Do any of you play adventures in middle earth 5e? If so tell me of your travels

[Dankus Memakus]

So my group is officially going to use the 5e adventures of middle earth setting to run games. I have forfeited my usual spot as dm but I am basically our new dm' s advisor and I just want some knowledge on things others do in this setting. I wanna be able to help him out and have references to others experience. How do you build characters? Is death more common? How to function without magic (people or items)? How do your monsters act? And most of all is it good fun?

Tell me all your opinions, learn me as much of that sweet sweet knowledge as you can.

[Chugger]

This? http://cubicle7.co.uk/our-games/adventures-in-middle-earth/

I'd never heard of it before. Hoping someone else has and can talk to us about it.

(edit - I find it weird that you say "no magic" - the books clearly had magic, even if the elves denied it or called it something else. If this is a post Sauron setting there would be waning magic I guess - but would it really all be gone? It was sparse - for good drama it largely had to be (too much magic = too easy = no drama no challenge no story) - but no magic at all?)

[Dankus Memakus]

This? http://cubicle7.co.uk/our-games/adventures-in-middle-earth/

I'd never heard of it before. Hoping someone else has and can talk to us about it.

Yeah that's it. All I've ever played is a session where we just tested the classes so i dont have much experience but I like them and I hope someone can shed light

[Chugger]

Lemme put my edit question here so you'll see it: (edit - I find it weird that you say "no magic" - the books clearly had magic, even if the elves denied it or called it something else. If this is a post Sauron setting there would be waning magic I guess - but would it really all be gone? It was sparse - for good drama it largely had to be (too much magic = too easy = no drama no challenge no story) - but no magic at all?)

[Dankus Memakus]

Lemme put my edit question here so you'll see it: (edit - I find it weird that you say "no magic" - the books clearly had magic, even if the elves denied it or called it something else. If this is a post Sauron setting there would be waning magic I guess - but would it really all be gone? It was sparse - for good drama it largely had to be (too much magic = too easy = no drama no challenge no story) - but no magic at all?)
What I meant is the classes aren't magic and there aren't really magic items that do more than mundane things, sure there are some magic feats (ie dwarves can like lock doors magically) but there's no fireballs or lightning or charm or anything its just super mundane. The potent magic is limited to wizards which you cannot play. All the classes are nonmagical was my main point

[GlenSmash!]

I just ran my first session of AiME, but I've been planning on it for a year.

You build characters just like you would in regular 5e. You have six classes. you have cultures instead of race, and virtues instead of feats. Death is also about as common as in regular 5e, but remember: No Resurrection.

There is certainly Magic in AiME, but no spellcasting. at least not typical D&D spellcasting. Magic is typically based on culture rather than class. Elves of Mirkwood can do Mirkwood Elf magic by taking a Virtue. Same for Dwarves, and Dunedain.

Some Magic abilites or Magic Items require spending inspiration and/or hit dice to use.

The alignment system is gone, in AiME it is expected that the players are enemies of the Shadow if not outright heroes. If you want to engage in standard D&D Murderhoboism you'll earn shadow points which could result in your character having bouts of madness or even going permanently mad. Each class has there own brand of Shadow Weakness which gives roleplaying advice for how to play the madness. Pretty interesting if you want to play a Boromir, Wormtongue, or even Gollum like character.

The Journey rules were a big hit in my game. It makes the travelling portion separate from the adventuring portion of the game. If you plan ahead and handle your Journey encounters well, you can end up getting advantage on social checks when you get to your destination. If you do poorly you can arrive with Exhaustion, and even further penalties.

Audiences are also interesting. When you arrive somewhere new you don't just get to be accepted in the town, but first have to have an audience with the chief or lord or whatever. Play it right, and you can get help on your quest. Poorly, and things could go bad.

All in all it dos a good job of keeping a good Tolkein feel, but having exciting D&D style combats too.

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask.

[Dankus Memakus]

I just ran my first session of AiME, but I've been planning on it for a year.

You build characters just like you would in regular 5e. You have six classes. you have cultures instead of race, and virtues instead of feats. Death is also about as common as in regular 5e, but remember: No Resurrection.

There is certainly Magic in AiME, but no spellcasting. at least not typical D&D spellcasting. Magic is typically based on culture rather than class. Elves of Mirkwood can do Mirkwood Elf magic by taking a Virtue. Same for Dwarves, and Dunedain.

Some Magic abilites or Magic Items require spending inspiration and/or hit dice to use.

The alignment system is gone, in AiME it is expected that the players are enemies of the Shadow if not outright heroes. If you want to engage in standard D&D Murderhoboism you'll earn shadow points which could result in your character having bouts of madness or even going permanently mad. Each class has there own brand of Shadow Weakness which gives roleplaying advice for how to play the madness. Pretty interesting if you want to play a Boromir, Wormtongue, or even Gollum like character.

The Journey rules were a big hit in my game. It makes the travelling portion separate from the adventuring portion of the game. If you plan ahead and handle your Journey encounters well, you can end up getting advantage on social checks when you get to your destination. If you do poorly you can arrive with Exhaustion, and even further penalties.

Audiences are also interesting. When you arrive somewhere new you don't just get to be accepted in the town, but first have to have an audience with the chief or lord or whatever. Play it right, and you can get help on your quest. Poorly, and things could go bad.

All in all it dos a good job of keeping a good Tolkein feel, but having exciting D&D style combats too.

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask.

How did you run journeying exactly?

[GlenSmash!]

When you're party is about to set off for their destination they plan out their route on the map (a good map for this is right in the back of the AiME players guide) This will determine the Peril Rating of the journey. You assign Journey roles, like who will be the Guide, the scout, the Hunter, and the Look-out. Specific encounters you have may call for different checks according to these roles.

Then the Guide will roll an embarkations roll (a d12) add half their wisdom modifier and and proficiency bonus, but subtract the Peril Rating. For us it was 2. The roll determines how well you start your Journey. Our guide rolled an 8 so we got to ignore the first level of exhaustion we might get on the Journey. The DM will then make rolls to determine what events happen in the Journey. For us it was a short journey so only one encounter. We just encountered a fallen bridge, and had to make some Survival or Athletics checks to cross without getting wet.

How well you do in these encounters effects your Arrival Role (a d4) We rolled well on our arrival and hand advantage on social checks when we got to town.