Rules Reading!

Just a very quick update. For the past couple of weeks these are the different rulebooks I've been cycling through. Usually I'm reading the revised The One Ring (thanks Ville!) during breakfast and then Infinity when I get the chance during the day (skipping to points of interest rather than cover to cover) and then I get stuck in with Dropzone Commander after the proto-gamer has gone to sleep.

In fact, I just finished the DzC rulebook tonight, which I did read cover to cover, and I have to say I'm very, very impressed with it! I think it might be the best looking and most well presented miniatures rulebook I've come across in my gaming career. The miniature photos are spectacular, the fluff is good and actually interesting, the layout works well and the actual rules seem solid. In fact I was so impressed with the whole Dropzone Commander two player starter that I'll probably do a mini review of it pretty soon. I'm also in the process of painting my Scourge. I have of course already magnetized my giant Doom Crab!

As for Infinity I've played a couple of learning games with Claes who seem to enjoy it and is picking it up well. I think next time we'll try something with an actual scenario rather than just straight up annihilation as cool scenarios is what Infinity is all about. He's got his Haqq starter box assembled and awaiting some paint as well as a bunch of reinforcements still in blisters. I'm using my trusty Yu Jing but since I also have a number of units that need painting We might do some kind of painting/first battle deadline to motivate us and actually get the stuff up to snuff.

Finally, it's always a joy to read anything for The One Ring and although I've read through the first edition a number of times I was happy to go cover to cover with the revised. It's still the same game although some things have been tweaked (mainly Journeys) and the organization of the book has been improved. I did like the two book system but there were some issues with which rules were where etc.

Yeah... that's it. Just thought it was fun to talk some rules. What are you reading at the moment?


Oh, and don't forget that Fire Broadside is now on Facebook.

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Review of Hobbit Tales from the Green Dragon Inn

Let's take a break from the rpg reviews and take a look at a board game released by Cubicle 7 instead! It's called Hobbit Tales from the Green Dragon Inn and is a quick playing storytelling game for two to five players. It also ties into The One Ring roleplaying game (sorry, I lied about taking a break) where it can be used to enhance travelling or simply as a way to find inspiration on the fly.

The game was released in 2013 but I actually didn't get to play it until last year. I had been reluctant to bring it to our board game nights, for some reason thinking it was too much of a narrative focus for some of my mostly board game interested friends. Silly me! While it is certainly a storytelling game in the vein of Once Upon a Time or Dixit I don't think you need to worry about "not being creative enough" or anything similar.

It comes in a small box with some nice, thematic art on it depicting Gandalf and Bilbo smoking pipe and exchanging stories at the Green Dragon. There's some really neat detail in the frame of the picture depicting all kinds of adventuring locations and, my favourite detail, Smaug himself in the smoke ring around the Lonely Mountain. The same frame is used on the new The One Ring Revised core rulebook which is a nice touch. Of course the creators of this game, Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitelli are also the guys behind War of the Ring, The Battle of Five Armies and The One Ring roleplaying game so it comes as no surprise that they're all linked not only through theme but also by layout, graphical design and art.

The basic premise is that you are hobbits drinking at the Green Dragon and competing about who tells the best story. You play the game in a number of rounds equal to the number of players so each player get a chance to be the Narrator, while the others are Hazard players. To play you use a small game board with slots for five tarot sized cards, Cheers tokens for points, some Green Dragon coasters to hide your points under, a 12 sided die and two decks of cards. And oh, what nice cards they are! Cubicle 7 made the great choice of printing them in tarot size which both allow the art to really shine and also bring a sense of "weight" to them that regular play cards lack. The cards are for all intents and purposes the heart and soul of the game and it's fun just flipping through them, looking at all the details and reading some nice Tolkien quotes! Part of me want to sleeve them while part of me doesn't as it would detract (ever so slightly) from the immersion and I'm also uncertain if they would fit back in the box if sleeved. Of course from a game play perspective it's pretty much meaningless as even if a card was marked it wouldn't really have any effect on the game.

Just doing a summary of the already brief rules and then write about my thoughts on the game I think would make for a very short review. So instead I'm going to run through a typical game and explain most things as we go along and tell a little story at the same time. This seems more enjoyable and probably gives a better sense of how the game actually plays.

Contents.

There are 75 Adventure cards used by the Narrator and 40 Hazard cards used by the Hazard players and they are all unique. Adventure cards can represent all kinds of things but generally they're locations, events, meetings or feelings while Hazard cards are dangerous events, locations, items or monsters. The art range from pencil sketches to full colour paintings and I have yet to find one with "bad" art! You know I've talked about how great the books for The One Ring looks, mostly thanks to the art, and this is like having all that art concentrated in 115 cards and it's great. I could go on about this, but let's just stop here and get on with it. :)

The Game

You start a round with the Narrator drawing four cards from the Adventure deck, which she looks at and quickly try to form a loose narrative in her head. She then draws two more cards and chooses one card to be the Opening, which is placed face up to the left on the board, and the other the Epilogue, which is placed faced down to the far right of the board. The Hazard players draw cards from the Hazard deck depending on the number of players - in this example there are two Hazard players so they draw three cards each.

The Narrator draws Ancient Trees, Adventurous, A Short Rest and Old Sword, and a skeleton of a story forms in her head - something about going on an adventure, and finding a sword and bringing it back home. The Opening and Epilogue turns out to be Lost Reputation and Many Meetings and she decides to play them in that order.

The Hazard players draw Great Orc, Werewolf and Bitter Cold plus Bear, Nameless Horror and Two Headed Troll. They look these over and spend some extra time checking the Terrain icons in the lower right corner as these decide when the cards can be played.

The Narrator begins her story about that time a few years ago when her pipeweed experiments went a little too far and the good people of Hobbiton thought her an odd individual indeed. To prove her detractors wrong (and to simply get away from it all for a bit) she decided to go on a bit of a trek in the surrounding countryside. Nothing too adventurous but enough to perhaps bring some interesting stories from afar, or maybe some new ingredient for her pipeweed!

At this time the Hazard players check the Terrain icons on the two Adventure cards played so far and see if they match up with any of their Hazard cards. If the two icons on a given Hazard card match any of the icons on the lats two played Adventure cards the card is playable - so far we have two Woods icons and a Wilds icon... which don't match any of the Hazard cards. The Hazard players rap their knuckles on the table to signal for the Narrator to continue, which she does...

"I hadn't gone far when I saw something lying on the road... an old sword! I looked around to see if I could see who might have dropped it, but besides horse tracks there was nothing to be found!". With the addition of the Evil Eye icon on the latest Adventure card the first Hazard player has a card with a match! He clears his throat and asks; "This was when you went on your trek in the middle of the coldest winter the Shire had seen in two decades, wasn't it?" - sliding his Bitter Cold card toward the board. Normally he would have to roll the Hazard die at this point and try to match or beat the number in the lower left corner of the Hazard card. However, as the Adventure card played, Old Sword, has the Eye icon on it the roll succeeds automatically and the card takes effect. In this case the Hazard player get to draw a Cheers token and either place it under his coaster or on top of it to signify that he's "buying another round". Next, the Adventure card is not placed on the board and the Narrator has to incorporate the new twist from the Hazard card in her story in some way.

"Yes, it wasn't really the best time to go for a stroll that's for sure! I picked up the sword and tried to follow the tracks in the snow, but with the snow still falling there were soon no tracks left and I ended up scratching my head about what to do next." As there can only be one successful Hazard card played per turn, she plays the next Adventure card...

"Although I almost felt like returning home at this point, the hubby had been making biscuits as I left after all, something in me pushed me on and I managed to find shelter from the wind and snow in the hollow of an old oak tree." She plays A Short Rest and looks expectantly at the first Hazard player who raps his knuckles on the table. The second player slides his Two-headed Troll toward the board and says; "Oh, I remember this story! You didn't notice it at first, but there was a sleeping troll in the hollow, wasn't there?!". However, he rolls a two so the card fails to take effect; "No, no, silly! You're thinking of the troll that slept in Old Bogg's wine cellar the winter of 34!".

"Now, having eaten and rested for a bit I felt my strength return and continued, while the old sword was an interesting prize I felt there was even more impressive things ahead. The snowfall ceased and it wasn't long until I found myself at the edge of the Old Forest". She plays the Ancient Trees card, which has another Eye on it, but luckily the Terrain icons don't match and both Hazard players rap their knuckles grumpily on the table. At this point the Narrator don't have any cards left, and has to Improvise to try and complete her story. Improvising is done by simply drawing the top card of the Adventure deck and incorporating it into the narrative. You can keep improvising until a Hazard card is successfully played, in which case your story ends.

The Narrator draws the top card of the Adventure deck and thinks for a bit while inspecting it, recalling the maps of the area around the Old Forest. Then she continues; "Knowing very well not to set my foot in the haunted woods I decided to skirt around it, seeing if there might be something interesting on the other side. And indeed there was! The land beyond the forest was made up by a series of hills, each looking a little too perfectly formed to be natural. I pulled my coat around me as I shivered in the cold while moving in among the hills. It wasn't long until I found one with a large door in it. Not a nice round hobbit door mind you, but a big and imposing one made of stone, steel and rotted wood." She plays the Tomb card while the first Hazard player raps on the table the second quietly whispers; "This is perfect!" as he slides the Nameless Horror card forward.

"I bet that was a really bad idea! I've heard horrible things about the Barrow Downs!". The Hazard die ends up on seven, meaning the Tomb card is removed from the board, the Hazard player takes a Cheers token and the Nameless Horror takes effect. "Well, at this time I hadn't so I had no idea what waited inside. I thought I would seek shelter in there but it proved even colder as I closed the door behind me. My torch sputtered in the darkness and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end as I heard a slow, wheezing ahead of me. I called out for whoever it was that we could perhaps share the one muffin I had left, but got no reply. That was when I saw... or felt something coming toward me. Darkness and horror! I turned and fled out in the snow and ran for a long time! I don't even remember exactly what happened but I ended up running straight into one of the Brandybucks, Will I think, who invited me in for some hot tea." 

Having failed to Improvise the Narrator's story has come to a premature end, since she has not been able to completely connect the Opening with the Epilogue card. This means that she must now turn over the Epilogue card and conclude the narrative in a negative way, as if the story didn't end as the Narrator had hoped it would. With the Epilogue card being Many Meetings she continues; "It wasn't until I'd had my fourth cup of Brandybuck tea that I realized that I had dropped the sword when I ran! I didn't even have anything to show for my trouble and while I was, of course, thankful for bumping into a Brandybuck and him letting me stay at his house I was stuck there for two weeks while the weather turned even worse and was introduced to every brother and sister, every uncle and aunt, every cousin and nephew and it all made me both weary and bored! My return to Hobbiton wasn't anything like I hoped and they still talk about me as "that weird pipe lady". If they only they'd know what I have been through! Hmpf!!"

Applauds from the rest of the table as the Narrator takes a bow and start to check her score. You get to draw one Cheers token for each card on the board and one extra if you manage to reach the Epilogue and achieve a full ending. As this story ended prematurely with a total of four cards on the board (of course, not counting the ones removed by Hazards) she draws four Cheers tokens which, to add insult to injury, turn out to be all ones! She puts three under her coaster and one on top to "buy the next round".

Once all players have had a chance to narrate a story you decide the winner by counting all the Cheers tokens under your coaster then you check who has the most points on top of his coaster as this player get a bonus four points for buying the most rounds of beer! There are also rules for giving some extra points for the best story and there are some card icons that can come into play during the game that is not part of this example - like the Hazard players getting to draw extra cards - but this should give you a pretty good idea on how the game plays!

You might also have noticed that there are some other icons on the cards, diamond shaped like the ones in The One Ring and War of the Ring. These don't have any function in Hobbit Tales, but can instead be used in The One Ring roleplaying game. While any of the cards can be used by the Loremaster to quickly get some inspiration for an upcoming scene there are also structured rules on how to incorporate them during Journeys. The left icon tells you which role is affected (guide, scout etc) while the right tells you the effect of failure and the card itself provides inspiration for the narrative that the Loremaster (or the affected player) presents. Basically it's a replacement for the Hazard table that is in the new Revised Core rulebook and I think it will certainly help to bring some more unique hazards into play.

Thoughts

So, what are my thoughts on the game? Well, it takes about 20-30 minutes to play and has so far provided some great Tolkien-esque short stories that has made me want to break out my roleplaying books so... two thumbs up! As I mentioned above I was a little worried that it would be too much of a narrative game for the regular board game night, and during our first game Claes was hesitant to be the first Narrator out of the gate, even though he's an old roleplayer! Weird I know, but I think it has to do with having to think on the spot and make at least a semi-coherent narrative. These were all silly things to worry about though as we all spun some great stories without breaking a sweat. The combination of card title, art and quote either (or all) of which could provide the inspiration needed to connect the next link is more than enough to get your imagination gears turning. Does it help if you are a roleplayer or enjoy improv? Sure, but it's absolutely not needed.

The game has been a great success and so far we have ended up playing two or three games back to back as everyone has wanted another chance to tell a story. Once we even had a player who was just about to leave but watched a game in progress and decided to stay longer so he could participate in the next two rounds! Still, even if this was just a collection of large sized art cards with images inspired by Tolkien with no game attached I would have got them anyway. Beautiful art and great sources of inspiration! The only thing I feel could have been done better from a design perspective is the Terrain icons as they're done in a different style than the rest of the art on the cards. I understand the need to have these stand out and be easy to spot from across the table, but the kind of semi-photographic effect looks odd next to the rest of the card. There's also a slight shortage of Cheers tokens and you might end up having to resort to writing your score down, or use alternate rules posted by Francesco.

If you own and play The One Ring I think this is simply a no-brainer. Get it. If you're a great Tolkien fan I think you should get it as well, especially if you enjoy narrative board games that has seen a rise in popularity lately. I can't really comment on how well it measure up to other games in this genre as this is the first I've played, but to me the theme is what really makes it all come together and having a decent feel for Tolkien made it really easy to come up with a fun story. The game mechanics work well and it's fun both being the Narrator and a Hazard player, but in the end it's not a game you play to win, but play to experience some great stories set in Middle-Earth!

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Review of Rivendell for The One Ring

Alright, enough with all the mechas and power armoured anime dudes! Let's get back to the Season of the Ring and the the first review of a The One Ring book, namely the just released Rivendell by Cubicle 7!

Rivendell is a new hardback sourcebook for The One Ring that weighs in at 144 pages and it marks the series first foray outside of the original setting of Mirkwood and its surroundings that is the default adventuring area for the core book and the supplements released so far. Originally the plan was to release three core books, each focusing on different geographical areas of Middle-Earth, but this idea was later abandoned in favour of releasing sourcebooks like this one to fill in the blanks and provide extra cultures fitting the setting.

Although the original core book for the game was released back in 2011 the release schedule since has been rather slow and somewhat erratic. Most of this has apparently been the fault of the Tolkien estate who need to check that everything looks ok to them and they can at times be a little slow and other times request changes to be made further prolonging the process. I don't fault Cubicle 7 at all in this regard, but can understand players who felt frustrated during the first couple of years. Now however, it seems like things are picking up a little and with the release of the Revised rulebook it feels like the game has got into it's second breath!

I'll take the time to make a mild SPOILER warning here. Although I'll talk mostly in generics it might be wise to avoid this review if you are a player in a The One Ring campaign and want to remain completely in the dark of what is to come.

Rivendell is of course of extra interest to anyone who has wanted to explore the world beyond Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains and it does not disappoint in this regard. At the moment I only have access to the PDF of the book so can't really comment on its physical appearance, but it's hardback and I'm guessing it's similar to either The Heart of the Wild or The Darkening of Mirkwood (they're slighly different in that Darkening is matte while Heard it gloss). From what I can tell there are no loose maps included with the book, although you get them as separate files with the PDF. I imagine they will be part of the upcoming Journeys and Maps supplement. When I get my hands on the actual book, I'll update this section with more details on its physical appearance. By now I don't think I need to mention that the book is absolutely beautiful with spectacular and immersive art by Jon Hodgson, Jan Pospíšil and Jeremy McHugh. I mean, it goes without saying, The One Ring line of books is famous for their art and graphic design! Taking a quick look at the contents we have: Introduction, Imladris, A History of Eriador, The Regions of Eastern Eriador, New Monsters, Magical Treasure, The Eye of Mordor, Heroic Culturs and Appendices. So let's dig deeper and see what each chapter brings to the game!

The Introduction is, well... an introduction, but it also explains that Rivendells it the companion book to the upcoming Ruins of the North, much like The Heart of the Wild is the companion book to The Darkening of Mirkwood. That being said, I suspect Ruins of the North will be more similar to the adventure compilation/mini-campaign Tales from Wilderland that the epic play experience that is The Darkening of Mirkwood. It is also explained that the book is written with the year being some time after 2951 and possibly as late as 2077 (the default ending year of the The Darkeing of Mirkwood campaign), however it is also stated that things change slowly in Eriador and if you want to set your campaign earlier few things would need adjusting.

Imladris, Rivendell, The Last Homely House.

The chapter on Imladris is 15 pages of Rivendell background and information, including its history, a map with just the right amount of detail and a number of key characters who reside there. I have never been all that interested in Rivendell myself (unlike many others) as it has somehow felt almost "too good" a place to be in. I want my adventures to be muddy and dirty! Haha! Even so I found myself re-evaluating my position on the Last Homely House and am now actually looking forward to having my players find and explore it (some time in the far future once we're "done" with Mirkwood). Good chapter with just the right amount of information to craft good story hooks and get ideas, but not being overburdened with minutia like what exactly each room is used for and looks like.

The next chapter, A History of Eridador, is quite short at only six pages, but you should be aware that a lof of the history has also been baked into the gazeteer in the next chapter. You get a rundown of the rise and fall of both Arnor and Angmar, how the rangers formed and how they are pretty much keeping the entire region safe from orcs, troll, wargs and other even worse servants of the Shadow! While not a long chapter it provides a solid overview of the events which should be easy to relay to the players when required.

Now comes the real meat and potatoes of the book in the form of The Regions of Eastern Eriador. That's right eastern Eriador! You see, Cubicle 7 has plans for the western parts (which apparently includes the town of Bree and its immediate surroundings which are not covered in this book) and the Rivendell book covers the region from the Misty Moutains in the east to the Barrow Downs in the west. Just like The Heart of the Wild this chapter is a kind of gazeeter of the entire region with each section zooming in on a particular area (ie. Angmar, Mount Gram, Trollshaws, South Downs, Eregion etc). Each area gets between three and five pages devoted to it and after a general overview we get a subsection on wildlife, inhabitants, notable characters and notable locations as well as some special rules like new Fellowship Undertakings here and there. These chapters are pure gold for an industrious Loremaster as each of them could easily be spun into several sessions worth of adventuring! Generally each region has around three obvious hooks, but the general background certainly provides inspiration for creating more.

One thing this chapter really succeeds with is instilling a sense of how the Companions are moving through the ruins of an ancient and great kingdom. Not only through the snippets of history inserted throughout the text but also when talking about the ruins of towers, forts, statues and roads that litter this part of Middle-Earth. While a Ranger or Elf might know about most of these I would love to have a Company totally ignorant of the history of the region to kind of slowly piece everything together.

The 18 page chapter on New Monsters starts with a section about Powerful Adversaries which describes how to grant some of the new, powerful special abilities to existing monsters to bring their threat level up. It's also mentioned that some of these abilities already exist on a number of the new monsters of Eriador. Again, it is half-assumed that the group who has played enough to make their way across the Misty Mountains to Rivendell will need some tougher opposition to go up against. That is not to say that all the new monsters are super deadly, there are certainly normal level enemies in this chapter as well. Provided are both stats for some of the named monsters and adversaries that is mentioned in the previous chapter, like Bloodstump the Hunter, as well as generic creatures like Goblins of Carn Dûm and Hill-men of Rhudaur. Fitting the lost realm of Arnor, there's also an extended sub-chapter on the undead which lists a number of different variants as well as several pages on The Lord of the Nazgûl, aka The Witch-King which makes for interesting reading. The authors are however quick to point out that:

"While precise definitions are generally something to be desired in a game, sometimes they provide an explanation to things that should remain inexplicable, robbing a legendary world of its mystery. Keeping a level of uncertainty and providing only glimpses of a world that defies understanding goes a long way in preserving a sense of wonder in those who take part in the game."

Which is very much in keeping with my own view on the matter - again showing that they have a firm grasp on what makes Tolkien Tolkien. Basically the New Monster chapter provides exactly what you'd think it would, with some extra additions here and there.

Of course, powerful adversaries calls for some more extravagant rewards and Rivendell provides in the form of a 19 page chapter focusing on Magical Treasure. For those of you sharpening your pitchforks, checking your supply of torches and frantically trying to find Cubicle 7 HQ on the map, don't worry - there are no +2 maces or swords of advanced fireballs. Again Francesco and his co-writers show their adept feel for the setting and how Middle-Earth works. Mechanically speaking the main new addition is that of Hoards. A Hoard is not simply some regular treasure to be used up by the Companions but also have the chance of containing Magical Treasure. In Rivendell and every forthcoming TOR release the Treasure rating is expressed as a number plus zero to three asterisks to show if it's a Hoard with potential magical items in it. For each asterisk you can roll to try and find something special and you succeed on the Will of the West or the Eye of Sauron (the latter, with complications, naturally) and you can then roll further dice, based on the number of unspent experience points you have, to see exactly what you have found. If it turns out to be a Precious Object, Wondrous Artefact or some Famous Weapon or Armour (the four categories presented) you need to actually spend experience to get it.

This acts both to make magical treasure costly, to make it rare and to tie it specifically to the character that finds (and invests in) it. It's explicitly stated that these kinds of items aren't meant to be passed around at will or given to the character who could use it best (from a min-max perspective) but that it was meant to be found and carried by that very character: "After all, it was Bilbo who was meant to find the Ring, not Balin, Gandalf or Thorin." The items are also not meant to be random or made up on the spot, but rather prepared by the Loremaster before hand. Included in the book are sheets for making a Magical Treasure Index where you can compile a list of lost items that might be found in the area; their stats and bonuses as well as their individual history that might be revealed through a successful Lore test or a fitting Trait. I really like this idea as all the magical items featured in the books have a long and glorious history to them! And even if the exact details of an item is unknown (like Sting) you can still figure out the general history of it - where it probably was made and when. With the great and sad history of Arnor it certainly feels more likely to come across something out of the ordinary in Eriador rather than Mirkwood. Besides including instructions for how to create each of these objects and how many to incorporate in the campaign there are also rules for cursed items (remember that Eye of Sauron you might roll?) as well as a complete sample Magical Treasure Index for Loremasters who lacks the time to create their own.

Following this is a shorter chapter about The Eye of Mordor which is a new mechanic introduced in Rivendell to track how well the Company manage to avoid attracting the attention of the Enemy. The basic value to track is the Eye Awareness rating which moves up and down depending on the size of the Company, what kind of members it has and what it's doing. High Elves and Dúnedain attract more attention than men or, especially, hobbits. The starting Eye Awareness level is then continually modified during the Adventure Phase by rolling Eyes of Sauron, gaining Shadow or blatant use of magic. Of course the Loremaster could raise it further because of the actions taken by the players. When the Eye Awareness raises above a preset level (depending on their current location) - the Hunt threshold - the Company is considered Revealed, instead of Hidden. When this happens the Loremaster will introduce an especially dangerous event to inflict on the characters and then the Eye Awareness rating reset. Being revealed is not meant to trigger some artificial event like, "suddenly ten orcs appear and attack" but should rather be integrated with the current narrative and should generally be used to make the situation worse - if the characters are in dire need of allies and seek for help in a nearby village they're regarded with suspicion and hostility, the skies that seemed to clear up suddenly turn dark and the Companions are drenched in a downpour far out in the wilds, an enemy etc. It is also suggested that you can use the cards from Hobbit Tales from Green Dragon Inn for inspiration if you have that game (which I will review soon).

While this system is completely optional and easily something you could organically create as you play I still quite like this mechanical approach to it as it will make the players think twice about certain courses of action. It's generally aimed at campaigns taking place later in the timeline that the core book, when the Enemy is awake and actively searching, but I think it could easily be introduced in any time where keeping a low profile is of importance.

Finally we have the two new Heroic Cultures - the Rangers and the High Elves of Rivendell. From the start it is emphasized that these are not ordinary cultures like those we've seen so far for the game. Indeed the Rangers are all descendants of the Dúnedain and the High Elves lived long and seen much. Because of this they are intentionally made in ways that break the mold a bit and are on par with already experienced characters hailing from the Wilderlands. The authors also don't recommend more than one or maybe two of these powerful characters in the Company lest they unbalance the carefully wrought intention of having "regular people" step up and become heroes. I think both offer some very interesting roleplaying opportunities and they also have drawbacks to keep them somewhat in check.

Rangers have the Allegiance to the Dúnedain to keep in mind which makes them loners in the world of men, meaning that while they contribute normally to the Fellowship pool, but is not allowed to spend Fellowship points to recover lost Hope. Fellowship focus works as normal though. They have a really cool Cultural Blessing called Foresight of their Kindred which gives them a Trait called Foresighted that, that can be invoked like a normal Trait and will then be available for the entirety of that session, but then not again until the next Adventure Phase. So basically it works like a kind of danger sense that might tell you of what lurks ahead but that can only be used during one session per Adventure Phase, making it both powerful and tricky to use (do I invoke the trait now, or might there be an even more fitting occasion later?). They start with higher stats than a normal character but kind of makes up for it with the Allegiance to the Dúnedain and the fact that it costs more for them to raise their skills with experience points (reflecting that they're already quite experienced). The background packages are diverse and inspiring - supplying a variety of archetypes instead of the typical Strider-wannabe broody ranger that I think it's easy to fall into the habit of playing. My favourite is probably the Keeper of Earth and Spirit who has a kind of Radagast vibe and knows every plant and animal in Eriador and always have just the right thing to help with an ailment. Neat!

High Elves of Rivendell are especially marked by the Shadow and can't simply forget what has happened to them in the past. This means that they have an interesting way of handing Shadow points as they can't use the Heal Corruption undertaking in the Fellowship phase! Instead they can distance themselves from the past as an undertaking. You do this mechanically by marking one of your Common skills (preferably with a little Eye!) and for each point in that skill your Shadow score is lowered by two. The problem is when you later use that particular skill and happen to roll an Eye of Sauron - when this happens the test will fail automatically and you'll get a Shadow point. Basically you are overcome with sorrow of things lost and can't bear yourself to complete the task. I really like this mechanic as it makes High Elves very different from other Cultures and will make them slowly turn from the world in front of them (as more and more skills become marked) and think about leaving for the west. Their Cultural Blessing is called Agains the Unseen and lets them see spirits and wraiths that might be invisible to others, as well as not having to take tests to avoid Fear.

They also have a new trait called Enemy of Sauron which means that the servants of the Enemy instantly recognizes you for what you are and fear your presence. They will only attack if they have a proper advantage. Vice versa, it also means you have to take action when you see evidence of the work of the Enemy. The different backgrounds provide good inspiration for aspiring High Elves, with archetypes like the Elf-lord, Heir of Gondolin, Counsellor of Elrond and Vengeful Kin to choose from. Both cultures of course have some really neat Virtues and Rewards to choose from. The High Elves in particular can learn elven-smithing and craft enchanted weapons, which is pretty cool!

Finally we have the Appendices with the different sheets, the maps and the index. Nothing majorly exciting here. :)

Thoughts

As I mentioned above, I have never been all that interested in Rivendell as a place so even though I was looking forward to this book simply as one in a great series of The One Ring supplements, I would probably have preferred the Rohan book first, or maybe even more dabbling with spiders in in the dusk of Mirkwood. The area of Eriador also felt a lot less open than Mirkwood and more restricted in what you could do with it as a Loremaster. But, I'm happy to report that my fears and prejudices were entirely unfounded. In fact my perception of the region have changed a lot from reading the book and there's certainly a lot more to it than Rivendell and the Rangers. While I'm still partial to Mirkwood I've also become eager for my players to explore this land of spirits and lost realms.

The two new Heroic Cultures also manage to do a lot more than I had expected and I think a Ranger or a High Elf could be a very interesting addition to a company from the Wilderlands. They might demand a little more of the players though as at least a passing familiarity with the history of Eriador is almost required to really get the feel across right.

While the more mechanically focused chapters are good, and I'm especially impressed with how they handled the "problem" of magic weapons in a Tolkien setting, my favourite chapter is The Regions of Eastern Eriador. Just like The Heart of the Wild this gazeteer style chapter packs enough info to keep you busy for a good long while. If I were to nitpick I would have liked some zoomed in maps on certain of the places mentioned in this chapter. There are quite a few different ruins mentioned that would make for good mini maps to fold into the text. Then again, I have a feeling we'll see this kind of stuff in the Ruins of the North adventure supplement that's out next for The One ring.

I also feel it's slightly odd not to include Bree-land as part of eastern Eriador as it's as far or even farther east than the Lone-Lands and the Barrow Downs. While I can understand the desire to include it in the book covering the Shire and western Eriador (that way keeping a kind of thematic parallel with the part of the journey the hobbits made themselvs in LotR) it still feels strange to leave out the only proper village/town in the entire region, apart from Imladris. Not having actual fold out maps included with the book (please correct me if I'm wrong on this) is also a bit of a bummer.

Still, these small niggles aside I think this is an excellent addition to The One Ring and it's exciting to see the world open up for continued adventures in Middle-Earth!

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Season of the Ring!

Being relocated for a few months I don't really have access to all my games and miniatures so I've been pondering what to write about here on Fire Broadside. The answer came to me when I played my first game of The Battle of Five Armies and recalled that I have some catching up to do!

I have reviewed the core book (first edition) and the Loremaster's Screen but since then there have been a number of really cool books released for The One Ring roleplaying game from Cubicle 7. They've also released a small storytelling board game called Hobbit Tales from Green Dragon Inn and, as I mentioned above, I've got my grubby paws on Ares Games' spectacular looking The Battle of Five Armies board game. All of this combined in my head into what I've chosen to call the Season of the Ring! 

During the winter and spring months I will post reviews of all the Cubicle 7 books released so far (excluding the new core book that I have yet to acquire), as well as a few Lord of the Rings board games that I enjoy.

Wanting to start with a bang I've decided that the first review to hit the site will be the one for The Battle of Five Armies as it is such a visual spectacle to behold! Next up will be the Rivendell source book for The One Ring that is being released right now. After that I will probably do the reviews in order of release, starting with Tales from Wilderland, interspersed with some board gaming now and then.

I'll keep this post updated with the reviews I've written so far so keep this page bookmarked for ease of reference.

The One Ring Reviews:

• The One Ring: Adventures Over the Edge of the Wild (first edition)
• Tales From Wilderland
• The Loremaster's Screen
• The Heart of the Wild
• The Darkening of Mirkwood
• Rivendell

Other LotR game reviews:

• The Battle of Five Armies
• Hobbit Tales From Green Dragon Inn

Time permitting I might add things to the list. I would like to write reviews for FFG's Lord of the Rings The Card Game and Middle-Earth Quest but I'll add them only when I know I have the time to do it properly.

So there you have it - an introduction to the Season of the Ring!

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Review of The Loremaster's Screen for The One Ring

Yes, I know I've promised to review Tales from Wilderland, but I'm still reading and absorbing it so it will have to wait for a bit (spoiler: yes, it's very good). However I did get the Loremaster's Screen a bit back and it makes for a quick and easy review, even though it's a meatier product than you first might expect! If you are wondering what this is all about, I'm talking about The One Ring by Cubicle 7 - a Tolkien rpg done right! You can read my review of the core books here.

What you get is a four panel screen and a 34 page sourcebook that explores Lake-town and its surroundings. The screen itself is very sturdy and easily rivals most board games when it comes to thickness, this is no mere cardboard! The front features a motif of Lake-town, more specifically the towns merchant quarter (or the market-pool as it is known). The art is by Jon Hodgson and it fits beautifully with the Tolkien theme - no fireball shooting mages or axe-wielding berserkers need apply. In the distance beyond the town lies the Lonely Mountain and if you look to the right you can see the bones of the great dragon Smaug poking out of the water, a couple of neat details I thought.

On the inside of the screen we have the ever present charts and tables. They are ordered after theme and colour coded, starting with basic rules tables (seven), combat tables (nine), encounter tables (four) and finally  tables concerning the Shadow (six). There are also some additional page references for often used rules like fellowship points and skills. It seems like most of the important stuff has been included, although some quick journey reminders would have been welcome as well. Although you might perhaps simply use the online tool by Shane Ivey for those calculations, it's great.

When it comes to GM screens I prefer the landscape variant as it creates less of a barrier between the GM and the players while still being able to keep some stuff hidden. However they've never seem to be all that popular as most of the screens you see today are of the vertical variety. Thankfully the Loremaster's screen isn't overly tall at 28cm so shouldn't pose too much of a barrier even if the GM decides to sit directly behind it (something I rarely do myself, choosing to have it beside me instead).

So that's the screen, what about the book? Well, written by Franceso Nepitello it's suprisingly well packed little book of goodies I have to say! GM screens seem to be that one thing that all roleplaying games have to have as soon as humanely possible after the core rulebook. Most of the time this leads to them being poorly thought through and the little booklet thrown in with the screen to justify the price more often than not contains some very niche information that rarely gets used during the game anyway. Not so this time!

After a brief introduction, in the form of a letter from Glóin to Bilbo, the first seven pages cover the city of Esgaroth, or Lake-town. Going after the map in the middle of the book we get to read about the different districts and their inhabitants. Peppered among the descriptions of the different locales are stats for the people who live there so they can quickly be used as NPCs. After this there are three pages about "Things to do while in Lake-town" that includes a couple of new Fellowship Phase Undertakings. For example, you can go to the market-pool to see if there is something there to aid you during coming adventures. In this section is also included a kind of translator table for those who want to use something less abstract than "Treausure" to record the wealth of their characters. This helps you translate this abstractness into... gold.

Following this are four pages dedicated to the Dragontide, a newly created festival that takes place in Lake-town on November first to third. It combines the end of harvest with the celebration of the killing of Smaug and is generally a big merry feast. On the first day there's an archery competition called the Day of the Black Arrow and through a series of different rounds and challenges a winner is found. This competition is described in some detail and with rules for how player companions might enter it, and I can see it making quite a highlight for any archers in the group!

In the middle of the book we have the aforementioned birds-eye map of Lake-town. While a traditional top down map might provide more specific detail I like how this more artistic view really pulls you in. You can almost hear the cry of the seagulls! (Sorry... I just really like Jon Hodgsons art).

The next five pages are titled Secrets of the Long Marshes and include rules for some different marsh plants you can come across and collect. They each provide some little benefit during the following adventure phase.  We are also introduced to a few new monsters who dwell in the marshes: the Hobgoblins, the Marsh-hags and the Marsh-ogres. My favourite is the Marhs-hag naturally, as I've always been fascinated and horrified by Meg Mucklebones in Ridley Scott's Legend who obviously served as the rolemodel. There is also a clarification regarding Blighted Places and how they work. Basically it is up to the Loremaster whether the companions have to roll for Corruption tests, it's not an automatic even if journeying through Dark lands.

The final eight pages detail a new heroic culture: the Men of the Lake. This section follows the layout of the ones in the Adventurer's Book and has everything you need to create a companion hailing from Lake-town. It also includes Rewards and Virtues so you can keep developing her as you continue play. Generally Men of the Lake are open to new things and like to embrace new technology. They value crafting and trade which shows through their virtues and they can get some neat trinkets through their rewards.

The book ends with a ready made companion, Frida daughter of Finnulf, and then there's actually an index! I really like that Francesco/Cubicle 7 decided to include a thorough index even though the book is only 34 pages. Good job guys!

Overall I'm very impressed with the Loremasters Screen! Granted this is a smaller product in the greater scheme of things (really looking forward to The Darkening of Mirkwood and Heart of the Wild!) but they have managed to cram in a lot of information and very little of it can be considered filler. The archery competition rules are a bit over-long but that's about it, the rest is all stuff I can see genuine and frequent use for in my games. As I have yet to actually play The One Ring I can't really comment on if there are any tables missing on the screen, but I'll let you know once we get on with it.

As you can see I'm quite happy with my purchase, doubly so as GM screens tend to be a bit sub-par. But if Cubicle 7 keep up with quality releases like this and Tales from Wilderland my expectations of the next books that should be out in the first quarter of next year will go through the roof! This is a solid purchase for any The One Ring Loremaster, highly recommended!

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Review of The One Ring

I got my copy of Cubicle 7's new Lord of the Rings roleplaying game The One Ring: Adventures over the Edge of the Wild (try saying that three times fast!) last week and I spent the weekend reading through it. It's been in the works for some time and it's been apparent from the start that the authors have tried to take a new approach to roleplaying in Middle-Earth compared to earlier RPG efforts. The game was written by Francesco Nepitello together with Marco Maggi and if those names sound familiar it's probably because you've played their board game War of the Ring. If you have you already know that these guys truly know their way around Middle-Earth! If you haven't then what are you waiting for?! BGG has it listed as the top thematic game (followed by Earth Reborn!) and 15th on the overall board game ranking. It's a great game in and of itself and it also manages to be a great Lord of the Rings game!

In this review I will talk mostly about the different mechanical systems in The One Ring (TOR). Since you all know the setting pretty well I thought you'd be mostly interested in seeing how this game differs from the earlier ones from a rules standpoint. I'm not going to get too much into the nitty-gritty, but if you just want to read my concluding thoughts on the game and aren't all that interested in individual mechanics scroll down to My Thoughts.

Setting and characters

Well, I suppose I should mention something about it anyway. The One Ring takes place in the areas around Mirkwood five years after the death of Smaug. You can play as a Barding, Beorning, Dwarf, Elf, Hobbit or Woodman and you get to choose from a number of Callings: Scholar, Slayer, Treasure Hunter, Wanderer and Warden. These two choices are what will make up the core of your character, but you will also choose Skills as well as a set of Traits and some gear. So that's that.

The Set

The game comes in a slipcase containing the two core rulebooks and a set of seven custom dice. There's the Adventurer's Book (190 pages) and the Loremaster's Book (141 pages) and they're both soft cover. There are also two maps of the region of Middle-Earth relevant to the game, namely Mirkwood, the Misty Mountains and the surrounding areas. The graphic design and layout is pretty much spot-on for a Lord of the Rings roleplaying games, it even has art from John Howe himself and John Hodgson's full page spread paintings that each chapter starts with are stunning! I really don't have any complaints on the physical look of the books. Some might be disappointed that the books are not hardcover, but I actually think there are pros and cons to both the soft and hard format so it doesn't influence me in this regard. I quite like the slipcase approach as you get the sturdiness of a hardcover book with the ease of reading a softcover.

Anyway, when reading the books you can tell that the designers have allowed themselves to be inspired by many of the "new wave" indie games that have become increasingly popular in recent years. From a storytelling standpoint I'd say TOR is fairly traditionall, but there are many mechanical elements that are definitely inspired by more unorthodox games. Perhaps it's because its fresh in my mind but I can see a lot of Mouse Guard in TOR. It doesn't have the strict storytelling structure that MG has (although there's a nod towards it) but there are many mechanical and general conceptual similarites between the two.

The most obvious one might be that when playing The One Ring you divide it into two phases; first there is the Adventuring phase where the heroes are on their mission or quest and the Loremaster throws all kinds of obstacles at them. Then there's the Fellowship phase which takes place once the quest is accomplished and the heroes have some "free time" to spend as they want. It might sound like the GM/players turn of MG, but here the adventuring phase can extend over several sessions and it's not until the heroes have actually accomplished their quest that the Fellowship phase kicks in. And when it does it's really a lot more similar to the winter phase of Mouse Guard - essentially the players get to decide what their characters do during their downtime; how to spend their experience and advencement points, how to spend their treasure, where they spend their time (at home, at a haven) and if they try to use their resources to try and establish a new haven or make sure to uphold their reputation back home. Basically it's more big picture stuff, rather than going into detailed skill rolls.

Basic Mechanics

Speaking of rolls, what kind of mechanics are we talking about here? Well, the basic resolution mechanic is a dice pool; roll a special D12 (the Feat die) plus a number of D6 (the Success dice) corresponding to your skill rating, add them up and try to beat a set Target Number (TN) which is usually 14. However there are some added functions to this mechanism. First off there's a Gandalf rune and an Eye of Sauron on the Feat die in place of 12 and 11 respectively. The rune signifies an automatic success and the Eye of Sauron counts as zero and is generally used to add some additional complications if it happens to come up while you also fail the roll. The D6 dice are special as well; the numbers 1-3 are printed in an outline while 4-6 are solid black. There's also a tengwar rune on the number 6 face. The outlined numbers are used when your characters is Weary, you simply count them as zero if you happen to roll them when Weary. The tengwar rune is used to measure degrees of success, ranging from none (a narrow success) to two or more (an extraordinary success).

Although there are a lot of different mechanisms crammed into these dice the pool is actually exceedingly simple to read at a glance and compared WFRP3 (which also uses a pool of custom dice) it's a lot quicker! While I mostly like the dice pool mechanic in WFRP3 it can take some time to sift through it and come up with the actual result when you have just rolled 15 dice and they cancel each other out. In TOR you can quickly eyeball the result and see if you beat the TN but you don't have to add them all up exactly since the degree of success is taken from the tengwar runes and not from the actual number you rolled. It's quick and at the same time allows for a number of clever little uses in the system, like the aformentioned Weary mechanic. You could of course use regular D6 for all this, but it would definitely take away some of the speed. I for one will pick up another set or two once they become available separately.

There are a couple of ways to influence dice rolls. You could invoke one of your Traits (Keen-eyed, Vengeful etc) and if the Loremaster and the table in general agree that it's fitting you simply pass the test, no roll required. Or you could spend a point of Hope (kind of like fate points, but also a measure of your characters mental well being) to add the value of the relevant attribute to the final roll. This is something you can do after you've rolled so it's quite powerful, especially considering your Attribute can be as high as seven. But then again Hope is not a resource to squander as if it dips too low you can become Miserable.

Numerically speaking your character is made up of three Attributes, Body, Heart and Wits, and skills of which there are 18 divided into three categories. Your attributes range from 2 to 7 while your skills range from zero to 6. Your skill rating determines how many Success dice you get to roll besides the Feat die and your attributes can then be added to this total with a Hope point. Another little twist here is the Favoured mechanism; if the skill you're using is Favoured (marked by underlining it) you get to used the Favoured rating of the relevant Attribute, which will be 1-3 point higher than the base Attribute.

All in all I quite like the mechanics of The One Ring. They are relatively simple and easy to remember (even after just one read I feel that I have a really firm grip of the system) but there are still room for a lot of nuances and neat tricks.

Combat

There's also a fairly different take on combat as well. You start by choosing what Stance your character is in, ranging from Forward to Rearward. The further forward you are the easier it is to hit your enemy but it's also easier for them to hit you. Rearward is a bit of a special case since you can only choose that stance as long as you have two companions in close combat stance (they're basically protecting you), and you can only use and be hit by ranged weapons. This is somewhat of an abstraction but still allows for a lot of tactical decisions; general risk versus reward and more specific tactics in who should be protected in Rearward stance (the injured Beorning, or the Elf who's skilled with a bow?!).

There are no hit points in TOR, instead you use Endurance. When you get hit you loose Endurance, and when it sinks below your Fatigue value (basically your encumbrance from weapons, armour and equipment) you become Weary and only get to count the solid black numbers on the dice, and when you reach zero you pass out. But there's also another damage mechanic! At certain times (usually when rolling the Gandalf rune) you can achieve a Piercing blow, forcing your opponent to make a protection test, using his Armour, against your weapons Injury rating and if he fails he becomes Wounded. There are also additional rules for knockback (take half damage, but loose your next action) to tearing your helm off in the middle of battle (lowering your Fatigue score by 3, possibly preventing you from becoming Weary). There are also different actions you can perform depending on your stunt, like intimidating your foe or trying to rally your companions.

This all combines into making the combat feel both cinematic and true to Tolkien. It's easy to visualize the scene as you have the hardy dwarf in a forward stance with his great axe, while the Barding warden is fighting in an open stance, giving the elf enough room to use his bow to deadly effect. Fights are also quick and fairly lethal (most enemies die if you manage to Wound them) and while the heroes can rely on their Endurance there's always the risk of a Piercing blow, even when their Endurance is at max.

Oh, and it seems to be very quick during play as well. I haven't tried it out myself yet but from what I hear it's just as fast in play as it looks on paper; a fight between a group of four heroes versus nine orcs only took two rounds and a total of about 20 minutes. That's pretty rare in the RPG world I'd say!

Journeys

One of the systems in the game that certainly screams Tolkien is the way travelling is handled. It's not simply about getting from point A to point B but everything that happens in between and how it affects the heroes. When the players start planning their journey they do so using one of the large, beautifully illustrated maps that come in the set and when they've decided on their rout the Loremaster checks it on his map that is the same, except it's divided into hexes and areas are colour coded, showing how difficult they are to traverse. He makes some calculations depending on where the heroes will travel, what season it is and their means of transport. The result is how many days it will take and how many tests the characters will have to make to try and resist stuff like getting fatigued or receiving Shadow points. Most likely he will keep these numbers secret from the players though. You can see both maps in the nearby picture, the left one is the player map and the right the Loremaster's map.

During a journey the players also get to choose different roles in the party for their characters. For example, one of them must be the guide (and there can only be one) who should have a high Travell skill. Then there are roles for Scouts, Huntsmen and Look-out men. They all have different tasks during the journey and should, for example, the Scout fail on his test it might mean that the party run into an ambush, or they face an obstacle in their path and have to go around.

Fatigue and Endurance also play a large part during journeys as you will have to make several tests and might gain Fatigue as you go. And since Fatigue can make you Weary it can really lead to situations where a difficult journey through Mirkwood puts you at a serious disadvantage when you suddenly need to fight. It all comes together to make journeys a core part of the entire TOR experience and I'm very eager to see how they play out.

Corruption

There are also rules for how the corrupting influence of the Great Shadow affects the characters. When travelling through Shadow regions or experiencing something nasty you risk getting Shadow points and when your Hope becomes lower than your Shadow point total you become Miserable. In this state you are susceptible to Bouts of Madness which can result in permanent Flaws being added to your characters. What kind of Flaw depends on what your Calling is; a Treasue Hunter will get more and more greedy etc. If you aqcuire more than five of these Flaws your characters is for all purposes lost to the Shadow - basically they're driven mad. So remember to keep your Hope up!

The Rest
There are a lot more to TOR but I've tried to highlight what makes the game special to me. Other stuff that I really like is the Valour/Wisdom mechanic, how money (Treasure!) is handled and the fact that some things need upkeeping. The character advancement rules are also interesting with a lot of different options on how to develop your hero.

Naturally there is also the setting itself. I think the time period and the location is well chosen; I've always liked Mirkwood and the time between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring is certainly an interesting one, with a lot of white spots on the map so to speak. What I think might have gone unnoticed though is that Cubicle 7 has decided to do the same thing Black Industries first pioneered with the 40krp-line, and release three different core sets based on different time periods and regions. The first is The One Ring, which will be followed by The Errantries of a King, which will somehow connect with Aragorn's travels in the west, and the final release will be The War of the Ring which I think speaks for itself.

My Thoughts

Here we are then. What's my overall thoughts on the game (and remember I've only read the books, no actual play)? Well, to be honest I'm pretty bloody impressed! You rarely see a game system that so well integrates with the theme. And when that theme has such gravitas and is as well known and loved it's even more rare! As I mentioned in the beginning Francesco Nepitello knows Tolkien, he gets Tolkien and it really shows. Pretty much everything in the system feels right for the setting. It simply feels Tolkien. That's a very fuzzy kind of statement but once you sit down with the book and read it you'll understand what I mean.

The character creation system does it's part here as it's easy to make it fit over the characters from the books. Combat is the same way and when you think about the skirmishes from the books they mesh very well with what the combat system in the game would produce. And finally the journey mechanic ties it all together and I think this system is probably what brings most of the Tolkien feel to the game! The struggles and joys of the journey, the different dangers and opportunities it can bring. It's certainly what makes The One Ring stand apart from its predecessors.

There are some niggles though. Speaking of the journey mechanic for example, there is a bit of calculation involved when plotting a rout and if you try to do it on the fly during a session there will probably be 5-10 minutes of downtime as you figure everything out. This can be remedied by plotting out likely routes ahead of time, but it's still there. I'm also a little bit wary that the journey could simply become a long string of dice rolls. This is very much up to the Loremaster and players to act it out, but I think if you play with the wrong people, or in the wrong mood it might become simply an exercise in dice rolling.

There's also the Encounter mechanic which tries to bring a bit of "social combat" into the game. While I like the initiative and the overall idea of it, I think it needs to be fleshed out more. It's hard to tell since I haven't seen it in action yet, but I think some more roleplay-oriented players might feel stifled by it while the more rules-oriented might be confused as what to do next.

Finally, there is no magic. Well, no look-I'm-a-Wizard-kind of magic anyway, although there are some subtle things in the game, more suitable to Middle-Earth. I don't think this is a bad thing, quite the opposite in fact! But I thought it was worth mentioning in any case.

So what we have here is a great game in general and a spectacular Middle-Earth game in particular! Now, I'm some of my opinions will change once I've actually played it but just from reading the book I'm very impressed. You have elegant, slightly indie-esque but with traditional roots game mechanics that are integrated very well with the setting combined with heroic, but not too heroic, characters that feel real in just the right ways. And the smell of Middle-Earth are all over the pages. I think The One Ring just might have jumped to the top of my want to play list!


For the numerically minded readers out there I'd say this is a strong four out of five at first reading.

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