This is a really good response, thank you!

I see what you mean with the lore essential characters and tend to agree. I think I’ll use the starter set for inspiration but discard a bunch of it including characters like Bilbo (outside of being an NPC if players insist on visiting bag end).

Thank you for the heads up on mechanics, I think (with admittedly no experience) that relative to systems like dnd5e it’s still light enough to be manageable for a short-shot. I’ll keep an eye out on how the crunch handled (and ask players how they feel about it as they play).

Oops, that must be where I’ve gone wrong