place is. Chono is even more eager to leave this country, and these two seem to be good company - this healer guy seems to know his way around, and in addition, the girl is rather cute. So the three of them form a loose fellowship, and set out to ride to Bree, simply for not having anything better to do...

(This is how the first session ended - after character creation and explaining a few rules, we didn't get any further. Yes, the party consists only of three players; I'm trying to find more.)

It is February, still cold and wet, and often foggy in the hills of Dunland where the party searches for what is left of the (now rarely-used) Old South Road. They try to travel fast and avoid the Dunlendings, especially after Galadhwynn tells how a few of them tried to raid her village when she was a kid (actually, only four years ago).
The journey is rather uneventful. At nightfall, they notice a campfire on top of a hill. They send Chono to sneak up to it, but it's only a family of Dunnish shepherds. At morning after their first camp they are surrounded by Dunlendings who tell them to get moving and leave their lands, or else. Aside from that, contact is limited to an occasional shepherder or pedlar.
In fact, the party travels mostly through empty lands. When they make camp near a few rocks for shelter from the wind, they discover that these rocks are actually part of a broken wall or building, and in daylight next morning they realize that they have spent the night in a ruined village or farmstead, long reclaimed by the wilderness.
It is even worse to come to the ruined city Tharbad. Eglenngil, for whom this is a return trip, told he had avoided the city first time around, and relates the rumours he heard about Tharbad having become a haven for thieves and rats (actually, I did't want the party to go into town because I know next to nothing about the city, and I wanted them to get to Bree quickly). So they circle around it, find a flimsy bridge that had been rebuilt by somebody in recent years, and cross the Greyflood River safely.
Now on the Greenway, the land slowly becomes more pleasant, and so does the weather. The party meets next to no travellers, but as they enter Breeland, they find the first farms and homesteads actually occupied by people, and are welcomed much friendlier than by the Dunlendings.
At last, a day away from Bree, they find an Inn (not named yet, but possibly the "Forsaken Inn" from Bruce Powell's Bafsted Trilogy). After too long a journey through lands empty and deserted, the characters finally can get a bath, get their clothes washed, sleep in a bed, and have a hot meal and a beer on top of that. Well, actually only Galadhwynn likes beer - Eglenngil prefers mead. That evening, Chono tries his first beer, but thinks it's bitter. He also tries mead, but for him it's too sweet. He keeps asking for something called "yoghurt", finally settling for buttermilk. By the way, with the dust removed and his hair washed, even Chono looks acceptable.

In the course of many campfires, the characters learn to trust each other a little more. Galadhwynn and Chono both tell their respective stories why they left their homes, only Eglenngil remaining strangely silent.
As for Galadhwynn, the tale is quickly told. When training with the cavalry last year, she met a young man named Léoric (but didn't tell how close they got). Since he was the son of a thane, while she only was a simple baker's daughter, Galadhwynn didn't really expect to see him again. To her surprise, however, he recently came to visit her at home. Her parents were utterly delighted to have a noble AND wealthy young man coming to see their daughter, so they instantly started to make marriage arrangements. Boy and girl reacted like-minded: Léoric mumbled something about preparations that had to be made, and quickly rode off. Galadhwynn donned her arms and armour, saddled her horse, and made her escape in the night.

Chono's story is a bit more complicated, but I'll try to keep it short. He comes from a tribe of horse-nomads from the very far north-east. When the Great Khan decided that each tribe had to sent a number of men and horses to serve in the army of a distant allied country, Chono was deemed expendable enough to be sent with them. Arriving at a large camp where the foreigners assembled the recruits, Chono discovered that some of the horses were butchered and eaten - a sacrilege to him. He fled but couldn't return home, so he turned West.
That was a year ago, and Chono has been riding hard ever since, finally stumbling into Rohan. He secretly talked to children, trying to learn the language, but yellow-haired Riders with long spears always hunted him. Injured, starved and exhausted, he fell off his horse and awoke in prison. He was questioned, but finally set free again, never understanding what was happening to him. It was only in Bree where he found the hospitality he was used to.
There was a wonderful moment of surprise when Chono was asked by his new fellows what this country was that he was being sent to. He said: "In our tongue, the name sounded like 'pitiful horse', so we didn't mind sending them a few horses." (The player, actually very interested in languages, brings a Mongol dictionary when she comes to play!)
"And what is the name?" they asked again.
"Mordor", he said and wondered why their faces turned white.
So Eglenngil gave him a little history lesson about Mordor, the Lord of Darkness, and how he was defeated by the Last Alliance.

The session ended with the heroes meeting their first hobbit, a travelling merchant and weaver by the name of Dustor Proudfoot. He invited them to a couple of drinks, they exchanged a few stories, and decided to go to Bree together the next morning - where adventure awaits them.

(In the meantime, we played a third session, but for now this should be more than enough.)

To be continued...

[Sarge]

Turloigh, it sounds like you've got three good players. I wouldn't grab anyone else to play with you just to have a bigger group; quality is a lot more important than quantity in a role-playing campaign like LotR. If you can find more players who are as good as the ones you have, great. But don't let munchkins ruin what you have.

Oh, and I should also say, your written English is better than that of many "native" speakers.

[Captain Novaes]

Sounds like a great game you have there, Turloigh!

Write more!

[Turloigh]

Originally posted by Sarge
Turloigh, it sounds like you've got three good players. I wouldn't grab anyone else to play with you just to have a bigger group; quality is a lot more important than quantity in a role-playing campaign like LotR.

Right, they are the finest players you could want, that's why we've been playing together for so many years. This, however, has some side effects. We know each other too well and have heard each other's jokes several times over. I usually know what to expect from them, and as a Narrator it's hard for me to surprise them (one has the annoying habit to actually read my thoughts). New players would bring a shot of "fresh blood", which we didn't have in quite a while.
I'm not worried about munchkins; they'd find us boring and wouldn't stay for long!

Originally posted by Sarge
Oh, and I should also say, your written English is better than that of many "native" speakers.

Wow, that's really nice of you. Same for the "quality" thing; my players will love to hear that.

[Myra.Sands]

Originally posted by Turloigh
Right, they are the finest players you could want, that's why we've been playing together for so many years.

Well, I am delighted to hear that.

Thanks, Turloigh!

- Myra (Player of Galadhwynn)

[Captain Novaes]

The compliment is well-earned. I'm eager to learning more about your game!

[Celebel]

Originally posted by Myra.Sands
Well, I am delighted to hear that.

Thanks, Turloigh!

- Myra (Player of Galadhwynn)

Me, too.

I'm eager to read more of it.

[Lord Kjeran]

Chello!

Really enjoy the Chronicle you're scribing. I can almost see the Mongol in my mind's eye. Toll!



Tony

[Turloigh]

Spoiler Alert: Don't read this if your Narrator is going to play "Rescue of the Barrow Downs" with you. We played it, and this is how it turned out...

To Neal Hyde, if the reads this: Thanks for your "Breeland by Twilight" trilogy, they're great for starting adventurers. (I've used some of your NPCs in different ways, hope you don't mind...)

It is the first day of March, and winter starts losing its grip on the country. Our travellers are resting at the Forsaken Inn before continuing their journey to Bree.

Early in the morning, the healer Eglenngil – who seems to need very little sleep – is the only one awake to see Dustor Proudfoot, their hobbit acquaintance, before he leaves (Galadhwynn has a little hangover, while Chono is just lazy by nature). However, since they are all accomplished riders, they catch up with Dustor’s little pony-cart during the day.

The company arrives at Bree by nightfall. While their hobbit companion bids them goodbye to visit his cousin, the party enters the famous Prancing Pony, the best (and only) inn in Bree-town. Here they are greeted by Rymen Butterbur, the talkative (but slow-witted) innkeeper. While eating, drinking and generally being merry, the strangers get a lot of attention from the patrons. One of the guests, a well-dressed and good-mannered Man, spends some time at their table, asking them about their homelands. The man introduces himself as Ifor Rosenblum, Bree’s schoolmaster. He is taller and gauntier than most of the short and stocky Breelanders, and of course much better educated.

As Ifor hears that Eglenngil is well-versed in lore and song, he asks if he knows the “Ballad of Harslan”. One of Bree’s inhabitants, a rather adventurous hobbit by the name of Weldon Proudfoot (Dustor’s cousin, as the heroes already know), has asked the schoolmaster about that particular story, and while Ifor knew such a ballad existed, he wasn’t familiar with the details. Eglenngil however remembers the song well enough, and suddenly – in the middle of conversation – he starts to sing, filling the tavern with his beautiful voice and recreating the battle of Prince Harslan and his twelve knights against the evil Siarl from Angmar and his orc army; and how the palantir of Amon Sul was buried in Harslan’s tomb.

Then, Ifor suddenly jumps up to join an argument between the innkeeper and a young woman in a colourful dress. The discussion ends with Ifor leaving the Prancing Pony, muttering about that “irresponsible, shameless person”, while the young woman starts a stunning (and undeniably erotic) dance performance. Eglenngil, always willing to help, joins her using his singing voice, but doesn’t get nearly as much attention. The – mostly male – guests throw coins, which Chono helps to collect (keeping a few for himself in the process). The girl goes by the name of Asheera, and her bronze skin and lithe figure show that she is a foreigner, too.

Just as the dance is over, Dustor Proudfoot stumbles into the inn, collapsing exhausted, yelling that his cousin Weldon has been kidnapped. Needless to say, this causes quite some confusion among the jolly Breelanders.

It is our heroes who react first. They accompany Dustor to his cousin’s smial, where they find traces of a struggle. Papers are strewn about the floor, blood was spilled, and Weldon is gone – and so is Weldon’s map of the Barrow-Downs, as Dustor tells them.

After wasting some time asking the wrong people, the party (with a hint from the narrator) finally remembers that Bree can only left via the gates, and they quickly find out that a group of seven Men pulling a cart, one of them staggering like he was drunk, left Bree not too long ago.

Climbing their horses, the party rides out in hot pursuit, the night-eyed Galadhwynn leading them. At the top of a crevice which Galadhwyinn barely notices in time, the galloping riders come to a sudden halt. They climb down into the fog, hearing the barking and howling of wild dogs, and feeling the eerie notion of entering the Barrow-Downs.

Chono finds a trail to follow, and soon after the party rescues a wounded bandit from a pack of wild dogs. It is their first fight, and Galadhwynn is eager to join the fray with her sword, while the others use their bows. When the dogs are driven off, the injured man drops to the ground, nearly bleeding to death. Eglenngil lays his hands on the wounded man, and with a warm but clearly supernatural glow, the wounds close before their eyes. Galadhwynn and Chono can hardly believe what they see. Galadhwynn, always suspicious, asks how the healer did that – was it magic? But once more, Eglenngil waves all questions aside.

The wounded bandit, whose name is Urian, is able to walk again and would rather follow the party than to remain at the mercy of the wild hounds. He admits he is one of the band who was hired by a foreigner to kidnap the hobbit merchant. That hobbit, Weldon Proudfoot, knows the location of a barrow the foreigner wanted to find. Urian gives the heroes the description he overheard from Weldon, and after a short walk through the gloomy barrow-downs, the notice a campfire guarded by a bandit, right at the entrance of a barrow. Their attempt at stealth succeeds except for Galadhwynn, who isn’t really the sneaky type (especially when wearing chain armour). However, when the bandit hears them approach, it is too late, as he is too easy a target, standing near the campfire. While all have their bows ready, only Chono, the barbarian - to his credit - hesitates to kill a man without giving him a chance to surrender. The other two want to make quick work of him and the bandit falls, pierced by two arrows.

(This is where the third session ended. Good for the players, because both Eglenngil and Galadhwynn were ready to leave the unconscious man to bleed to death. I was prepared to have them make Corruption tests after the end of the adventure. Luckily, between play sessions both players came to their senses.)

Galadhwynn gets a little sick seeing all the blood – she never put an arrow into a man before. Eglenngil remembers his code of honour as a healer and treats the man’s wounds. They leave Urian to guard him, entering the tomb…

After a few metres – sorry, yards – down the tunnel, a pit blocks their way, providing an unexpected role-playing opportunity. The heroes waste a lot of time discussing how to cross it, until Eglenngil (with natural grace) and Chono (with Acrobatics skill) balance along the edge. Only when both are on the other side and Eglenngil starts to make fun of Galadhwynn – who still hesitates – the Rohirrim girl gets angry enough to jump over it (to be fair, it WAS difficult; she needed to spend some Courage points).

Delving further down the tunnel, Galadhwynn again leads the way. Which is good, because when she releases the blade-trap, her armour helps a lot, resulting only in a slight injury.

They come to a hall where the corpses of roughly a dozen warriors are standing at the ready, bound with leather thongs to the walls to keep them upright. Eglenngil guesses (correctly) that these are Harslan's twelve knights who fell in the battle against the forces of Angmar.

Suddenly, they hear the sound of a flute coming from the tunnel in front of them, quickly interrupted by harsh voices. Gazing down the tunnel, they notice a light coming from a cave in front of them. Galadhwynn, showing no hesitation, puts down her lantern, takes her elven sword in both hands and advances down the tunnel. The others keep up, nocking arrows on their bows. As they approach, they hear a pleasant voice cracking jokes, yelling "I'm hungry!" and starting to sing a stupid song, until interrupted by one of the harsh voices, shouting: "I'll kill that rat!"

At its end, the tunnel opens into a large round room where they are greeted by a strange sight. A large Man, wielding a battle-axe and wearing a long cloak, struggles to catch up with a sack that seems to crawl along the ground on its own. Several other Men are busy working on something at the far side of the room. Near them, the skeleton of Prince Harslan sits on a throne, still armoured, the shards of his sword on his knees. Finally, a grey-haired podgy hobbit sits at a wall, bound and gagged, staring at the scene.

Our heroes waste no time and attack, knocking down the large axe-man quickly with sword-blows and arrows. He falls before the other Men can react. The point of her sword on his chest, Galadhwynn asks him to surrender.

(Now, remember: While Galadhwynn wields a really big sword and wears heavy armour, she is still a 16-year-old little girl. Now this little girl's player rolls a natural 2 for her Intimidation roll - a skill she has but one rank in.)

Her voice comes out squeaking, and the big man on the ground cannot help but burst out with laughter. Galadhwynn, however, is not amused. She attempts a called shot to the man's hand wielding the axe. The hand is cut off clean. Laughter stops. The Men surrender quickly, casting down their weapons.

While Chono keeps the bandits in check, the others free Weldon Proudfoot, the grey-haired hobbit, whom they've been looking for. Then, they open the mysterius sack - to reveal another hobbit! This one introduces himself as "Bing", a very young (and hyperactive) hobbit troubadour. (He was kidnapped together with Weldon while telling him the story about Harslan’s last battle). Bing was the one playing the flute the heroes had been hearing before. He thanks the party, hugging each of them, pulling things from their belts and pockets so fast that no-one (including himself) notices. It takes less than a minute for him to get on everyone's nerves.

(Yes, this is a new PC! Our group has a new player, and he plays Bing in a very “childish kender” type of way - which is extremely annoying, but has lots of room for character interaction and development. I’m eager to see what they are going to do with him, or about him.)

Before the group entered the room, the Men in the back of the room were standing around a pillar, trying to pry something loose with ropes and crowbars. It is a round black orb looking a lot like what Eglenngil believes to be the palantir mentioned in the ballad of Harslan. This, obviously, is what the bandit’s leader has been looking for...

Suddenly, a cold wind sweeps through the chamber, followed by a frightening howl. The skeletal figure of a barrow-wight appears in the doorway, blocking the only exit. The heroes, though suffering from unnatural fear, try to convince it that they are no tomb robbers, but the wight answers with laughter: he does not protect the tomb from thieves. It is Siarl from Angmar, and he’ll kill them to make them his slaves.

The barrow wight attacks with spells, and all hell breaks loose. Eglenngil’s arrows show little effect, neither does Galadhwynn’s sword. Chono stabs the wight with a torch, which works a little better. The hobbit Bing doesn’t even try to fight – instead, he goes over to Harslan’s corpse, picking up the rusty remains of his sword, then tugging on Eglenngil’s arm to get his attention, and giving it to him. After a terrifying battle, they finally wear the wight down, until the corpse falls apart. But even as the skull crumbles to dust, he laughs: “You cannot defeat me!”

During the battle, the bandits have made their escape, even taking their wounded leader with them. Our heroes quickly get to leave this terrifying place, too. After inspecting the supposed “palantir” one last time, Eglenngil finally concludes it is fake, and they leave it behind.

To the party’s credit, they really did NOT plunder anything from the tomb. Even Harslan got his broken sword back (which he acknowledged with a skeletal smile).

The rest of the tale can be told in short words. They return to Bree, accompanied by the two hobbits and Urian, the redeemed bandit. (Urian hid away from the barrow when the bandits left, watching helpless as they found the guard lying bound at the exit, and mercilessly slit the helpless man’s throat.)

At the Prancing Pony, the party is welcomed as heroes. While the two hobbits immediately sit down for an early breakfast, the others go to bed. When they awake in the middle of the day, the inn is full with people, waiting to greet them with three cheers. Weldon gives a speech and thanks the brave heroes who came to his rescue, and throws a party in their honour. The rest of the day is spent celebrating. Now their names will be known and remembered in Bree for a long time.

And this, of course, is just the beginning...

To be continued!