The Attention of Sauron (Zed's new EoM)

[zedturtle]

There was an eye in the Dark Tower that did not sleep. He knew it had become aware of his gaze. A fierce eager will was there. It leaped towards him, almost like a finger he felt it, searching for him.

Once Sauron reclaims Mordor and begins to rebuild Barad-dûr he will begin to focus once again on those who seek to oppose him. In the wilds and in the darkness, his servants will answer the call of their ancient master and it may seem that the shadows themselves oppose the heroes.

In game terms, each hero active in the years after Sauron's declaration in 2951 has a score representing the likelihood that their actions will gain the attention of the dark lord or his agents, called Eye Awareness. Each hero also has another value, the Hunt Threshold, which represents how likely the Shadow is to respond to those actions.

At the beginning of an Adventuring Phase, a hero's Eye Awareness score is equal to the higher of their Valour or Wisdom scores, plus their Permanent Shadow score. Each additional remarkable magical item that the hero wields increases the Eye Awareness score by one.

The Hunt Threshold

Sauron's traditional foes are more likely to attract the attention of his agents than unknown heroes. The Hunt Threshold for each character should be set at:

• High Elves - 10
• Other Elves - 12
• High-born Men (Dunedain and the ruling class of Gondor) - 12
• Dwarves - 14
• Middle Men (Rhovanion, Rohan, Eriador and most of Gondor) - 14
• Hobbits and other Outsiders (Lossoth, Woses, etc.) - 16

Once set, the Hunt Threshold does not change.

Attracting the Eye

There are several ways that a hero's Eye Awareness score may be raised:

• Rolling an Eye of Sauron on a Common Skill task.
• Employing a magical virtue (see Rivendell and The Cost of Magic sidebar for more information)
• Engaging the servants of the Shadow (in game terms, if the heros have a combat scene with Black Uruks, Orc Captains, Ringwraiths or other direct servants of Sauron)
• Entering or abiding in a place where Sauron or his servants once resided
• Any other suitable actions as determined by the Loremaster

Revelation Episodes

When a hero's Eye Awareness is raised, and the new score is equal to or above their Hunt Threshold then a Revelation Episode has been triggered. See Rivendell for more details.

After the Revelation Episode, every hero that faced the Revelation Episode has their Eye Awareness score reset to their starting value.

- - - - - - - - -

So Revelation Episodes only occur when Eye Awareness is raised, and size of the group doesn't matter. Heroes want to stay together, so that they get their Eye Awareness value reset.

Questions/Concerns?

I'm going to include a slightly expanded version of this for the new version of my magic rules, since I think it will help there too.

[Wbweather]

I like this a lot.

[zedturtle]

Should Hunt Threshold in this system be modified by the Hunt Modifier table on page 114 of Rivendell?

I'm thinking, yes.

[Glorelendil]

At first I liked the idea of counting Permanent Shadow toward starting value, but the more I think about it, the less I'm sure. I'd like to see some discussion about that.

[zedturtle]

Hmmm. In my head, it represents the natural tendency for evil to seek evil... someone who has collected Permanent Shadow enough that its relevant to the score has probably come up on the 'let's corrupt this guy or kill him' list.

Of course, the whole Hunt is sort of esoteric anyways... I don't think we're meant to take things quite as literally as we spell them out in the game mechanics.

[Angelalex242]

Better idea:

Starting Value is +1 per flaw, not +1 per permanent shadow.

[zedturtle]

Better idea:

Starting Value is +1 per flaw, not +1 per permanent shadow.

Hmmm... that's more complicated to explain and not as elegant. What Permanent Shadow are you thinking shouldn't contribute?

[Deadmanwalking]

I'd strongly advocate putting Mirkwood Elves back in the same bracket with Men and Dwarves. That's the way the official rules have it, and seems like an unnecessary and punitive change, given their lack of mechanical benefits over other PCs. Besides which, there's little evidence Sauron notices or cares about Thranduil's people any more than he does most others, making it thematically unnecessary as well.

[zedturtle]

Okay, so do you think that High Elves and Dunedain should be distinguished as well?

I.e. should it be

10 - HE
12 - DU
14 - ME, MM, DW
16 - HO

or

12 - HE, DU
14 - ME, MM, DW
16 - HO

[Deadmanwalking]

Oh, I'd definitely keep High Elves at 10.

Thematically, there's a reason Elrond didn't send any with the Fellowship, and mechanically, they're treated differently from even Dunedain in several ways, including higher Eye Awareness in the official version of that. Maintaining that distinction seems reasonable and warranted.