Fellowship Sourcebook

[Phantom]

This is for those who have had a chance to read the Fellowship book for the LotRs RPG. I'm thinking of picking it up, but I would like some feed back on its usefulness. If you could let me know what you think...either in detail or by saying it is X out of 10.

Note: not looking for a flame discussion, if you have nothing constructive to comment...Please don't.

[Greg Smith]

I too would like to know more about its contents. Any reviews would be helpful. Thanks.

[CorpBoy]

The following was posted on Decipher's BBS by the Narrator running my current LOTR chronicle:

Quote:
I'm currently running a LOTR campaign, its the first role-playing campaign I've ever run and the first RPG I've played since about 1981 so this is NOT an informed guide. I just bought the book a couple of hours ago. I have NOT read it all. This is just a skimming of what I found, but I thought some of you might be interested.

In one line - The book starts out disappointing but recovers in Chapter Two and looks to end very well.

From the book: "Chapter One: Following the Journey summarizes the events of both the novel and the film."
My heart sank when I read this and a quick skim of the chapter didn't help. A detailed look at the differences between book and movie was not what I was looking for. And the fact that this only covered the first movie didn't help. (Yes, I know. The book says "The Fellowship of the Ring Sourcebook", I'm reporting first impressions.) THANKFULLY, chapter 1 goes from page 8 to 19. ie, its short.

From the book: "Chapter Two: People describes in detail the most important characters in The Fellowship of the Ring. This chapter concentrates almost exclusively on the heroes of the Free People."
At first, I wasn't impressed. This I think is because of lack of experience. It wasn't until I thought about it that I realized that getting the full stats on Aragorn helps you to understand where your characters may be headed and what some NPCs may be derived from. Also, I realized that they talk about the important ITEMS in the film, weapons, etc. This will (I hope) help me with creating neat items for my group to find. And for those of you that were wondering - YES, Tom Bombadil IS in the book. So is information on the Horn of Gondor. This chapter goes from page 20 to 81 and also talks about how the characters were handled in the movie vs the book.

From the book: "Chapter Three: Places details the locations that appear in The Fellowship of the Ring, all the way from Bag End to the breaking of the Fellowship near the falls of Rauros." Here's where I started getting excited. There are detailed maps of many places, including Nen Hithoel, and the room Balin's Tomb is in. There is also more information about people and items tucked in side bars and in descriptions of places. (Example: Galadriel and Celeborn are covered in Chapter Two, but mention of Haldir, Orophin, and Rumil are made in Chapter Three while talking about Lothlorien and items ecountered there. (like the Mirror of Galadriel).

Somewhat confusing is the fact that while Chapter One talkes about items in chronalogical order, the rest of the book lists everything alphebetically. But then, I could have done without the whole book vs movie first chapter. It looks like it may be interesting to see the comparisions when talking about the people, but not that overview.

So there you have my first impressions, the book is 128 pages. At first glance, ALL the artwork seemed pertinent to the nearby text. Lurtz is mentioned and has a picture of him on that same page. I think as I spend more time actually reading the book, I will find it more worthwhile than that first impression. Hope you enjoyed this report!

End Quote

[Greg Smith]

Thanks, Corp Boy. It looks as though I will be very tempted by that.

[Ineti]

Phantom, I mentioned this in another thread, but I'll cut and paste it here...

Just got my copy last night. It looks great and feels great (nice cover paper and interior pages).

I was a touch disappointed in the interior cartography maps, but I think that's because I'm spoiled rotten on the Daniel Reeve maps from the Maps of Middle-Earth set.

Nice to see the assorted characters statted out, though I do have a couple issues. I know some of them have been errata'ed already, and kudos to Doug for posting the corrections so quickly.

My problem is that many of the characters have skills rankings well above the system-imposed cap of 12 ranks max. per skill. No explanation given either. I guess some NPCs are just allowed to break the rules.

Nice use of stills throughout, though, IMO, some of the key character stills are less than flattering. Boromir and Elrond are the first two that spring to mind.

And I noticed that the overview of the story, in the film section, only seems to cover what happened in the theatrical version rather than the extended edition DVD. I wonder if Decipher's license only covers the theatrical releases of the films... ?

Anyway, I was happy with the product overall. I'll give it an 8 out of 10 and an encouraging thumbs-up.