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lachancery
February 7th, 2012, 20:36
The opening has been filled in my Middle-Earth game. See this thread (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16021) for more details.

Trenloe
February 12th, 2012, 23:26
I saw your posts on this and was jealous that I couldn't join (timezones etc.). But, now I will be working in Denver for 3 months and may be able to join in! :) I won't be around until the end of February - are you still looking for a player?

lachancery
February 13th, 2012, 05:35
I saw your posts on this and was jealous that I couldn't join (timezones etc.). But, now I will be working in Denver for 3 months and may be able to join in! :) I won't be around until the end of February - are you still looking for a player?
Of course, it would be lots of fun to have you join! The party currently has five characters:


- Dwarf Fighter
- Northman Fighter
- Beorning Animist
- Half-elf Magician
- Sinda Elf Bard

We had just one session so far - the party went on an excursion on the edge of the Midgewater Marshes... (Neek Breek! Neek Breek!)

Everyone enjoyed the first session. It looks like it will be more FG text chatting than voice. We ran into some issues using Skype, but once we switched to typing, it, curiously enough, got smoother and the cohesion of the game took off.

lachancery
February 14th, 2012, 08:06
We had our first game last Friday. Like for most virtual groups playing for the first time, it starts a little clumsy. The game starts in Bree, with interactions with NPCs to open up.

I start babbling away on voice chat looking for my groove and setting up interesting interactions. Two of the players can't effectively talk back on the voice chat. After a while, the game naturally flows to FG chat when the interaction involves a player without voice. Everyone starts typing in FG chat, and while it's slower, the game finds its cohesion and flows more smoothly. Most players know FG well and use emotes and moods well.

The high level story went as such:

With much of the military far off in the north, the interim constable of Bree needs to hire the party to go scout around the Midgewater Marshes and make sure no enemies escaping the Battle of Fornost are hiding there. The party opts to take the road that cuts through Chetwood, rather than the Great East Road, and stops for the night in Archet, where they mingle with the local woodsmen and hunters.

The inn keeper, overhearing the party's destination, recommends rubbing the bark of a specific tree found in the eastern Chetwood to repel the nasty stinging insects of the Midgewater. After collecting some bark, the party makes it to the edge or the Marshes and heads north, along the edge, searching for tracks. They come to a shallow river, but deep enough to worry the plate wearing dwarf Banamur. Cynewulf, a northman with a great warhorse, sits the dwarf in the saddle and they cross the river.

By nightfall, they spot heavy booted tracks, heading north and south a bit deeper into the Marshes. They follow the tracks south, leading to a cave where a pair of goblins are arguing with each other. As the party penetrates deeper in the cave, an encounters with the goblins ensues, quickly over when Meronir the magician puts them both to sleep.

One goblin is immediately executed, while the other one is interrogated. A sadly dim fellow, the goblin refers to a larger horde hiding in the hills north (the Weather Hills), but not much more information can be obtained from him. After the sad creature pleads for his life, he is executed and the party returns to explore the rest of the cave.

Eva, a beorning, spots a hidden slab of stone in what seems to have been a storage room a long, long time ago. The dwarf recognizes the handiwork of his people and triggers the mechanism to open a trapdoor, revealing steep stairs leading down to another level 20 feet below.

Cynewulf the brave goes down, followed by the sindar Daedhúath. Shortly after, a pressure plate is stepped on, and the stairs fold into a steep slide, while the bottom floor below drops to create a deeper pit. Through feats of agilty, the northman controls his fall with the help of his big round shield, while the sindar slides down standing up, landing gracefully on his feet at the bottom of the pit trap.

"YOU CAN COME DOWN, IT'S SAFE!" yells Cynewulf jokingly at the other three watching down from above, wondering if anyone's hurt.

Ardem
February 15th, 2012, 03:17
We had our first game last Friday. Like for most virtual groups playing for the first time, it starts a little clumsy. The game starts in Bree, with interactions with NPCs to open up.

I start babbling away on voice chat looking for my groove and setting up interesting interactions. Two of the players can't effectively talk back on the voice chat. After a while, the game naturally flows to FG chat when the interaction involves a player without voice. Everyone starts typing in FG chat, and while it's slower, the game finds its cohesion and flows more smoothly. Most players know FG well and use emotes and moods well.


Great story so far, I would be lost without voice chat. You can get so much done and you get though good laughs in . I think cohesion with and without voice chat is the same. People start off slowly then build into and i am finding this the same from session to session. I think if you do not have a natural leader this is the start of the issue. If you got a group all willing to step back then it very quiet.

The group I been RPing, there is no natural leader to begin with but halfway through the Thief or the Cleric seem to be heading in that direction. Although it is funny as the cleric is always looking for the preciseness(I know not a word) of things and the thief is always looking for the plot twists. The fighter is quiet until he want to hit something, and the Mage is quite thoughtful and comes up with very good ideas, but normally waits till others have had there turn speaking.

lachancery
February 16th, 2012, 05:14
Great story so far, I would be lost without voice chat. You can get so much done and you get though good laughs in . I think cohesion with and without voice chat is the same. People start off slowly then build into and i am finding this the same from session to session. I think if you do not have a natural leader this is the start of the issue.
My Sunday game runs only on voice chat; in fact, I have to call their attention to the FG chat window when there's something there (like a whisper from the GM). We all know and have been around each other multiple times in the past, mind you.

That game too was clumsy in the first session, for different reasons. Like you, we get good laughs and the players get in character well over voice chat. In the last game session, two characters with different ethics started arguing, one calling the other a murderer, and him replying that these enemies had been pillaging, raping and murdering his people for centuries. It was interesting to listen to - the topic was a little heavy, but immersive. :)

I'm thinking that one channel (especially voice chat) doesn't work too well if you have some players not able to do it. If a player can only type, the action can zoom by him before he's had a chance to get attention in the chat window. And when he does, everyone stops talking to see what he'll type... It was a little awkward on the game flow. When everyone's typing, at least it's the same pace for everyone.

I'm looking forward to see a second session with typing to see more of the contrast from voice chat. The different emotes and written role-play can get very good when everyone masters the tool, and it seems like this group does. :)

lachancery
February 21st, 2012, 18:47
We had our second game. I had prepared to run it "full FG text chat", but we ended shifting back to voice chat, supported with the environment text descriptions I had prepared.

The game found its groove early with the hilarious entrance of Trenloe's hobbit. We had some good laughs throughout the evening. This game felt as enjoyable as a live game around a table.

The high level story went as such:

As Banamur the dwarf, Eva the beorning and Neromir the half-elf were readying to climb down to join the other two, they heard a sound behind them in the cave. Banamur investigates and finds a hobbit stumbling about in the dark. Harbul Furfoot explains he's been sent by the constable, but he omitted to bring a light and was "oh, so glad to have finally caught up to them". The naive and clumsy good nature of the hobbit melts away the suspicions of the party.

The walls and floor are covered with green moss down below, and the putrid smell of decay is even stronger than in the marshes outside. Traces of old dwarf works can be seen in some sections of the mostly natural cave tunnels. A marsh water pond runs across a large cave to the south. A partially submerged corpse can be seen on the other side, accessible over old floating logs. Harbul volunteers for investigating the corpse discretely.

As he nears the logs, they come to life in a lightning fast attack. They were in fact the back of a large, evil looking lizard (named Ninevet). The hobbit narrowly dodges and falls back. Cynewulf the northman and Banamur close in melee and are able to contain the creature's attacks while the remainder of the party readies for ranged attacks. Banamur is nearly dragged into the water by the Ninevet, but Cynewulf diverts its focus back to him. The creature is eventually dispatched without serious harm to anyone.

In the water, Cynewulf spots an old dwarf skeleton and the polished head of a magical axe, with its shaft long rotten away. The dwarf skeleton is dragged out of the water and given a proper final resting position.

Ninevet eggs are disccovered nearby and before they are destroyed, Eva the animist takes one with her. As the party approaches the goblin corpse, baby ninevets nibbling away at its flesh scamper back into the water.

Back in the northern section, the party finds a smooth door with Khuzdûl markings reading: "MIND YOUR MANNERS". Remembering the dwarf runes at the top of the stairs, Neromir the magician suspiciously examines the door. Harbul suggests it's good manners to knock. A clicking/grating noise is heard when Neromir knocks.

The door is pushed open revealing an unfinished dwarf hall with basic stone furniture, rusted tools and a rusted warhammer on the table engraved with "Thargar", the name of an old clan from Khazad-Dûm.

A secret vault is discovered containing only foodstuff long rotten away. Neromir searches the old rotten debris and finds three gems. A secret door returns to the large cave where another skeleton of a human warrior lies. A golden ring is found on its finger. Eva sets it in a proper final resting position.

In the nearby swamp waters, daddy ninevet is found lying just underneath the surface. Within a few short rounds, the ninevet gives up and begins to swim away towards an underwater exit out of the cave. Banamur strikes it hard as it swims by, sinking it, unconscious, to the bottom.

The party returns to the surface and heads north, following the goblins tracks along the edge of the Midgewater Marshes. The next day, they decide to continue following the tracks north, abandoning their survey of the Midgewater, now heading east. They come across the road to Fornost and discover the ambush point refered to by the dim goblin interrogated at the cave.

Continuing to travel by night, they follow the tracks up a narrow canyon into the Weather Hills. A couple of days later, the tracks head east and then turn towards the Tinastir copper mines.

"Douse the lights, orcs ahead on the road, heading this way" says Meronir, pointing east in the darkness of the night. The party decides to set an ambush in the nearby hillside, north of the road.

dr_venture
February 21st, 2012, 20:48
Sounds like a really fun Middle Earth game - nice balance of action and interaction - nice mood building. Would that I had the time (and that the RM ruleset didn't crash my computer), I'd put myself on your waiting list.

Enardadur!

lachancery
March 5th, 2012, 22:32
The third session was dominated by a tactical encounter. The complexity of Rolemaster rears its ugly head when seldom used rules are put into play - mounted combat in this case.

The party was setting up an ambush, and I let the discussions go on without a time limit. While it was interesting from a tactical and player interactions viewpoints, it made the game slow to start. When the encounter was finally under way, the combination of the lone dwarf standing his ground, the northman cavalier and the archers made for some epic moments.

The high level story went as such:

Banamur the dwarf volunteers to be the decoy for the approaching patrol. Sitting by a fire camp along the road, he will draw the orcs close enough to provide lighting for the humans in the darkness of the night. Cynewulf the northman, on his great warhorse, is hiding in a ridge in the hill side to the northwest, while the others ready their bows, hiding in the hill side, over 100 feet to the north.

Their plan works, although the orcs, led by a large Uruk, suspect an ambush. With no shortage of screaming, the Uruk is able to maintain a tight defensive formation as they approach the lone dwarf. Banamur fires his crossbow at the leading tracker who then retreats behind the orc formation, ignoring the Uruk’s orders.

Banamur fearlessly charges at the orcs when they near the fire camp. Following his lead, Cynewulf, lance in hand, charges out and the archers release their arrows. Witnessing the fury of the party and the thundering hooves of the warhorse, the orc tracker breaks and flees east towards the Tinastir mines, a few miles away. From high in the ridge, a stranger fires an arrow and hit the tracker in the leg, crippling his escape.

The orcs surround the dwarf who makes an epic stand for a surprising length of time. Cynewulf skewers an orc with each charging pass he makes, but a solid blow finally brings down Banamur with a broken hip. The archers stun the remaining orcs just as they were about to deliver the killing blows on Banamur, providing enough time for Cynewulf’s lance to finish the job.

The stranger introduces himself as Derufin, a gondorian archer from the Blackroot Vale. He was part of a group sent by the constable of Bree to scout the Weather Hills, just as the party which had been sent to scout the Midgewater Marshes.

While Derufin was out scouting, his party was ambushed by an orc patrol. He followed their tracks back to the Tinastir mines, and remained there hidden for two days, observing the orcs. He briefly saw a Mor-sereg, a shadow priest, and a half-troll during the first night.

During the second night, an orc patrol heads west to investigate a faint light seen on the road a few miles down. Derufin decides to tail them, leading to the encounter with the party.

A stretcher is built to carry Banamur, unable to walk or ride with his broken hip, and the party decides to head back to Bree to report the news back to Captain Gendar.