shipwreck wrote:Are we at all concerned about their being 'too many' Culture options? My worry may come from the fact that I only started this game last year and still prefer to experience it in 'vanilla' mode, whereas you experienced players are probably ready for a change of skin (Gondor, Rohan, Bree, etc.). I've just felt that when games get too big with too many options it tends to water down the experience a bit.
I only started playing a few weeks ago, but I'm not worried at all. It's great to have more options, as long as the LM has the strength to say "no" to any they don't want in their game. As you say, experienced players may want more choices, but there's no reason those of us who are less experienced have to use them
now.
I already had Rivendell when we started making up characters, but I only let the players choose from the 6 cultures in the rulebook, plus Men of the Lake. I just didn't want any High Elves or Rangers complicating things. I'd have allowed Bree-folk and maybe Rohirrim if they'd been available, but the player would need a very good reason why their character was adventuring in Wilderland with these other folks (and in the case of a Rohir, there are issues with taking a horse around places they can't ride it). For the cultures given, there are reasons why any of them might do that.
I'm keen to see what they do with the Bree-folk. I hope they include both Men and Hobbits, but does that mean they'll have to split the culture in two somehow? 3 hobbit backgrounds and 3 human ones, maybe?