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I just read the presold PDF for the Over Hill and Under Hill starter pack and decided to start conversation about it.

First pros:
Journey rules, conseil rules and shadow rules. It will be easy to jump full rules after these!
So all in all good starting packet!

And then some critics:
It would be good if there would be short description of the small area around the Bree in the packet with some suggestions to further adventures to the completely new Lore master! Similar like Shire supplement in Shire starter set. Yes, there is more info in full rules and Ruins of the lost Realms and Tales from lone lands, but something to start before jumping to deep end of the pool!

The adventure:
I expect a lot of full party vipe outs when all adventures die. Not a good, not a bad thing, just how this adventure works out. Maybe it would have been nice if there would have been small preliminary adventure. For example group would be caravan guards from Blue mountain to Bree and meet small combat against small group of bandits in the way. Then arrive (hopefully to Bree) and make a counsel adventure to convince Bree-landers to hunt down the rest of the bandits. If they fail they would meet Gilraen who would encourage players take care of the problem themselves and if they succeed Gilraen would be impressed and give this adventure where they will definitely die Aka first meeting with a Patron! That would help Loremaster to play out Patron meetings in the future and also allow small adventure where group would maybe win in some part!

And now the adventure:
part 1:
- It would have been better if there would have been more flesh out journey events. What happens if they get shortcut or Change meeting or Joyfull sight event to give more examples to new Loremaster! Fleshed out scenes tailored to the environment where adventure does happens. The rule suplement does not give a lot of help in this to new Loremaster.
part 2:
- The company may fail even at this part. What happens if part of the group die at this part? Examples how to continue to Loremaster when half of the party die in the fist combat! Aka tips how to proseed when things goes south.
- There is no info how Loremaster would proceed if the party fails the council part! It is very possible that they get zero information out of the children's! So more examples and options to new Lore master. How to help party again to right direction even after they don´t get the tips that children would have give. Maybe some example in rulebook how council can go. Also some examples of journey events in the rule supplement would be nice. This is a guide to completely new Loremasters after all!
part 3:
- This is the most flesh out part of the adventure. I just is most likely that party die or lose badly. Some tips to new Loremaster how to handle that situation!

All in all good stuff, but new Loremaster most likely need more support to many situations that may arise!

I didn’t preorder, so still waiting for the pdf, when the book is arriving at my store.

Just curious, why are the fights that deadly?

Low level adventurers, big and high level opponents and a lot of them!

It doesn't appear that deadly to me. In my experience, death in combat in TOR is very rare outside Strider mode. And in this starter set, the most numerous adversaries are Goblin Archers, who have been nerfed by removing their Poison Fell Ability.

Not to mention, the players can burn a lot more Hope than usually. In a oneshot I have no problem with that.

And speaking of, is 18-Attribute still a thing? That‘d be another possibility to make things easier for beginning heroes.

The premade use normal 20-atribute=TN this time!

A suggestion to a joyfull event

The night sky is getting darker. Autumn is coming, although the evenings are still warm. The wind has died down and the sky is strangely clear. It might get cold at night. You think about your travel gear, a little worried about its warmth. You stare back at the sky and see a bright, distant star in the north and suddenly you see beautiful lights in the sky. The Northern Lights! They are rare sights this far south. This seems to be a good omen for you and you go to sleep with a hopeful mind!

That two of the five characters are only combat proficiency 2 will make things harder for the whole company and frustrating for the players controlling those characters.

Particularly as those two characters have the highest strength TN and don’t have a good route to contribute to combat through a combat task. The elf can magical success some skills in combat I suppose.

Heroes can spend hope, but that depleted a resource.

I’d have built the characters differently, particularly for an introductory experience. This is an unfortunate issue and it is a shame it wasn’t rectified in playtest.

That two of the five characters are only combat proficiency 2 will make things harder for the whole company and frustrating for the players controlling those characters.

Particularly as those two characters have the highest strength TN and don’t have a good route to contribute to combat through a combat task. The elf can magical success some skills in combat I suppose.

Heroes can spend hope, but that depleted a resource.

I’d have built the characters differently, particularly for an introductory experience. This is an unfortunate issue and it is a shame it wasn’t rectified in playtest.

The Elf could use Prepare Shot - they would probably have to, if they are to contribute to combat. It's difficult to see what the other character could do, although there are several other tasks they could try to complete in the finale. But I agree with Harlath that it would probably have been better if the characters had been built differently. There isn't even any advice on selection of characters for lower player-counts - three players would really struggle if two of them chose these characters.