Middle-Earth: The Mirkwood Campaign

A new force rises through the shadows of Mirkwood, a power long forgotten and long thought destroyed.
In the settlements of man shrouded by fog, the light vanishes from the sight of men but none of them has seen it yet. In the forest of Mirkwood a land of crags and great archtrees a miasma festers and blows in the wind but the elves have not felt it yet.
Deep into the earth, far away from men and elves into caverns long abandoned a fire gold and dark burns bright, a heat that burns in the mind of dwarves beguiling them to dig ever deeper.

Deep into the earth, far away from all in caverns close to darkest heat in a place long abandoned a new fire burns
The people bicker amongst themselves, man seeks land, elves hide in their heavens and the dwarves ever bound to earth dig deeper into greed.
Heat and dark, cold and shadow, all the forces of the Enemy feel it and awake, they multiply... to serve...

Soon enough there will be no light but only endless nights. A new fellowship is needed, champions of worthy virtues. Duty-bound protectors and those willing to trek the darkest wood.
Will you show your untainted courage or fall to shadow?

About the setting

Very little needs to be said about Middle- Earth as the setting itself is one (if not The One) of those bright everlasting gemstones in literature that have given rise to our modern culture and understanding of fantasy. Based on the exquisite writing of Tolkien through works such as The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings and of course The Silmarillion.

What we can say about the setting is that I will try to keep as close to the canon as possible but we will most likely fail at that at times and there is a good reason. We should strive to pay respect and be inspired by the setting but also make it ours for the adventure is that of the group.

There is a lot of information about Middle-Earth so players who know more about the world of Middle- Earth are always welcome, with that in mind do try not to be an ass about it when giving details or correcting something.

About the Game

This is a 5e DnD campaign based on the Adventures in Middle Earth: The Mirkwood campaign and we will follow the materials and spirit of the game released by the publisher as much as possible but of course as a group, we can decide to make changes to those rules which we will talk about during session 0.
For example, the official Player's Guide does not have any magic specific classes (it does offer some suggestions on ho w to use magic) that you may see in standard DnD but we can make an exception or adaption if the group agrees.
Of course it will be up to that player to keep the spirit of the world and the setting in mind. Magic in Middle-Earth is often subtle and is not used as a means to end by the heroes, it is used as last resort in cases where no other options are left and the supernatural powers of the enemy and his enchantments cannot be broken without it.

• You will need Discord and Roll20, a microphone and Skype as a backup. Discord is used for the voice chat and it allows some very nice functionality and simplicity that the majority of people appreciate.

The Written Material and Books for character creation

It would be good to have a player's handbook for Middle- Earth no doubt but I will try to provide you with the materials inside the roll20 game for your character building if you do not have access to one.

Characters and Character Creation:

All races that are in the Middle Earth PHB are allowed and we will see in session 0 if we allow more from the standard 5e books, the same goes for the classes.

In session 0 we will talk about the characters and answer a few important questions:
Who are is the character?, Where do they come from and what does that mean for their traditions and mindset?, How do they fit in the group?, What are their goals and motivations? etc etc and we will discuss any optional rules or changes.

I would be happy to help the players ground their characters into the adventure and the setting and create as many adventure hooks as possible. Of course, this will be a campaign with a strong central plot and sandbox-like elements but I hope that the players will be imaginative enough in their character goals to make the campaign theirs and tell us what is important to them as they adventure so that we can see more of that be it combat, roleplay exploration, character moments etc.

The Sessions:
Each session is 3-4 hours with the possibility of a 5th hour.
Time and Date for the Game: is the same on as the Roll20 post it should be accurate for you and your country/ local timezone