Location art

[Ferretz]

I love the artwork in the TOR books, especially the ones of the different locations. If I should point out some of my favorites, I would say that the birds eye views of Imladris (from the Rivendell book) and the one of Lake-Town are high on the list. And the one of the Dol Goldur gate... and the Hall of the Elvenking. And... well, you get the idea.

But, I noticed a new piece of artwork in the revised core book, on page 52. It seems to be of a Dwarven hall entrance. Is this a specific location in the setting? It seems too small to be Erebor. But if it is a different Dwarven hall, which is it?

Eirik

[Jon Hodgson]

Well spotted.

When we did the original core set, we made a bunch of images showing typical dwellings for each culture - not named places but places which could well exist somewhere on the map. So we have the Beornings' round houses, the woodmen settlement, and the elf settlement. Some didn't see the light of day due to space constraints, and that's where that one came from.

I always liked the magpie on the lookout for shiny things in that one.

[Ferretz]

Nice! I often use these pictures to show the players how places look in the setting, and the birds eye view in some of the pieces really help with that.

And not to forget another great piece: The picture of the Easterly Inn. You really do not get any more Tolkien-ish than that.

Would be excellent to have some of the art in higher resolution to use as a desktop background. Would that be possible at some point?

Eirik

[Corvo]

...And the b&w illustration in page 66. It's great.
I'm fairly sure it's brand new.

[Jon Hodgson]

We did a bunch of desktops/ipad wall papers when we first released TOR - I'll see if I can get the time to do some more.

I loved doing the Easterly Inn. Something very satisfying about that painting. Plus I put Gandalf and Bilbo into it for absolutely no good reason whatsoever.

Page 66 is by Andy Hepworth, and was commissioned for Hobbit Tales. We felt some of those cards were so beautiful that they would stand another outing at full size. I'll pass on the kind words.

[Ferretz]

Yes, I don't have Hobbit Tales yet, as I'm not very into card games (apart from Gloom by Atlas Games), but I might get it for the artwork, which is excellent.

Edit: And I almost forgot, Hobbit Tales can be used with The One Ring, right? Now I have to get it.

Eirik

[Jon Hodgson]

Hobbit Tales is one of those card games that isn't really very "card gamey" if that makes sense? It's not a deck builder or a deep strategy thing.

One day, some time when I have some spare time (ha ha) I'd love to put out the blooper reel from this video. We recorded a ton of games, so there's tons of footage. Some of it not suitable for a family audience...

[Ferretz]

Yes, seems like Hobbit Tales is a bit like Gloom in that it's more of a story-telling game? I'll see if I can pick it up at some point.

E.

[shipwreck]

Another good thing about Hobbit Tales, besides the Hazard interaction, is that you have quality illustrations in card form. So, for example, I actually gave a player a card with a locket on it to show her character receiving the item from a LM character.

[Robin Smallburrow]

Could we have a list of the illustrations used for Rivendell as there are a lot of wonderful pictures but I'm not sure what they are about??

Robin S.