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When an RPG Campaign Doesn’t Work – Grim Ending of My Call of Cthulhu 1900

An RPG campaign that doesn't work is a campaign that you won't play. It may be a wonderful idea but if you're not able to run it in real life, it may be more frustrating than rewarding.
An RPG campaign that doesn’t work is a campaign that you won’t play. It may be a wonderful idea but if you’re not able to run it in real life, it may be more frustrating than rewarding.

If I only had read the Angry GM’s Dream Game Dilemma advice when I started running Call of Cthulhu set in the Tsar-occupied Warsaw of year 1900, things would’ve gone different. I’d probably haven’t started the campaign at all. But here I am, finally letting my nostalgia for this wonderful idea go. So, if you haven’t clicked the link above yet, read at least the line below – read and take it seriously. And if you’re curious how I’ve ended up admitting that my RPG campaign doesn’t work, keep on reading.

The campaign you will run is the campaign you are able to run, not the one you want to run.

The Angry GM, How to Start Starting a Campaign: Preplanning the Premise / Don’t Tell Me About Your Story
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Councils in TOR RPG – In the Golden Hall of Rohan King

What speaks to me for Councils in TOR RPG is that they make social interaction a part of the game in its own right, like Combat or Journeys.
What speaks to me for Councils in TOR RPG is that they make social interaction a part of the game in its own right, like Combat or Journeys.
| Photo by Florian Pinkert on Unsplash

Conversely to the journey rules in AiME and TOR RPG, I didn’t quite grasp the purpose and possibilities of integrating encounters (as the councils were named in 1st ed) into my game. I have to admit – I saw them as a bit of a stretch, an unnecessary complication. BUT – while they may be so if applied to most social interaction, they have an excellent potential for adding another layer to the session and making important non-combat scenes engaging. As my party of the Brown Lands campaign approached Meduseld for seeking Rohan’s help against bandit raiders, I felt pretty nervous about how it will play out.

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Forbidden Lands Legends and Adventures – The Story of Blood Manticore Monastery

If you can’t bring the game world to life, the story falls apart. And that is precisely what the Legends and Adventures generator does – it tells stories of the Forbidden Lands’ inhabitants and their pursuits. | Photo by Taylor Wilcox on Unsplash

If I haven’t run the Forbidden Lands campaign for 1,5 years, I wouldn’t think that the Legends and Adventures generator may lead me to create a full-blown module that I’ll publish. But here I am: Today, I describe how I put this great tool to work and what precisely this thin leaflet is capable of. Namely: creating setting-friendly stories on the fly that might yield you a complex plot for a whole campaign with little to no effort.

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Adventures in Middle-earth Journey Rules – From the Brown Lands to Rohan

My group told me that the journey to Rohan was the most books-like episode of our Adventures in Middle-earth campaign. I hope to help you build a similar experience.
My group told me that the journey to Rohan was the most books-like episode of our Adventures in Middle-earth campaign. I hope to help you build a similar experience. | Photo by Stanislav Klimanskii on Unsplash

When I first read the journey rules included in Adventures in Middle-earth, I thought about why they are there. And what came to my mind was this: The journey in AiME is precisely what it is in J.R.R. Tolkien’s books – interaction with the rich background of the Middle-earth setting. That’s why they make the 5e edition, and the original The One Ring RPG stand out. Not many systems have the going from one point to another fleshed out like this. And most of those that do are more about exploration or survival, like in OSR sandboxes. But that’s not the case with TOR and AiME. Here, I’ll give you some more thoughts and tips on why and how to make the travel feel like in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings.

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door.”

Bilbo, The Fellowship of the Ring
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Generating adventure site in Forbidden Lands

Forbidden Lands' adventure site generating tables can be a great way to refine your improvisation as a GM and are a really good tool for making surprising backstories. | Photo by James A. Molnar on Unsplash - and it almost exactly fits the image I had when creating a mountain castle that I describe below.
Forbidden Lands’ adventure site generating tables can be a great way to refine your improvisation as a GM and are a really good tool for making surprising backstories. | Photo by James A. Molnar on Unsplash – and it almost exactly fits the image I had when creating a mountain castle that I describe below.

The Aslene were fighting their way through the Shadowgate Pass, demons swarming all around them. Losses were heavy, and hope was waning. Still, it was better than the fate of the western lands where horses of outlandish creatures ravaged the refugees’ homeland. Among them, a warrior princess led the bravest fighters to secure the passage for their relatives. Old songs tell of her bow, shooting fiery arrows that made the fight with demons possible. She made her last stand in the mountain keep called Eagle Nest. And generating it was the first adventure site in my Forbidden Lands RPG campaign.

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RPG Handouts in My Brown Lands Campaign & How to Make Them

In various ways and in different media, I prepared engaging handouts to flesh out my Middle-earth RPG campaign. | Photo by Tim Arterbury on Unsplash
In various ways and in different media, I prepared engaging handouts to flesh out my Middle-earth RPG campaign. | Photo by Tim Arterbury on Unsplash

What I love about running an RPG in Middle-earth is, among dozens of others, delving into its fascinating lore – and preparing handouts for sessions requires amiably a lot of that. Luckily, I had a lot of free time for both when I ran the Ghosts of the Noman-lands. Last time, the companions finally got on the trail of one of the intertwining threads. The Gondorian ruins were one piece of a puzzle. Solving it was the whole point of the campaign, so I was more than eager to drive it home. And right when I write this post, The One Ring RPG 2nd ed. Kickstarter fulfillment is taking place, so there’ll be no better time for discussing physical props in Middle-earth. See my three ways of making those – with some great tools!

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