Middle Earth Game Questions

When you have a new game planned, you need should expect at least a few questions from the players.

Here is the first. What is your ruling going to be on toughness? From past posts, I gather your idea is to follow the 4th edition rules closely, and the rule on extra DR is that human characters are not allowed to have it. So, will you be following that rule or will you be sticking with the 3rd edition rules?

Also, I wanted to talk to you about uneven attribute scores. I have 50 points invested in my dexterity score, which does not quite jive with 4th edition. So, I decided to shift ten points from my strength score to my dexterity to raise it. Is that okay?

More to come as it comes up.

Alpha Centauri wrote:Here is the first. What is your ruling going to be on toughness? From past posts, I gather your idea is to follow the 4th edition rules closely, and the rule on extra DR is that human characters are not allowed to have it. So, will you be following that rule or will you be sticking with the 3rd edition rules?

I'm perfectly fine with the way that 3rd Edition handled Toughness: 10 points for DR +1 and 25 points for DR +2. Note that this is in essence the 4th Edition Damage Resistance with the Tough Skin limitation.

Alpha Centauri wrote:Also, I wanted to talk to you about uneven attribute scores. I have 50 points invested in my dexterity score, which does not quite jive with 4th edition. So, I decided to shift ten points from my strength score to my dexterity to raise it. Is that okay?

First of all, how did you get 50 points in DX in 3rd Edition? Second, no.  Transcribe the scores as written. Ignore how many points you have invested in each particular attribute, advantage, skill, etc. E.g. if Vanimo has an IQ of 16 (80 points in 3rd Edition), he would keep his IQ of 16 on his 4th Edition character sheet, even though that has a cost of a whopping 120 CPs.

First of all, how did you get 50 points in DX in 3rd Edition?

That's a good question. If memory serves, it had something to do with raising Deorwine's dexterity during gameplay. I think it came down to separating character points achieved during gameplay and points earned for attribute training. At the time, I believe you made a rule which stated the character points earned for training still counted toward raising the attribute, just not to the attribute score total.

That actually brings me to another question. For Deorwine, he raised a number of attributes during gameplay, which meant he spent double points to raise any attribute. How then, do we account for this increase? I mention this because Deorwine spent 70 points on strength before and during gameplay in 3rd for a score of 13. Does this mean, that in 4th edition he now has a strength of 17 instead?

I do see what you mean about swapping points in attribute scores. I suppose I interpreted the idea of modifying the character's scores too literally.

Alpha Centauri wrote:

First of all, how did you get 50 points in DX in 3rd Edition?

That's a good question. If memory serves, it had something to do with raising Deorwine's dexterity during gameplay. I think it came down to separating character points achieved during gameplay and points earned for attribute training. At the time, I believe you made a rule which stated the character points earned for training still counted toward raising the attribute, just not to the attribute score total.

That actually brings me to another question. For Deorwine, he raised a number of attributes during gameplay, which meant he spent double points to raise any attribute. How then, do we account for this increase? I mention this because Deorwine spent 70 points on strength before and during gameplay in 3rd for a score of 13. Does this mean, that in 4th edition he now has a strength of 17 instead?

I do see what you mean about swapping points in attribute scores. I suppose I interpreted the idea of modifying the character's scores too literally.

Ok, to answer your questions:

1. Keep the scores as written, completely ignoring how many points you spent.
2. Keep the scores as written, completely ignoring how many points you spent.
3. Keep the scores as written, completely ignoring how many points you spent.



So, if Vanimo's attributes in 3rd Edition were as follows:

ST 11 [10 points]
DX 13 [30 points]
IQ 16 [80 points]
HT 12 [20 points]


His 4th Edition attributes would be as follows:

ST 11 [10 points]
DX 13 [60 points]
IQ 16 [120 points]
HT 12 [20 points]


Do the same with your advantages, disadvantages, and skills, keeping the SCORE the same despite the cost. Almost everything transfers quite well between editions. A few things (e.g. Animal Empathy) will require very slight modification, while some will require quite a bit of changes, e.g. Eidetic Memory.

For the new characters (Jeff and Heber maybe), I might recommend having them make a finished 150 point 4th edition character, then giving them a certain amount of experience every so often until the game starts to paste on (50 or 100?). This might end in a more weathered and realistic character.

I hear that Heber will be playing Rundy. Meagan will be playing Boselith. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with Jeff yet.

1. Keep the scores as written, completely ignoring how many points you spent.
2. Keep the scores as written, completely ignoring how many points you spent.
3. Keep the scores as written, completely ignoring how many points you spent.

Okay, okay. I can take a hint. You don't need to beat me to death with the rules. We don't talk about fight club.

Are we allowed to attach cinematic techniques to our characters? I thought of giving Deorwine the Whirlwind (Spear) ability.

If you noticed, I retracted that last statement I made about Deorwine not being as good in 4th edition as he was in 3rd edition. While I confess, I no longer have a 400+ character of awesome, I still have all the scores the character possessed in 3rd edition. The only score to suffer was Tactics, which dropped from 14 to 12. Other than this, Deorwine is still the same guy. But I weep he is no longer in the realm of 400 point awesome. He's now on par with weaker characters like Centauri.

And he might come out ahead. With the points accumulated from dropping my spear skill, I think I'll invest in giving the old lug some spear techniques to use in conjunction with his feint. I'm also going to buy off his callous disadvantage as I thought it interfered with the character concept.

Alpha Centauri wrote:Are we allowed to attach cinematic techniques to our characters? I thought of giving Deorwine the Whirlwind (Spear) ability.

If you'd like, I'd be happy to make a Style for your character, with your input. We could include the Whirlwind Attack (Spear) in it, but since it requires a swinging - not a thrusting - attack, you'd have to use a Tip Slash (page MA 113), which does significantly less damage.

Alpha Centauri wrote:If you noticed, I retracted that last statement I made about Deorwine not being as good....

That post did seem a bit whiny...

Alpha Centauri wrote:And he might come out ahead. With the points accumulated from dropping my spear skill, I think I'll invest in giving the old lug some spear techniques to use in conjunction with his feint. I'm also going to buy off his callous disadvantage as I thought it interfered with the character concept.

What was/is your Spear skill? Could you get enough points to get the Trained by a Master advantage?

What was/is your Spear skill? Could you get enough points to get the Trained by a Master advantage?

Right now, I have 22 points unspent points that I can use. My spear skill was at level 29 but I dropped it down to 25, which is giving me the bulk of those points. However, I'm afraid that's not enough for Trained by a Master, so I'll have to settle for the technique approach instead.

Ok. Tell me about your style then. If you have the Martial Arts book is there a style there that you would like to base it on?

Ok. Tell me about your style then. If you have the Martial Arts book is there a style there that you would like to base it on?

Hold on just a moment. I'm also toying with the idea of bringing an ally to the game. He'll be a point value equal to the player using him with a 15-- chance of showing up for gameplay.

His skill with large shock weapons is renowned throughout the land.

His name?

He has no name but people with malignant intent know him only as spectre who strikes fear into their hearts with a vocabulary of ten words or less.

He is...The Innkeeper.

Alpha Centauri wrote:He is...The Innkeeper.  

Heck the Innkeeper? Why, he's not a valuable ally at all. He might even count as a dependent! All he has going for him are a sledge hammer and a ST high enough to decapitate people with said hammer...

Heck the Innkeeper? Why, he's not a valuable ally at all. He might even count as a dependent! All he has going for him are a sledge hammer and a ST high enough to decapitate people with said hammer...

Well, I think it would make Megan incredibly happy. Although, I think she was in love with the voice more than the character itself.

And...strength 18 with a sledge hammer? That's sounds fine to me. It would almost be like having a cave troll on our side for once.