The Fellowship Phase: An Adventures in Middle Earth Podcast

Join Josh and Callum as they use the encounter between Bilbo, the dwarves and Gandalf with the Wargs of the Misty Mountains as a basis to discuss encounter design in AiME and the LOTR RPG.

Join Josh and Callum as they debrief an epic weekend of in-person RPGs and debate the relatives merits of online vs in person TTRPGs.

Exhaustion rules. Are you tired? Have you been feeling like butter spread over too much bread? Well, find out more from Josh and Callum as they explain the mechanics behind your levels of exhaustion (in AiME and D&D). How do you avoid exhaustion? How does it effect you? Find out this and more. Remember to bring your pony.

Chase rules. Join Josh and Callum as they discuss how to run exciting and fair chases in AiME and D&D. Have you seen the chase mechanics in the Dungeon Master's Guide (p252-254)? We take these rules as inspiration and share how we run chases in our game. 

Preparing a city. Join Josh and Callum as they discuss how to prepare a City in an RPG. Do you need to name every NPC? How much prep is enough? What even is a City? These are questions which need answered!

Region spotlight. Join Josh, Brendan and Callum as they explore Mirkwood. Ever wondered how to run an immersive game in this evocative part of Middle Earth? We provide some suggestions on how to bring your players into the setting and focus on the different locations, NPCs and enemies you may encounter.

Weather and terrain. Join Josh, Callum and Brendan as they discuss how to make use of weather and terrain in your games in order to make combat unique and interesting for players. Join as they discuss some of the rules in the source books and how these can be used in game. Lessons for all RPGs within!

Character creation. Join Josh and Callum as they talk about Josh's second character, Halmir a Captain of Gondor. Learn a little about the options for creating characters who hail from the land of Gondor. Dive into a little lore of the Kinstrife and what links Gondor and Rhovanion. And finally, have a listen to our thoughts on integrating player character plot hooks into your games as a Lore Master

Adventure phase. Join Josh and Callum as they round up the first arc of the Hornbreakers story with an adventure into the dark fortress of The Dwimmerhorn which looms over the Gladden Fields and Anduin Vale.

Homebrewing monsters. How to best use the various creatures from the Loremaster's guide and seek inspiration from Tolkein's work to create your own. Join Josh, Brendan, Callum and their newly made friends as they compare notes on how to make a Balrog!

Adventure Phase. How to run a TTRPG siege? It's an often-asked question, and there are a host of mechanics for running siege warfare from across the RPG world. But which fit best with Adventures in Middle Earth? Join Josh and Callum as they discuss possibly the greatest session of their AiME campaign to date - the pivotal Siege of Stonyford. Epic speeches, massed unit combat, NPC twists and a surp...

Adventure phase. Join Josh and Callum as they discuss the region of the Anduin vale called "The Gladden Fields". Learn a little of the lore of the Gladden Fields in Tolkein's work and some thoughts on which NPCs might be encountered in this area. A key area in Middle Earth's history.  

Adventure phase. Join Josh and Callum as they discuss the Beorning village of Stonyford. Ever wondered about holdings in AiME? We grew to love the village of Stonyford, maybe you/your players will too!  

Character creation. Join Josh and Callum with special guest Brendan as they discuss the creation of Harefoot (*cough* Malbeth) a mysterious man of Eriador who is hunted by the enemy. We discuss making a Dunedain character in AiME and some of our thoughts on altering player classes to avoid overlap between different player's characters.

Adventure phase. Join Josh and Callum as they continue along the adventure of the Hornbreakers' party from the City of the Eotheod towards the north ford of the river Anduin. We discuss how to use Skill Challenges in AiME and D&D as well as some top tips for running combat in AiME.

Adventure phase. Join Josh and Callum as they explore a homebrew adventure which took the Hornbreakers' party into the City of the Eotheod, an ancient ruin from the history of the Rohirrim. We discuss how to prepare an adventure and some suggest some ideas for if you want to run a similar adventure yourself.

Shadow rules. Join Josh and Callum with special guest James as they discuss all things related to The Shadow in Middle Earth. We discuss the rules for shadow points, becoming miserable and madness episodes in AiME. We also review shadow-lore as a new skill in AiME and how these rules affected our game.

Character creation. Join Josh and Callum with special guest James as they discuss Torwald son of Farald, a Barding Scholar. We discuss the process of character creation for scholars and look at the various cultural virtues available for Barding characters

Wanderer class. Join Josh, Callum and returning special guest Stuart as they discuss the Wanderer class in Adventures in Middle Earth. Stuart's PC Runin Greyspine is a great example of the class - and the AiME rules at their best. Is the Wanderer and the Journey Rules they make such good use of the best example of porting DnD's 5e  TTRPG rule system to Middle Earth? Have a listen and decide for yo...

Creating Runin Greyspine. Join Josh, Callum and special guest Stuart as they discuss the creation of Runin Greyspine, a Dwarven Wanderer (and quiet superhero). From culture to class, background and virtues, the trio also considers the place of Dwarves in Middle Earth and how to make the most of AiME's 5e mechanics to play a stout adventurer. Oh, and they reminisce about the time Runin was nearly k...

Audiences. Join Josh and Callum as they discuss the Audience Rules in AiME. These mechanics provide structure to social encounters with important non-player characters, like the mighty Beorn himself. Hopefully we've made these rules easier to understand, given an insight into both a Loremaster's and a Player's perspective on how they feel in the game, and answered the question: should social encou...

Journey Rules. Join Josh and Callum as they discuss the Journey mechanics in AiME. These rules are an integral part of the experience of adventuring in Middle Earth and we hope to provide some guidance for Loremasters on how to run the game as well as our experiences as both Player and Loremaster on how these work (spoilers: they are great!) We also talk about adding rules into this port of 'vanil...

Character Creation. Join Josh and Callum as they discuss making your first player character in AiME. We talk through Josh's first ever RPG character Theudric of the Deep Wood, a Beorning Scholar. What was the inspiration for Theudric, how did this translate into culture, class and background? And what might Josh have done differently now, having several years of AiME experience under his belt.

Getting Started. Join Josh and Callum on the first journey role of this new podcast. In this "session zero" we discuss the plans for the podcast, as well as the benefits of having your own session zero in AiME and TTRPGs in general.