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Hello all, new to the forum here. First the obligatory laudations: This RPG is amazing. It encapsulates the spirit of Tolkien Legendarium better than any of the other LOTR RPGs I've played. I'm looking forward to getting a group together and running a game very soon!

I've read the wonderful Dunedain fan supplement, and this is not to take away from any of the hard work the makers of it have put into it, but I just have a nitpick that I'm curious about in terms of other folks here.

Dunedain lifespans are listed at 3x that of other Men, (middle men, men of twilight etc.). But the thing that has always nagged me about this is the fact is that metric (taken from the appendices) is making reference to Aragorn. Chieftain of the Dunedain, Ranger of the North, King of the Reunited High Kingdom and he who is of Elven and Maiar blood.

Dunedain are longer lived than other men, this makes sense, but the only metrics we have are from Kingly lines. The problem here being that we don't know how old Halabarad was, no any of Numenorean descent that isn't of the line of Elendil.

I've speculated that maybe the Northern Dunedain are 120-150 (the age the fan supplment says they usually retire from adventuring coincidentally ) and the men of gondor, the noblity of greater Numenorean blood quantum at least, from 90-120 (the age Faramir died). Obviously this is speculation, and I can see how going with the reference to Aragorn's age makes sense because its something we actually know and concretely have.

Once more, this isn't to detract from the fantastic fan supplements, I know Rich H and several others a lot of great fan stuff (I've lurked for a while now ). So just curious what other's thoughts are.

And a question: I can't remember where I heard about a Rivendell book (which may detail the Northern Dunedain Rangers, including Player-hero options) and something called "Errantry of the King" in reference to being possible future TOR books? Or did I conjure this up out of wishful thinking

Welcome to the Forums!

Nope, you didn't conjure it up out of wishful thinking

Their future supplement Rivendell (TBC) is supposed to contain Rangers of the North & Elves of Rivendell.

I can't wait. Just so you know, however, they only announce their releases when they're near to shipping out or already on their way, so we all have a bit of a wait.

The flip side is that they've cancelled Errantries of the King in order to concentrate on a larger number of briefer books that cover Eriador. If they follow their current format, this will work out great because we'll have more RPG goodness.

DunadanSpade wrote: I've speculated that maybe the Northern Dunedain are 120-150 (the age the fan supplment says they usually retire from adventuring coincidentally ) and the men of gondor, the noblity of greater Numenorean blood quantum at least, from 90-120 (the age Faramir died). Obviously this is speculation, and I can see how going with the reference to Aragorn's age makes sense because its something we actually know and concretely have.

If you're interested in a precise (as precise as you can be on that issue...) calculation of Númenórean / Dúnadan longevity, I can recommend you the article Númenórean Longevity in Other Minds, Issue 6. It deals with both the textual evidence for this special lifespan, its development from the beginning of the Second to the end of the Third Age, the differences between the royal lines and "normal" Dúnedain as well as practical tables and graphs that can be used for judging Númenórean life expectancy based on date of birth. In a word - anything you asked for
If you have further questions, just ask me (I'm the author, so I can probably answer them). The table for the Third Age, found in the appendix, is probably the most interesting for you, since it provides a good estimate for life expectancy over the Second and Third Ages with 50 year intervals for birth dates. Anything in between can easily be extrapolated

Cheers
Tolwen