Other Minds magazine, latest Issue published

[Falenthal]

Some notes on strange details: On pg 59 in the magazine, with the text sidebar about Gwina and the boat, there seems to be some missing text. It ends with "so that it" but the sentence isn't finished.

On pg 60 the adventure handles an ambush by a hobgoblin, but also talks about how the trait enemy lore (wolves) could help the companions. But there are no wolves in that scene as I am aware of?

Those two and a few more (not many, but some) have been detected. Tolwen is working on correcting as many errata as possible and re-releasing an update as soon as possible.

For these two, the corrections are:

p.59 The scrolls lacks the last sentences: "doesn’t get stuck in the mud. Duvainiel’s gloom has also definitely deepened in this foul place.” ·

And

p.60 The paragraph before the scroll ("If a character has Enemy-lore (Wolves)... Special Abilities.") should go inside the scroll, at the end of the current text.
The scroll offers an option to the Hobgoblin encounter, based on Warg-riders. That's when the Enemy-lore (Wolves) can be used to know of their Fear of Fire and Great Leap Special Abilites.

[Falenthal]

Ooops! Tolwen was writing at the same time as me.

His post is the valid one.

[Glorelendil]

Ooh...if typos are being corrected, the 2nd paragraph of the "Old Oak" sidebar on page 56 is missing some words.

[Majestic]

Great job, Falenthal! And I'm looking forward to checking out the other TOR adventure as well.

[Tolwen]

Ooh...if typos are being corrected, the 2nd paragraph of the "Old Oak" sidebar on page 56 is missing some words.

Thanks for that. I already made a fix in the source file, but I'll wait a bit to collect some input and make a collective bugfix

Best
Tolwen

[Falenthal]

Ooh...if typos are being corrected, the 2nd paragraph of the "Old Oak" sidebar on page 56 is missing some words.

Yes, it should read something like:

"The known story to the Green Elves is the one explained by Duvainiel, an ancient legend."

***

Also, the last paragraph from this same scroll is wrongly placed.

Any character that has an idea of
Duvainiel’s age is aware that all these
events occurred many centuries before
she was even born. It may be mentioned
at any time to her:
“I was not there, but I am one of them.”
–she answers-. “And my loyalty is to
the Old Oak and his Watchers, not to a
coward King that hides underground.”

It should go just before the scroll, after the whole story explained by Duvainiel in the first column of the page (right after the parenthesis explaining where to find the description of the Old Oak in the Heart of the Wild supplement).

[Falenthal]

Great job, Falenthal! And I'm looking forward to checking out the other TOR adventure as well.

Great thanks, Majestic! Much appreciated.

I'm sure you'll enjoy Paul's adventure too.

[Lifstan]

The scenario "Darkness over Amon Nyrn" is good, but it left me a little bit more cold than "First Seed of a Great Forest". It think the reason is simply the premise: going to help a small community from an evil that has awoken nearby. I've been playing TOR for a while now and I feel that permisse is too similar to other scenario I have played before... Thus I wasn't hooked right from the start.

But anyway, I think I will still play it when I get to that year in Darkenning, and see how it goes. I was suprised to have such a dungeon (with maps) in it, since in TOR it's not usually the case. But it could be fun to play it like a Old School dungeon for a change. Also, the idea of having vampires as bad guys is intriguing for me. I'm not sure how to portray them... I'm a fan of Curse of Stradth, but I don't think that vampires in TOR should be portrayed the same way. A discussion of "classic vampires" vs. "vampires in TOR" would have been good to help Loremaster wrap their minds around the idea...

[Halbarad]

Hi Lifstan,

Thanks for taking time to read ‘Darkness at Amon Nyrn’. I’m sorry that it left you a bit colder than the other adventure. I’m not offended by honesty though and you were kind enough to say it is a good adventure and explain your reasons why it did not resonate with you in the same way as ‘First Seed of a Great Forest.’

The idea of the besieged community is as old as the hills and I had the tale of Beowulf and the film ‘The Thirteenth Warrior’ in mind as I plotted the story. I was attempting to write an adventure that was thematically appropriate for the Rangers of the North and I don’t recall that anyone has written an adventure (for TOR anyway) which is intended to portray a group of Rangers actively protecting a beleaguered community.

I am also huge fan of Ravenloft btw and yes, I can certainly see that the art for Ysbrid Brin and the maps of the catacombs could certainly evoke that sort of setting. I also agree that a further paragraph about the Secret Shadows would probably have helped prospective players in differentiating them from the vampires of Hollywood and Gothic Literature.

I did try to take care not to name Turumarth and Seregwethil specifically as Vampires. Instead, I referred to them as Sceadugengan, Night Shadows, Secret Shadows, Vampiric Creatures and Vampiric Spirits. (On reviewing the adventure, I do note that in the description of their cavern lairs that I refer to them as Vampires and in the battle of Burhscilda, I refer to them as Vampire Lords. So, I guess I dropped the ball on that.)

I’ll perhaps ask Tolwen if I might add a paragraph or two on Tolkien Vampires as well as editing those two little naming errors.

I will say, at this point, that it was the description of the Secret Shadows in the Loremaster’s Book that says they can take the form of human women, albeit briefly, that gave me the idea that they might appear as a Lord and his Lady for short periods of time. Perhaps I might expand on this too, if Tolwen agrees.

[Dunkelbrink]

I've now read "Darkness at Amon Nyrn" in more detail and I like it! It is an adventure with a more old-school feeling, perhaps a bit more MERP than we are used to. But the work is genuine, several scenes are evocative,the premise of recreating a 13th warrior feeling works well when you read it and the premise is not used earlier in any TOR adventure.

I agree that parts of it maybe feels a bit too gothic, especially with the picture of the "dark lady", and a few more paragraphs on Tolkien vampires would be welcome. And one other issue as I see it is that the adventure introduces almost exclusively new things - new characters, new villains, new settlements and a new people (the scildings). That makes the feel not completely "grounded" in cubicle's setting.

That said I like it a lot and will use it, maybe changing the setting to The Toft and Ivory tower in Wilderland. And once again, than you for a nice issue of Other Minds, with ice articles beyond these two great adventures.