Awesome Notes I Wrote for RPG Session – Scouting in the Dreary Hills

The bodies lying on the ground, the groove around you, the long evening shades… – this whole situation suddenly seemed familiar to you. For a few heartbeats, you’re standing motionless, your thoughts whirling in an elusive feeling of danger. Something is… Caw! Caw! – the rook’s cry above reminds you of your dream. You turn to the way you’ve come, feeling icy sweat at the recollection of that scene. Soon, in just an instant, from around the creek’s turn, a hooded rider will burst out. In the falling silence, you subconsciously wait to hear the sound of hooves.
I had learned the hard lesson on mingling physical dangers to the characters with puzzles and hints for the players. For the start of our next RPG session, I wrote one of my best notes ever. The above is the first excerpt.

I had composed carefully beforehand and then read aloud what I wrote in the opening at the table. The recollection of Ingolf’s dream was to set the tone for the rest of the evening. Though I want to support player characters’ agency in RPG, the opening of a session is one of the particular parts that the GM may use to steer the session – even more easily with the right notes. This intro is one of the pieces I’m most proud of in my RPG career. Even more, so that I paced it with the soundtrack. How exactly have I come up with it?

Our previous RPG session from which I wrote my notes

Last time, Eradom went through the night to follow the bandits’ trail from the burnt hamlet of Heaths the company discovered to the Raven’s Gully. There, he had to run from the look-outs. Unconcerned by his friend’s disappearance, the characters decided to survey the Gully the next day. Thus, they sneaked up on the guards but weren’t careful enough and finally alarmed a patrol, starting combat. Ingolf’s timely sneak attack and Eradom’s and Rook’s blades took down most of the bandits. But one of them was fast enough to outpace Bruni, the Dwarf. I decided to end on a cliff-hanger and develop my notes from that point.

What I was aiming at when writing

Initially, I predicted the players to follow Althain into the south. They were supposed to find the following pieces of the mystery surrounding the scarcely populated Brown Land on their way. But instead, I had to find another way to bring my campaign’s plot home. I wanted to challenge them more when I saw how easily they handled the opponents I fielded against them. Thus, I wrote a tension-rising intro through which I tried to make them run from further confrontation. And while on the run, they were going to find the first series of clues for the bigger picture.

What the notes I wrote helped me to accomplish at the session

When Ingolf shouted about his woeful foresight, the players were still fond of their crushing defeat of the bandit patrol. But a little nudge in the form of alarm sounded at the camp finally made them run. As the Barding scoundrel predicted, the way to the hamlet was cut off by an armed horseman, so they turned to the hills in the southeast. While rushing through the short woods and rough terrain, I employed dwarven scholar’s Bruni expertise with stonework. He noted that some of the rocks they were passing by were masterfully sculpted. Probably ages ago, but the signs of skillful chisels were still there.

When they finally lost their tail, all the characters stopped to investigate this landscape carefully. Eradom even found a tengwa used by the Rangers as an alerting sign carved into a rock. The Rook wasn’t visiting these parts too often, and he knew nothing of their findings. Then, they noticed that a rock formation on the hill above them reassembled fingers and a palm as risen in a warning gesture.

The Foreshadowing – or Fear of Shadowing?

As they continued the exploration of the foothills of Emyn Muil, the companions found a ruin of what looked like an ancient guarding post. They discovered the rust-eaten blades and armor and remnants of withered bones. Last session, the players learned the AiME rule of Shadow Points they accrued through various instances – from the sight of the burnt village to refusing to help the folk in need. Hence, they approached the foreboding finding with caution. I’ll tell you how exactly the Shadow mechanic played out on the following Middle-earth Monday.