Keening Bog-stone

[bencoulthard]

Sorry C7 but I think you've screwed the pooch with this reward. It's way too powerful to have as a starter item and it creates an anti-ambush device that'll ruin any of the LMs carefully planned encounters going forward. I wouldn't mind so much if it required an awareness roll to notice which would in part mimic Frodo not noticing his sword was glowing blue in the films until it was too late - but as it is you don't even have to be looking at it as it wails conveniently for the lazy player.

This kind of second age wonder is the kind of thing Galadriel might give out in the last moments of a tense campaign to combat the growing shadow - it's certainly not the kind of thing that your average lake man should be getting as a reward before the first adventure has even started.

Banned from my campaigns!

[Mim]

I was thinking the same thing but haven't used it yet. I'll be curious to see if any LMs introduce one & find it to be overpowering. That said, however, I'm looking forward to the write-up of magical artifacts in Rivendell.

[MordorsB1tch]

...

Banned from my campaigns!

Ditto Ben. Any kind of auto/sixth sense power like this is like kryptonite to GMs in any game! It will inevitably be forgotten about and require retcons of encounters...or at least sections of them.

James

[Francesco]

Does the fact that it works only with creatures with Hate Sunlight or Denizen of the Dark make it all-powerful in your campaigns anyway? I know that there are many monsters with those abilities, but then again, not all.

Anyway, if it is indeed too strong in your games, one way to nerf it a bit is to take out Hate Sunlight or Denizen of the Dark from the abilities detected. But remember, Virtues and Rewards are supposed to be good.

Francesco
P.S.: thanks to Davethelost for the punctualisation below

[DavetheLost]

"Vibrates and emits a soft wailing sound" doesn't actually seem heme breaking to me.

If it is stuffed deep in a backpack or pouch the vibration is likely to go unnoticed and the wailing might well be muffled to inaudibility. Even worn as a necklace it might not be enough to waken a sound sleeper. I know I have missed my phone ringing and vibrating in my pocket before.

I would be surprised if the vibration was stronger than a cell hone, and I would not describe a full volume ringtone as "soft". I think it would be easy enough to miss if the wearer were engaged in loud conversation or in a noisy environment.

Also it doesn't detect every foe and ill wisher, just those with Hate Sunlight or Denizen of the Dark this will include most Orcs, but not men, attercops, wolves or most notably trolls. Plenty of foes that it will give no warning of, and evn for the ones it does 100 yards is not very far at all outdoors.

I would allow it, if only because most players are likely to view it as an infallible alarm and become less watchful than they should be.

[Chris Gardiner]

Did Sting break the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings?

[Rich H]

It will inevitably be forgotten about and require retcons of encounters...or at least sections of them.

James

Rather than it being overpowered, that's more my concern. These kind of things get forgotten about all the time in RPGs.

[MordorsB1tch]

Looking for reasons why it might not be heard...or seeking to nerf the reward are both indications that someting is boken with the reward itself.

Part of the beauty of the One Ring system (and the thing that draws me to it the most) is the fact that it offers definite difficulties which the GM must tell the players in order to allow them to spend hope to know they will succeed.

This core mechanic is very different from most games where diffculties and target numbers (or their equivalents) are often kept hidden from the players by the GM. It sets up the entire feel of the game as much as the setting or artwork does. There is, I think, an underlying sense of both honesty and transparency in the rules set which greatly helps develop the trust in the game...and by default the GM running it.

Thus, i think that trying to undo or limit a power the player has runs against the natural flow and ethic of the game. I dont think its fair.

I'd rather remove (as I have done in my game) the reward entirely until i can think of an alternative that maintains game flow, game flavour and (my view of) game ethics.

Luckily...Lakemen have no shortage of useful and interesting virtues and rewards.

[DavetheLost]

I wasn't meaning to suggest that the LM should be adversarial in looking for ways to diminish the efficacy of the stone. Rather I was pointing out that like Sting's blue glow (which can't be seen when the blade is sheathed) the stone does not function lke an alarm siren blasting out a warning. It is more subtle, in keeping with much of Middle Earth's magic.

I do think it is worth noting the extensive list of potential foes that the stone provides no warning against. Several people seemed to be afraid that the Lore Master would never be able to set an Ambush again.

I was pointing out that fears of it being a game breaking, or even game changing, power seem over rated. I think it can be reasonably and logically subdued in use.

Remember also that if it is loud enough to alert the entire fellowship it is probably loud enough to also alert nearby Orcs. It could a great hindrance and annoyance if trying to sneak through goblin infested areas.

[Stormcrow]

Comparisons to elvish blades are not entirely appropriate here: in the books they're not used as passive orc-alarms; at most the character who has already drawn the blade is notes that there are or are not orcs nearby, and behaves accordingly. Gondolin blades weren't made to be orc-alarms; they glow blue because they're eager to kill orcs.

The Keening Bog-stone is an entirely different artifact, obviously designed specifically to act as an alarm, and nothing else. They're meant to be passive detectors.

I wouldn't worry too much about retconning if you forget about them. Players are supposed to take a more active role in narrating the game in The One Ring, and if the player with a Keening Bog-stone forgets, at the opening of an ambush, about his stone, then obviously his character simply didn't notice the stone keening. The encounter would go something like this:

LM: And then a dozen orcs burst into the clearing where you're camped! They've ambushed you.
Player: My Keening Bog-stone alerted me to the orcs before they appeared. I rouse the company before the orcs enter the clearing.
LM: Okay, then there's no ambush; you're fighting defensively and have initiative.

If the player forgets about his bog-stone, the encounter would go like this:

LM: And then a dozen orcs burst into the clearing where you're camped! They've ambushed you.
[Play out a battle in which the orcs have ambushed the company and have initiative]
LM: And with that blow, the last orc is slain.
Player: Hmm... Wait a minute! I have a Keening Bog-stone! Shouldn't that have alerted me to the orcs before they attacked?
LM: Well, you forgot about your stone until now, so obviously your character didn't notice its keening at the time.

And if the player gets annoyed with that and declares that his character will always be listening for the keening of the stone (there's one in every game), the LM should say, "Fine. But if you forget about it, your character forgets about it too." Protests of "but my character would remember things I don't" should fall on deaf ears.