Thranduil, for your consideration...

The LOTR RPG specifically threw game balance out the window when it came to Elves, which IMO is a good thing. That's why they have so many attribute mods and extra edges.

IMO, time means different things to Men and Elves. A Man might fritter the first 15 years of his life before deciding what to do. An Elf could spend 300 years in the forest smelling the flowers and singing about them, comparatively.

It's all subjective.

Just because one is immortal doesn't mean they have to be the most experienced. :)

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Originally posted by Phantom
Two words...Play balance.

How do you handle a player that comes to you with a really good background for a 500-1000 year old Elf? All other characters (assume human) start with 0 advances, what of the elf? You can assume a bit of non activity in his life, but he sure as hell is going to be much more experienced then his more mundane comrades. How do you justify giving one player more advances then the others. You would have to have a very understanding group...Or one made up entirely of Elven characters.

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Hmmm... there's a big difference between players and NPCs, though.

This thread has been about high level NPCs, mostly, which are entirely different from starting characters. As a GM (I haven't narrated LotR yet), I have no problem with NPCs of any level, and their amount of detail varies by the amount of attention they get, and whether or not their success or failure is relevant to the story.

Personally, I enjoy breaking away from the notion of play balance. I've had freeform games where character concept is done first, and let people choose anyone between young children to highly-skilled warriors, with no notion of balance.

I think that the designers of this game should be commended on their steps away from balance - and if anything, I'd have probably gone further, such as giving starting Elf characters a dozen advancements or so.

For example, create three beginning characters, all human, all using the point attribution system for attributes. Create one of them as a warrior, one as a craftsman, and one as a mariner.

Are they all balanced? Do they contribute equally to the game?

Now give each of them 10 advancements. Are they still balanced?

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Hey, nice to see you Manveru! Any work going on at S & K? With all the NPCs being posted lately, you could get some nice stuff... if they are to your liking.

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No!! :( I'm moving from Boston to Colorado in a little over two weeks, and I'm going nuts!!! I've been spending some time here and there reading up on message boards, that's about all the hobby time I've had lately.

And there's been SCADS of good stuff posted, and some really interesting discussions too, I'm chomping at the bit to get going again (I especially want to post a number of Narrator articles I have ideas for, regarding "Subtle" vs "Flagrant" Magic, Combat, "Game Balance", etc.), but alas ... I'll probably not have any serious time to devote until the end of July ..

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Anything I post is yours for the using ('you have my word processor').

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And you have my best regards! :D I was surprised when you stated that LotR was your first RPG, I think you've been quite prolific, creative and tasteful with your contributions (although Luthien really should have more advancements ;)

I'm going to hopefully get a chance to upload all the latest contributions before I move at the end of the month, and at the least update the Submissions section with a "I'm moving right now, it's hectic, I'll get submissions up when the dust settles" blurb.

Thanks for the hello! Suilad!

Manveru

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Originally posted by Jason Durall

I think that the designers of this game should be commended on their steps away from balance - and if anything, I'd have probably gone further, such as giving starting Elf characters a dozen advancements or so.

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Actually I thought the discussion was about Thranduil. ;)

And yes I do realize the difference in NPCs and PCs, but the Advance problem factors into both. Though with the NPC you can just fill in what you like. Now, if Dec came out with an idea similar to yours then I wouldn't have a problem. There it would be in ever expensive high gloss and full colour. But, what they have done is establish a rule for most of races and just left it hanging in mid air for the Elves. I have no problem with the balance of characters, look at the Elves to begin with they are way out of balance, as they should be.

My problem is character advancement should follow a certain continuity for all characters.

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Originally posted by Manveru
No!! :( I'm moving from Boston to Colorado in a little over two weeks, and I'm going nuts!!! I've been spending some time here and there reading up on message boards, that's about all the hobby time I've had lately.

And there's been SCADS of good stuff posted, and some really interesting discussions too, I'm chomping at the bit to get going again (I especially want to post a number of Narrator articles I have ideas for, regarding "Subtle" vs "Flagrant" Magic, Combat, "Game Balance", etc.), but alas ... I'll probably not have any serious time to devote until the end of July ..

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Sounds like some great stuff! Hope you get more time, too, I've been rather busy myself with soccer games every other day (I'm rather smallish-built and the opposing teams are really rough, heh). :)

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And you have my best regards! :D I was surprised when you stated that LotR was your first RPG, I think you've been quite prolific, creative and tasteful with your contributions (although Luthien really should have more advancements ;)

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Thanks! :D It must be because I'm homeschooled. ;) Thanks for the heads-up about Luthien, I thought she should have more advancements too, but I'll have to think about what else I can give her... I'm nearly sure that it will be totally fixed when they show the rules for Legendary stats, I can't wait! :)

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I'm going to hopefully get a chance to upload all the latest contributions before I move at the end of the month, and at the least update the Submissions section with a "I'm moving right now, it's hectic, I'll get submissions up when the dust settles" blurb.

Thanks for the hello! Suilad!

Manveru

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That's great! I can't wait till it's active again. It was like the first fan site I think. It's one of the prettiest sites I've seen too! (almost as nice as macmilitia.com, hehehe) Talk to you later!