We want you for the Fellowship of the One Ring!

[Jon Hodgson]

Is that the kind of thing you don't want on RPGnet, Jon?

That pretty much covers it, yes.

[DavetheLost]

Then I won't post it there. Just here where people will get the joke. I don't just play a raving C7 fanboy on the Internet, I am one in real life.

[aramis]

D&D is a terrible game for emulating Tolkien. Even Gandalf is only a first level wizard. Gary Gygax said so in a very early article called "Tolkien and D&D".

Gandalf's 5th level, not 1st. He uses at least one 3rd level spell - Lightning Bolt - and several second level spells. 3rd level spells require being 5th level.
See Dragon, Issue 5, Page 27. (That's Bill Seligman's excellent "Gandalf was only a Fifth-Level Magic-User?" essay, in the March 1977 edition. I'll note that the truth is, the article's just as valid for OE (for which it was written), AD&D 1E, AD&D 2E, BX/BECMI, 3E, 3.5E, and 5E. Tho', in 3.X, he's more likely a Sorcerer rather than a Wizard.)

That all said, Seligman contends that Saruman is only about 8th level.

So - if you're going to snark about the big target, at least get the basic math correct.

And note that D&D Next (5E) does Tolkien better than any prior edition...

... but that's still, "Not very well..."

[DavetheLost]

Actually I was thinking of Rob Kuntz's "From the Sorcerer's Scroll" column in The Dragon Vol 2, No. 7 "Tolkein(sic) in Dungeons & Dragons.

When does Gandalf cast "Lightning Bolt"? I don't recall that one.

But, my purpose was not to take shots at D&D. That was just a lead in. To rate D&D as an emulation of any pre-existing fiction is to miss the point of both D&D and fiction. D&D is inspired by fiction, but it was not designed to emulate any specific fiction exactly. Nor of course were any of the fictions in the famous Appendix N written to emulate D&D.

[zedturtle]

You know what rpgnet is missing? That's right! A thread about Rivendell.

Well that's service. Thanks ZT!

That was more dumb luck than anything else, but the timing did work out...

[Andrew]

You know what's missing from RPGNow? Some reviews of Rivendell...

EDIT: oh, and The One Ring revised edition...

[Glorelendil]

When does Gandalf cast "Lightning Bolt"? I don't recall that one.

“But not Gandalf. Bilbo’s yell had done that much good. It had wakened him up wide in a splintered second, and when goblins came to grab him, there was a terrific flash like lightning in the cave, a smell like gunpowder, and several of them fell dead.”

[Hermes Serpent]

Sounds more like a stun grenade. I was pretty close to a thunderflash in my school combined cadet force days and that was nasty enough.

[Jon Hodgson]

Nonsense. That's clearly Bilbo's reportage of Gandalf using his service revolver.

[Lugija]

I think Gandalf put his still warm pipe into his pocket where it accidentally lit a firework.

He made the Nazgûl retreat before the gates of Minas Tirith by trying to put his glasses on and the sunlight reflected from them.