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Glad to do it. I hope it helped them, and that they ignored my - admittedly unnecessary - pokes.

In the new starter set adventure (from the pdf, as I haven't checked if final printed one changed at all)
1. I cannot find what is the supposed advantage to be gained exploring the wolf lair cautiously and losing 1d on the Explore rolls.
2. It says to look at following Braving the Goblin lair?? Arriving from the secondary tunnel is not linked to it, only on getting at least one tengwar from the Explore rolls, and nothing changes as to the goblin sentries or number of foes in the huts, etc.
3. And then arriving from the high level tunnel does not really give an advantage: instead of having to sneak past one goblin, where a failure only costs you to kill it in one turn (quite easy!), you have to all make a Athletic roll and one single failure alerts nearby orcs who will sound a general alarm... In my book, that's worst!!
Also:
4. -what is the point of the Dead men journey event? Other than a narrative idea, it has no tie to the rest, the brooch and armour have no value, and losing Endurance, is immediately replenished by a normal rest as no one would be injured at this point and no reason to force march...
5. -why would the goblins make sacrifices 4 days west of where they're all living with the wolf-queen, while it is clear they've already taken hostages at the lair for the exact same reason?!
6. -the horse burial? It would be well considered by its owner, yet we only come across Aragorn sent to seek it and no other mention even in epilogue hinting of this. (Other than Aragorn expressing gratitude and then nothing)
7. -The Hakmogg surprise attack: only makes them take first shots in volleys, not a full blown ambush (I don't remember, do the starter rules have Ambush?)
8. -in Crann, why say there's no visible opening when you show the map to the players and immediately identify the entrance and the players are coming from the west, on a road specifically designed to join these places??
9.- what is to be gained from the bold request, to hear the stories of the children on ground level?? I get the outrageous request but the bold makes no direct claim as to how it is better.
10. -it feels like so many tengwar effects are lost on getting the information that becomes most obvious soon that there's wsrgs and goblins, like yeah, we get it fine. It's the third time already my great success tells me that.
11. -why make the look out roll Scan, when Aragorn will pop up nontheless, with no risk involved and no chance to lose him?
12. -what is it about Vella's love of hens and minimal knowledge of the goblin lair that merits the term "valuable information" when no effect is specified??
13. -Also, using the word "guide" for the player(s) doing Explore rolls in the lair seems a weird choice of words and possible misunderstanding as to is the party's actual Guide doing the rolls?

Righty. So, you're unhappy with a bunch of stuff. Let me see if I can provide some reasoning here (at least how I did solve some of it, or would've solved it if I'd been better prepared when I ran it).

1. This can be interpreted to mean different things. It means there's an increased chance for some of the abductees to have been killed, eaten. It means that going slowly increases risk of patrols and dire consequences. You could see this as an encouragement to not go cautiously, the risks are great, and they must rescue the villagers and end the evil threat festering here.

Another way to interpret this is that if you take this risk, losing 1d to your Explore test, you get the effect of a Tengwar once you've succeeded on three tests - even if you didn't roll one. Higher risk, higher reward. I suspect the main point is to encourage the players to not be too cautious, they're heroes after all.

2. See above. Sure, that's all inference and interpretation, but so what? It can make sense to link cautious with the higher tunnel, even without rolling a Tengwar.

3. You can attack from above, volleys galore, rearward stance regardless of company size until the goblins can run around and get through the tunnel and attack them from there (at least a few rounds I'd say). Look to the Stone Column for inspiration.

4. It's a cool narrative event that drives home the post-apocalyptic nature and ancient history elements of Middle-Earth. The Endurance damage can be healed sure, but it gives a feeling of Middle-Earth, risk, dark magic, ancient threats and mysteries. If you want to oomph it up and have access to the corebook, use the drowning rules on page 134. If not, then treat it as a scare and narrative event for new players (a memory, a funny story to make fun of a friend, or a scary story about evil sorcery and curses; it's in any case a warning). I'm not really sure I see the issue here, its an introductory story to the setting (and it is only an example of an expanded journey event, you're free to come up with your own, or change it, that's kind of the nature of roleplaying...).

5. Why didn't Frodo ride the eagles to Mordor? This is the same kind of reasoning, because it helps create a story, showcase the rules and for the players to find the empty village. Could they have done it differently? Sure. Is the sacrificial site important and special to Garaf or the Goblins? Maybe, it seems to indicate that. It's a special place, it is described as such. There could be all manner of reasons, but they are unnecessary for the story in the box, expand on it at your own leisure, link it to other similar sites, other massive wargs or other creatures of the enemy, and an ongoing ritual to [plot!]. Again, I don't understand the complaint and issue. Every question doesn't need to be answered in the adventure, that would defeat the purpose of it being a roleplaying game.

6. Like the dead men, this is a narrative event, it shows the players' moral compass or at least instincts. And it gives them the opportunity to meet a character from the books, if they're curious enough to figure it out (my players were not, they were very cautious and sceptical). It needs no consequences or hints in the epilogue - doing the right thing is sometimes enough in and of itself - it doesn't warrant any kind of reward but gratitude and that the horse's owner "will consider [it] well" done (as mentioned on page 5). And if you want to tie it to something during the epilogue/fellowship phase, then you're free to come up with it. It's a story thing, like dead men, like stealing carrots from farmer Maggot (or when the hobbits and Strider come over the trolls turned to stone from Bilbo's adventure). Not all journey events need to be rewarding side-quest adventures or lootable encounters, nor do they need to serve the larger plot. They can do that of course, but they can also just show a larger and older world, where random strangers appear out of the forest, old corpses are cursed, etc.

7. I can find only one mention of ambush in the starting adventure. And it's a not about setting ambushes or rules for ambushes as can be found in the corebook. So, I would presume not.

8. It says "no immediately visible opening", so I would infer that the assumption is that the heroes don't come to the gate, but along the palisade. They have to look for it (no roll required in my book, I doubt the goblins closed the gate behind them). And, don't show the map top the players if this is an important thing for you before they have found the entrance. That's elementary. I didn't pull up the map before they said they look for the gate, and came across it. I mean. This is storytelling, giving impressions and descriptions of the world, environments, what they see ... it's not all tactical or useful or straight to the point. It's storytelling, not reporting only the useful information (not that players won't see all informtion as potentially useful and planted and ...).

9. Yes, get the kids' trust, create rapport, make it into a nicer social encounter where the kids show less fear, and start to feel hope... Again, if the point is just to get the information and have realist pragmatic heroes that don't care for the people they protect, there's no reason to go for anything than the reasonable request.

Tengwar on those tests could also - at least in my mind - be used to give more information (come up with something, spread in some false information, give names of abducted villagers to look for), or even the effect of the Outrageous request (if 2+ Tengwar on a single or the last required successful check, maybe, I don't know - I'm not intimately familiar with the Council rules).

10. Fair point, come up with your own, that's kind of the point, let the players suggest something that could help them. My players didn't roll many tengwar at all, so this was not an issue for us, so dice are random, this can happen, and sometimes all the extra info remains locked behind a tengward (unless a players is clever and asks good questions or comes up with ideas that would logically provide the information).

11. To increase tension and have players be uncertain. It worked well with my newbies (they tried to hide and escape their pursuer). Rolling dice is tactile and upholds the feeling of risk and danger. Admittedly, this isn't something that works well all the time, but it worked for us. So, this is a design decision, it gives one or more players the opportunity to notice something they don't immediately know what is. Is it a friend or foe? Can they take him? Can they escape him? It can instil a feeling of uncertainty and maybe fear in the players. And his appearance isn't an immediate surprise just walking out of the darkness.

12. Lol. Good question! She knows more than the players at least, but yeah. The love of hens is funny, it also makes her angry and give her (further) motivation to hate the goblins (and help out?). She's a potential ally later, or even a potential player character should the group decide they want to continue the story but make new characters. Her information is what players will see when they enter the lair, but it is an opportunity for the GM (if prepared) to give the players an incentive to try and find the higher doorway, or beeline for the stone column straight away when they arrive. It gives them potentially tactical useful information about the lair (number of goblins, where the prisoners are, and so on) before they arrive there, and if the GM is creative, if can give +1d on a Battle or Stealth test for ambushing or sneaking through the lair - but arguably not to find the higher doorway.

13. Sure. But it's not a journey, so I think it's fair, but I see the conundrum - I cannot recall if the journey roles are usually capitalised (Guide) or bold, or not.

These are my thoughts at least, from having run it once and seeing where I didn't prep well enough, and based on some of the stuff we did.

In the new starter set adventure (from the pdf, as I haven't checked if final printed one changed at all)
1. I cannot find what is the supposed advantage to be gained exploring the wolf lair cautiously and losing 1d on the Explore rolls.
2. It says to look at following Braving the Goblin lair?? Arriving from the secondary tunnel is not linked to it, only on getting at least one tengwar from the Explore rolls, and nothing changes as to the goblin sentries or number of foes in the huts, etc.
3. And then arriving from the high level tunnel does not really give an advantage: instead of having to sneak past one goblin, where a failure only costs you to kill it in one turn (quite easy!), you have to all make a Athletic roll and one single failure alerts nearby orcs who will sound a general alarm... In my book, that's worst!!
Also:
4. -what is the point of the Dead men journey event? Other than a narrative idea, it has no tie to the rest, the brooch and armour have no value, and losing Endurance, is immediately replenished by a normal rest as no one would be injured at this point and no reason to force march...
5. -why would the goblins make sacrifices 4 days west of where they're all living with the wolf-queen, while it is clear they've already taken hostages at the lair for the exact same reason?!
6. -the horse burial? It would be well considered by its owner, yet we only come across Aragorn sent to seek it and no other mention even in epilogue hinting of this. (Other than Aragorn expressing gratitude and then nothing)
7. -The Hakmogg surprise attack: only makes them take first shots in volleys, not a full blown ambush (I don't remember, do the starter rules have Ambush?)
8. -in Crann, why say there's no visible opening when you show the map to the players and immediately identify the entrance and the players are coming from the west, on a road specifically designed to join these places??
9.- what is to be gained from the bold request, to hear the stories of the children on ground level?? I get the outrageous request but the bold makes no direct claim as to how it is better.
10. -it feels like so many tengwar effects are lost on getting the information that becomes most obvious soon that there's wsrgs and goblins, like yeah, we get it fine. It's the third time already my great success tells me that.
11. -why make the look out roll Scan, when Aragorn will pop up nontheless, with no risk involved and no chance to lose him?
12. -what is it about Vella's love of hens and minimal knowledge of the goblin lair that merits the term "valuable information" when no effect is specified??
13. -Also, using the word "guide" for the player(s) doing Explore rolls in the lair seems a weird choice of words and possible misunderstanding as to is the party's actual Guide doing the rolls?

Righty. So, you're unhappy with a bunch of stuff. Let me see if I can provide some reasoning here (at least how I did solve some of it, or would've solved it if I'd been better prepared when I ran it).

1. This can be interpreted to mean different things. It means there's an increased chance for some of the abductees to have been killed, eaten. It means that going slowly increases risk of patrols and dire consequences. You could see this as an encouragement to not go cautiously, the risks are great, and they must rescue the villagers and end the evil threat festering here.

Another way to interpret this is that if you take this risk, losing 1d to your Explore test, you get the effect of a Tengwar once you've succeeded on three tests - even if you didn't roll one. Higher risk, higher reward. I suspect the main point is to encourage the players to not be too cautious, they're heroes after all.

2. See above. Sure, that's all inference and interpretation, but so what? It can make sense to link cautious with the higher tunnel, even without rolling a Tengwar.

3. You can attack from above, volleys galore, rearward stance regardless of company size until the goblins can run around and get through the tunnel and attack them from there (at least a few rounds I'd say). Look to the Stone Column for inspiration.

4. It's a cool narrative event that drives home the post-apocalyptic nature and ancient history elements of Middle-Earth. The Endurance damage can be healed sure, but it gives a feeling of Middle-Earth, risk, dark magic, ancient threats and mysteries. If you want to oomph it up and have access to the corebook, use the drowning rules on page 134. If not, then treat it as a scare and narrative event for new players (a memory, a funny story to make fun of a friend, or a scary story about evil sorcery and curses; it's in any case a warning). I'm not really sure I see the issue here, its an introductory story to the setting (and it is only an example of an expanded journey event, you're free to come up with your own, or change it, that's kind of the nature of roleplaying...).

5. Why didn't Frodo ride the eagles to Mordor? This is the same kind of reasoning, because it helps create a story, showcase the rules and for the players to find the empty village. Could they have done it differently? Sure. Is the sacrificial site important and special to Garaf or the Goblins? Maybe, it seems to indicate that. It's a special place, it is described as such. There could be all manner of reasons, but they are unnecessary for the story in the box, expand on it at your own leisure, link it to other similar sites, other massive wargs or other creatures of the enemy, and an ongoing ritual to [plot!]. Again, I don't understand the complaint and issue. Every question doesn't need to be answered in the adventure, that would defeat the purpose of it being a roleplaying game.

6. Like the dead men, this is a narrative event, it shows the players' moral compass or at least instincts. And it gives them the opportunity to meet a character from the books, if they're curious enough to figure it out (my players were not, they were very cautious and sceptical). It needs no consequences or hints in the epilogue - doing the right thing is sometimes enough in and of itself - it doesn't warrant any kind of reward but gratitude and that the horse's owner "will consider [it] well" done (as mentioned on page 5). And if you want to tie it to something during the epilogue/fellowship phase, then you're free to come up with it. It's a story thing, like dead men, like stealing carrots from farmer Maggot (or when the hobbits and Strider come over the trolls turned to stone from Bilbo's adventure). Not all journey events need to be rewarding side-quest adventures or lootable encounters, nor do they need to serve the larger plot. They can do that of course, but they can also just show a larger and older world, where random strangers appear out of the forest, old corpses are cursed, etc.

7. I can find only one mention of ambush in the starting adventure. And it's a not about setting ambushes or rules for ambushes as can be found in the corebook. So, I would presume not.

8. It says "no immediately visible opening", so I would infer that the assumption is that the heroes don't come to the gate, but along the palisade. They have to look for it (no roll required in my book, I doubt the goblins closed the gate behind them). And, don't show the map top the players if this is an important thing for you before they have found the entrance. That's elementary. I didn't pull up the map before they said they look for the gate, and came across it. I mean. This is storytelling, giving impressions and descriptions of the world, environments, what they see ... it's not all tactical or useful or straight to the point. It's storytelling, not reporting only the useful information (not that players won't see all informtion as potentially useful and planted and ...).

9. Yes, get the kids' trust, create rapport, make it into a nicer social encounter where the kids show less fear, and start to feel hope... Again, if the point is just to get the information and have realist pragmatic heroes that don't care for the people they protect, there's no reason to go for anything than the reasonable request.

Tengwar on those tests could also - at least in my mind - be used to give more information (come up with something, spread in some false information, give names of abducted villagers to look for), or even the effect of the Outrageous request (if 2+ Tengwar on a single or the last required successful check, maybe, I don't know - I'm not intimately familiar with the Council rules).

10. Fair point, come up with your own, that's kind of the point, let the players suggest something that could help them. My players didn't roll many tengwar at all, so this was not an issue for us, so dice are random, this can happen, and sometimes all the extra info remains locked behind a tengward (unless a players is clever and asks good questions or comes up with ideas that would logically provide the information).

11. To increase tension and have players be uncertain. It worked well with my newbies (they tried to hide and escape their pursuer). Rolling dice is tactile and upholds the feeling of risk and danger. Admittedly, this isn't something that works well all the time, but it worked for us. So, this is a design decision, it gives one or more players the opportunity to notice something they don't immediately know what is. Is it a friend or foe? Can they take him? Can they escape him? It can instil a feeling of uncertainty and maybe fear in the players. And his appearance isn't an immediate surprise just walking out of the darkness.

12. Lol. Good question! She knows more than the players at least, but yeah. The love of hens is funny, it also makes her angry and give her (further) motivation to hate the goblins (and help out?). She's a potential ally later, or even a potential player character should the group decide they want to continue the story but make new characters. Her information is what players will see when they enter the lair, but it is an opportunity for the GM (if prepared) to give the players an incentive to try and find the higher doorway, or beeline for the stone column straight away when they arrive. It gives them potentially tactical useful information about the lair (number of goblins, where the prisoners are, and so on) before they arrive there, and if the GM is creative, if can give +1d on a Battle or Stealth test for ambushing or sneaking through the lair - but arguably not to find the higher doorway.

13. Sure. But it's not a journey, so I think it's fair, but I see the conundrum - I cannot recall if the journey roles are usually capitalised (Guide) or bold, or not.

These are my thoughts at least, from having run it once and seeing where I didn't prep well enough, and based on some of the stuff we did.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

1. That can be adjusted as an experienced LM, but here the adventure is speaking specifically of bargaining higher chance of encounters along the way, for an explicit advantage we are said to gain as a consequence of that and to look at "Braving the Goblin lair" on p.12. This said page gives many cues for inventive play, but nothing in all these about what the caution plays out. To me, that's a loss of opportunity to help a ne loremaster.

2. See above, my critique is about this starter set should be to help out inexperienced loremasters; missed opportunity.

3. Agreed, was only weighing the odds of a sneaking attempt.

4. Fair, and ambiance can be a big part of the fun. My point is that here again is a missed opportunity to showcase mechanics as true consequence, or making it a challenge, but there's plenty of that coming up.

5.Hard disagree, wrong analogy. The eagles argument should be compared to why we only see Glorfindel in action at the Rivendell Ford? Here, it just feels like a plain ole plot hole. Sure, if your players aren't paying attention, fine. It's just another cool spot. But it's irritating if details of plausibility count.

6. Fine, sometimes roleplay is just roleplay. Perhaps I overread how they framed it as something that had to be noted, but that's on me. Here it's just moral bragging points: yeah Aragorn approves of my decency.

7. Didn't bother either to look at the starter set rulebook as I've always played with CRB. It was just a matter of curiosity.

8.Agreed. As loremaster I prefer theater of the mind/storytelling, but I know many players that did not read up on the adventure in preparation, and are just now hearing lots, will sooner than later ask for a map/drawing, and like you said, difficult to unsee things.

9. Since the way the council's success is presented as sharing details of the attack, unless an Outrageous request is made, here again my critique is about not guiding a new loremaster toward geeting new players to think of their own goals past getting down the rafters. If only narration was important, why not, but a Coucil is a mini-game of sorts where you might have to use your Hope resource.

10. Like I said earlier, I have no problem personally of making tengwars count, but the guidance here in the book just goes back to that every time, instead of teasing creativity.

11.Problem is, design philosophy and the first point made by the designers is that rolls whould only be made when there's consequence, danger, manipulation. None of it here. Goes against correctly explaining the core of the approach to rolls in the game. That'd be interesting to know if they still went the way of creating tension for tension's sake, but as a player who used Hope here, I'd feel cheated.

12.Indeed she can make for an interesting and important NPC with big impacts in the resolution of the game, and this is what I saw happen, in many a version of the playthrough if and when she appeared.

13. I was working from the initial pdf, but looking at my printed version, they're using a wording with some attempt at distinction "...each conducted individually by a Player-hero chosen to act as the guide.", on top of the fact that yes, otherwise in Journeys, "Guide" is always capitalized in the CRB for that meaning. Still, clarity could've easily been won by just changing the word.

In the new starter set adventure (from the pdf, as I haven't checked if final printed one changed at all)
1. I cannot find what is the supposed advantage to be gained exploring the wolf lair cautiously and losing 1d on the Explore rolls.
2. It says to look at following Braving the Goblin lair?? Arriving from the secondary tunnel is not linked to it, only on getting at least one tengwar from the Explore rolls, and nothing changes as to the goblin sentries or number of foes in the huts, etc.
3. And then arriving from the high level tunnel does not really give an advantage: instead of having to sneak past one goblin, where a failure only costs you to kill it in one turn (quite easy!), you have to all make a Athletic roll and one single failure alerts nearby orcs who will sound a general alarm... In my book, that's worst!!
Also:
4. -what is the point of the Dead men journey event? Other than a narrative idea, it has no tie to the rest, the brooch and armour have no value, and losing Endurance, is immediately replenished by a normal rest as no one would be injured at this point and no reason to force march...
5. -why would the goblins make sacrifices 4 days west of where they're all living with the wolf-queen, while it is clear they've already taken hostages at the lair for the exact same reason?!
6. -the horse burial? It would be well considered by its owner, yet we only come across Aragorn sent to seek it and no other mention even in epilogue hinting of this. (Other than Aragorn expressing gratitude and then nothing)
7. -The Hakmogg surprise attack: only makes them take first shots in volleys, not a full blown ambush (I don't remember, do the starter rules have Ambush?)
8. -in Crann, why say there's no visible opening when you show the map to the players and immediately identify the entrance and the players are coming from the west, on a road specifically designed to join these places??
9.- what is to be gained from the bold request, to hear the stories of the children on ground level?? I get the outrageous request but the bold makes no direct claim as to how it is better.
10. -it feels like so many tengwar effects are lost on getting the information that becomes most obvious soon that there's wsrgs and goblins, like yeah, we get it fine. It's the third time already my great success tells me that.
11. -why make the look out roll Scan, when Aragorn will pop up nontheless, with no risk involved and no chance to lose him?
12. -what is it about Vella's love of hens and minimal knowledge of the goblin lair that merits the term "valuable information" when no effect is specified??
13. -Also, using the word "guide" for the player(s) doing Explore rolls in the lair seems a weird choice of words and possible misunderstanding as to is the party's actual Guide doing the rolls?

Righty. So, you're unhappy with a bunch of stuff. Let me see if I can provide some reasoning here (at least how I did solve some of it, or would've solved it if I'd been better prepared when I ran it).

1. This can be interpreted to mean different things. It means there's an increased chance for some of the abductees to have been killed, eaten. It means that going slowly increases risk of patrols and dire consequences. You could see this as an encouragement to not go cautiously, the risks are great, and they must rescue the villagers and end the evil threat festering here.

Another way to interpret this is that if you take this risk, losing 1d to your Explore test, you get the effect of a Tengwar once you've succeeded on three tests - even if you didn't roll one. Higher risk, higher reward. I suspect the main point is to encourage the players to not be too cautious, they're heroes after all.

2. See above. Sure, that's all inference and interpretation, but so what? It can make sense to link cautious with the higher tunnel, even without rolling a Tengwar.

3. You can attack from above, volleys galore, rearward stance regardless of company size until the goblins can run around and get through the tunnel and attack them from there (at least a few rounds I'd say). Look to the Stone Column for inspiration.

4. It's a cool narrative event that drives home the post-apocalyptic nature and ancient history elements of Middle-Earth. The Endurance damage can be healed sure, but it gives a feeling of Middle-Earth, risk, dark magic, ancient threats and mysteries. If you want to oomph it up and have access to the corebook, use the drowning rules on page 134. If not, then treat it as a scare and narrative event for new players (a memory, a funny story to make fun of a friend, or a scary story about evil sorcery and curses; it's in any case a warning). I'm not really sure I see the issue here, its an introductory story to the setting (and it is only an example of an expanded journey event, you're free to come up with your own, or change it, that's kind of the nature of roleplaying...).

5. Why didn't Frodo ride the eagles to Mordor? This is the same kind of reasoning, because it helps create a story, showcase the rules and for the players to find the empty village. Could they have done it differently? Sure. Is the sacrificial site important and special to Garaf or the Goblins? Maybe, it seems to indicate that. It's a special place, it is described as such. There could be all manner of reasons, but they are unnecessary for the story in the box, expand on it at your own leisure, link it to other similar sites, other massive wargs or other creatures of the enemy, and an ongoing ritual to [plot!]. Again, I don't understand the complaint and issue. Every question doesn't need to be answered in the adventure, that would defeat the purpose of it being a roleplaying game.

6. Like the dead men, this is a narrative event, it shows the players' moral compass or at least instincts. And it gives them the opportunity to meet a character from the books, if they're curious enough to figure it out (my players were not, they were very cautious and sceptical). It needs no consequences or hints in the epilogue - doing the right thing is sometimes enough in and of itself - it doesn't warrant any kind of reward but gratitude and that the horse's owner "will consider [it] well" done (as mentioned on page 5). And if you want to tie it to something during the epilogue/fellowship phase, then you're free to come up with it. It's a story thing, like dead men, like stealing carrots from farmer Maggot (or when the hobbits and Strider come over the trolls turned to stone from Bilbo's adventure). Not all journey events need to be rewarding side-quest adventures or lootable encounters, nor do they need to serve the larger plot. They can do that of course, but they can also just show a larger and older world, where random strangers appear out of the forest, old corpses are cursed, etc.

7. I can find only one mention of ambush in the starting adventure. And it's a not about setting ambushes or rules for ambushes as can be found in the corebook. So, I would presume not.

8. It says "no immediately visible opening", so I would infer that the assumption is that the heroes don't come to the gate, but along the palisade. They have to look for it (no roll required in my book, I doubt the goblins closed the gate behind them). And, don't show the map top the players if this is an important thing for you before they have found the entrance. That's elementary. I didn't pull up the map before they said they look for the gate, and came across it. I mean. This is storytelling, giving impressions and descriptions of the world, environments, what they see ... it's not all tactical or useful or straight to the point. It's storytelling, not reporting only the useful information (not that players won't see all informtion as potentially useful and planted and ...).

9. Yes, get the kids' trust, create rapport, make it into a nicer social encounter where the kids show less fear, and start to feel hope... Again, if the point is just to get the information and have realist pragmatic heroes that don't care for the people they protect, there's no reason to go for anything than the reasonable request.

Tengwar on those tests could also - at least in my mind - be used to give more information (come up with something, spread in some false information, give names of abducted villagers to look for), or even the effect of the Outrageous request (if 2+ Tengwar on a single or the last required successful check, maybe, I don't know - I'm not intimately familiar with the Council rules).

10. Fair point, come up with your own, that's kind of the point, let the players suggest something that could help them. My players didn't roll many tengwar at all, so this was not an issue for us, so dice are random, this can happen, and sometimes all the extra info remains locked behind a tengward (unless a players is clever and asks good questions or comes up with ideas that would logically provide the information).

11. To increase tension and have players be uncertain. It worked well with my newbies (they tried to hide and escape their pursuer). Rolling dice is tactile and upholds the feeling of risk and danger. Admittedly, this isn't something that works well all the time, but it worked for us. So, this is a design decision, it gives one or more players the opportunity to notice something they don't immediately know what is. Is it a friend or foe? Can they take him? Can they escape him? It can instil a feeling of uncertainty and maybe fear in the players. And his appearance isn't an immediate surprise just walking out of the darkness.

12. Lol. Good question! She knows more than the players at least, but yeah. The love of hens is funny, it also makes her angry and give her (further) motivation to hate the goblins (and help out?). She's a potential ally later, or even a potential player character should the group decide they want to continue the story but make new characters. Her information is what players will see when they enter the lair, but it is an opportunity for the GM (if prepared) to give the players an incentive to try and find the higher doorway, or beeline for the stone column straight away when they arrive. It gives them potentially tactical useful information about the lair (number of goblins, where the prisoners are, and so on) before they arrive there, and if the GM is creative, if can give +1d on a Battle or Stealth test for ambushing or sneaking through the lair - but arguably not to find the higher doorway.

13. Sure. But it's not a journey, so I think it's fair, but I see the conundrum - I cannot recall if the journey roles are usually capitalised (Guide) or bold, or not.

These are my thoughts at least, from having run it once and seeing where I didn't prep well enough, and based on some of the stuff we did.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

1. That can be adjusted as an experienced LM, but here the adventure is speaking specifically of bargaining higher chance of encounters along the way, for an explicit advantage we are said to gain as a consequence of that and to look at "Braving the Goblin lair" on p.12. This said page gives many cues for inventive play, but nothing in all these about what the caution plays out. To me, that's a loss of opportunity to help a ne loremaster.

2. See above, my critique is about this starter set should be to help out inexperienced loremasters; missed opportunity.

3. Agreed, was only weighing the odds of a sneaking attempt.

4. Fair, and ambiance can be a big part of the fun. My point is that here again is a missed opportunity to showcase mechanics as true consequence, or making it a challenge, but there's plenty of that coming up.

5.Hard disagree, wrong analogy. The eagles argument should be compared to why we only see Glorfindel in action at the Rivendell Ford? Here, it just feels like a plain ole plot hole. Sure, if your players aren't paying attention, fine. It's just another cool spot. But it's irritating if details of plausibility count.

6. Fine, sometimes roleplay is just roleplay. Perhaps I overread how they framed it as something that had to be noted, but that's on me. Here it's just moral bragging points: yeah Aragorn approves of my decency.

7. Didn't bother either to look at the starter set rulebook as I've always played with CRB. It was just a matter of curiosity.

8.Agreed. As loremaster I prefer theater of the mind/storytelling, but I know many players that did not read up on the adventure in preparation, and are just now hearing lots, will sooner than later ask for a map/drawing, and like you said, difficult to unsee things.

9. Since the way the council's success is presented as sharing details of the attack, unless an Outrageous request is made, here again my critique is about not guiding a new loremaster toward geeting new players to think of their own goals past getting down the rafters. If only narration was important, why not, but a Coucil is a mini-game of sorts where you might have to use your Hope resource.

10. Like I said earlier, I have no problem personally of making tengwars count, but the guidance here in the book just goes back to that every time, instead of teasing creativity.

11.Problem is, design philosophy and the first point made by the designers is that rolls whould only be made when there's consequence, danger, manipulation. None of it here. Goes against correctly explaining the core of the approach to rolls in the game. That'd be interesting to know if they still went the way of creating tension for tension's sake, but as a player who used Hope here, I'd feel cheated.

12.Indeed she can make for an interesting and important NPC with big impacts in the resolution of the game, and this is what I saw happen, in many a version of the playthrough if and when she appeared.

13. I was working from the initial pdf, but looking at my printed version, they're using a wording with some attempt at distinction "...each conducted individually by a Player-hero chosen to act as the guide.", on top of the fact that yes, otherwise in Journeys, "Guide" is always capitalized in the CRB for that meaning. Still, clarity could've easily been won by just changing the word.