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Game Review
Decipher's
Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game
Musings from a Narrator
Decipher's game is very nice. The game has rules
for all the things you expect from this kind of roleplaying game and very
much in keeping with current trend. Character creation, though convoluted
without the summary available online,
produces characters very much in keeping with Tolkien's world. The special
feats, racial traits, and professional abilities are drawn from the source
literature and help to breathe the flavour of the texts into at charter
design at a game rule level.
The rules themselves are not overly complex and emphasise those aspects that are emphasised in the books. Combat, the subtle magic of Middle Earth, fear and succumbing to the Shadow, are all handled well; micro economics and price lists, catalogues of variant monsters, lengthy spell lists, are not. Well done.
The game system plays well. A simple universal task system using characteristic, special feats, and skill traits as bonuses to a roll of two six sided dice compared against a Task Number. The more difficult the task, the higher the number. Tweaks for scoring a lot higher than what you needed, exhaustion due to effort and wounds, are all applied to give levels of complexity if you want them. For combat scenes, I would recommend figures, the game flow between initiative, movement, and actions is simple and visually enhanced by them. Player characters, regardless of the 'advancements' or power level you have given them, are vulnerable when outnumbered. Gaining the initiative so that you can carve down your opponents is important, as is leaving an action in reserve, if the character can, to parry the incoming devastation!
For those of you who arrive at the game after many years playing variants of Chaosium's basic roleplaying system might observe, at first glance, that characters have huge reserves of hit points to soak up the damage delivered by Sauron's minions; don't be fooled. Though a character can readily survive one good blow from just about anything, once so injured the character is at a severe disadvantage and in trouble. More of this in a moment.
The game also takes the time to advise on how best to give the stories you create the feel of the books. The advise is well meant, and correctly identifies the way that a heroic narrative varies from impartial aspects of role playing games. Tolkien can hand wave combat damage to his heroes because he has complete literary control on what happens, in the game the rules can tell you that heroes have been spattered by the Troll, or the orcish horde. It is here that the disjunction between the elegant rules and the desire for heroic narrative, the spirit of the game if you will, completely breaks down.
On one level I have no problem being told that orcs and other minor minions be 'one hit wonders' ignoring the health and wounding systems that form part of the rules. I don't even really mind being advised not to hurt the player characters too much as they will then insist on wearing heavy armour and focus on combat skills to survive; nether of which fits with the emphasis of Tolkien's text. Until I thought about it. If this is the 'spirit of the game', and I believe that it is, then the game rules should reflect this inherently. Special cases, bodges and 'cheating' to ensure the game meets a narrative ideal, while understandable, is only necessary due to the unimaginative game design. Indeed, I have to say that 'heavy' armour in the game makes only marginal difference in comparison to the damage that is thrown about.
The game is a standard rules middle weight that simulates combat through some elegant mechanics. It works very well. However, to remain true to the spirit of the narrative, the game design might have done better to either de-emphasise combat damage, or empower a narrator to replicate the stories through abstracting combat resolution using drama based systems. Robin Law's Hero Wars, soon to be HeroQuest, would be an ideal template. There isn't anything wrong with the rules as they are, indeed for some in our gaming group they are what the D20 system should have been. They flow well, play well, and could be applied to many other fantasy games and other genres. Player characters are heroic in scale. If you want to specifically create the sort of heroics in the Lord of The Rings, consider the combat resolution system.
In summary, Decipher's game is nicely entwined with Tolkien's text, packed with good ideas, and a suitable framework to set role game adventures in Middle Earth. It's a pretty book too!
