I have heard much love for Adventures in Middle Earth. How much does ACTUAL PLAY in AME differ from the actual play in a regular 5e campaign?

AKA, how different is AME from a usual D&D campaign?

And if you do find there is a difference, what does AME do that achieves this?

Haven't actually played it, but I've read the player's and GM books. The most significant departure is the lack of magical spells and magical healing. It really does a good job of gritty fantasy. There's also a lot less magic items. Race is not discussed, instead everyone has a culture, with dwarves and elves as just another culture variant.

The GM book has some nice monster-building tools. Stuff that should have been in the 5e DMG, I think.

You could easily run a GoT style game with it. The Tolkienism is very much "baked in" so you might have to do a little house ruling to get it over to the preferred style of play. Of course if you're happy playing in Middle Earth, it is perfect.

I am pondering a way to convert it to the Midnight setting and trying it that way.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1000287I have heard much love for Adventures in Middle Earth. How much does ACTUAL PLAY in AME differ from the actual play in a regular 5e campaign?

It deadlier

Quote from: Spinachcat;1000287AKA, how different is AME from a usual D&D campaign?

Very, it is way more people oriented, wilderness journey are a factor.

However it also very familiar due to the prevalence of Tolkien tropes in D&D and the use of the D&D 5e rules to handle combat and task resolution.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1000287And if you do find there is a difference, what does AME do that achieves
this?

1) No magic users and very little in the way of anything that can be considered an outright spell. However there is magic it just low key. For example scholar can heal, remove conditions (given time), and make useful herbs.

2) The Fellowship rules, The Journey Rules, and the size of Middle Earth even when focused on a region like Wilderland.

3) Sauron's Shadow as source of corruption.

These three factors make using the AiME a very different experience than using D&D 5e rules 'as is'. And interestingly the three things above and the other AiME can be mixed with bog standard D&D 5e to produce different feel for the campaign. For example using Sauron's Shadow and corruption instead of alignment in D&D 5e. Or use the Fellowship Rules, and Journey rules with D&D 5e. Or use AiME classes in place of D&D 5e classes but keep everything else the same. AiME is by far the best 3PP supplement for D&D 5e and I feel a contender for one of the best 3PP supplements of all times.

Some further details,

I am currently running a weekly campaign with two players.

Farin - a dwarf warrior from the Lonely Mountain
Enoch - a human scholar from Lake-Town

The campaign started in the Spring of 2946 five years after the Battle of Five Armies. Wilderland has experienced prosperity and a huge celebration of the victory is going to be held in Dale in November


Farin is haunted by a vision that he will die by the fangs of a wolf, and Enoch is a son of a recently wealthy Lake-town merchant who somewhat disapproves of his son's scholarly inclinations.

The campaign starts by Enoch sent to the house of Gloin (the father of LOTR's Gimli) where he meets Enoch. There they hear of Balin and Oin, members of Thorin's company, being lost. Enoch resolves to find the famed Dwarf and recruits Enoch's help.

I run the adventure the Marsh Bell, and the party successfully finds Balin and Oin. Along the way they met with some Mirkwood Elves. Which establishes the fact that despite the victory at the Battle of Five Armies and ensuing prosperity, the inhabitants of Wilderland still act like assholes to each other. Of course it is to be expected since the leader of the elven patrol was the ex-cellarmaster that Bilbo stole the keys off of.

As far as mechanics go, the Journey rules took some getting used too. Basically it is a system of generating encounters while going from one place to the next in Middle Earth. it flexible in that it is not on a per hex basis. Instead a number of encounters is generate depending on the length of the journey. It up to the referee to best place these encounters. The encounters themselves are also general. You have to be comfortable with improvisation to make full use of them.

Over time I think they are outstanding for a Middle Earth campaign. They have the right level of specifics versus generic. Being able to choose where they occur along the Journey is great. Finally the resolution of the encounter have far more options than beating something up and taking their shit (although that could occur).

One reason is that Exhaustion is an important mechanics used by the rules. And the standard way to recover exhaustion is to take a long rest which for the most part can only occur during the fellowship phase not during an adventure.

The series of adventures involved escorting a merchant across Mirkwoods and helping a bunch of hobbit who own an inn next to one of the Anduin fords find a lost relative. I am using Adventures in Wilderland for the most part as I am try to get a feel for a AiME campaign. But recent sessions seen the introduction of my own ideas relating to Farin's vision and the growing fame of Enoch as a healer.

The Fellowship phase has worked out well so far. However I can see it being an issue for groups who are on the go all the time. Basically the campaign has flowed like this.

Laketown - the party meets in April of 2946

Rescues Balin and Oin and return to Lake Town

Fellowship Phase

It now Summer (July) 2946

Enoch has been helping his father, Farin been working for Gloin.

The group decides to help a friend of Enoch's father journey across Mirkwood to the Forest Gate.
Adventure.

Arrives at the Forest Gate.

Instead of going to Woodsmen Town with the Merchant, the party decides to head south.

Arrives at the Old Ford. Decide to stay there for a while as there is an inn (Inn of the Crossing) and a small hamlet.

Fellowship Phase Both work around the Old Ford and open it as a Sanctuary. Now they can take long rests there. In-game Farin works as a guard and Enoch pitches in as a healer.

It now September of 2946

The party hears of a family of hobbit who has a relative missing. Decides to go help.

They track the missing relative to the High Pass over the Misty Mountain. Successfully manages to evade a horde of goblins looking for the hobbit and his small mule train.

Returns the hobbit to his family at the Easterly Inn. They now are considered friends and can stay at the Inn. The party returns to the crossing.

Fellowship Phase - Farin works as a Guard at the Crossing and earns some gold. Enoch decide he want to meet Beorn (the werebear guy) and see if he can become a client. The meeting goes well despite Beorn dislike of Farin and asks Enoch to deliver a message to Radagast at Rhosgobel.

When they leave the Old Ford is now October of 2947.

They journey to Rhosgobel, they meet and rescue Beran one of Radagast's watchers from the minion of the Lord of Tyrant Hill. The Lord of Tyrant Hill has occupied a ruined tower in Mirkwood and gathered to him many who were left masterless after the downfall of the Necromancer of Dol Guldur. The party was outnumbered but thanks to Enoch's wit half of the bandits attacked the other half.

The party got Beran to Rhosgobel who had a report that orcs were seen gathering at Fenbridge Castle an outlying outpost of Dol Gulgur. They were given accommodation and could consider Rhosgobel a sanctuary.

Fellowship Phase - Farin works at a Forge and works off some corruption (Shadow Points). Enoch gathers herbs.

It now November of 2946

A local child goes missing in a cave and Farin and Enoch take point on the rescue. They find vicious lizard like creatures called Eye-biters and fend them off but sustain injury. In the back of the cave they find an old dwarven made secret door. Beyond which they found the missing child and the River-folk peddler that abducted her. The party found he was under the influence of a dagger made in Dol Guldur and were able to successfully overpower the peddler and neutralize the dagger.

The girl was returned to her parent, with Radagast's help the dagger was destroyed. The woodsmen of Rhosgobel wanted to hang the peddler but Enoch convinced him that exile was more merciful. Radagast helped by conjuring a fresh breeze that gave Enoch advantage on his Persuasion roll.

Fellowship Phase.
Farin worked off the last of his shadow points, while Enoch was given the title of Friends of the Woodsmen and granted a small holding at Rhosgobel.

It now January 2946, (the year starts in March).

The party hears a friend that was injured at the Inn of the Crossing during a Wolf attack and decide to head back despite being the middle of winter.

Unfortunately they were spotted by men from Tyrant Hill's who were stationed around Rhosgobel to find out what happened to the earlier party. (The effect of which was that unbeknownst to all the party members their rolls are at a disadvantage).

About three days into the journey the party's path was block by fallen trees and branches. It took them a whole day to get through at the end of which they were exhausted (Level 1 all rolls at a disadvantage). Unbeknownst to them the Men from Tyrant Hill got ahead of them and altered the path into that area.

The party was observant enough to notice the alteration when they return to the original path. On their guard they were not surprise a day later when the Men of Tyrant ambushed them (the next event I rolled on the Journey chart). The fight did not go well and the party had to surrender.

However once again, Enoch used his wits and manipulated the greed of one of the bandits. The next night he managed to convince him that the dwarf Farin had a hidden treasure cache nearby. The three marched into the Wilderness during the bandit's night shift (there were only three bandits).

There the lamest but most epic fight ensued. The party won when Enoch managed to smash and ignite a flask of oil on the bandit. They feld 20 miles east to Woodland Hall and suffered another level of exhaustion after arrival. But their fame preceded them and the men of Woodland Hall gladly gathered a forces and tracked down the bandits and recovered the party's possessions.

Enoch was able to secure some herbs and brewed a potion to remove a level of exhaustion. Although still at disadvantage the party made the short remaining journey to the Old Ford and was able to heal their friend.

Fellowship Phase, Farin returned to Guarding the Ford, earned some more gold and again inspiration from all the tales of people returning from the Gathering of Five Armies.  Enoch took the time to  learn Expertise for his Persuasion skill.

The last session was completely unscripted and resulted from me improvising from the Journey rules.

The next time we play it will be in the Spring of 2947.

Overall I am getting the hang of the different pace and enjoying myself running this campaign. I am beginning to see how I write my own take on the Journey and Fellowship rules for my Majestic Wilderlands campaign.

I have it, but haven't used it.  What it wants to do is largely stuff that I don't want to do, and I'm not going to run a game in Middle Earth (or any setting famous from a novel).  I bought it based on early reviews and high hopes for the journey rules and maybe using bits and pieces in a regular D&D game.  The journey rules leave me completely cold.  

I do agree it is put together well, in both organization and clarity.  I was a little disappointed in the amount of content for the price, as it uses a lot of sparse layout to give the book more pages than it really needs.  Though having decided to do that, they use the sparse layout well to make it a pleasure to read and look at.  YMMV.

I'll probably use it to run my next Forgotten Realms game.

The AiME rules for journeys/fellowship phase etc, seem to me to be what a Realms North campaign would most likely be like.  Sure, with all the orcs and ruins you could murderhobo it around, but more likely even the most roving group would be more likely closer to Indiana Jones.  You'd winter in various places, doing research, getting involved in the different communities, building contacts and information sources to plan next Springs expedition, with lots of minor happenings to get involved with...or not.

I don't really get the Fellowship/Journey rules. They seem very vague and don't really explain how it works, or what effect they have.

From what I understand, during the "rest" phase the players just make up whatever they want. How's that different than the DM just asking them what they did in the time interval?

Q: Adventures in Middle Earth vs. a "regular" 5e campaign?

A: [ATTACH=CONFIG]1777[/ATTACH]

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;1000687I don't really get the Fellowship/Journey rules. They seem very vague and don't really explain how it works, or what effect they have.

From what I understand, during the "rest" phase the players just make up whatever they want. How's that different than the DM just asking them what they did in the time interval?

I'm afraid you'll have to get more specific about any parts you don't understand. The rules are a little vague to allow for flexibility, but the effects are very much laid out. The Loremaster's Guide expands on both Journeys and the Fellowship Phase, in case you were unaware.

The Fellowship Phase is sort of like downtime in a normal game of D&D, but it's more codified. Groups can split up or not, and where they spend that downtime matters (as well as how much time they have). There's a list of the most common undertakings that characters will want to do, but that's not all that they're limited to pick from. They can certainly come up with something else, and a GM can always improvise the effects those undertakings can bring. I've got all of the TOR books, and that system has added dozens of extra undertakings, so I have no doubt that we'll see even more options added to AME as more books come out for the 5e version of the game. Regardless of the options, though, expect Heal Corruption to see a lot of use until characters find a way to get advantage on those Corruption tests.

Journeys likewise have a set system. There's a nice summary on page 164 of the Player's Guide, and the Loremaster's Guide expands greatly on this including charts to allow for custom event tables.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;1000687I don't really get the Fellowship/Journey rules. They seem very vague and don't really explain how it works, or what effect they have.

The Journey rules are specific in effect, it just what causes the effect is vague and require some improve by the GM. Event then the Loremaster's Screen has booklet that gives additional tables to flesh it out. Finally the one thing to remember is that the Journey and much of Adventures of Middle Earth require that the players roleplay circumstances not of their own choosing. Similar to Pendragon Virtue and Call of Chuthlu insanity.

Journeys have a Embarkation roll which sets the initial tone of the journey, then a series of events, then depending on how the events where handled by the players a final arrival roll.

For example

Embarkation:
Feast Fit for the Kings of Ancient Times
+1 to all skill checks
Embarkation Roll: 7
Check DC: 13
Journey Events:

Event #1
Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Hunter: Survival test. Success results finding a Roebuck
(removes 1 level of Exhaustion or restores 1 Hit Dice).
Failure results in -1 to Arrival roll.
* The test is subject to Disadvantage/Advantage if Embarkation roll was 6 or 7.

Event #2
The Enemy is Abroad
If the Embarkation roll was a 3, there will be a combat.
Look-out: Perception. If successful, the party gain a round of surprise.

If the Embarkation roll was a 10: Look-out tests Perception or Stealth. If successful, the party avoid the enemy.

* If the roll fails, there will be combat but the party gain a round of surprise.

If the Embarkation was neither 3 nor 10: Each member of the party may test Stealth. If all are successful they may avoid the combat (If the party have horses or ponies, one of the characters must also make an Animal Handling roll).
* If any of these rolls fail, combat ensues, with no bonus to either side.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;1000687From what I understand, during the "rest" phase the players just make up whatever they want. How's that different than the DM just asking them what they did in the time interval?

The fellowship phase has specific undertakings that like the Journey events are specific in effect but the players and referee will have to imporv the specifics based on where the players are and what going on.

I'm a huge LOTR fan and really wanted to like ToR, which I didn't for various reasons.
I have a look at AiME and whilst it's an interesting read, I doubt I'd enjoy running or playing it.

I think some stories just don't translate easily into RPGs.

I'm not saying either RPG is bad, but it's just not to my taste.

Quote from: danskmacabre;1000898I'm a huge LOTR fan and really wanted to like ToR, which I didn't for various reasons.
I have a look at AiME and whilst it's an interesting read, I doubt I'd enjoy running or playing it.

I think some stories just don't translate easily into RPGs.

I'm not saying either RPG is bad, but it's just not to my taste.

The Wilderlands setting and their adventures is what does the trick for me. Since details of the War of the Ring in Wilderlands are so vaguely described in the LoTR there is a lot of room for the players to have an impact. In addition it has a generational aspect similar to Pendragon since the default start is decades prior the War of the Ring.

Thank you very much estar!

It sounds interesting. If I see a demo at a con, I will definitely give it a try.

I've been running AiM for about 6 months.  I think the biggest change is the differing expectation for character motivation.  Middle Earth doesn't really do big treasures and material awards as player motivation.  Characters are intended to be genuinely heroic and unselfish and that can take some effort, depending on the group.  The rules help here because they try to incentivise different behaviour.  That said, things like Journeys and Fellowship phases are OK but not great.  You can play them to the letter but there is still that hint of disconnect when applying them to what is essentially a D&D game.

That said, even though as a group we've drifted somewhat from a pure Middle Earth tone, we've had an absolute blast playing it.

My advice is if you want to be heavily authentic you have to invest a lot of time coming up with theme appropriate adventures.  Most regular modules are a poor fit in tone and the ones produced by Cubicle 7 have the right tone but are utter tripe as far as quality adventuring goes.