I logged onto Alliance today to see what is avaliable. And I noticed under The One Ring a product called Heart of the Wild. I was wondering if anybody knew what this was. Or if it was a mistake on Alliance's part.

What is "Alliance"?

I know, I know. It's an agreement between powers, but that's not important right now.

But seriously, what is it?

I just saw that too! What is that?!? Is that a surprise product? Very intriguing.

Bobby.....Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?

Do you like movies about gladiators?

But seriously, what's Alliance? Is that the C7 store?

Oh, uhmmmm. Trade Secret!?

Actually they are a game supply company. I work in a game store in Pembroke MA called Medieval Starship. (Wish I could claim coming up with that name) So we have an account with Alliance. It's where we get a lot of our product. They keep updated info online to see there current inventory. They just updated there The One Ring content. I always check to see if they have the other One Ring material in. It's quite popular in my store. And that was one thing listed. It could be a mistake. They are organized more by product number. Or they could have just entered something ahead of time.

But shhhh. Don't tell anyone. We like gamers to think we just know the right people to get our stuff through the underground.

Bobby....you ever seen a grown man naked?

Alliance Game Distributors offers the largest selection of Hobby Games products of any distributor in the US – a full line distributor with an extensive selection of Role-playing Games, Collectible Card Games, Miniature Games, Anime, Board Games, Brushes, Paints, Dice, and Hobby Accessories. With over 30 dedicated sales reps whose singular goal is to help your store succeed, and a completely integrated preorder, ordering and warehouse system with direct access to live inventory and backfill capability at their disposal, you can be assured that your order will be handled with precision and care to detail.

Alliance also publishes Game Trade Magazine, the gaming industry's leading consumer preorder guide. Each issue is filled with adventures, fiction, and product previews from industry icons, and features the Alliance Preorder Guide an informative catalog offering advance solicitations, complete with descriptions and images, for items releasing in the next few months. GTM provides the perfect opportunity for stores to learn about upcoming products, and to inform their customers of future product before the store's orders are due.

The Red Zone... (obviously some fellow Airplane fans on here)

Could be what C7 are calling the Rivendell supplement. That's due out sometime this year (hoping close to the stated August than later in the year).

I hope so. I'm really looking forward to that. I am at work now and Alliance definitely lists it as a The One Ring product. It being called The One Ring:Heart of The Wild and it's sku is in order with the other books. Though an odd name for Rivendell.


....er, I hope I didn't spill some beans here. If so everybody ignore this post so we don't spoil the surprise.

The Heart of the Wild is a region sourcebook for Mirkwood and the Vales of Anduin.

We're trying not to talk too much about products until the book is in graphic design so that it doesn't take too long from announcement to release, but that is sometimes incompatible with the business side of things - we have to give distributors a lot of notice that products are on their way.

We'll update you with some more details once we are finished with the final edit

Dom

So... more stuff to buy, but not imminent!

Anyone know where there's a dragon horde to fund my TOR library?

I bet there's a fine one in Nargothrond. Hope you can hold your breath.

Wow! Great great great news! But please don't let us wait so much this time

You sir have fallen prey to classic adventurers dooming misshap.

"What???? A dragon HORDE???? OH CRAP! I thought you said we were going after a dragon HOARD!!!"

I blame the typo on auto spellcheck.

Oops!

Completely off topic...

That might be an interesting stunt to pull during an otherwise completely legit game. Just take a session and go completely Monty Hall...

Having to deal with a Dragon Horde instead of Hoard.
Perhaps the dragons are all illusions generated by Dwarves working a flame-throwing apparatus?
The apparatus jams and the Dwarves blow the illusion by cursing, moving outside of the illusion covered area, etc.
The Dwarves get upset and engage in 3 Stooges / Keystone Kops antics.
Things get strange after that.

Next gaming session, go back to the beginning and play it right. The characters encounter a Dragon Hoard.

Too funny, Garn.

That's actually the signature quote a friend of mine has on our gaming messageboard.

(the one I made above). The first time I read it, I laughed out loud - my mind going crazy on thinking just how comical that would be if played out.

I've loved everything so far, and what's coming looks to be just as excellent as we've come to expect. However, with this Heart of the Wild being a sourcebook for Mirkwood and the wilderland between the forest and the Misty Mountains, I wonder when we will leave Wilderland for the time being and move on to other parts of Middle-earth and timelines in the story. I, for one, want more for Rhovanion than just Rivendell and to see more material set during The War of the Ring.

TOR is set 70 years before the events of the Lord of the Rings and although the original plan by C7 and SG was to release three core books, their plan changed and now they are concentrating on supplements to expand the original core book.

My group are close to completing Tales from Wilderland, but we are still only a few years into that 70 year period and have barely scratched the surface of Wilderland, so there's a lot more to do.

I'm sure the game will expand beyond those boundaries, but Darkening of Mirkwood is going to span 30 years of campaign, whcih will keep the party busy.

Don't forget, the game is not quite a year old yet!

I'll close with a quote from their One Ring Release schedule for 2012...

We also realised that moving away from the core set structure would give us a greater degree of freedom with our releases, and that we would be able to cover more areas of Middle-earth and playable cultures sooner.

Still, it seems likely that we're going to have a loooong wait before we see Eriador, Gondor, Rohan and Mordor detailed. And I must admit I'm curious to see how TOR will interpret the lands and peoples of the East and South.