Eye Awareness & The Question of the Dunedain

[poosticks7]

I was reading these rules again and ruminating on the idea of an opposite mechanic - Hand of Eru or some such (discarded the idea) and I totted up the Awareness scores of the Fellowship and Thorin's Company* to see what their scores were, here is what I found.

*I removed Gandalf from both sets as a) he is in both groups and b) he is totally an NPC

The Fellowship

Frodo 0
Sam 0
Merry 0
Pippin 0
Legolas 1
Gimli 1
Boromir 2
Aragorn 2
Anduril 1
Mithril Shirt 1
Sting 1
The One Ring ??? Special Case
(Durin's Axe 1) Only counts after Moria

Total 9 (10 after Moria) With bonus Ring factor of X

Ditching Merry and Pippin for 2 Elven Lords would have raised it to 15 (Good Call Elrond)


Thorin's Company

Thorin 1
Balin 1
Dwalin 1
Gloin 1
Oin 1
Bifur 1
Bofur 1
Bombur 1
Ori 1
Nori 1
Dori 1
Fili 1
Kili 1
Bilbo 0
Orchrist 1
Sting 1

Total 15

So Perhaps Peter Jackson had a point with the Hobbit films and the poor Dwarves being chased none stop - they were setting off hunt episodes over and over again

Interestingly the Fellowship would still only draw level with the Dwarves if they'd gone with the two ELf Lords (although a company of 13 dwarves and a hobbit is a big group of players )
Or maybe the One Ring adds 10 to the score - makes sense I suppose.

Have I missed anything?

[Glorelendil]

What's this about Durin's Axe?

[Deadmanwalking]

You missed the bonus for high Wisdom and Valour (you get a +1 for every companion with a 4+ in one of those).

That likely wouldn't include any Hobbits to start with (okay, Frodo may've had Wisdom 4 by Rivendell, I suppose), but likely would include everyone else, adding 5 to your listed numbers for the Fellowship.

Boromir, as a man and not a Dunedain, is also almost certainly only a base of 1, not 2. A Man of Gondor doesn't seem like he'd be any more notable than Legolas is as a prince of Mirkwood, after all.

Durin's Company, meanwhile, shouldn't be using the eye rules at all, IMO. Those should come into play after their time.

So, with that in mind the Fellowship would be as follows:

The Fellowship

Frodo 0+1
Sam 0
Merry 0
Pippin 0
Legolas 1+1
Gimli 1+1
Boromir 1+1
Aragorn 2+1
Anduril 1
Mithril Shirt 1
Sting 1
The One Ring ??? Special Case
(Durin's Axe 1) Only counts after Moria

Total 13 (14 after Moria) With bonus Ring factor of X, and whatever Gandalf brings to the table.

[poosticks7]

No I think the son of the Steward would count as a Dunedain.

Ah forgot about the wisdom/valour thing.


Gimli takes the axe of Durin from Moria.

[Falenthal]

Gimli takes the axe of Durin from Moria.

Does he? I think the axe is mentioned in the Book of Mazarbul, as something that Balin's company find (or don't find!). But I can't recall that the Fellowship found it anywhere. I don't have the books with me right now, but the Tolkien Gateway, Wiki and other sites tell that Durin's Axe was lost with the killing of Balin's group.

[poosticks7]

Oh bum, am I thinking of the films?

There goes my Tolkien street cred

[Deadmanwalking]

No I think the son of the Steward would count as a Dunedain.

No more than Legolas would count as a High Elf. Look at it this way, would you make him with the Men of Gondor Culture, or the Dunedain Culture? I'd do the former, and would suggest that you're factually wrong if you do the latter.

Ah forgot about the wisdom/valour thing.

I was just looking at those rules, so I'm glad to have been able to put the knowledge to use.

[Glorelendil]

By "count as dunedain" I think he meant "in terms of eye awareness" which does make some sense. The blood of Numenor is said to run strong in that family, after all.

For that matter, Legolas may count as Sindarin not Silvan, and although we don't (yet) have rules for such, I could see his initial Eye score being higher.

[Deadmanwalking]

By "count as dunedain" I think he meant "in terms of eye awareness" which does make some sense. The blood of Numenor is said to run strong in that family, after all.

Oh, I got what he meant, I just disagree.

For that matter, Legolas may count as Sindarin not Silvan, and although we don't (yet) have rules for such, I could see his initial Eye score being higher.

That was sort of my point actually. Either both or neither should count for enhanced Eye awareness.

And, personally, I'd count him the same as any other member of whatever Culture I statted him up as (which would be an Elf of Mirkwood).

[Wbweather]

Well, perhaps since this is just a thought game anyway, the X factor of the ring (or at least being part of the fellowship) would be to increase all members eye awareness by one, since most of the members were relatively unknown and therefore initially overlooked by Sauron, but it seems that just being a member of the fellowship eventually bumped them up a point. It could be argued that the hobbits had one of the highest eye awareness scores since Sauron was looking for a hobbit named Baggins.