Tabletop RPG Podcast and Roleplaying Resources

Day: June 10, 2016

The Gathering

The Party continued their struggle against the mighty Hill Giant stedding, fighting both giant and fire.  The Rogue, having appeared to have fled the battle, instead came around to the front of the stedding, He first scaled the tower, and then lit it on fire. It went up like an Aradene candle, and turned night into day for miles around.  Assisting in the inferno were several casks of Hill Giant Ale. The party continued to fight their way into the fort, soon coming face to face with King Snaggi Irontooth of the Hill Giant Jarl. The battle ebbed and flowed, with several characters being struck down temporarily, until finally Snaggi was gutted, large giant entrails spilling unto the hot log floor, making a sizzling sound and reminding the party they hadn’t had breakfast.

In searching the main floor of the hold, the party discovered the two ever flowing Fonts of Mymirdion.  The water’s origin unknown, the water ever flowing, the party had discovered the Giant’s true wealth.  The two fonts gave the ancient healing aqua blue waters to whoever possessed the fonts.  One catch, the glass flasks that could hold the Healing waters of Mymidion had to contain human bone.  This gruesome catch gave the body pause.  But not enough to stop them from filling all twenty of the available flasks and distributing them throughout the party.

Soon the party made it through the rest of the first floor of the hold, and went downstairs into the dungeons of the stedding.  They quickly found the cells which held several prisoners, including Randolph FireOak.  Reunited with his loyal son Derrick, the two then joined the rest of the party in fighting off four elementals, summoned by the eveil white wizard, paired with the traitorous Harren Fire Oak.  Having occupied the party, Harren and the white wizard fled, leaving the party to battle the elementals.

The party emerged victorious from the partially destroyed stedding.  The cleric began to make plans to gather his brothers to occupy the powerful site, now partially burned.  In the meantime, the party crossed the small plains to the Town of Fire Oak, to find not only that the Fire Acorn had dropped, but that almost all of the Oak Clans had gathered, having seen the Stedding fire of the Hill Giants as  a beacon.  Randolph Fire Oak and  Justin IronOak found a table, and rolled out the ancient Oak Scrolls.  On the top, the two quickly read the Prophesy of the Oaks.

 

When Acorns drop and clans depart, all the Oaks will leave their home.

Abandon hearth, abandon glades, all of the clans will start to roam.

Through foaming waves, to distant shores, the twelve bound Oaks will sail the seas.

In search of Oak land, the promised land, away from hardship, rise from their knees.

Iron, Silver, Fire and Blood. Live, Ice, Water, and Black. Post, Pin, Heart and Golds

Abandon all their hard won holds.

To join so strong to leave the fall, to build anew, with gathered all.

 

And so, absent the Blood Oaks, 27,000 Oaks all stood ready for one last march through Westmarch, to relieve Silverthorne.  The party, led by Justin and Neara BloodOak, requested the party journey to Blood Oak, as a message had arrived that the Blood Oak had dropped, but been taken by a band of Frost Giants and a Black Dragon. IMG_0091[1]

Thoughts Using D&D 5e for Middle-earth Games

I’ve been playing D&D 5e since the weekend the beta first went live in May 2012. It’s my favorite version of D&D ever, and I’ve played them all (for the record, I did not care for 3e and 4e).

I’ve also run a few TOR games converted to 5e using the house rules from http://www.zerohitpoints.com/Middle-Earth-for-DnD-5/ to generate our characters.

Orc miniatures from Games Workshop

Orc miniatures from Games Workshop

Here is a blog post on my more recent game where I ran ‘Of Leaves & Stewed Hobbit’ — http://swshinn.com/game-design/combat-speed-part-1.

I did an analysis of combat in that game. In the combat were 31 combatants (including the six PCs). The battle took five rounds of combat and lasted a total of 50 minutes and left 22 dead and many others close to death. In my version of this set piece battle we had 6 PCs, 3 NPCs, 11 goblin archers, 8 goblin swordsmen, 2 Orc chiefs and 1 troll. Some of the players had never played D&D 5e before so some of that time were rules explanations.

I’m pointing this out since a big, complicated set-piece battle like this would have taken probably 90 minutes in a game like Savage Worlds, and probably over 2 hours in a game like Pathfinder.

Skill checks, wilderness travel, fatigue, combat — all of these 5e rules felt like a great fit for the Middle-earth setting.

My custom GM Screen using Brothers Hildebrandt Art

My custom GM Screen using Brothers Hildebrandt Art

D&D 5e is the most heavily playtested game in history. It flows fast, is well supported, and has quickly become the most played RPG on the planet. Moreover, there is a resurgence in RPG playing that is partly due to 5e’s popularity. The biggest demographic of players is the under-35 crowd, so WOTC is bringing new players into the hobby by droves.

All of which is to say I personally am AMAZINGLY excited that Cubicle 7 is bringing Middle-earth to D&D 5e! I will buy the books and play it a lot, evangelizing the game in conventions and on my blog. Other than probably house-ruling in some of the herb rules from MERP into the game, I imagine 5e + Cubicle 7 Middle-Earth products to be a near perfect combination for what I want out of a Lord of the Rings game.

Big Set Piece Battle from the First Time I Ran 'Of Leaves and Stewed Hobbit' in my Home Game

Big Set Piece Battle from the First Time I Ran ‘Of Leaves and Stewed Hobbit’ in my Home Game

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