Things missing from the 1 Ring

[Angelalex242]

I heard Frodo's shy a finger too.

Or not, depending on when your game is set.

[Lorimez]

If only there were rules for riding Balrog's . . .

Lorimez

[Wbweather]

What I'd love to see is combat rules for when riding barrels down a river....
Okay maybe not.

[aramis]

I dont see PVP as necessarily a failure state- there can be violent disagreement within a Company (such as Thorin wanting the Arkenstone or what not) and the game is a failure if it cant model what occurs in the books let alone what happens between players at a typical table.

Thorin succumbed to a bout of madness - his is greed. Again, failure state turning PC into NPC for a while.

Mounted Combat is almost unique to the Riders of Rohan - most other cultures ride to battle then dismount. Use of a lance from horse is very different from use of a spear on the ground, even tho' the two are in fact the same piece of lumber and metal head. (Most especially since, when mounted, if you miss and hit the ground, one can spectacularly launch oneself arse over teakettle into a most injurious landing. Not to be expected until the rules for the Riders.

The Great Rings of Power are undoubtedly terrible things... but if statted out, see Rivendell, page 103...

Note that it specifies 2 greater blessings - free +2x Wisdom to stealth, and to a skill representing the deepest desire of the individual.... and we know the great rings all make one age slowly - 1/10 or less rate, but also transform one slowly. We can look through the curses and see at least 3: Owned, Hunted, and Shadow Taint (probably +5 or so)... and easily Malice if not being used in Sauron's service. The others probably have different specified skills. Oh, and it probably also grants a major boon to control the other ring-bearers, as it's the master ring.

Bree will probably show up in the sourcebook covering the Western half of Eriador. Along with the Shire. Not that much darkening there until late...

But even if you gave characters all 6's in skills and 10's in attributes, and loaded them up with the best enchanted items one could design, you still wouldn't have Peter Jackon's version of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. Nor Feanor or Fingolfin of the First Age.

So, yeah, you can build "high level" characters, but health pools and defenses never really increase by much. Even damage output levels off pretty early.

Actually, aside from shield surfing, PJ visualizations work just fine... I added someone's homebrew adding the volley action - multiple hits instead of called shot... and Voilá! PJ-style Elven multi-arrow shot.

The only issue is that he shows a lot of field plate... we upped it 4 encumbrance and 1 Protection over chain, called it good. People who travel won't wear it, but people on static defense? Works fine.

It's just a matter of ramping the descriptions up for most of it, and realizing it's mechanically no better than the more sedate versions in the text of the same scenes.

Shield-surfing, however... gotta be a trait. Yep.

My youngest tries to pull off a bunch of Legolas stunts... she describes them well, and I let her try.