Day: September 11, 2017

If I am able, I would love to intermittently play Middle-earth campaigns for years to come, and sequence them in such a way that over time we traverse sequentially the most interesting time periods for RPG adventures. Here’s a roadmap:

• T.A. 1640 The Heroes of Arnor — Mercenaries for Lord Elasander, ally to Arthedain, last royal house of Arnor, attempt to boost border defenses in the wilds of Rhudaur, west of the Misty Mountains. (Already played this, concluded summer 2017).
  
• T.A. 2941 (Events of The Hobbit)
  
• T.A. 2947-2977 The Darkening of Mirkwood — The Necromancer may have been cast out of Dol Guldur, but a lingering darkness remains over Mirkwood, a shadow that will grow ever longer as the years draw on – unless a band of brave adventurers step forward and hold back the gloom. (Hope to play this next; a published campaign from Cubicle 7)
  
• T.A. 3018-3021 (Events of The Lord of the Rings)
  
• T.A. 3021 (End of the Third Age)
  
• F.A. 15 Palantír Quest — Adventurers must survive the wilds and ancient ruins to find a legendary palantíri needed by King Elessar. (Hope to play this someday; a published campaign from I.C.E. using MERP rules)
  
• F.A. 29 A Scourge of Wyrms — Dark forces lead to a arise of Wyrms (dragons) and a ring of shadowy spies who threaten the throne of King Elessar. (Hope to play this someday; a custom campaign)
  
• F.A. 121 The Wrath of Shadows — In the wake of Arwen’s death, a powerful figure arises with ties to Sauron, wielding a mysterious artifact known as the Vandilmaril. (Hope to play this someday; a custom campaign)

One of the campaigns I really want to run someday is ‘Palantír Quest’, a 1994 campaign module published by Iron Crown Enterprises for the old MERP rules for Middle-earth.

I’m fortunate to have a copy (this is pretty collectable; copies on eBay run $150-$200). Here’s the cover.

The interior has some amazing, black-and-white line art. Great maps you can scan and reproduce as handouts!

Here’s one summary of the adventure:

Strange portents in the great Seeing-stone of Minas Tirith give promise that one of the lost palantíri of the North has returned to the lands of Men. Can the adventurers find the legendary treasure and bring it to King Elessar? Rogues of the wilds, blizzards out of Forodwaith, and the greed in Men’s hearts all conspire against them. (source)

Here’a great, spoiler-free review of the ‘Palantír Quest’ adventure.

The adventure by default takes place just a few years into the Fourth Age. With some tweaks, you could set it some years later.

There are about 12 ‘adventures’, each of which I’d guess would take 1-2 game session apiece, for about 18-24 four-hour sessions of play. There are MERP stats for NPCs and creatures, but it would not be too hard to convert them to Adventures in Middle-earth or The One Ring.

The campaign takes place over most of a single year. I’d need to do some more reading to see if interjecting a few ‘Fellowship Phases’ with additional months of downtime (from the Adventures in Middle-earth) would disrupt the storyline.

Anyway, a fine campaign from the looks of it! I look forward to running it someday 🙂