Penultimate MERP Session

This Sunday sees the penultimate session of my MERP campaign before we head back to Legend of the Five Rings.

Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves as well as wanting to return to it.

One of the problems Ive battled with is maintaining the Tolkien feel of the game which on a personal level I think I have failed on. I canvas the players to get their opinions regularly as I often find out that my perception of how the game is going rarely matches up to the players opinion.

For instance, when I ran my 7th Sea game quite often Id have what I would class as a bad session and the players said they have a great time. And when I ran what I thought was a good session, they said that it was incredibly enjoyable.

With this MERP campaign I have sown seeds of foreshadowing and set up story elements for later in the story. Im pleased that 2 or 3 of the 5 players are keeping detailed notes, partly at my suggestion, but mostly because of the rich nature of the game there is a lot going on.

I have managed to get the players used to low atmospheric music, and candlelight to enhance the mood, as well as encouraging the players to not debate their actions for hours at a time, but rather to act. Because if they don't act then the enemies act anyhow. This way I found that the characters and heroes' nature comes out. That heroes leap into battle and defense of the weak, whilst cowards slink to the back.