I too am about to start a full fellowship campaign, but me and my friend are having trouble deciding what happens if not all of the fellowship characters make it to rivendell. If Merry dies, for example, then who would be eligible to take his place.

I think it's safe to say that they wouldn't have just set out with 8 members as elrond wanted 9 in the fellowship to match the 9 nazgul.

The other attendees of the council of Elrond were:

Elrond (I don't think he would have gone)
Glorfindel (I suspect he might have stayed with Elrond to defend his people)
Gloin (Too old?)
Erestor (Do we have stats for him? Would he have been willing?
Elland & Elrohir (Would Elrond have sent his sons? Maybe together but not separately, so perhaps only if there are two slots available.)
Galdor (Would he have stuck around?)
Random Elf (Would it possibly have been a non-hero random elf?)
Anyone else?

I hope I've posted this to the right place. It's about a campaign so I thought this was best.

Any suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Although it never came to pass that we would have needed to change the members of the Fellowship, our list of alternative members included Radagast, Halbarad, Múrin, Drár, Gloin, Glorfindel, Gildor, Arwen, Erestor, Elladan & Elrohir and Lindir. I agree that it's either both Elladan & Elrohir, or neither. Some of these characters probably weren't in the Council (certainly not the GW-invented dwarves), but then again, according to the novel, the members were chosen after the Council, not during it as in the movie, so anyone in the region could be summoned. We did not think Elrond would go himself in any case. I don't consider Glóin too old... yeah, he may have a gray beard, but he's got a lot of experience. We'll be using him at Erebor later in the campaign, along with other survivors of Thorin's Company. You can find Erestor stats in the Free Peoples sourcebook.

If the Fellowship is badly depleted after Moria, we consider adding Rúmil or (more likely) Haldir in Lothlórien. Rúmil would then lead a contingent of elves at Helm's Deep.

keep in mind you could make characters to join the fellowship, I would not think either Rumil or Haldir would go, but Galadriel could trust their best soldiers for the mission, which means persons he would never seen before....

one of which could be from Mirkwood, for example Tauriel :P

Elrond recommended Glorfindel to Gandalf but Gandalf said not even Glorfindel would be able to storm Barad-Dur and secure passage for the nine walkers.
So Glofindel would be a solid addition to an alternative fellowship on that basis.

_________________
Go The Glorf!
My W.I.P - viewtopic.php?f=50&t=28062

Thanks guys! Great advice! I'll show to this to my friend at the weekend and we'll have a good chat about it in the pub before we start.

If anyone else has any opinions then I would love to hear them! There is no such thing as a bad idea!

Well if you find yourself with 1 or 2 guys left before Rivendell would could throw in a few dunedain to make the games sporting. Maybe have Gildor go with the hobbits if 2 or more of them are dead when they meet him. Or have a few dunedain join in at Bree or Weathertop if Aragorn and most of the hobbits bite the bullet before then. Then just have the survivors join the fellowship as normal.

_________________
"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

You think there's no such thing as a bad idea?.... Bring along Alfrid, that'll really get you going places.

_________________

Also, I was wondering, my friend and I are disagreeing about certain points. Would be great if you folks could help with all your knowledge.

1. If boromir survives amon hen would he have gone with Aragorn to rohan or gone straight home?
2. If Haldir survived would he have gone with gandalf to gondor, aragorn to find the army of the dead, or just gone home with his remaining men?


Thanks!

1. If boromir had survived the hobbits wouldn't have been captured which means aragorn and co wouldn't have chased them across Rohan. So unless by some weird thing they would have continued onto Mordor/Gondor as they had planned. Aragorn more than likely would have tracked down Frodo. Once they were in the ilithien I would have imagined Boromir and possibly Aragorn would have stayed in Gondor whilst the rest contiuned with Frodo.

2. Haldir would have more than likely gone home unless in the 'Peter Jackson' universe Galadriel had told him to continue on with Gandalf and co.

_________________
Go The Glorf!
My W.I.P - viewtopic.php?f=50&t=28062

I kind of agree with Haldir going home, he wasn't even at helms deep int he book anyway.

With boromir, the scenario allows the hobbits to be captured even if boromir lives (in our rules anyway). If aragorn ran off to chase them, do you think boromir would have gone off to help chase or gone back to gondor?

Also, you raise a good point. If none of the hobbits were captured would aragorn have been absent from helms deep and gone straight to Gondor?

I don't think aragorn would have followed frodo either way. He knew that fordo was resigned to his fate and aragorn to his.

Another good question: How did Galadriel know to send Haldir to Helm's Deep in the first place? She must have seen the predicament of Rohan (perhaps in her mirror?), and thus, conceivably, have sent a contingent of archers to help. Similarly, she could also urge Aragorn to head to Theoden regardless of the fate of hobbits at Amon Hen, sensing that the fate of Rohan has heavy consequences for Gondor, too.

But I agree with TDrik; Aragorn seemed resigned to let Frodo go. As to Boromir, maybe he would felt a need to make up for his momentary madness with the Ring - he would have helped Aragorn chase any captured hobbits. If no hobbits were captured, then I venture a guess he'd gone home to Minas Tirith and help at the battle of Osgiliath. That's probably the way we will decide once the time comes. What might be also interesting is to allow more than two hobbits head towards Mordor...

That's a really good idea, Celevue!

Perhaps in the Amon Hen scenario Merry and Pippin aren't idly stood around watching Boromir kill Uruks; maybe they should be trying to get over towards frodo at the boats to go with him to Mordor. I think there would have to be a rule for them to get there by a certain turn number as Frodo obvioulsy doesn't know they are running for him and he doesn't want to involve them either.

But this could have knock on effects for later on. With no pippin to grab the palantir, then he does not get the vision of the white tree and then gandalf does not know to head to minas tirith earlier with pippin and then there is no gandalf to help defend the city. How far down these roads of alternative paths should we go? It sometimes seems like doing well in a scenario at the beginning can actually have bad consequences for you later on in the game. But maybe that's all part of it.