I was watching Lord Of the Rings And...

[Mark]

Some of you might be a little young to remember this but...

A long time ago I had heard some pretty good things about this Tolkein. On a lark, I picked up a module (from an earlier edition) and, man, was it broken. Twelve NPC Dwarves to help out the solo PC on his adventure (I think the NPC wizard from the new one made his debut in this old module), sunlight turning Trolls into stone, and a single arrow that could kill the Dragon at the climax were just some of the "low"-lights. Needless to say, I'm not surprised that the new edition is just as loose on the rules.
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what's really strange about that is that in the first "prequel" campaign, everyone wanted to play a dwarf, and it took all the DM's cajoling just to get one guy to play the token halfling.

the DM still managed to sneak in his pet high-level wizard NPC, though.

)

I gotta remember to post when I think of something instead of holding off 'til a little later'

 

[Moe Ronalds]

Some of you might be a little young to remember this but...

A long time ago I had heard some pretty good things about this Tolkein. On a lark, I picked up a module (from an earlier edition) and, man, was it broken. Twelve NPC Dwarves to help out the solo PC on his adventure (I think the NPC wizard from the new one made his debut in this old module), sunlight turning Trolls into stone, and a single arrow that could kill the Dragon at the climax were just some of the "low"-lights. Needless to say, I'm not surprised that the new edition is just as loose on the rules.

And don't forget how much treasure he got for that! At FIRST LEVEL! A MAJOR Artifact for god's sake, PILES of gold, ELVEN CHAIN (which just HAPPENED to fit? ) and a magic sword! Geeze, it's shocking they let him write another one...

 

[Deedlit]

Bump

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

HAH!

Obviously yall didn't read the appendix at the back of the module.

Elmins.... Sorry, Gandalf wasn't a Wizard at all. He was one of those stinky little bards.

Come on, it even makes sense in the story (at least they were consistent with making him suck). He is proficient with a long sword, likes to "perform" for the boys at any given opportunity, can't cast Fireball, likes to show off by casting light all the time, and sucks at everything.

The absolute most impressive thing he ever does is to make a use activated magic item triggering Dancing Lights.

Just think about it. How much time does he spend performing, and how much does he spend doing "magic" stuff.

 

[Aaron2]

If LOTR was D&D

If LOTR was in D&D ....

GANDALF: Saruman is breeding an army of half-orcs that can move in the daylight!

ELROND: Half-orcs? [SNICKER] What a loser!

GANDALF: Oh, I mean half-giants.

ELROND: Ok, that's better. Let's you and me kill 'em.

GANDALF: Ok

 

[Deedlit]

At least it's not as bad as these two I've heard of, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. They allow a kender PC(And give him a +10 luck bonus to almost anything), enforce the old age rule(Killing a party member during a big adventure.), and they raise their pet NPC, when there wasn't a cleric in the world above 3rd level.

 

[s/LaSH]

Personally, I'm glad I never had an 8th century Viking warrior as a DM. Look at Beowulf - one PC! Only one! (Or if there were more, they never got to do anything; Beowulf does everything.) The first game seemed to be one big story-telling session - BORING! It's supposed to be about killing this Grendel monster, but instead they sit around in the hall yapping on and on about how some guy won a swimming race or how some other guy killed yet another guy.

And get the way this one-PC campaign ended. "A dragon kills you, falls on your sword and dies." That's not even possible in the rules! The DM must have realised how stupid the campaign was and decided on a 'scorched earth' finish. Get this, the hero was king of his own country by that stage - and he's only killed two monsters!

Makes me glad we've got 3rd Edition these days.

 

[dr jekyll]

I keep thinking of that Shakespeare fellow. What a bunch of sad players he had to deal with.

For instance, he lets one guy play a Prince of Denmark. He gives the character all sorts of plot, a dead father, and a murderous step-father, and what does the character do? He sits around and does nothing. He pretends to go mad. He puts on a play. He whines about committing suicide. When the character might actually be forced to do something, he runs away to England, where he kills the other PC's, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. No wonder Shakespeare killed everyone in the climax! I'd be pretty upset myself.

dr jekyll

 

[Caedrel]

Ringwraiths

Y'know, Damage Reduction doesn't apply to energy attacks, like the fire on the torch that Aragorn threw at it. Sure, he got lucky in that any corporeal attack only has a 50% chance of inflicting any damage, but those odds aren't too bad. Of course, that must also mean that the Ringwraith has lousy hp...

I think the storytelling possibilities in the next movie are going to interesting:
* Frodo and Sam trudge through the marshes
* Merry and Pippin are saved the Riders are Rohan, meet Fangorn
* Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli meet Gandalf. Meet Eomer, Theoden, Wormwood.
* Frodo and Sam trudge through the marshes
* Merry and Pippin go to Entmoot, meet other Ents
* Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli fight in the Battle of Helm's Deep. Are saved by mysterious forest, march on Isengard.
* Frodo and Sam trudge through the marshes
* Merry and Pippin and ents attack Isengard. Meet up with Aragorn et al. Confront Saruman. Ride for Gondor
* Frodo, Sam and Gollum trudge through marshes
* Merry and Pippin ride to Gondor. Gandalf goes ahead.
* Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli ride through the Door of the Dead.
* Frodo, Sam and Gollum trudge through marshes.

I know who I'd definitely NOT want to play until we get to the LAST movie

 

[MaxKaladin]

what's really strange about that is that in the first "prequel" campaign, everyone wanted to play a dwarf, and it took all the DM's cajoling just to get one guy to play the token halfling.

Yeah, and look what happened this time around. Everyone looked at all the stuff he got and suddenly in the next campaign, you have all sorts of hobbits running around. I bet the whole party would have been hobbits if the DM hadn't put a cap on it.