Journey Rules Battle of Five Armies & The Third Age of Middle-Earth The current year for our Middle-Earth campaign is set during the year of 2946 of the Third Age. Inspired By J.R.R. Tolkien

This system encourages players to find and use Sanctuaries (towns, allied strongholds, special wilderness havens) for full recovery, making wilderness survival a core challenge.

1. Embarkation Phase (Planning the Journey)
▶ Determine Destination and Distance: The Loremaster (LM) determines the distance and the general danger level (e.g., Safe, Perilous, Dangerous) of the terrain the party will traverse.
▶ Assign Roles: The players assign the following roles among themselves. A character can hold only one role:

• Guide: Responsible for the overall pathfinding and the final Arrival roll. This character should have high Wisdom or relevant skills (e.g., knowledge of wilderness).
• Scout: Focuses on avoiding ambushes and obstacles. This character should have high Dexterity or relevant skills (e.g., tracking, stealth).
• Hunter: Ensures the party has food and water. This character should have high Constitution or relevant skills (e.g., foraging, hunting).
• Lookout: Keeps watch during travel and rest, reducing the chance of being surprised. This character should have high Wisdom or relevant skills.

▶ 2. Journeying Phase (On the Road)
The journey is broken down into segments (e.g., one segment per week of travel). For each segment, the party rolls for Journey Events.

• Random Encounters: Instead of rolling for standard random encounters, the LM uses specific Journey Event Tables (which the LM must create or source from AiME material). Events can be beneficial (finding a safe glade, meeting friendly travelers) or harmful (weather, difficult terrain, a dangerous encounter).
• Role Checks: The assigned player for a given role makes a check related to their task. Use a d20 roll against an appropriate Ability Score (e.g., Guide uses Wisdom, Scout uses Dexterity) to resolve the event or specific challenges encountered along the way.
• Resting on the Road: Player-heroes may only take short rests (8 hour rests).

- Successes can provide bonuses to the final Arrival roll or mitigate negative effects.
- Failures can impose penalties, such as using up extra supplies, becoming lost, or acquiring Exhaustion.

▶ 3. Arrival Phase (Destination Reached)
When the party reaches its destination, the Guide makes a final Arrival Roll. This roll is modified by the outcomes of the Role Checks and events during the journey.

• Arrival Roll: The LM sets a difficulty (e.g., a d20 roll, or a 2-in-6 chance on a d6 check depending on OSE style of play). The result determines the party's condition:
- Success: The company arrives in good spirits, full of tales, and potentially with some minor benefits (e.g., a bonus to initial NPC reactions).
- Failure: The party arrives footsore, dispirited, hungry, and exhausted. Characters may gain Exhaustion levels, which impose penalties on future rolls or abilities until properly rested in a Sanctuary.

▶ 4. Key Old-School Essentials Adaptation: Resting and Exhaustion
The critical element to convert is the impact of travel on character endurance:
- No Full Recovery in the Wild: Characters cannot take a "long rest" (recovering all HP and spells) in the wilderness. Full recovery requires reaching a Sanctuary, a place offering safety, comfort, and tranquility (e.g., a friendly village, a well-fortified inn, or a special camp like Beorn's house).
- Exhaustion Mechanics: The LM should define simple OSE-compatible exhaustion rules. A system where each level of exhaustion imposes a cumulative penalty (e.g., -1 to all rolls, ability checks, and potentially movement speed) works well within OSE's minimalist framework. This penalty is only removed when the character rests at a Sanctuary.

Resting Rules Battle of Five Armies & The Third Age of Middle-Earth The current year for our Middle-Earth campaign is set during the year of 2946 of the Third Age. Inspired By J.R.R. Tolkien

Short Rest (Resting in the Wild)
A short rest functions much like a standard 5E long rest in terms of game pacing. It typically represents a night's sleep while travelling or camping in the wilderness.

• Duration: At least 8 hours long (the normal duration for a D&D long rest).
• Conditions: Can be taken in the wilderness, during a journey, or in a dangerous location where the party must set a watch or where the risk of interruption is present.
• Benefits: Characters regain all timered abilities, skils and such once an 8 hour rest is completed.
• Detriments: They do not recover from most levels of Fatigue or Strife (the Exhaustion/Shadow points) beyond the first level.

Long Rest (Sanctuary Rest)
A long rest is a rare and significant event that generally occurs between adventures, during the dedicated Fellowship Phase. It requires a genuinely safe and comfortable location.

• Duration: Typically a period of a few days to a week of downtime, not just 8 hours.
• Conditions: Must be taken in a designated Sanctuary—a safe haven such as a well-fortified town, a friendly Elven outpost, or a secure Dwarven hall where the characters can truly "rest easy" without fear of attack.
• Benefits: This is the only way for characters to fully recover their resources. They regain all lost hit points and all class features/spell slots..

These rules emphasize the perilous nature of the wild and make safe havens vital parts of the campaign narrative, encouraging careful resource management during journeys and dungeon exploration.

The Old Forest Battle of Five Armies & The Third Age of Middle-Earth The current year for our Middle-Earth campaign is set during the year of 2946 of the Third Age. Inspired By J.R.R. Tolkien

The Old Forest is an ancient, dense, and largely untouched woodland located immediately east of Buckland and the Shire's borders. It represents one of the last remnants of the primordial forests that covered much of the continent in ancient times. Geographically, it is a vast, self-contained wilderness bordered by the River Brandywine to the west and the dreaded Barrow-downs to the east. The forest is characterized by a high, irregular canopy that blocks out most sunlight, creating a perpetually gloomy and shadowed interior where travelers easily lose their sense of direction.

The physical appearance of the forest is both intimidating and unnatural. Many trees within are extraordinarily old, with gnarled, twisted trunks and branches that lean over the narrow paths as if examining passersby. The types of trees vary, but ancient oaks, ash, and particularly a species of large, malevolent willow trees along the riverbanks, known as the Withywindle valley, dominate the landscape. The ground is often covered in thick moss and tangled roots, and the atmosphere is heavy with the smell of damp earth and decay.

The forest's most menacing feature is its sentience and malevolence. The trees are not merely passive obstacles; they possess a collective, conscious dislike for the "walking things" that cross their land, particularly humanoids. This latent malice manifests in physical ways: trees subtly shift their positions to confuse paths, drop heavy branches unexpectedly, or lean over to crowd and trap weary travelers against their trunks, slowly crushing them. This makes navigating the forest an exercise in constant psychological and physical defense.

Travel within the Old Forest is further complicated by the River Withywindle, which flows through the heart of the woods. This river valley is the darkest and most dangerous part of the entire forest, a place where the evil will of the trees seems strongest. The willows near the river are particularly dangerous, capable of putting weary travelers into a deep, ensnaring sleep from which they rarely wake. The river itself serves as a conduit for this oppressive power, making the riparian areas death traps.

Due to these inherent dangers, the Old Forest is completely uninhabited by civilized people. The inhabitants of nearby Buckland built the massive High Hay hedge specifically to keep the forest and its pervasive darkness out of their lands. The only resident mentioned is an eccentric, powerful, and mysterious entity known as Tom Bombadil, who lives with his wife Goldberry in a house near the source of the River Withywindle, seemingly immune to and perhaps even the master of the forest's malevolent properties.

Historically, the forest is a place of deep, ancient mystery, a remnant of a world before the ascendancy of men and hobbits. It is a location where the natural world maintains a primal, dark power that refuses to submit to civilization's touch. Its very existence, pressing so close against the inhabited lands of the Shire and Bree-land, serves as a stark reminder of the untamed, dangerous wilderness that lies just beyond the doorstep of safety.

Bree-land Battle of Five Armies & The Third Age of Middle-Earth The current year for our Middle-Earth campaign is set during the year of 2946 of the Third Age. Inspired By J.R.R. Tolkien

In the year 3011 of the Third Age, the land of Bree was a unique and largely self-contained "island of civilization" amidst the growing wilderness of Eriador, about forty miles east of the Shire. It was the only place in Middle-earth where Men and Hobbits lived side-by-side in peaceful coexistence, a tradition that had endured for centuries.

The area was roughly twenty-five miles in diameter, centered around the prominent, bare-topped Bree-hill, which gave the region its name (from the Celtic word for "hill"). The land was a mix of undulating lowlands, fields, and the small Chetwood forest to the north. The climate was temperate, with enough rainfall to support the famous pipe-weed crops grown on the hill's southern slopes.

Four main villages comprised Bree-land, each with its own character. The chief village, Bree itself, was located on the western slopes of the hill where the Great East Road and the Greenway (North Road) intersected. It was a bustling hub and home to both Men and Hobbits, its strategic location making it the most well-known settlement.

Staddle was situated on the south-eastern slopes, primarily inhabited by Hobbits who lived in hobbit-holes and focused on agriculture and gardening. Combe was nestled on the borders of the Chetwood, mainly a settlement of Men living in simple houses. Archet, the northernmost and most secluded village, was deep within the Chetwood and largely populated by Men who valued privacy and quiet living. The people of Bree were generally a cheerful, brown-haired, broad, and somewhat short folk, known for their independence. They were more worldly than the Shire-folk, though their knowledge of external lore and history was limited, and they used unique family names often derived from plants (like "Goatleaf" or "Butterbur").

Their specific dialect of Westron and local proverbs were distinguishing features of their culture. Life revolved around farming, local trade, and the traffic passing through the crossroads, which made Bree surprisingly cosmopolitan. The center of this activity was the famous inn, The Prancing Pony, in the village of Bree. It was a major gathering spot for locals and a variety of travelers, including Dwarves, wandering Men (Rangers), and the occasional Elf or Wizard, serving as the main source of news from the outside world.

The origins of the Bree-men are ancient, tracing back to some of the first Men who wandered west into Eriador during the Elder Days and chose to remain in the region. They were distant relations of the Dunlendings and managed to survive the tumultuous history of the region for millennia, establishing a durable presence around the hill.

In the Second Age, the Númenóreans found them already established around the hill. Later, Bree-land became a prosperous part of the North Kingdom of Arnor, benefiting from its strategic position at the intersection of two major roads connecting distant parts of Middle-earth, linking the north and south, east and west.

Around T.A. 1300, Hobbits, fleeing the gathering darkness in the east, migrated to the area and settled alongside the Men, particularly in Staddle and Bree. The two "Big Folk" and "Little Folk" coexisted harmoniously for centuries, forming a unique mixed society unmatched elsewhere in Middle-earth.

After the fall of the North Kingdom of Arnor, while the rest of Eriador became a desolate wilderness, Bree-land survived as an isolated, self-governing community. Its continued existence was largely due to the unacknowledged protection of the Rangers of the North, the descendants of the Dúnedain kings, who guarded the borders from the shadows, keeping the roads safe for travelers in secret.

Notable Settlements
• Bree
• Staddle
• Combe
• Archet

Geographical Locations
• Chetwood
• Midgewater Marshes
• Midgewater Pass
• South Downs
• Weather Hills
• Buckland
• River Brandywine
• Brandywine Bridge
• Nen Harn
• The Outlands
• Greenway
• Andrath
• Great East Road
• The Old Forest
• Old Forest
• Barrow Downs
• River Witchywindle
• Northern Bree-Fields
• Southern Bree-Fields
• Eastern Bree-Fields
• Lone-lands
• Girdley Island
• Brandy Hills