Keening Bog-stone

[Chris Gardiner]

I have seen far too many of this type of discussion engaged in a sort of gamer navel-gazing concerning issues that have not arisen in actual play, and. Are not likely to arise in actual play.

Absolutely. God knows, naval-gazing is part of the fun of being a gamer, but it has to take a back seat to actual play.

I've got no problem with this item. Apologies to bencoulthard, but saying it'll "ruin any of the LM's carefully-planned encounters going forward" is hyperbolic, unless the extent of "carefully planned encounters" is "an ambush by orcs".

If a player chooses to spend points on this item it's an explicit message to the LM saying "I don't want to be successfully ambushed by orcs". That's not a problem, that's valuable information. If they want to spend their points on that rather than a damage bonus or whatever, it's obviously important to them, and they probably wouldn't have enjoyed all those orc-ambushes I was planning.

I love bold, absolute mechanics like this because they're very clear player communication. Like if a Barding player takes Birthright, he's saying he wants to be able to hand-wave away most financial concerns. It's like having a platinum card. "Let me pay for that, fellows! Or at least two of you." They're also big, strong fictional elements that help establish setting and inspire new stories.

[bencoulthard]

Everyone's entitled to their opinion... I trust my own because I've been running munchkin free games for friends for over 25 years.

My simple point that seems to have got lost in the mix is that having an item that defines a key aspect of all future interactions with certain creatures i.e. that your bog-stone alarm will go off and you'll know they are just ahead, or around the corner, or down that hole... is fundamentally untolkieny. There is no precedent for it in the books. Even those ancient and powerful items which are described and used, like Sting, don't give their users this level of awareness. The bog-stone is unbalanced compared to other rewards and won't be appearing in my campaign anymore... and in the spirit of TOR even the removal of the aforementioned stone from one of my players has been written up as a story by that player - who has acquired something more balanced instead.

Is there an end discussion button - because we've come full circle...