Feedback on House Rules

[Corvo]

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And you are confusing the movies with the books. Aragorn carried Narsil with him as a ranger, and apparently used it, even though it was broken a foot from the hilt (the books mention no other weapons on him, only the broken sword).
(...)

No, I'm not. Elrond was no foreigner to the Dunedain, nor removed. And this is the reason Aragorn was raised from Elrond. He could have restored that sword centuries ago, yet he didn't.

You say that Narsil isn't a “common” reward, and sure you are right. Then you say that the book's items aren't comparable to the rewards. But the game's reward are inspired by these items: do you think that this game got “King's Blade” and “Lucky Armour” as hobbit's reward just by chance?

You can change the reward rules as you like, obviously. But you asked for thoughts about you house-rules. My opinion on the subject is that I can take the best one among Agassi's racquets and my backhand wouldn't be any better. And that Narsil's fragment wasn't keen, fell and grievous for all the previous chieftains of the Dunedain

[Angelalex242]

The real problem with Bilbo and Frodo is that between Sting and their Mithril Shirt, they have WAY more then 5 rewards on them. If Sting is a Greiveous Keen Fell King's Blade, and the Mithril Shirt (in my opinion) is a Lucky armor 3x Cunning Make (They talk about how LIGHT it is more then how well it fits...it was made for a thin dwarf, most likely, so it's more about how light then how well fitting...)

Anyways, that adds up to 8 Rewards, and no Player character can ever match Bilbo or Frodo simply because they have an effective Valor Rating (By Rewards) of 9.

[Corvo]

The real problem with Bilbo and Frodo is that between Sting and their Mithril Shirt, they have WAY more then 5 rewards on them. If Sting is a Greiveous Keen Fell King's Blade, and the Mithril Shirt (in my opinion) is a Lucky armor 3x Cunning Make (They talk about how LIGHT it is more then how well it fits...it was made for a thin dwarf, most likely, so it's more about how light then how well fitting...)

Anyways, that adds up to 8 Rewards, and no Player character can ever match Bilbo or Frodo simply because they have an effective Valor Rating (By Rewards) of 9.

Probably this is the reason Bilbo did a lot of swordwork with Sting, but I think he never really used that chainmail... while Frodo got some use from the chainmail, while the finer points of swordplay were lost on him

(Ok, just kidding . By the way, I'm going from memory: did I reckon correctly? Sam surely used Sting to good effect on Shelob, but I don't remember about Frodo...)

[Etarnon]

Play how you like. When reading rules, there's the letter, and spirit both.

Mechanically analyzing the story to show how armor and sword and helm could be forged over a season is one way to do it.

Having the character decide what they wish as a reward is another.

All of them are valid because it''s all fictional. Like Star Wars, Star Trek, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, name your poison.

Any talk of "Realism" is just analyzing the game past it's design parameters which were to have players contribute to the narrative by use of skill and train mechanics. not to have the uber decked out guy of session 2, just because it's "more realistic."

We got Balrogs and Talking trees up in here.

I buy into it as a trilogy of novels and films because there's story there, not How fast can 6 craftsmen make six things for six heroes in six months. But you are not wrong. Your guys would hate my game, but you are not wrong for playing that way.

Good luck.