End of the Year Wishlist

So, another year is about to come to an end. 2003 has seen a lot of great products and fan-made material come out, and I expect the quantity and quality of same to increase in 2004.

To help encourage that, what sort of stuff are you finding you need for your LOTR games? What supplements, articles, supplemental material, reviews, etc. do you have a need for?

I ask because I'm going to be writing a lot of fan material for the game, and I might as well write stuff that's useful as well as stuff I want to write.

I know there are other writers who are also writing lots of stuff, and more ideas for them would be useful, I'm sure.

So, post your wishlists! :)

For my sake, here's some stuff I'd like to see more of:

- PC character sheets and histories. The PCs in your games, specifically. You're having fun playing them, you're living their lives, share with us the ups and downs of your characters.

Same for NPCs. Who are the movers and shakers in your game? What cool beasties have you come up with?

- Chronicle notes. You've run or played in sessions and games. What's been happening? What's your character's view on the events?

- Less house rules and more pieces on making the existing rules work better or differently. I'll be writing some stuff in this vein, but I'd love to see more.

Ineti hit many of the points I have been thinking of, so I won't reiterate them here.

What I'm finding myself craving are more stories of the years not chronicled by Tolkien. I have *a ton* of ideas for the Fourth Age, and the Fifth beyond it, but I'm finding myself with more and more interests.

- The years of Aragorn's reign; It's mentioned nearly everywhere that Aragorn subjugated or drove back many enemies of the Free Peoples over the course of his 100+ year reign, but what I'm wondering is where were the battles held? What resistance did he face? Could we find some idea of the numbers of the armies arried against him, so that heroes could arise out of these many long military campaigns?

And, more importantly...

- What evils survive the King's reign? How can we bring another great power to threaten the Free Peoples? Is it possible to bring Morgoth or Sauron back from the Void, at least partially cannonically?

These are the foremost chronicles I find myself interested in. Especially Dean Paollilo's work, some of the finest adventures I've read in awhile. And, of course, Ineti's. :D

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Originally posted by theBruce
These are the foremost chronicles I find myself interested in. Especially Dean Paollilo's work, some of the finest adventures I've read in awhile. And, of course, Ineti's. :D

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I'm working on getting my session notes cleaned up and PDFed. Probably by the end of the year I'll have the first 'book' in my chronicle ready for public consumption. :)

I should, in theory, be posting my own chronicles, as well, but it may be some time. We are just now completing the conversion of the heroes from MERP to Decipher, :cool:

My Wishlist?

1. More setting material, especially for the lands of Middle Earth beyond what is detailed in the Hobbit and LotR. I would feel better about running a LotR campaign if it took place in a part of Middle Earth that didn't play a role in the the four books.

Father north than Mirkwood. The South Eastern corner of the continent. Rhun. Harad.

Where I could carve out my own campaign world that wouldn't necessarily mess with established canon (and risk upsetting any players that would wince at that sort of thing).

Officially there isn't much that Decipher can do officially but the fans can, using expanded material not in the licensed works.


2. "Fill in the blanks" information. As the Decipher license doesn't cover the other works of Tolkien, it would be nice for some of the Tolkien scholars out there to help guys like me that love the movies, have maybe read the books but really know very little about the back history of the setting.

So stats for creatures and such not available because of the license, mixed with a bit of information on elements that have appeared in the books but haven't been detailed completely due to limitations (such as Gandalf being "from across the sea" instead of being an Istari). Stats for some of the characters we won't see officially due to the license limitations. etc.

My wishlist for 2004 is as follows:

1. Decipher releasing supplements on a monthly basis to maintain momentum for this RPG.
2. Decipher actually releasing supplements.
3. Decipher updating the website and providing more official online support.

I not sure the exact ties between this board and the one linked to on Decipher home page but it would be cool if they just axed that board and had the link in Decipher's page point at this board. Then expand the two sections of the LotR section to have several other sections for things like NPC/PCs, House Rules, Narrator, Rules, etc... Not sure if this could actually happen but it would be nice.

mcb

A book to make the mariners, nobles, and craftsmen more interesting. Of course, they may not actually be interesting, so it may be hard to do. :)

I'm having a blast playing my craftsman, but it'd be nice to have more than 5 order abilities to choose from, one of which is suggested against for PC's. Something along the lines of the ability to make a speech/painting/woodcarving to inspire people, give them hope, that has some kind of game effect, like restoring a point of Courage or something. Or a "Never Let It Get You Down" ability that gives them a resistance against fear or despair effects.

Hey Ineti,

I think a Mariner sourcebook would be great; something to show how the waterways of ME work. Some material about boats and ships would be good. Player Combat and Mass Combat between ships would be cool.

Since Decipher doesn't have the liscense for The Silmarillion, some info about chronicles, racial adjustments, and the lands of the first and second age would be nice.

The biggest thing I'm lacking is a decent Mass Combat system.:(

I, too, would love a mariner sourcebook. I'd like to see expanded character abilities, stats and deckplans for ships (especially the white swanships of the Teleri, Numenorean explorers, and warships of the corsairs of Umbar), sea monsters, maps of harbours (Alqualonde, Grey Havens, Dol Amroth, Umbar), and lots of adventures (including the Enchanted Isles from the Silmarillion). Stats for famous Mariners like Earendil and the great Numenorean shipkings would be nice.

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Originally posted by Eri
I think a Mariner sourcebook would be great; something to show how the waterways of ME work. Some material about boats and ships would be good. Player Combat and Mass Combat between ships would be cool.

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That would be very cool.

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Originally posted by Eri
Since Decipher doesn't have the liscense for The Silmarillion, some info about chronicles, racial adjustments, and the lands of the first and second age would be nice.

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What specifically about chronicles are you looking for? How to run one, sample ones, etc.?

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Originally posted by Eri
The biggest thing I'm lacking is a decent Mass Combat system.:(

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If Helm's Deep ever finally gets released, there'll be a new mass combat system in that.

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Originally posted by Sarge
I, too, would love a mariner sourcebook. I'd like to see expanded character abilities, stats and deckplans for ships (especially the white swanships of the Teleri, Numenorean explorers, and warships of the corsairs of Umbar), sea monsters, maps of harbours (Alqualonde, Grey Havens, Dol Amroth, Umbar), and lots of adventures (including the Enchanted Isles from the Silmarillion). Stats for famous Mariners like Earendil and the great Numenorean shipkings would be nice.

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Sarge, I don't know if you've seen it, but the Maps of Middle-earth II boxed set contains a very nice map of the port of Umbar, and the 32 page book includes info on the corsairs. It's pretty useful and may be part of what you're looking for.

I'd love to do a First Age Chronicle down the road. What would help would be stats for the Eldar and Edain heroes.

In my current chronicle, the PC's have just solved a political murder and are on their way to defend Dol Amroth from the Haradrim. They are traveling by boat with Captain Thorongil, 2600 soldiers, and 400 calvary. While they sail the coast of Southern Gondor, the ships will be attacked by the Corsairs.

I'm planning the naval combat now. Any ideas which siege engines ships could have?

You could use ballistae - like those wicked grappling hooks fired by a tension engine the Uruk-Hai used to assault Helm's Deep in the TTT movie.

Ballista shots can be used both to penetrate hulls or, more likely, as grappling hooks to bring two ships closer together so the crews can fight hand-to-hand.

I agree with Captain Novaes that shipboard weapons should be used to contribute to boarding actions. Until the Spanish Armada, weapons weren't powerful enough to sink ships, so battles were decided by boarding actions. Rams are the one notable exception, but it's not easy to ram a ship that's trying not to be rammed.

Ineti, thanks for the info on the map supplement. That's one more thing to spend my money on when I get back to the real world.

*bumping this to try and spark some more suggestions*

I'm currently running a 1st Age game, and I'm finding that what I need more than anything else is material for creating lots of peons. Servants, cooks, tailors, etc. The craftsman order is just not getting it as much as I'd like, and I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do with them. Granted, I could make them characters without orders, but it'd be nice to not have to stat them all out myself. It gets a bit harder with things like warriors and loremasters.

More order packages.
More order abilities.
More elite orders.

Strangely enough, as I'm running my game, I don't really want a 1st Age sourcebook anymore. I did a lot of work adapting the current system to what I want it to do, and it works rather well. I'd hate it all to go to waste. However, I can see that some, prior to running a game, would like some material to help. If I were to pick something like that up, it'd have to do something very different from the FotR sourcebook and TTT sourcebook. I don't want just a primer on "How to Do Tolkien Right." I want something geared for more advanced concepts, namely adapting Tolkien's works to your own chronicles. If this book includes a section that touches on the mutability of canon and the importance of picking your canon prior to play, I'd definitely take a look at it. Of course, once again, I could just do that myself, which I am planning to do in Kathanaksaya: Middle-earth (hopefully).

So, I guess, all things considered, I want to do my own material and have it recognized and published.

Great idea for a thread.

Wishlist:

A more detailed look at the ecology of the beasties in ME (fan-boy stuff, I suppose). But, I"m really interested in the behavior, habits, etc. of these creatures, similar to what Mongoose Publ has done with their Slayers Guides for D&D.

A more detailed look into things like oaths and curses. Was mentioned in the Core book, but not expanded on. For example, how does one go about cursing someone? What physical steps can a GM take to enforce that curse? Could their be a table of curses and/or a table of potential outcomes for people who are cursed or break an oath? (ei, you roll, and depending on how much you fail a TN, depends on the results of the curse or the oath breaking). I think these are some cool things that would be subtle enough for ME magic, but expand upon the magic in ME.

More weapons. Two-handed swords, two-handed mattocks, two-handed axes. Elven swords vs. Dunadan swords and so on.

More spells. But, spells that still have the subtle feel of magic in ME.

Source material on regions.

That's all I can think of for now,
Reptile