The Harad Desert - A Campaign Guide

[Robin Smallburrow]

Well, its taken me all of last year and a bit of this year, but here is the fruit of my labours, I hope you guys like it, a guide to TOR 'down south' in the desert lands.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/656 ... 0Guide.pdf

I will put in in my signature as part of updating all my resources, hopefully tomorrow. Enjoy!

Robin S.

[Rich H]

I'll probably never use it Robin, but this is an awesome effort - well done fella! Very impressive!

[Halbarad]

I've only had a quick skim, but it looks amazing. When the Adventurers Guide (with the possibility of Gondorian characters appears) it would be a bit of a change from the ME norm. I might very well use this in the future.

Well done Mr Smallburrow.

[Magus76]

Very well done!
I have some southern elements in my current campaign, and I will definately take inspiration from your work.

/Magus76

[Boneguard]

Nice work.

[Glorelendil]

Wow. Once again, I'm astonished by the thought and detail you put into your creations.

Constructive criticism (and ENTIRELY my personal preference): I find the detail level of the rules in your supplements to be normal for an RPG, but more specific than in TOR. One thing I love about TOR is that the rules are abstracted down to a simple core. I'm sure some LMs like having lots of tables, and specifics about (for example) how many rolls you have make depending on temperature increments, but for me TOR is a refreshing break from those kinds of rules.

To take the temperature example, instead of setting a temperature and making the characters roll against it, I would let them roll Fatigue and if they fail then one option for explaining the failure is that it's too damned hot.

Or, to make an analogy: I see lots of forum posts with people unhappy with the Rearward stance rules. They want more detailed sub-rules for different situations. Which is 100% fine and a matter of taste. I, on the other hand, love the simplicity of Rearward stance, with the proviso that if the situation demands it the LM can override.

So....one suggestion for you, that would make it more appealing to players like me (if you care) would be to offer two variants to some of your special cases. E.g. "Rule of Thumb" and "Detailed Rules", maybe with the detailed ones in a side-bar so that somebody skimming the work can visually work around it.

But that personal preference aside, again I'm really impressed with the work you put into this. Makes me want to venture out into the desert.

[Mim]

You've done an amazing job on this Robin, thank you! When you first discussed your adventure last year & mentioned that you might consider this, I hoped you'd write it with your usual attention to accuracy, & I'm not disappointed.

I've written a couple of adventures that might take heroes southward for a change of pace, & I can use your guide for all types of gaming goodness.

The only exception I have is that you include the Variags of Khand. I like what you've done with them in terms of details, however, I envision them more as Easterlings (though I did briefly consider everything from Medo-Persians to Seljuk Turks to ...) At any rate, the professor never really elaborated on them & it's a minor point.

A beautiful job Robin!

[Otaku-sempai]

I would say that you sell Far Harad short. Besides fertile hill country, it should also include savannah, jungle and tropical rain forest.

Your discription of Variag Men reads spot-on to me. However, I'm not sure that the picture you used as an illustration was very accurate. It looked more like a generic Haradrim to me.

[Falenthal]

Your discription of Variag Men reads spot-on to me. However, I'm not sure that the picture you used as an illustration was very accurate. It looked more like a generic Haradrim to me.

The Variags are an adaptation Tolkien made of the real-world Varangian culture. See it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians

...and just take a look at the first sentence:
The Varangians or Varyags (Old Norse: Væringjar; Greek: Βάραγγοι, Βαριάγοι, Varangoi, Variagoi) was the name given by Greeks and East Slavs to Vikings

Also the Tolkien Gateway (http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Variags) gives interesting information regarding this:
Variag is a Slavic word derived from Norse Varingar "mercenary people" (vár "contract"). The Varamgoa Guard were Norse body-guards of the Byzantine Emperor and founded Kiev. In modern Russian it means "travelling pedlar".

Just write "angus mcbride varangians" in the google image searcher and you'll get a lot of fantastic pictures of them.



Hope it helps!

[Tolwen]

The Variags are an adaptation Tolkien made of the real-world Varangian culture. See it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians [...]

Well, is this an interpretation based on the similarity of names or something stated elsewhere?
The above interpretation would make the Variags essentially Northmen (germanic stock; the eastern variant of Vikings) and I am a bit skeptical about a - relatively - simple equalisation of the two.

Cheers
Tolwen