Beginning A Steady Game Transition

Last week, before we kicked off our D&D session, I asked the players, “If, after Phandelver, I wanted to run a game in Middle Earth, would you be interested?” It was a fantastic response. One of the players got this big, massive grin on his face, two others, who were looking down, popped their heads up like meerkats, and two others got this slow nod, like, “ok, ok.”

Everyone was on-board. I suspected they might. One player sends me constant LOTR memes, another named her elf character a name she specifically told me was Sindar, and another one was doing a live-stream a few weeks back reading LOTR.

“Ok, we have two options,” I told them. I explained the difference between Adventures in Middle Earth and The One Ring. Half the players at the table are brand new to RPGS, with about 5 sessions of D&D 5e under their belt. I explained that if they didn’t want to try to adapt to another rule set, we could do Adventures in Middle Earth, but that The One Ring is more evocative of the setting. Every single one of them said we should do The One Ring. None were afraid of the new system.

Now, we’re about halfway through Phandelver, I’d say? They completed the Redbrand’s Hideout and Thundertree, and are preparing to make haste toward Cragmaw Castle. I didn’t want to deprive them of a complete story, so we’ll finish our current adventure. But I’ve already begun the transition to the game.

I began by asking the players what they’d be interested in playing. I explained the era and region, but told them I’d be open to any era or location in Middle Earth. They all were good with The One Ring setting of the region around Mirkwood, Laketown and Erebor a few years after The Hobbit. I got some great feedback for what everyone’s interested in playing. The game does a great job of giving a reason why Elves, Hobbits, Humans and Dwarves would work together.

I’ve been assembling the Roll20 page, filling in all the NPCs and adversaries I’ll need for the first few adventures, along with region maps, and overlay of the unhexed map with the GM hex map that will help me determine random encounters.

I’ll be hopping onto individual video calls with each player to walk them through character creation, but before that, I’ll try to determine if any of the players want to have particularly integrated backgrounds to one another to make sure we can really play up any good familial dynamics.

Hopefully, if I can get things worked out smoothly, just as we finish up Phandelver, we’ll begin The One Ring the following week.