That would, I think, set up well for a campaign which eventually involves the defense of Lothlorien, which would be quite interesting, as the burning of Lothlorien is one of those events which Tolkien only mentions but never really shows us.

IIRC it's "only" the border areas of Lórien that take some real damage from the orcish attacks. The core of Lórien is never penetrated ot damaged in the war.

Cheers
Tolwen

Given that this is a RPG, how successful those attacks are may well depend on the PCs actions.

On saying that, I don't think the Darkening of Mirkwood will go that far in the timeline.

Perhaps this is because of the PCs!

What a tale that would be!!!!

I have a question about the dice packs. When they come out, are we going to be seeing those at our FLGS? If so, is the msrp going to be the same as the pre-order price (what with shipping being different, and all)?

That could be fitted nicely in the histories as told:

Though Galadriel and Nenya (as the "power" mentioned here) are surely not among the PC's (normally... ), they may be among those whose valour contributed to the defeat of the enemy's forces.

Cheers
Tolwen

So you are saying that the PCs distracting Sauron from going to Lothlorien would be a better approach. I could see that being awesome too.

Fair enough. It still could be quite fun to be involved in defending those outlying areas.

I like your thinking Tolwen & Skywalker - the player-heroes' hard work precipitates the opportunity for Galadriel to tackle the Nazgul-led threat to her realm. Perhaps the heroes 'clear the path' for that confrontation, or perhaps they discover & foil some secret diabolical Shadow plot that would've penetrated Lorien's defences and hurt or neutralised Galadriel (or Celeborn), diverting her from the primary Shadow assault.

I'm not aware of the actual demise of Beorn (I don't believe the canon details this?) - so just maybe the heroes are involved in the timely arrival of Beorn & his forces to aid the elves in this battle, and perhaps this is where Beorn falls ???
This closer proximity now to the war in the south may also have expedited Grimbeorn's arrival for the Battle of Morannon?
... I haven't researched whether chronology & geography allow for this conjecture to play out, but my intuition likes it. What say ye folks?

I think Grimbeorn is leader of the Beornings during the War of the Ring. I don't think Tolkien actually mentions when Beorn dies (or what of).

I wouldn't be at all surprised if his death show up in an official TOR adventure. (If it doesn't I'm certainly going to write one about it).

As far as I recall, Grimbeorn wasn't at the Battle of Morannon was he?

Yep - Old Grimbeorn led the Beornings during the War of The Ring, as mentioned by Gloin pre- the Council of Elrond... this implies that Beorn passed prior to the Shadow assault on Lothlorien, and hence my conjected plotline doesn't work after all. That said - perhaps the Player-Heroes bring Grimbeorn to join the fray ??

I don't know why I think that Grimbeorn appeared at the final stand at the Battle of Morannon... I'm sure I read that somewhere, but now I can't put my finger on it. D'oh!

Mayhaps Beorn's heroic final act was to clear the Mountain Pass of stirring goblins, so that his folk could continue to keep it clear (& collect toll) from that point. Perhaps Beorn took Bolg's successor with him?
Yes - I agree that we're likely to see this idea developed by the TOR gang.

Any release date for Tales from Wilderland?

PDF is out. Print is May/June.

So, next up (after the print version of Tales from Wilderland) is the Lorekeeper's Screen and the Laketown Sourcebook, yeah? What's the timeframe look like on those?

Also, will you guys be doing the "pre-orders get an advance pdf" thing again? Because that would be sweet.

This is the latest word: http://www.cubicle7.co.uk/our-games/the-on...-schedule-2012/

I'm reposting this general C7 update from Dom in this thread: http://cubicle7.clicdev.com/f/index.php?tr...opic=2841&st=28 , with TOR specific news highlighted:

Thanks for the update - disappointing news re: Tales from Wilderland but good to know coming in August. Planning to run 'don't leave the path' in July!

Any news re: more core sets and advancing the timeline?

It is wildly frustrating.

This page should help you out!:

http://www.cubicle7.co.uk/our-games/the-on...-schedule-2012/

Fabulous!

Delighted to see that Rivendell includes info on Rangers!

Sounds as if 'darkening of mirkwood' is the release that carries timeline forward.

Must say, it is a great game. I ran my first session last Monday for a bunch of veteran RPG'ers, all of whom had played MERP, read lots of Tolkien etc and we had a superb evening. They liked how it got the 'saxon/norse' feel - particularly things like how 'awe' can be used to kick off an encounter and that valour prized.

Have the game's designers mentioned anything about the possibility of releasing future TOR two book format as one book with updated/clarified rules?

It's about the only thing preventing this game being the finest ever.

Thanks

I like the two book format, actually. I will agree that some of the information is arranged a bit counter intuitively, but the extended index has largely resolved that issue. At the end of the day, for me it's mostly about gameplay, and even if things are not arranged as I would like, the gameplay is great. Plus, nowadays, with the internet, and things like this forum, we can get rules clarifications so much easier than we could when I first starting gaming twenty-(mumbled second number) years ago.

True.

Is there a lot of page flipping required then? I've only played the game once as a player so I wasn't aware of it.

Kind of yes and kind of no.

When reading through the books, in a cover-to-cover manner, they actually flow extremely well. They represent a far more natural flow than is commonly seen in a RPG manual.

The problem occurs when trying to find a reference later on. Both the TOC and the Index were based primarily on the first level or two of headings - but when spot checking information you generally need something at the 3-5 heading level (depends on how stuff is arranged). So it can be frustrating to find a reference you vaguely remember. In a time critical situation, with only the TOC and original Index, it could seriously break immersion.

Once you did find the reference, it made sense why it was there, but it also was annoying because either it should have been repeated elsewhere (where it was also pertinent), or it should have all been merged together. The recent release of the Extended Index has resolved this issue for me so far.

If you were considering purchasing the game, you will not regret it. As with all first edition games, there are always places where just a little more attention / consideration would have resulted in a better (perfect?) product.

Thanks for the feedback.

Any news if/when the books will be reprinted with updated/clarified rules?

None.

There is a rumour that C7 may split the core set into three books instead of two.

Not sure I get what you mean by that.

You may want to check out the latest Hobbit movie news.

Ah yes, of course

From Dom in the Tales thread, August 3rd:

Any release days for the Heart of the Wild and the Darkening of Mirkwood?

We'll certainly let you know as soon as we have them.


We have a much clearer idea of the LM's Screen dates as of today. Preorders should be shipping next week in the US, then 7 to 10 days later from the UK. That means it will make it into stores for the 7th of November, all being well.

Oh by the way is any of them hardcover?

When might they ship to Canada?

Anyone?

Hi Farinal,
I believe both will be softcover.

Hi Brooke,
I believe - though I will need to confirm this - Canadian orders ship from our US warehouse, so they should be en route now.

Any news when they hit Europe (Sweden )


/Khamul

Yup - Swedish orders come out of the Uk, so that means they'll be leaving the UK for Sweden sometime in the next week or so. Arrival times dependant on carriage.

I haven't yet had a chance to enquire as to whether they've hit the UK warehouse yet, but it's on my to-do list.

Sweet!

/wolf