Bored of the Rings Campaign?

[tkdco2]

In case you're not familiar with the book, here's the Wikipedia link.


Okay, it's a parody of LOTR rather than one of Tolkien's works. But it may be work as a D&D campaign. You won't have to worry about being faithful to canon or the how to fit Middle-earth into D&D. And while it was written for laughs, you can probably play it seriously, for the most part.


Any thoughts on this?

[Deleted]

I've made bad experiences with parody games, and would rather favor an approach like Dave Arneson took with Blackmoor's treatment of Tolkien's themes:
Take the basic concepts of a narration, and let the players go with it, according to the general theme of your campaign.

For example, Blackmoor featured pet Balrogs, stoned magic stalions, and music played backwards.
With those elements alone, you can have way more fun that with a pre-defined general mood of the game.

[bigjackbrass]

A Bored of the Rings campaign is, more or less, Tunnels and Trolls. The book was a big (and freely acknowledged) influence on Ken St. Andre.

[tkdco2]

Arneson's approach sounds interesting. Pet Balrogs would actually make sense in a Bored of the Rings campaign. I've also been curious about Tunnels and Trolls. I played it once or twice online, but not too much.

I won't go overboard with the silly stuff because the players won't enjoy a campaign that's too silly. Some tropes will be in place, however. People will have silly names and ride sheep instead of horses. The Nazgul rode pigs in the parody.

Hobbits were renamed bogeys, IIRC. Orcs were called narcs in the book, but I'm thinking of calling them oiks instead. Why? "Oik" is slang for a rude, ignorant, and unpleasant person. By that definition, orcs are oiks. And you can use that for any humanoid: kobolds = small, sneaky oiks; ogres = big, tough oiks.

[talysman]

Since a lot of early play was only semi-seriouus, with names and monsters based on puns or literal interpretation of cliches, I don't see why playing Bored of the Rings semi-serious wouldn't work. Certainly the map, with some places not otherwise mentioned in the book, like the Land of the Knee-Walking Turkeys, would work just as well as that "only fantasy map you will ever need" that contained every fantasy cliche.

The book's short enough that you could recommend it for sketches of elven and dwarven culture (dwarves are short, ugly, penny-pinchers, elves are flouncy wimps.)

I once started writing a parody of the Thomas Covenant series and drew a map similar to the BotR map. I only remember the Saran Wrap Flats and Creature George as locations. But it would have made a similar comical but usable map.

[Deleted]

FTR, I was not saying that it would not work - who am I to say what somebody else can or cannot do, just because I don't believe I could do it myself?

Now, I generally made bad experiences with pre-defining, even just for myself, the mood of a game, outside of the general direction of the proposed story.

Never worked out on the long run. For a one-shot, yes, for a longer campaign, no. Now, that might just be my style of DMing, and my players, but in retrospect,
those were by far our worst games, so I never went back there. - I would be very curious to see how this worked out; perhaps trying to do something like this
is something that I should make as my DM's homework for '15.

[tkdco2]

Here are some of the characters in the book. Note: Some of the names are sexually explicit or swear words; most are harmless, but all are bad puns. Old-school character names such as Flerd Trantle would fit well in this setting. The site also includes a link to the map of Lower Middle Earth.

Here's more information on the book, including fan art and excerpts from the novel. The map doesn't work anymore, but see my previous link.

Remember that unlike LOTR, the characters in the parody are not truly heroic. I can see Arrowroot and Eorache acting like this after a few years.

[scottenkainen]

I happen to be listening to Bored of the Rings on audiobook for the first time and noted that there is only a veneer of medievalism over the story, with lots of intentional historical anachronisms -- not unlike many of the early D&D campaigns. So it seems like it would fit right in.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

[tkdco2]

That's true. Arrowroot was dressed like the Lone Ranger, and there were a few references about firearms.

[talysman]

And Serutanland is basically Disneyland.

[Deleted]

I see where this is going. I like where this is going.

[tkdco2]

I don't remember Radagast making an appearance in BOTR. Maybe he can play a role in the campaign. What should I call him? Rhubarb? Rutabaga?

Rutabaga Brownnose sounds like a good name. He'd be a huckster just like Goodgulf Grayteeth (thief in D&D terms). Maybe he'll specialize in bird calls, just like Goodgulf specialized in card tricks. He'd make his home in the X-shaped Forest.

But who would be the main baddie? Sorhed Junior? Some PC or NPC from a D&D module modified to suit the campaign?

[Deleted]

You might want to take a look at the "Midgar" series by Whatshisface.
It's essentially LoTR fan fiction, but so unintentionally silly that it might well serve you as well.

[Finarvyn]

My initial thought to this was "bad idea" because (a) I don't think that the book was that funny, and (b) none of my players will have read it.

Having thought about it for a day or so, my thoughts have changed somewhat.

I think that Bored of the Rings could be a funny one-shot camapign (particulaly if someone else does the heavy lifting and puts together a companion doc or something) and if my players haven't read it then they will just think that I'm that much more clever. My players know Lord of the Rings through book or movies or both and thus it would be an easy transition for them as being a funny version of what they already know.

I might give it a shot, but again I'd want someone to start me off with some notes or something. I'm not certain I want to read the book again just for a one-shot.

[tkdco2]

I read the first Midgarth series, but not the sequel. Definitely a pastiche of Middle-earth, but not a satire. I thought about using it, but as a campaign. The BOTR parody would probably suit my needs better since my gaming usually involves a bunch of one-shot adventures, rarely with the same characters.

[Porphyre]

If I had to master a firmly tongue-in-cheek fantasy campaign, I think I would look rather in the direction of the late Mr Terry Pratchett's diskworld series.

[tkdco2]

Good idea! I also have Fantasy HERO that offers tips for funny fantasy.

Edit: Should I have the PCs start out at level 1? This being a one-shot game, I can afford to let the players have characters at level 2 or 3. Nothing more than that, since nobody in BOTR seems to be very competent.

I can do something with vampire rabbits, but I've done that before.

[Finarvyn]

Depending upon your time frame (all day one-shot versus a couple hour one-shot) you could start them at level 1 and let them level up every convienient stopping point. Maybe just rule that each encounter is 2000 XP or something like that. And maybe use a single XP table so everyone levels up at the same time.

For example, using the "2000 XP encounter" model:
Start at level 1
Level 2 = end of 1st encounter
Level 3 = end of 2nd encounter
Level 4 = end of 4th encounter
Level 5 = end of 8th encounter
Level 6 = end of 16th encounter
and so on.

OD&D has a fast enough level-up process that it probably wouldn't slow the game down too much, particularly if you were playing all day. That way they would feel like they "earned" the levels, even if done quickly.

[tkdco2]

That may work. We'd probably be playing for only a few hours, so I'm not too concerned about leveling up, but I'd like to give the players a little edge. I'll also make sure the players are actually enjoying the game. Comedy campaigns can be hit-or-miss.

[tkdco2]

And it shall be revealed that many people in Middle-earth are Scientologists.

What, haven't you ever heard of Elrond Hubbard?

[kesher]

Ouch...

[roaktheunknowable]

Hey all! Mayhaps the Gobblens could ride those Knee-Walking Turkeys instead of Wargs? Cheers

[tkdco2]

Apr 29, 2015 17:46:04 GMT -6 roaktheunknowable said:

Hey all! Mayhaps the Gobblens could ride those Knee-Walking Turkeys instead of Wargs? Cheers

Why not? After all, the Riders of Roi-tan ride sheep, and the Nazgul ride hogs.

Thanks, I'll use this idea.

[Finarvyn]

This is a very punny thread.

[roaktheunknowable]

The Gobblens furious war cry! Gobble! Gobble! Gobble! Mayhaps that's all they can say? I see them as very squat with rather large bellies and long spindly arms and legs. They use iron and steel carving forks and carving knives from the back of their Turkeys. It might be fun to have the turkeys be the more intelligent of the two. The Gobblens are widely feared however as once they invade... they eat everything in sight before moving on. Cheers

[tkdco2]

This video is true to the Bored of the Rings spirit.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOIi9SjJvgU&app=desktop

[tkdco2]

Perhaps I should set the game in the 4th Age and make Middle-earth like this: users.erols.com/mwhite28/misc/midearth.htm

But the hotels in Hobbiton would be nice: www.hobbit.co.za/

[tkdco2]

Part of a character's background story?

wolfanita.deviantart.com/art/The-Hobbit-Daddy-Part-Four-Childish-Fears-453913836