Dunheved
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Comments on Tales from the Lone Lands SPOILERS INEVITABLE

Fri 26 May 2023, 16:57

Since Tomas has specifically asked for comments NOT to go in to the feedback thread, I thought I'd start this one rather than go against that request.


(And a thank you to Fenhorn for his help)
Last edited by Dunheved on Fri 26 May 2023, 18:36, edited 3 times in total.
 
Dunheved
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Posts: 494
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Re: Comments on Tales of the Lost Realm SPOILERS INEVITABLE

Fri 26 May 2023, 17:00

And my first comment is one raised by Harlath about Attribute = Hate/Resolve.

I know its merely an established pattern, but I kind of like it.

With those Houseless Spirit's they have no Combat attack, so do they have any meaningful purpose to the Attribute value? I mean it seems illogical to apply Fend Off as an option unless you have a magical shield?
And if there is little purpose to the Attribute value in this particular case does it matter what value it has?
 
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OddsBodkins
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Re: Comments on Tales from the Lone Lands SPOILERS INEVITABLE

Mon 29 May 2023, 20:21

Anyone else find the third adventure, Kings of Little Kingdoms a little... janky?

Personally, the pieces of the plot don't seem to hang together well for me, especially Osmer's use of Hamfast as bait for a Wraith that he didn't know existed, nor has a real clue on how to handle, or how to keep it from wreaking havoc on everyone within a ten mile radius of the tower once it gets out. I have ideas on how I will run it to fix the gaps, like deleting Farrell's Farm (it just feels unnecessary to the plot), and leaning in to Osmer messing with things he has no idea about that contribute to accelerating the Wight's appearance right as the Company arrives to rescue Hamfast.
 
coz_b
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Re: Comments on Tales from the Lone Lands SPOILERS INEVITABLE

Tue 30 May 2023, 17:11

Anyone else find the third adventure, Kings of Little Kingdoms a little... janky?

Personally, the pieces of the plot don't seem to hang together well for me, especially Osmer's use of Hamfast as bait for a Wraith that he didn't know existed, nor has a real clue on how to handle, or how to keep it from wreaking havoc on everyone within a ten mile radius of the tower once it gets out. I have ideas on how I will run it to fix the gaps, like deleting Farrell's Farm (it just feels unnecessary to the plot), and leaning in to Osmer messing with things he has no idea about that contribute to accelerating the Wight's appearance right as the Company arrives to rescue Hamfast.
Agreed. This one stands out to me as odd in quite a few ways. I particularly dislike the comical element of Osmer wearing a dollar-store wizard’s disguise throughout, fooling not only the locals of Bree but also his own henchmen. It’s just too far out there for me (even the artwork shows the fake beard rather clearly). That plus the farm being the fortress of an evil Wizard? The chickens are children!? It’s all over the place in my opinion, and takes away from the underlying seriousness of the story — the creeping power of the Hill of Fear and how it is affecting the landscape further and further into Eriador. I’m all for more light-hearted adventures, but it just seems very random compared to the other ones in the book.

Removing the farm changes too much for me, plus I like some of the stories within. I will be reskinning Osmer for sure. Beyond that… I have no ideas yet how to fix the story. As you say, how does Osmer know of the Wight? Okay, perhaps the guard who survived under “The Wight Rises” spoke of it. But how does Osmer know he can trick it, that it will rise again, that it -actually- exists? Just odd to me all the way around. Why does he even want the farmstead?

If anything, I’ll likely skip this altogether, and maybe just make a minor adventure out of it with the farmstead suffering bandit attacks of late — defeat the outlaws, save the farm. Done.
 
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OddsBodkins
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Re: Comments on Tales from the Lone Lands SPOILERS INEVITABLE

Fri 02 Jun 2023, 13:50

I particularly dislike the comical element of Osmer wearing a dollar-store wizard’s disguise throughout, fooling not only the locals of Bree but also his own henchmen. It’s just too far out there for me (even the artwork shows the fake beard rather clearly). That plus the farm being the fortress of an evil Wizard? The chickens are children!? ...

Removing the farm changes too much for me, plus I like some of the stories within. I will be reskinning Osmer for sure. Beyond that… I have no ideas yet how to fix the story. As you say, how does Osmer know of the Wight? Okay, perhaps the guard who survived under “The Wight Rises” spoke of it. But how does Osmer know he can trick it, that it will rise again, that it -actually- exists? Just odd to me all the way around. Why does he even want the farmstead?

If anything, I’ll likely skip this altogether, and maybe just make a minor adventure out of it with the farmstead suffering bandit attacks of late — defeat the outlaws, save the farm. Done.
Yeah, I like these suggestions. I was focused on having Hamfast as the MacGuffin for the tower and things going pear-shaped, but you're right about the absurdity of Fake Gandalf. I think the folk of Bree may be simple, but not that simple.

Alternatively, Osmer and his outlaws could try to impersonate Rangers and cause havoc extorting residents for "protection" on The Great Road, leading them to either the farm or the tower as their base of operations. This could, in turn, lead to a conflict with the real Rangers who are now aware of something evil awakening in the North causing the dead to stir, and they sense something amiss at the tower. The Company could find themselves embroiled in this conflagration.
 
coz_b
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Re: Comments on Tales from the Lone Lands SPOILERS INEVITABLE

Fri 02 Jun 2023, 23:53

Alternatively, Osmer and his outlaws could try to impersonate Rangers and cause havoc extorting residents for "protection" on The Great Road, leading them to either the farm or the tower as their base of operations. This could, in turn, lead to a conflict with the real Rangers who are now aware of something evil awakening in the North causing the dead to stir, and they sense something amiss at the tower. The Company could find themselves embroiled in this conflagration.
I like that suggestion actually! Removing the fake wizard stuff — perhaps Osmer has been in Bree impersonating a Ranger, and Hamlath has gone off to be a Ranger himself. Any Rangers in the company realise this all sounds very odd, and they can’t think of anybody matching Osmer’s description.

That way, a lot of the content can be kept (including Hamlath’s mother’s concerns if there isn’t a Ranger in the party etc.) but removing the silly parts such as chicken-children and the like.

The adventure definitely stands out as an odd-ball as it is, but this fix brings it back to the tone I enjoy. I really disliked the dumbing down of everybody and everything that the fake wizard persona seemed to do.
 
vilainn6
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Re: Comments on Tales from the Lone Lands SPOILERS INEVITABLE

Sun 04 Jun 2023, 04:24

I agree it is the weakest adventures of all. The inital plot idea had potential but the realisation is terrible. Also too much focus in general on dungeons and not enought on scenes and adventures. no guidance on travel either. Cubicle 7 was writting better stuff I am afraid.
 
coz_b
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Re: Comments on Tales from the Lone Lands SPOILERS INEVITABLE

Sun 04 Jun 2023, 19:28

I agree it is the weakest adventures of all. The inital plot idea had potential but the realisation is terrible. Also too much focus in general on dungeons and not enought on scenes and adventures. no guidance on travel either. Cubicle 7 was writting better stuff I am afraid.
Here I’d have to disagree actually (with the latter part). I think there is plenty of flavour regarding scenes and adventures — more than enough to make me happy. I think they’ve been great at setting the scene and tone for nearly all adventures and landmarks. In my opinion they leave the various fights a little too much up in the air, but I also appreciate this is done to not “lock” LM’s into certain situations but rather give them options.

As for travel, all guidance is written in the core book, and they introduce rules for seafaring travel in this book, so I’m not sure what more they could clarify? I would have appreciated more tables for events in certain areas, however, such as those we see in the core book for the Greenway, Great East Road etc. as I think they introduce some great elements that the travel rules lack.
 
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Raspberry Milkshake
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Re: Comments on Tales from the Lone Lands SPOILERS INEVITABLE

Wed 07 Jun 2023, 10:34

Anyone else find the third adventure, Kings of Little Kingdoms a little... janky?

Personally, the pieces of the plot don't seem to hang together well for me, especially Osmer's use of Hamfast as bait for a Wraith that he didn't know existed, nor has a real clue on how to handle, or how to keep it from wreaking havoc on everyone within a ten mile radius of the tower once it gets out. I have ideas on how I will run it to fix the gaps, like deleting Farrell's Farm (it just feels unnecessary to the plot), and leaning in to Osmer messing with things he has no idea about that contribute to accelerating the Wight's appearance right as the Company arrives to rescue Hamfast.
Agreed. This one stands out to me as odd in quite a few ways. I particularly dislike the comical element of Osmer wearing a dollar-store wizard’s disguise throughout, fooling not only the locals of Bree but also his own henchmen. It’s just too far out there for me (even the artwork shows the fake beard rather clearly). That plus the farm being the fortress of an evil Wizard? The chickens are children!? It’s all over the place in my opinion, and takes away from the underlying seriousness of the story — the creeping power of the Hill of Fear and how it is affecting the landscape further and further into Eriador. I’m all for more light-hearted adventures, but it just seems very random compared to the other ones in the book.

Removing the farm changes too much for me, plus I like some of the stories within. I will be reskinning Osmer for sure. Beyond that… I have no ideas yet how to fix the story. As you say, how does Osmer know of the Wight? Okay, perhaps the guard who survived under “The Wight Rises” spoke of it. But how does Osmer know he can trick it, that it will rise again, that it -actually- exists? Just odd to me all the way around. Why does he even want the farmstead?

If anything, I’ll likely skip this altogether, and maybe just make a minor adventure out of it with the farmstead suffering bandit attacks of late — defeat the outlaws, save the farm. Done.
I definitely agree this is the weakest, and would work better as a minor adventure, but I do kinda like the comical more Hobbit stuff. It's a little out of place in the grand story but I'm totally into a goofy little quest with a silly fake wizard and a Scooby-Doo mystery for a couple of sessions, it's a kinda a mess with a few holes and if I run this campaign in full I'll probably switch it out it's overall place in the story for something homebrewed (maybe something from Ruins?), but I reckon my players would get a kick out of it as a quaint sidequest for a couple of weeks. Middle-Earth is still a pretty silly world sometimes and it's fun to play into the fairy-tale whimsical side of things every so often.
 
metalusVerne
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Re: Comments on Tales from the Lone Lands SPOILERS INEVITABLE

Tue 20 Jun 2023, 01:53

Kings of Little Kingdoms is indeed weird. It doesn't seem to fit right with the other adventures, and it's just... off somehow. If I run it, I'll have to modify it heavily.

Aside from that, however, this book is downright amazing! I cannot emphasize how much I love it! It took all the issues I had in my head with Ruins of the Lost Realm (mainly, that there was too little guidance on how to run an adventure with these landmarks, let alone stitch them together into a campaign), and fixes them all. Plus, the story it sets them to is great; super engaging. Plus, as a huge Tolkien lorehead, I love all the allusions and references to old lore of the 1st and 2nd ages. Real homerun.

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