To anyone who has The Two Towers Sourcebook, I have a favor to ask

The Two Towers Sourcebook is out, as it's both in the Decipher Store and I know Leardinoth on the Decipher boards has it. So to anyone who has it, question...

You may or may not know that I created write-ups of Eomer, Eowyn, and Faramir... and I'm quite curious as to how they match up to the ones in TTT Sourcebook. If anyone could take a look at the Sourcebook, then at my write-ups, then post here what main differences there are (and which you like better, heh), I'd be most grateful.

Thanks so much! Here's the links to my write-ups:

Eomer

Eowyn

Faramir

Well, my Duty (Decipher) flaw prevents me from getting into too many specifics. Not to mention it could get me into doodoo.

In between breaks at my work today I've been looking at your stats and Decipher's. I'll try to compare your stats with the characters in an as roundabout way as possible, starting with Eomer's. I'm not sure if I'll have time to get around to the other two characters today, if I can, I certainly will.

While I'm sure that next to writing out his complete stats as shown in the book, this answer probably won't be as satisfactory as you would have hoped, for now, it will probably have to do. For starters, let's just say that overall, there aren't too many substantial differences between Decipher's version of Eomer and yours.

To be quite honest, I'm impressed with the similarities.

D's version has a couple of more advancements, and does not have him listed as a Captain.

Eomer's abilities are more or less the same, perhaps D's version is slightly more beefed up than yours. As far as reactions go, D's swiftness is also higher than yours, by a couple of points, but the others are bang on, give or take a point.

Again as far as his skills go, Decipher has him a little more beefed up for armed combat. Ranged combat finds him with no specialization for bows. D's version also has more ride ranks than yours, but not by much.

Overall, there are some minor differences with the edges and flaws, but nothing glaring. For the most part, your version and D's are similar. D's version does not have the Hatred (Wormtongue) flaw that yours has.

So IMO, well done with your version! Both would equally hold water in an LOTR game, and since both are fairly similar, I'd really have no preference, except for perhaps Decipher's version has a few advancements more (less than 10) than yours, and seems to be more beefed up for combat.

If I've said anything that I shouldn't have, let me know, and I'll edit this post, if I can.

And if I have time, I'll look at Eowyn and Faramir.

L

Thank you so much! I've really been hankering to know this for a while. :cool:

And if Doug has any problems, I'll just delete the thread (don't you just love this nice forum?). :D

Hey there,

Me chiming back in again with Eowyn's comparison. I suppose that as a base, you obviously started out with a very similar concept for Eowyn that Decipher had. But if you're looking for a lots of commonalities between your version and D's...I'm not so sure there are many.

Decipher took it to the next level, giving her twice as many advancements, another order, more edges, and flaws. Essentially a beefed-up version of Eowyn.

Again, her attributes seem comparable (as was the case with Eomer's), but I think in the end, Decipher's version seems to work out to a somewhat higher average.

Her reactions are somewhat different, Stamina winning out as her favored attribute. However, she seems to have more Swiftness...interesting.

Her skills are also beefed up, primarily in the combat department. The rest seems fairly bang on...relatively speaking.

If you wanna know anything else specifically, just ask!

L:D

Thanks again! She must be pretty powerful with all those advancements... which do you like better? :)

Last but not least - Faramir.

Boy oh boy, if there's one character you and Decipher would both agree on in principle, it might as well be Faramir! The orders, and advancements are pretty much bang on. The Edges and Flaws are fairly similar, too.

The main differences are in the Skills, the Reactions, and the Renown. The Renown is way off, Decipher's being way lower than yours. Apparently not many people know of Faramir.

Again, Faramir seems to be beefed up combat-wise, but also has a considerable amount of other skills as well.

Sorry for the vagueness in my various observations, but in between trying to remain relatively vague mechanics-wise and my work today...I've been having a fun time keeping up while trying to look busy...heheheh. ;)

Have a great weekend.

L

As unbiased as I try to be, it's difficult for me to judge which version of both Faramir and Eowyn I like better.

While I've read the LOTR books twice, and flip through them continually on occasion, I'm no Tolkien Scholar, nor will I ever pretend to be. So in the sense of which version portrays the characters best from the books, I can't really comment. I can't reference to fancy quotes, etc. to justify anything I've come up with.

I've also seen the movies - many times. The difficult thing when coming up with NPC stats is trying to understand what the various expertises they have while they're off-screen (or off-book...LOL). If they only had abilities which related to the books, they wouldn't appear quite as three-dimensional.

Ultimately, I'd have to say if I were using either NPC in my campaign (which I am not, because of the Age I'm running my chronicle in - TA 2850) I might be inclined to use Decipher's, simply because they are more beefed-up combat wise. If my campaign was set in the War of the Ring Era, I'd probably want most of my good NPCs to survive...*LOL*

You've obviously done a fantastic job here. I wouldn't have the patience, nor the wherewithal to take on those tasks on my own. So I'm not trying to diss you, at all, and hope no offense is taken. I think that my mini-reviews today have stated more than once that your versions definetly hold water to D's versions!

Best thing to do is not to take my word for it - check out the book in a local bookstore, and see which ones you like best! My opinion doesn't matter too much, does it?

L

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this! I'm glad that you like Decipher's so much! No offense taken in the least. :D

Have a nice weekend yourself!