Moria

[Majestic]

Frankly, this would be a good way for people like me to find out and get a good look at the AiME system. I remember Decipher's first game set as an introduction to Moria ( I played it with my kids) and later got the Decipher Moria set because of it. Point made.

LOL! This part of your post brought back a fun memory for me. I ran that introductory boxed set for my kids, who were quite young at the time.

They went all kamikaze on the Balrog. IIRC they took it out, but I think Gandalf and Legolas also went down with it.

[Dunheved]

MEmories of Decipher... If I remember rightly I did advise my kids to run like mad when the Balrog turned up. They went all PJ film: lost Gandalf and legged it.
Later we used the same set in a game we called Gollum's Cave. I wish I had had the Moria boxed set with that as I had to draw a LOAD of linked up tunnels - all lost in a house move sadly.

Nice to have good moments in Moria.

[torus]

Well, this is going to be a great product I'm sure, so no need for anyone to be angst-ridden! The fact is of course, it is a dual-statted product, just presented in a way which makes it easier to ignore the other system. Fine if C7 want to absorb the cost, whatever that means, but it seems unnecessary to me and in the long run I'd rather they put those resources into more content/lower prices/growing their business.

I don't know why people are so allergic to the idea of dual statting, or why TOR players are spooked about AiME. As well as bad examples, there have been plenty of great multi-statted products in the history of RPGs and the best ones make a virtue of it rather than being a problem. AiME is clearly a good system and I think the ideas in it have a lot to contribute for TOR as well.

[Indur Dawndeath]

Clearly I am unusual in this, but I actually like dual-stat products. I like comparing the two views of an NPC or monster, and seeing how the same concept is implemented in different ways.

Dual stats doesn't just mean NPC and creature statistics though. In these products you'd have all kinds of things to consider like journey and encounters in adventures, additional rules in supplements like treasure and hunt rules. Doing all this would lead to messy products. Personally I appreciate them being separate as a whole and think the way C7 are going to approach this with the Moria box set of two separate system booklets is absolutely the right way to go.

I totally agree on this!
When ICE were dual statting LotR products: Rolemaster, MERP and LOR, then they all had basically the same kind of gameplay. It was just the number og stats, spell levels and skills that had varying degree of detail.
This is not the case for Aime and TOR.

But seriously. Let’s get back to discussing what great stuff we want in Moria!!!
Anybody want an expansion on Dwarf spells?

[torus]

I hope there aren't too many new rules; at least not ones that apply outside the context of this supplement. The game has more than enough rules now I think.

Personally I think Moria is actually a challenging setting for RPG adventure, outside the periods where it is inhabited by dwarves. I tried running an adventure there once in the ICE days and it got a bit dull encountering endless empty chambers with the odd goblin. Not that I couldn't have done a lot better, but it needs a bit of work.

[Matt Clark]

I can easily imagine a great mini wargame/campaign pitting the Balin expedition against the orcs and the Balrog being managed mechanically like the Eye of Sauron. The Balrog could ultimately get triggered into action under certain conditions.

Or there could also be a scenario where the Balrog first gets 'released' and what happens next.

I'm sure Khazad Dum as a thriving Dwarven city could have lots of political intriguing that would form the basis of an RPG campaign.

I guess the most obvious place to start would be the scenarios that involve Balin's quest to re-take Moria. Rebuilding or renovating parts of Moria, sub quests for lost artifacts only known to Dwarf cultural history. Or one of Balin's company goes missing and has to be found.

Imaginally - my mind goes to what it involved for the Wraiths/Sauron or others of his servants to plan and implement a strategy to take back Dol Guldor, only flipped of course into the Dwarves attempting something similar with Moria.

Lots of good stuff to consider.

[Rich H]

I hope there aren't too many new rules; at least not ones that apply outside the context of this supplement. The game has more than enough rules now I think.

I agree that you don't really need rules outside the scope of the supplement but I'd love to see a set of Delving rules that could be used in other underground areas such as the Greydelve and elsewhere; perhaps even an appendices dealing with this northern stronghold of the Grey Mountains. As part of this some cards or tiles depicting Dwarven areas that interlock and provide mechanical support to the rules could be a really interesting option too - kind of like Hobbit Tales almost but with a different focus. There are certainly lots of options and I'm sure at the very least I'll be running this with my gaming group as a side campaign to the main one, whatever the content!

[gatharion]

Furthermore boxed Sets tend to be more expensive than simple books and, if they are dual-stat, this means that at least some of the customers (me included) will be doubtful about buying a more expensive product with so many pages that one cannot use.

Nonsense. We are talking Moria from C7. The price is irrelevant. Any gamer unwilling to steal from his kid’s college fund to pay for at least one copy isn’t really a gamer.

This is accurate. Whenever a new One Ring product is available, I just fork over the cash. It helps that there aren't too many other games I do this with and there aren't that many releases a year.

[Rook]

I hope it has all sorts of monster stats, from the nameless things that chew the roots of the mountains to the balrog itself. TOR has survived giving us stats for a dragon, the Witch-King of Angmar, the Werewolf of Mirkwood, and that whatever-it-was that chased Sandie Biddleburp around and around her father's cellar until the hobbit bounders could throw a net over it*. It will survive the balrog.

Plus, my players would never forgive me if they couldn't go to Moria and face the balrog. It's just something you DO.


* May or may not have happened in a game of Hobbit Tales.

[Dunheved]

Nevertheless, the balrog has a immunity: he must be killed by Gandalf in 3018.

Of course A Balrog has to be present in 3018... which doesn't stop a different balrog from being ..... available...... at an earlier date: