I’ll be running a Middle Earth game using the Mouse Guard RPG at GenCon. I’ll post whatever rules modifications I plan on implementing at my livejournal (and here since I’ll likely need some feeback). The teaser…
“You are the Dunedain Rangers, sworn defenders of the Realms and personal envoys of King Elessar. A new danger has cut off contact with your people in the struggling Northern Realm of Arnor. At the same time new incursions from the edges of Ithilien have stretched Gondor’s Rangers dangerously thin. The King has sent you to restore contact, discover the cause of the problems and, if possible, resolve the situation.”
That’s what I’m hoping. My main issues will be creating a good Nature hack and developing some ‘special’ abilities for the characters. I’d like to allow one non-combat skill to be open ended to reflect their heritage. But that’s not absolutely needed.
Harrassing the Enemy, giving sound counsel, avoiding combat with the people of the realm, passing through unnoticed
? Just yammering off the top of my head.
Because they’re men, you might also simply say that each player must decide 2 things within their character’s nature (not skills specifically). Four activities may be a tad too many for Humans.
Or… treat no activities as within their Nature. Anytime they tap Nature, it is against their Nature (ie, subject to tax).
Why not just make Healer part of their Nature? That way you avoid having a single exception and you maintain it’s magical aspect. (Nature’s magic, kids. ::gasp:
What the hell do Insight and Will do? Make the Nature descriptions actions, not foofy concepts that the players are going whine and fudge around until everything they do is covered by Nature.
Also, what’s Shadow Nature? Is that a second Nature stat? If so, NEIN!
If you want to allow the Rangers to become corrupted, you should use traits. You could also use a mechanic that changes their descriptors after they earn X trait and then top or tax their Nature.
So if they earn the Shadow trait and they tax their Nature, Heal turns to Poison (or something).
I’ve been rolling around all the old articles I can find on the Dunedain. I was shooting for things that characterize them. Thanks for the reminder to K.I.S.S. I don’t want the session to turn into a whine and cheese fest (that’s why I’m here looking for help).
Also, what’s Shadow Nature? Is that a second Nature stat? If so, NEIN!
I was looking over the Mice of the Old Republic thread and I kinda liked the description of Light and Dark sides to the Force (since that dovetails nicely with the Moralistic universe of Tolkien anyway). I was thinking about having some characters with some pull tword the ‘Shadow’. I’d like to give them a tangible in game temptation.
If you want to allow the Rangers to become corrupted, you should use traits. You could also use a mechanic that changes their descriptors after they earn X trait and then top or tax their Nature.
So if they earn the Shadow trait and they tax their Nature, Heal turns to Poison (or something).
This I like.
Then all I’m left with is a good list for uncorrupted Dunedain Nature and a companion list of ‘Shadow’ descriptors. Hmmm. I’ll be busy on that this weekend and get back to you.
Firstly, I’d like to say I’m really interested in this idea (Sorry, I’m a bad person and have a problem with playing a game of mice).
However, I’m not sure that the idea of in-game corruption of Dunedain is a good one. Certainly, Dunedain were corrupted - but by the direct action of Sauron (The fall of Numenor) or via the ring.
So certainly, the Shadow nature would be appropriate to any Dark Numenorian NPCs/enemies you want to have - but I’m not sure about a corruption mechanic, unless you really want it for your game.
I thought about the some kind of Corruption due to re-reading the books and thinking about Boromir’s fall. Having played it through once I’m definitly not using that sort of mechanic. I came across as too light/dark side Jedi to me. The other parts work like a dream though and the senario ought to be fun. I’ll probably drop some conflicting Beliefs, Goals and Traits in there to spice up the interactions. I just need to come up with a few extra skills and I’ll probably be a little more generous with the upper level traits and the Fate/Persona point economies.
I’m probably going to treat Nature: Dunedain as per the rules for Ancestry (modified from Jihad) unless I can come up a better list of associated aspects. I think this makes sense as in Middle Earth your blood lineage is very important. Would this be game breaking?
If you reach 10 Nature you are too much a loner for the Rangers. You either go off by yourself and become a hermit or fall to a tragic doom (if you take this option you may carry any Fate or Persona forward to your new character).
If you reach 0 Nature you are too civilized for the Rangers. You settle into a position/pension in Gondor, get married, have fat babies and forget about the dark, wet, cold and danger of your previous life.
That’s one of the other ways I was considering putting it together. I was stuck on what to put in there. What about…
