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Thanks folks, having read it again it actually makes a lot of sense. I'm going over it before I let the players have a look, so I'm recreating my old MERP character 'Havinor' to get a sense of how the process works and what questions I'm likely to be asked.
I have to say, it's a bloody good system. Lots of ways for the players to choose how to 'colour' their characters with interesting background options.

Dunkelbrink wrote:Hi Havinor,

Have a look at page 91 and 76. What you describe as "weapon groups" are in fact the "Cultural Weapon" skill, for example (Axes).

That is a distinction that I had also forgotten about.

If you have not yet seen this finely crafted character creation tool, I recommend taking a look. Just using it a few times is one of the best ways I know of to understand character creation, and it has the added bonus of allowing anyone to create a completely legal character in something like half an hour even if they have no idea what they're doing.

Now, my preference would be to have the GM standing by to inform them of the consequences of certain choices (ie: in The One Ring, you need two melee people per archer, so if everyone makes archers, you're sort of in trouble), but it still makes the whole process an order of magnitude faster and easier.

Hi Deadmanwalking,

Yeah I've seen this and been playing about with it, it's a great tool. I sent it onto the guys, so that they could get a vague idea of what the generation process is like, but said we'd all sit down together when the time comes to create the fellowship.

Some of the fan created stuff that's appearing on here is first class.

Next stupid question.... The Combat sequence.
So the ambush (if appropriate) is resolved, then opening volleys, then close quarters. All ok so far. Initiative is determined, then each round the players choose their character's stances and in each round, the combat order goes forward to rearward with the side holding initiative taking its full turn before the other. So that makes getting iniative critical. If the fellowship lose initative, they are on the receiving end of all the enemies melee attacks before they get to act?

Yep. And their TN for getting bonus dice goes up to 18. So the heroes really want Initiative.

Havinor wrote:So that makes getting iniative critical.

Indeed, but in my experience the PCs get the initiative for much of the time (I think in my game it's around 9 times out of 10) so it's a mechanic that favours the players, at least from my point of view, which is a good thing.

Don't forget that Initiative is based purely on the circumstances of the combat p170. There is no rolling to see who goes first.

Heroes should always allow the enemy to attack them unless they can ambush them p167.

Yep, as Rich said, the vast majority of the time it will end up being the players who have the initiative, unless you've got a group that is going around starting combat with entrenched foes all the time.

This is interesting because I'd have thought the sequence would have been....
for example, Fellowship have initiative.....

Forward Stance: Fellowship then enemies. the most aggressive stance.
Open Stance: Fellowship then enemies. the tactical stance.
Defensive Stance: Fellowship then enemies. the reactive stance.
Rearward Stance: Fellowship then enemies. looking for a clear shot, now that opening volleys are resolved.

Again, I haven't played it yet, but when I was getting into the combat section, I kind expected this layout and was surprised when the process was as it is in the book. I'm guessing it must work well as it is, because I haven't seen any threads saying 'this doesn't work'.