amber merp

7/31/2019 Amber Merp

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Racial Point Totals

Each race listed below has a starting score in each attribute and a number of extra points herecalled Freebie points (after the White Wolf Storyteller games' points of the same name.) You mayspend these points any way that you wish on attributes, powers, items, or stuff. You may alsolower your starting attributes and use the points so diverted for something else. Just bear in mindthat if your character deviates greatly from the starting level of his or her race, he or she will beunusual.

Player Freebie:

Allowed?:Race: Strength: Endurance: Warfare: Power: 1/S/T/F

Y MiddleMan

5 5 5 0 35

Y High

Man

10 10 10 5 35

Y NoldorElf

15 20 20 20 50/40/35/*

Y Sindar

Elf

15 20 20 15 40/35/30/*

Y Silvan

Elf

10 20 10 10 40/35/30/*

Y Hobbit 5 15 5 0 35

Y Dwarf 10 30 15 10 45/40/35/*

Y Half-Elf 10 15 15 10 40/40/35/*Y Half-Orc 10 15 10 0 30/25/20/*Y Half-Troll 15 15 10 0 35/30/25/*

N Ent 30 30 10 10 40/40/35/*

N Orc 10 15 10 0 30/25/20/*

N Troll 20 20 10 0 25/20/15/*

N Maiar 60 60 60 60 200N Valar 80 80 80 80 500

Statistics cannot rise out of the Level in which the character begins without massive amounts of externaladditional assistance (i.e.: blessing, magical aid, etc.)

Freebie Points follow in progression. First Age (1), Second Age (S), Third Age (T), and Fourth Age (F). Items

marked with an asterisk "*" indicate that few, if any, of that particular race would remain and that if any are around,

you should use the preceding value for that Age. Freebie Points are also cumulative. A Noldor Elf born in the FirstAge and still active in the Fourth Age (rare as can be!) would have 160 Freebie Points to allot (beginning Characters

only) [50+40+35+35=160.] If only one value is listed, that value is used for all Ages.

Attributes:

The Attribute Scale

The attribute scale runs from zero to seventy-five and above. Fifty is perhaps the practicalmaximum for starting characters. This necessitates some superficial changes to the Ambersystem. For one thing, there is no auction. Players simply buy attributes at the desired level, andif there is a tie, well, too bad. Zero is the lowest possible number, and it does not represent, as inAmber, a potent supernatural rank. Its rather the opposite.

Value: Category: Range: Level:

http://home.mchsi.com/~philhall1969/amber-m

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Raw Power Contests

At that moment he caught a flash of white and silver coming from the North, like a small stardown on the dusky fields. It moved with the speed of an arrow and grew as it came, convergingswiftly with the flight of the four men towards the Gate. It seemed to Pippin that a pale light wasspread about it and the heavy shadows gave way before it; and then as it drew near he thoughtthat he heard, like an echo in the walls, a great voice calling. "Gandalf!" he cried. "Gandalf! Healways turns up when things are darkest. Go on! Go on, White Rider! Gandalf, Gandalf!" heshouted wildly, like an onlooker at a great race urging on a runner who is far beyondencouragement.

But now the dark swooping shadows were aware of the newcomer. One wheeled towards him;but it seemed to Pippin that he raised his hand and from it a shaft of white light stabbed upwards.The Nazgl gave a long, wailing cry and swerved away; and with t hat the other four wavered, andthen rising in swift spirals they passed away eastward vanishing into the lowering cloud above; anddown on the Pelennor it seemed for a while less dark.

The Return of the King (791-2)

Power by itself is a motive force, not a tool. As such, contests of raw Power tend to be blunt and

spectacular. One Power may try to drive away the other or beat them down. This is a simplecontest of attributes. A power exerting itself often has a bit of its nature revealed. Evil powersmost often appear dark and dreadful. Lights may often dim, shadows lengthen, etc. Good powers,too, will appear larger than life, and often radiate or glow according to their stature. If one poweris marginally better than the other, it can hold it at bay, or force it way. If it is significantly better,it can hold the other in place, or collapse its will. A character must have a Power of Supernaturallevel or better to initiate such a contest (which takes at least a minute or so, regardless of theoutcome.)

Reading Thoughts

A Power may also try to read the thought of a victim, but only after the latter's resistance isovercome. The latter is inevitable, should the victim be unable to move, and the captor has even aslight superiority. Otherwise, a significant superiority is needed to keep the victim's willenthralled. This use also requires an S-level Power or greater.

Power as an Aid to Sight

Power also acts as a focus of perceptions beyond mortal kin. With sufficient Power a character candetect the presence of other Powers, either near at hand, or far away. The first is easier than thesecond. At

O-level, these perceptions are limited and subjective: "This wood feels evil." or "There's somethingfunny about the old man." At E-level, they solidify somewhat, and come under the control of thecharacter's will, if he concentrates. "The only evil you feel in the wood is far away." or "The oldman is more than he seems." At S-level, they become constantly working senses: "You feel evil onthe borders of the wood." or "The old man is hiding a power. You cannot read his mind." In anycase, the effective range is never more than 20 miles or so.

At the high S-level, however, characters who actively scry from a high place or with the aid of adevice like Galadriels mirror, can attempt to find and contact other S-level powers or engage themin contests.


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Power as Vision

Then suddenly, as before under the eaves of the Emyn Muil, Sam saw these two rivals withother vision. A crouching shape, scarcely more than the shadow of a living thing, a creature nowwholly ruined and defeated, yet filled with a hideous rage and lust; and before it stood stern,untouchable now by pity, a figure robed in white, but at its breast it held a wheel of fire. Out ofthe fire there spoke a commanding voice.

"Begone, and trouble me no more! If you touch me ever again, you shall be cast yourself intothe Fire of Doom."

The Return of the King (922)

"I thought I saw a white figure that shone and did not grow dim like the others. Was thatGlorfindel then?"

"Yes, you saw him for a moment as he is upon the other side: one of the mighty of theFirstborn. He is an Elf-lord of the house of the princes."

Frodo and Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring (217)

In addition to his or her "radar" senses, a powerful character can also peep into the symbolicworld and the wraith world. In these visions people appear strangely: Glorfindel as a glowingfigure, the Ring as a wheel of fire, Aragorn as a man with a magical crown, Saruman as a strikingsnake, etc. O- and E-level characters can never initiate these visions of their own (though they willbe more frequent for E than O), but for S-level characters these function constantly, even ifsometimes there is nothing to see in the other worlds. Interpreting such visions is often difficult.They may show a truer aspect of Middle-Earth, or simply one hidden from mortal eyes.

Hiding from other Powers

Hiding oneself from the perceptions of others is exceptionally difficult, more so for evil beings thangood ones. If one does not exercise one's power, one can hide from all other Powers, provided it isnot searching for you, in which case; should its eye fall on you, a contest is immediately engaged.Active use of power (especially Spellcasting) is like a bugle-call for all to hear and can draw allsorts of attention, even upon lesser Powers. You cannot both use a Power and keep it hidden.

Power and Healing

Sometimes wounds are not just natural, but supernatural, too. In that case, the healer must havePower greater than or equal to the thing or person who gave the wound in order to effect a cure.There's a certain amount of craft to this, too, so the healer might also need tools or herbs to dothe job right. Aragorn needed Atheleas to cure Merry and owyn. Elrond had to melt theblade-shard that had lodged in Frodo's arm. Speaking of Frodo, don't neglect Endurance as afactor in magical wounding. It was the Hobbit's Endurance, not his Power, that enabled him to bearup for so long under both the shard, and, later, the Ring.

Power and Leadership

Great Power goes hand in hand with great Warfare. An S-level or M-level Power can put his or herwill into the troops of their army, thereby making command easier and giving a boost to theirWarfare in all contests. A high Power allows the building and co-ordination of an army far, farlarger than might be possible under ordinary laws of logistics and morale. The converse, of course,


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is that once the controlling Power is removed, the army will fall apart. If these rules seem totrample on the preserve of Warfare, too bad, cuz it's the way things work.

Power and Abilities

Aside from these relatively blunt and unsubtle uses, Power may also be channeled through avariety of Arts and Abilities, from Crafting to Shape-changing. These are assumed always to workfor a character of

E-level or higher provided the character is not opposed. Any spell attacking the mind or body(sleep, illusion, etc) of person requires a superiority in a Power contest. Any spell attacking withbrute force (fireball, etc) requires superiority in Warfare.

Levels of Power:

Ordinary Power provides only the barest protection against invasive spells and magic. Magicalabilities lie mostly dormant at this level, or work only sporadically. A character with Ordinarypower will only be able to sense the most overpowering forces in the area (10-20 miles), and thenonly dimly. Merry, Pippin and Sam all had O-level Power.

Exceptional Power Characters with Exceptional power will be able to use freely whatever magicalabilities they purchase. Their defense at this point is stronger, and they can usually detect uses ofpower nearby (10-15' radius) or directed against them. If they concentrate, they can detect thegeneral feel of an area or person: good or evil, powerful or weak, etc, and discern far-off workingsof Power. (Provided the other does not hide itself,) Occasionally, they will see with a second sightor into the wraith-world. Legolas had E-level Power.

Supernatural Power puts a whole range of extra-ordinary senses at the command of thecharacter. They can detect the nature of any being, see through magical disguises and invisibility,even read the surface-thought of an adversary, through a simple power-contest. Only an extra-ordinarily subtle creature can hide their intrinsic power or nature, or work magic nearby (5 milesor so) without being sensed. By climbing to a high place or by concentrating, a being with

Supernatural level Power can descry things happening far away in other parts of the world, orengage in power contests (usually indecisive) with a distant foe. Upon concentrating (1 to 2minutes) they will be aware of all powers in the area. S-level Powers can also perceive theinvisible or penetrate magical disguise. The latter requires a contest of power. Two or moresupernatural Powers may open themselves to the minds of others in the same room or area, andhold a silent "conference call" with each other. Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel had S-level Power.

Mythic Power is all that Supernatural Power is and more. Even speaking the name of a being withMythic Power is dangerous. Sauron had M-level power.

Strength

Ordinary Strength allows characters to do all the things a normal, everyday, human can do.Since we are all normal humans (well, most of us), I won't much time elaborating O-levelStrength. O-level strength can lift a big rock with both hands, but not throw it. It might or mightnot indicate knowledge of wrestling techniques. Sam had Ordinary Strength.

Exceptional Strength is the level of an Arnold Schwartzenegger. E-level strength can heft andthrow a big rock, or lift one end of a Volkswagen off the ground. It includes a good knowledge ofwrestling and punching. If it tries hard, it might be able to bend a medium-sized metal bar. Eomerhad E-level strength.

Supernatural Strength is one notch up. S-level strength could heft and throw a Volkswagen


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Rabbit. It almost certainly gives a natural fluidity to boxing and wrestling. S-level strength couldbend a good-sized iron bar or sword.

Mythic Strength is scary. M-level strength could chuck a good-sized train-car, or tear aVolkswagen apart with brute force. M-level strength doesn't box it pulverizes. Smaug the Dragonhad M-level strength.

Endurance

Ordinary Endurance is the endurance of any normal human being. O-level Endurance could jogfor perhaps a few hours, out and out run for maybe a quarter of that. It could sword-fight formaybe twenty minutes straight. One good sword blow would put it out of the action. BarlimanButterbur had Ordinary Endurance.

Exceptional Endurance is the endurance of a good athlete and then some. E-level endurancecould jog for a day without stopping, or run full-pace for an hour. It could sword-fight for 40minutes without growing tired. It would take a couple of good wounds to put an E-level person outof action. Frodo had E-level Endurance; and so did Gimli.

Supernatural Endurance, quite frankly, is beyond the real structural capacity of the human body.

Someone with S-level Endurance could jog for a week without stopping, or run all-out for a day.They could fight for maybe 20 hours without growing tired. You could hack a limb off a person withS-level Endurance and they'd live with or without medical treatment. You'd have to really whackthem with a sword to kill them. Legolas had S-level Endurance.

Mythic Endurance doesn't get tired, or not that you'd notice. You might be able to hurt it, if, say,you dropped a mountain on it. Morgoth had Mythic Endurance.

Warfare

Ordinary Warfare is cannon fodder. They can point the sharp end at the enemy, they might even

be quite good at technique, or a knight back home, but against any sort of hero, they're toast.Sam had Ordinary Warfare.

Exceptional Warfare stands out in the crowd. They're as good or better than the best real lifehuman fencer. They could hold their ground against fifteen to twenty Ordinary foes, or clean outhalf that number. An E-level leader who goes to one area of a battlefield can usually carry the dayin that area, even if the whole battle is lost. Eomer had Exceptional Warfare.

Supernatural Warfare is as good or better than the hero in a modern movie. They can hold theirground against an indefinite number of lesser foes. If they command on the battlefield bet thattheir side will win. The King of the Ringwraiths (possibly) or Aragorn (even more possibly) hadSupernatural Warfare.

Mythic Warfare. Think Benedict. Think Morgoth. Think Tulkas. Maybe not even Sauron had MythicWarfare.

Good Stuff, Bad Stuff, and Zero Stuff:

This is what determines whether or not you are a good person, a bad person, or a neutral person.Zero Stuff is not an option to purchase, if you place no points in Good Stuff or Bad Stuff, you endup being a Zero Stuff person, you cant but it.

Roughly, if you are good, you have some Good Stuff points. The more good you are, the moreGood Stuff you have. The effect is true (but reversed) for Bad Stuff, the more evil you are, themore bad stuff you have.


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As a general rule, players may not purchase more than 3 points of either. And you may notpurchase points on both sides, you are either a Good Stuff wielder or a Bad Stuff wielder, not both.

The Stuff you have comes into play in combat and in general luckiness. For players, its usuallygood to have some stuff, bad or good, but thats up to them and the GM. Bad Stuff luck allowsyou to find things and influence people that assist you in your evil adventures; Good Stuff luckallows you to find things and influence people that assist you in your pursuit of defeating theDark Lord.

Magical Abilities:

Crafting (15 pts.)

Greater Crafting (35 pts.)

& Master Crafting (50 pts.)

Crafting, the ability to make magical items, is by far the most common magical power found inMiddle-Earth. It is also the most characteristic. From the elf-smiths to dwarf masons, from theSilmarils to One Ring, Crafting is the power that shapes Middle Earth. Basic Crafting allows the

forging of items with magical properties. Simply take the number of points such an item wouldcost as a Bought Item (see below) and that is the number of weeks a Crafter requires making thething. (Naturally, the smith needs a forge and tools and proper material, as well.)

Items with properties marked GC, represent a more advanced art and need a more skill ful hand.They require the Greater Crafting ability. Properties marked LS require a living subject and cannot be given directly by Crafting. (Perhaps another power, Breeding, is required.) They can,however, be given indirectly through Conferring.

[Basic and Greater Crafting items cost no points to create (though they can later be bought, if theplayer wishes)].

Master Crafting allows the creation of utterly new Things of Power. Things of Power are always

special, are not part of the lists, and always cost points, though they do not thereby becomeBought Items. See the discussion of Things of Power below.

Beast Speech (Varies)

This is, naturally enough, the ability to speak with animals. Not every beast-speaker is a Dr.Dolittle, though. Speech of one species costs 5 points. The speech of named and numbered (up to12) species is 10. The speech of every animal native to a particular region is 15. The speech ofevery animal everywhere costs 20 points.

Suddenly out of the darkness something fluttered to his shoulder. He started but it was only anold thrush. Unafraid it perched by his shoulder and it brought him news. Marveling he found he

could understand its tongue, for he was of the race of Dale.

The Hobbit (236)

Blessing & Cursing (15 pts.)

He laid his hand on the pony's head, and spoke in a low voice. "Go with words of guard andguiding on you," he said. "You are a wise beast, and have learned much in Rivendell. Make yourways to places where you can find grass, and so come in time to Elrond's house, or wherever youwish to go."

Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring (295-6)


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Blessing is the ability to attach a little piece of Good Stuff to another character and send it withthem when they leave you. Blessing never works in the presence of the caster, because the mobileGood Stuff is considered a kind of substitute for the Blesser himself. Blessing is only moderatelytiring, but too much of it might tax even a great wizard's strength or make the crucial differencelater.

Cursing works much like cursing in Amber. You say you're cursing so-and-so, and you gain 10points (or more!) of bad stuff, which goes out from you to make the curse "stick." The greateryour power, the more effective such cursing will be. It helps, too, if you've been greatly wronged

by the party in question, even better if they have just mortally wounded you.

Foresight (10 pts.)

"Thus we meet again, though all the hosts of Mordor lay between us," said Aragorn. "Did I notsay so at the Hornburg?"

"So you spoke," said Eomer, "but hope oft deceives, and I knew not then that you were a manforesighted."

The Return of the King (830)

Sometimes people in Middle-Earth can see the future, or possible futures. The GM can slip theseflashes of insight to the player on a piece of paper, to speak or be silent, or he can simplyannounce that the character says such-and-such prophecy. In either case, the prophecy only"sticks" if it is spoken aloud. This is more useful for NPCs than PCs.

Horde Mastery (15 points)

. . . a whole regiment of birds had broken away suddenly from the main host, and came, flyinglow, straight towards the ridge. Sam thought they were a kind of crow of large size. As theypassed overhead, on so dense a throng that their shadow followed them darkly over the landbelow, one harsh croak was heard.

The Fellowship of the Ring (277-8)

A Horde Master can settle down anywhere and put the animals to work for him. This requires afixed base where both you and the animals live, plus time to train them and instruct them. Butwith a little breeding, and you have a ready-made batch of spies or guards. Horde Masteryincludes Beast Speech for one's current Horde animal.

Shapeshifting (Varies)

"He is a skin-changer. He changes his skin: sometimes he is a huge black bear, sometimes heis a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard. I cannot tell you muchmore, though that ought to be enough."

Gandalf, The Hobbit (116)Only a very few people in Middle-Earth have shapeshifting. Of them, the Beornings are the mostlikely to be PCs. The base-cost for shapeshifting is 15 points. For 15 points the character canchange into one specific animal-shape. This "skin" is an individual, not a generic beast, so theshifter will always become the same bear or wolf or what-have-you. Changing shape takesperhaps a minute.

Extended Shapeshifting is also possible. To extend one's basic form to birds, the cost is an extra 5points; to reptiles or insects, an additional 10. To be able to change into different individuals of aspecies costs another 10.

To this base-cost, one may then buy multipliers. Named and numbered species (up to 6) costs *2,


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many more species (up to 30) costs *3, unlimited species *4.

Base cost and multipliers may be mixed and matched. For instance, Findulias wants to be able tochange into a bear, a wolf, a badger, and an eagle. She pays 15 for basic animal shape-shift, thenmultiplies it by *2 to buy named and numbered animals: the bear, the wolf, and the badger. Butshe also wants to change into an eagle. This is 5 more points for the one bird form. So her total is15 *2 = 30 + 5 = 35 points.

Maiar Shapeshifting

Now the Valar took to themselves shape and hue; and because they were drawn into the Worldby love of the Children of Ilvatar, for whom they hoped, they took shape after that manner whichthey beheld in the Vision of Ilvatar, save only in majesty and splendor. Moreover their shapecomes of their knowledge of the visible World, rather than of the World itself; and they need it not,save only as we use raiment, and yet we may be naked and suffer no loss of our being.

The Silmarillion (11)

The Shapeshifting of the Valar and the Maiar is a different kind of thing altogether. Basically, anyValar or Maiar can body or disembody themselves at will. Thus, killing their body does not killthem. Nor can you be sure their shape will ever be the same twice. Yet, somehow, Middle-Earth

itself wears away this capacity, even in good Maiar like Radagast and Gandalf. The existence andcost of Maiar shapeshifting remains the mystery and province of the Game Master. [Note: as ageneral rule, I attribute a cost of 100 points for Maiar Shapeshifting.]

Spellcasting (35 pts.)

"Now go on again!" said Beorn to the wizard.

"Where was I? O yes -- I was not grabbed. I killed a goblin or two with a flash --"

"Good!" growled Beorn, "It is some good being a wizard then."

Gandalf & Beorn, The Hobbit

Here we come to the rarest of all abilities, and our main example is Gandalf. Unfortunately, we donot see Gandalf work many spells in the course of the LOTR and those spells he does cast oftenseem inconsistent. Therefore, I've had to simplify a bit. Let's start with what Gandalf can't do:

He can't fly. If he could, he wouldn't have an eagle carting him all over the place. This goes forlevitation, too. Or teleportation. All very unlike Gandalf.

He can't burn snow. He says so himself. I take this as a general principle, that he can't dothings which a blatantly unnatural nor sustain a magical operation indefinitely. He can, forinstance, make a flash of fire, but can't shoot plasma from his fingers like a flame-thrower.

He can't communicate over long distances. Indeed, he denies that such a thing is even possiblewithout a Palantr.

So what can one do with Spell-casting?

Illusions

"I will come," said Gimli. "I wish to see him and learn if he really looks like you."

"And how will you learn that, Master Dwarf?" said Gandalf.

"Saruman could look like me in your eyes, if it suited his purpose with you. And are you yet


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wise enough to detect all his counterfeits?"

The Two Towers (562)

A Spell caster can make himself appear as someone else or to make one object appear as another.Or, as Gandalf does, he can keep people from recognizing him for who he really is, until he wants.

Legolas gave a great shout and shot an arrow high into the air: it vanished in a flash of flame.

"Mithrandir!" he cried. "Mithrandir!""Well met, I say to you again, Legolas!" said the old man. . . .

At last Aragorn stirred. "Gandalf!" he said. "Beyond all hope you return to us in our need! Whatveil was over my sight? Gandalf!"

The Two Towers (483 - 4)

Enhance Nature

"There's more behind this than sun and warm air," [Sam] muttered to himself. "I don't like thisgreat big tree. I don't trust it. Hark at it singing about sleep now! This won't do at all!"

The Fellowship of the Ring (114-5)

Spell casters can make any natural process happen very quickly in a very short burst. They can,for instance, make a hot tongue of flame as Gandalf does. Or make wood rot. Or weaken stone.This goes in reverse, too. He can make a fire go out. Or stop a cracking beam. They can alsointerfere in the processes of a living body. So they could put someone to sleep by turning on theirbody's natural sleep cycle. Or kill them by stopping their heart. The only thing they can't do ismake continual changes in the order of nature. As soon as they stop concentrating, theinterference will stop. Now, if they've set wood on fire, it will continue to burn. If they've putsomeone to sleep, they'll stay sleeping. If they've killed them, they'll stay dead. Spellcasting can

also enhance the function of any object. A door, for instance, is supposed to shut. So a shuttingspell will make it stay shut. It's also supposed to open. So an opening spell will make it open. Abattering ram is supposed to crush, so an aiding spell will make it crush harder.

"I could think of nothing to do but put a shutting-spell on the door. I know many; but to dothings of that kind rightly requires time, and even then the door can be broken by strength."

Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring (318-9)

Make Light

Gandalf struck a blue light on the end of his staff, and in its firework glare the poor hobbitcould be seen kneeling on the hearth-rug, shaking like a jelly that was melting.

The Hobbit (27)

Big deal, you say. But you never have to go without a torch. And you can read in bed.

Limitations on Spellcasting

"If Gandalf would go before us with a bright flame, he might melt a path for you," said Legolas.The storm had troubled him little, and he alone of the Company remained still light of heart.


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"If Elves could fly over mountains, they might fetch the Sun to save us," answered Gandalf."But I must have something to work on. I cannot burn snow."

The Fellowship of the Ring (284)

We've gone over this before. A recap:

Effects cannot be continuous. They have to happen once and then stop. Any results will remain,but your interference must end.

You cannot effect things at a distance. You can set the tree next to you on fire, but not the onein Sauron's garden a hundred miles away.

All contests become Attribute contests. If you try to put someone to sleep and they don't wantto sleep, you must beat their Power. If you try to hit them with a falling rock, and they dodge,you must beat their Warfare.

Things that Look like Spellcasting but Arent

Then they brought up their ponies, and carried away the pots of gold, and buried them verysecretly not far from the track by the river, putting a great many spells over them, just in casethey ever had the chance to come back and recover them.

The Hobbit (51)

Some kinds of spells like the ones the dwarves used to hide their troll-cache are minor commonknowledge. These have no special effect on play, unless the Gamemaster wishes to treat them asa form of Blessing & Cursing.

Items:

Bought Items

Just like in an Amber campaign, characters can buy any item they wish. They may either design itthemselves or buy whatever magic goodies come their way in the course of the story. Such abought item then becomes part of their portfolio, and coincidence will act to keep it from beinglost or destroyed. If, however, such an unfortunate thing happens, the points return to thecharacter. In either case, the item becomes an important part of the story. For example, let us lookat what happens to the four barrow-swords. After the interlude with Tom Bombadil, the GMdecides it's Advancement Point time. Merry, Pippin and Sam decide to buy the swords they'vefound. Frodo feels it would be better to purchase more Power and Endurance. Now watch theswords as the campaign continues:

Frodo looses his almost immediately. The Ringwraiths break it as a kind of a slap-in-the-face,right before they try to grab him. Oh well, if Frodo wanted it, he should have paid for it.

Merry looses his sword, but not until book 5. He gets the points back, and since he helps to killthe Nazgl with it, it becomes a permanent part of his story. We'll never forget that sword.

Pippin keeps his sword all the way to the end of the LOTR book 6 and beyond. It gets remarkedon from time to time, and he kills a troll with it.

Sam looses his sword in Book 4. But it doesn't leave the story. Gandalf steals it from theMessenger in Book 5, and Sam gets it back by Book 6.

The moral? Bought items are hard to get rid of. Un-bought items are far too easily destroyed.


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Purchased Qualities for Items and Creatures

Extra Hard [1 pt] This is the same as the Amber ability of the same name.

Double Damage [2 pt] This is the same as the Amber ability of the same name.

Deadly Damage [3 pt] This is the same as the Amber ability of the same name.

Destructive Damage [4 pt] GC This is the same as the Amber ability of the same name.Resistant to Extra Hard Weapons [1 pt] This is the same as the Amber ability Resistant toNormal Weapons.

Resistant to Double Damage Weapons [2 pts.] This is the same as the Amber ability Resistantto Firearms.

Resistant to Deadly Damage Weapons [3 pts.] GC This is the same as the Amber abilityInvulnerable to all Conventional Weapons.

Glowing [3 pts.] GC The item glows and can illuminate an area perhaps 1' square around itself.While this is not in and of itself useful, it is often combined with Danger Sense.

Illumination [5 pts.] GC The item doesn't just glow: it is a light source at least as powerful as anordinary lamp and perhaps much more so.

Danger Sense [3 pts.] GC The item can sense immanent danger to itself or its wielder. This canbe general danger, but of very short range (30 seconds or 100 yards), or a only specific dangerbut with a much greater range (up to 10 miles). Elves often made swords that sense orcs. Pleasenote that the item must have a way of communicating if it is to pass this information along to itsowner.

Will [5 pts.] GC The item is alive, but not very smart. (About the same IQ as a dog.) It can use itspowers of its own volition.

Able to Speak X times [X pts.] GC The item can speak: but only a set number of times. This canbe anything from one word to a conversation to a recitation of the Summa Theologica. Every timeit speaks, however, it looses a point out of it's speech ability. When all points are gone it can nolonger speak. Normally, X is a significant number such as three or seven or one.

Able to Crawl [1 pt] LS This is the same as the Amber ability Mobility.

Able to Run [2 pts.] LS This is the same as the Amber ability Double Speed.

Swiftness [3 pts.] LS This is the same as the Amber ability Engine Speed.

Hiding [1 pt] The item, like a chameleon, can blend into shade and shadow. It is especially easyin a natural environment with shifting texture and light. Lrien's cloaks may have had a form ofthis abil ity.

Single Illusion [3 pts.] The item can appear to be a single other thing, or to project a single otherimage. The image can be up to the size of a small house, but it must be fixed at the time ofcreation. E.g. A door that looks like rock or a ring that makes its user look like a stump. Suchsingle illusions will reflect and catch light in a normal way.

Multiple Illusion [5 pts.] GC The illusion projected can change at either the owner's or the item'scommand. In addition two or more illusions can now be projected, both one on the item itself andone beyond, or three external illusions. These illusions cannot speak or move of themselves,though they will react to wind or water.


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Able to Alter Size and Weight [3 pts.] The item can become heavier or lighter by about 50%and can expand or contract by about 25%. Thus a ring could slip on or off a finger, or a set ofclothes could change to fit the wearer.

Supernatural Strength [5 pts.] GC This gives the item a Strength of 20.

Supernatural Warfare [5 pts.] GC This gives the item a Warfare of 20.

Supernatural Endurance [5 pts.] GC This gives the item an Endurance of 20.

Shape-change [2 pts. times modifier] LS The item can change form into one or more shapes. Thebase cost is 2, multiplied by standard multipliers, e.g. Named and Numbered, Horde, etc.

Conferring [15] GC The item confers ability onto its owner or wearer. This includes abilitiesmarked LS.

Things of Power

Things of Power are different from Bought Items. Things of Power are the ultimate expression ofmagic in Middle-Earth. Anything, a river, a ring, a sword, or a jewel can be a thing of power. Itemsof Power break the limitations of Power, Spell Craft or Shapeshifting. Specifically:

They can function over a great distance or wide area.

They can communicate instantaneously.

They can function continuously.

Three numbers describe things of Power: its Cost, its Power, and its activation Cost.

Cost

The cost of a Thing must be worked out between the player and the GM. Typically, it is 30 points at

a minimum. The more powerful the thing will be, the more it will cost. Players are not limited tospending free points and stuff on a Thing. They may sell any attribute down or loose any magicalpower to pay for the cost. These points go into the Thing and if it is ever lost or destroyed, theyDO NOT return to the spender. (A carefully constructed Thing may be deliberately unmade by itscreator to regain points, but only at the GM's discretion and only under special circumstances.)Don't complain, though. It's what killed Sauron.

Power

This number is usually the same as the item's Cost, though sometimes it is greater or lesser (GM'sdiscretion). If the Thing acts on its own, then its uses only its own Power in attribute contests. If itis wielded, then its adds its Power to that of its master. (Yes, Virginia, this means you can sell

down your attributes to build a Thing of Power and become more powerful with it than before youstarted. That's why people make them).

Activation

The wielder of a Thing has to have at least this much Power to make the item work for him. Thiscost is usually one third to one half of the total Power of the item.

Combat of Arms:

Step #1: Compare the Highest Warfare to the Lowest Warfare, the Highest Warfare is theAggressive, and is considered to have the Initiative (choice to act first), after the Aggressive acts


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(or chooses not to) the roles are reversed. The player with the highest Warfare has the option toeither strike first or to allow his opponent that option, if he defers, then he automatically receives+5 points to his Warfare (for this combat).

Step #2: Modify the Aggressors Strength as listed on the chart (see below).

Step #3: If the modified Strength value exceeds the defenders Endurance value, apply damage.If the defenders Endurance exceeds the modified Strength value, then no damage is applied.

Step #4: For every fifteen (15) modified Strength points above the defenders Endurance, thedamage done is increased by one level.

Step #5: Things (like armor) that have the power of Resistance to damage levels reduce thedamage done in levels by following this progression:

Resistance to Extra Hard Weapons: -1

Resistance to Double Damage Weapons: -2

Resistance to Deadly Damage Weapons: -3

Stuff Points modifies placement in the below chart by one positive column shift per point and

Zero Stuff does nothing.

Damage is applied in the following manner:

Extra Hard Weapons: The Defending Character takes significant damage andwill die within

2 days without medical or magical assistance. Thislevel of damage is

inflicted by magic wielded by people with O-levelPower. Chance of

unconsciousness is 20%. Fists and other bluntweapons belong here.

Double Damage Weapons: The Defending Character takes Major bodily damage andwill die in

24 hours without medical or magical assistance. Thislevel of damage is

inflicted by magic wielded by people with E-levelPower. Chance of

unconsciousness is 40%. Most non-magic and low-level magicweapons fit in here


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(Orcrist and Glamdring, for example).

Deadly Damage Weapons: The Defending Character takes a mortal wound and will diewithin

2 hours without medical or magical assistance. Thislevel of damage is

inflicted by magic wielded by people with S-Level

Power. Chance ofunconsciousness is 60%. This covers most mid to high-level magic

weapons.

Destructive Damage: The Defending Character is killed outright. This level ofdamage is

inflicted by magic wielded by people with M-LevelPower. Really

powerful magic weapons are here (Grond, Anguriel, etc.) Theseweapons

render smoking pits in the ground, and have all sorts of secondaryeffects.

For every six (6) wounds taken at a given damage level the overall damage level is increased byone (from Extra Hard to Double, from Double to Deadly, from Deadly to Destructive). Damagelevels may never go above Destructive but may go below Extra, the level below Extra isincidental.

If you wish to "gang up" on someone, either by physical armed combat or ranged combat, tofigure out the benefit gained simply take the highest Warfare of those doing the ganging up andshift it one column to the right (making them better) for each doubling of the assistance, thusly:

# of people helping in the gang: Positive (right) column shifts:

2-3 1

4-7 2

8-15 3

16-31 4

... ...

The progression is easily figured out. You apply this only to the "main" character in the gang, not

to everyone, and you only apply the effects to whatever this leader can do. (This is fine since themain character is usually the most powerful, and you'd want to use that character's abilitiesanyway.) This is why (in the novels) Boromir was defeated and killed by multiple Orc attackers,even though he was the superior fighter: they had benefit of numbers (and arrows.) If there aremultiple combatants on each side, it's best to break it down to a one-by-one battle.

Initiative: the character with the highest Warefare has initiative, which he/she may relinquish tothe opponent in receipt of any one of the following: +5 Warefare for this combat, +1 column shiftin protection from damage from the opponent's strikes, +5 Endurance for determining damagefrom the opponent's strikes; or +1 column shift in damage that this character will inflict in his/herstrikes. You should choose one of these effects to apply once Initiative is surrendered.


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Heres an example:

Sauron and Legolas engage in a nasty one-on-one battle!

Saurons statistics are thus: Strength 40, Endurance 40, Warfare 40 and his Sword does DeadlyDamage, and he has 6 Bad Stuff points. His Black Scale Armor is Resistant to Deadly DamageWeapons.

Legolas (our hero) has: Strength 18, Endurance 25, Warfare 25 and his sword is Extra Hard and

he has 2 Good Stuff points. His Shield is Resistant to Extra Hard Weapons.Saurons Warfare 40 (plus his 6 column shifts because of his Bad Stuff points) puts him in the 70column [not on the chart!]. Legolas receives a 2-column shift in his favor when comparing thingson the chart). Legolas has 25 Warfare normally, but with the 2 column shift bonuses; this putshim in the 31 to 35 column. Comparing these values gives Sauron a result of S+9, which makesSaurons modified Strength 49.

Saurons 49 (modified Strength) minus 25 is 24, which is greater than 15, but not a multiple of 15,so Sauron will receive only one shift up in damage he does to poor old Legolas.

Legolas shield will protect him for one shift down in damage that he will suffer from Sauron. (Thisevens out things).

Legolas receives Deadly Damage from Saurons first blow and will die in 2 hours without aid. Mostlikely, Legolas is also now unconscious and doomed anywaythats what you get for challengingThe Lord of the Rings to a fight! (It could be worse, that had Legolas not had his shield, Sauronsblow would have produced Destructive Damage and killed Legolas instantly). This combat lastedonly a single blow.

Running the Campaign

Conceptions

It helps, when reading or GMing Tolkien, to rid yourself of many of the conceptions of fantasy andFRPG. Fantasy has the misfortune of being science fiction's sibling. I'll not deny the similarities, orthe fruitful cross-fertilization, but the application of science-fiction principles to fantasy oftenmaims the latter, especially the main theory of science-fiction criticism.

Briefly put, much science-fiction criticism assumes the fictional world to be ruled by laws, whichmay or may not match our own in every detail but do in bulk. Science fiction then tinkers with thelaws and creates stories about worlds where this or that variation of natural law is true. Sciencefiction is "hard" when its rules match scientific theory closely or exactly, "soft" when they do not.(E.g., 2001 is "hard", Star Trek, "soft.") Fantasy fits in at the far end of the scale, as very "soft"indeed.

Now, there is not inherent disagreement between this and Tolkien's own theory of sub-creation.Indeed, it is Tolkien's theory of sub-creation, with the religious aspect scrubbed away. However,people hardly ever noticed how very unlike our own physical laws are to that of Middle-Earth, andso the elves and what not are warped to fitting an essentially modern view of the world.

Elves first: Elves no longer connote -- to role-players and fantasy-readers, thank God! -- tinywinged midgets . Even Fairies, now spelled Faeries, have lost their Victorian coyness. But we havenot returned to the raw medieval -- or even earlier -- view. Instead, I woouuuld feign, we think ofElves as something like Mr. Spock: human with pointy ears. Since both of us are basically fellowanimals, we might best call elves another species or subspecies of humanity (and people have).Elves might be better sorcerers, or have stronger "magic" genes, or longer life, but, otherwise,they're no different from us than ET (or Spock).


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Wrong.

Elves are not so much like aliens as they are like Angels. Now, both words are wrong, but, if I hadto choose one or the other, Angels is better. Tolkien's elves, as far as I can gather, are inherentlymagical. They are not just stronger and longer-lived in scale, but their bodies are better than oursare in kind. They are almost (in a Platonic sense) more real. (Not that I think Tolkien had muchtruck with Plato.) They are part of the same "class" of super-human beings beginning with theValar and the Maiar and working its way down. The Valar are sometimes called "gods", the Maiar,then, are just little gods. What does that make the elves? Little, little gods, and, hence, in these

terms, not so hard to imagine as different in kind to us mere humans. Because Elves and Menmingle so often in the LOTR this point is often missed in the mundane act of watching, forinstance, Legolas eat or talk or banter, but the difference is there. It comes out clearer, I think, inThe Silmarillion.

The second trap we are likely to blunder into is in thinking about magic in too modern a way.

Science-fiction assumptions the some set of physical law governs the secondary world. So what ismagic? The usual options are: 1) that magic is a capacity to suspend the laws of the secondaryworld by the power of the mind; that 2) magic is a kind of physics practiced by people in pointyhats; or 3) magic is a kind of psi-power. Again, none of these options are logically troubling.Tolkien admits in the Letters that his world uses options 2) and 3). The problem is in the

imaginative facility of the reader. To a mind raised on sci-fi, or just plain sci, is to assume theexistence of modern "physics" unless explicitly rejected. Thus the tendency to assimilateMiddle-Earth to another planet (when it is our own) to make its elves into aliens (when, in fact,they reincarnate and fade and do many other odd things) to ignore, indeed, its mythic,pre-scientific nature. Superstition is a far better guide to the way things work in Middle-Earth thanscience. Talking Beasts, ancient curses, restless ghosts, unlucky names, etc. are all part of Arda --and DNA is nowhere to be found.

Role-playing encourages similar fallacies. Levels, for instance, strike me as a rather poor way ofdescribing a world where power is either inherent or absorbed (from Valinor or the Rings). Gandalfor Bombadil did not get their power by adventuring. They got it by being who they are. Sosystems where all PCs start out the same (albeit with differently weighted attributes) and worktheir way up the ladder, seems to me fundamentally misleading. And magic, in role-playing, is

often treated as a kind of exceptional "juice" attracted to or produced by certain people, who canthen burn some of it up to cast spells, but which is hardly a natural part of the world. Not that anyof this is a reason to alter the RPG unless you want to. But the discrepancy between "world" onone hand and "game mechanics" on the other should at least be noted. The Game-Master can thentake care that s/he describes the "world" (or not), even if following the "game mechanics" inquestions of rules. It is, after all, the verbal descriptions of the Game Master which convey theillusion of being there, and not the dice-rolling.

Speaking like Tolkien

It's interesting to experiment, as a Game Master, with imitating the style of writing of the authorwhose world you're using. I tried to do something of the sort in last year's (1995 fall) Ambergame. (Did it work? I'll need to ask the participants, if they ever read this.) Language,word-choice, and syntax reflect the personality of the author and -- more importantly, thepersonality of the world. So it's important to get them right.

The Chronicles of Amber could never be written in the style of the Lord of the Rings, or visa versa.Zelazny (or Corwin, at least) was a smart-ass. You can see it in the way Corwin flirts with thenastiest, most cynical sayings, often giving them a humorous little flip. Corwin can also be poetic,of course, and the Amber books have some of the most beautifully precise images I have everseen. A lash of bone-crushing cynicism almost always accompanies them. Blame it on ShadowEarth. Corwin knows what a DJ is, what a newsreel looks like, who Freud was, met Van Gogh, and


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complained about German tourists, etc. Because Corwin speaks to us in our own post-radio,post-television, mass-market speech, we can forget

that Corwin is a nasty, ruthless, superhuman creature.

No authorial style could be more different from Tolkien's. Perhaps I have erred in not writing thisentire guide in a Tolkienian style, but that would have been difficult, if not impossible. Tolkien'spreferred mode was sonorous, after old patterns, in old words. He was never a smart-ass. Theclosest he got, as far as I can see, is the ironic or the bitter. The most Zelaznian thing he ever

wrote was in The Hobbit, where he said the trolls "began to call each other all sorts of perfectlytrue and applicable names." And I imagine he later thought the sentence a failure of tone. (I mustbe careful what I write about him, though: he had little tolerance for opinionated idiots.) Thehobbits, in so far as they are the link between modernity and the world of the LOTR, are notsmart-assess either. They can be rustic, and they can be irreverent, but hardly ever cynical. Andthey had no connection to modern media (radio or television) nor referenced any technology whichcouldn't have been manufactured by, say, 1600. They are modern, but they are not all thatmodern.

If you want a surface veneer of Tolkien remove all references to things recent. If you want to saysomething is big, it might be tempting to say, "big as a pickup-truck" or "big as VolkswagenRabbit," (as I did) but you probably shouldn't. Think of some thing in the right size range that is a

natural object, like, for instance, an oak tree or a horse. And try to keep some dignity, at least.Tolkien is reserved (not prudish) in a way seldom found in American college-students. If youwouldn't say it to your grandmother, don't say it as the GM. We never see Frodo urinating (unlikeCorwin -- on his tomb, no less!) and there's hardly anything bawdy or lustful in the whole trilogy.

Vocabulary, too, must be carefully pruned and not just the 4-letter variety of words, either.Zelazny can use any word he wants, and his words usually gain, not loose, by being yankedscreaming out of their natural habitat. This is not so with Tolkien. His vocabulary remainsthroughout the trilogy very basic, with preference given to native English. Get rid of Latin andGreek. No elf could ever say "internal combustion engine" or "telephone" and not just because theconcepts are foreign. (Interestingly, Palantr ( = that which sees from afar ) is not so differentfrom television (= far sight ) of the German fernseher ( = far-see-er) in meaning, but thedifference between Elvish roots and Greek (or German) ones lets us tell TVs from crystal-balls.)

Anything ending in -tion or -sion should be immediately suspected, as are -ive and -ius. Wordswith the prefixes re-, pre-, and post-, too. What Romance language Tolkien lets in usually comesthrough the French, and is old enough to be naturalized. Not that there aren't exceptions, but theyare rare, and usually where native equivalents don't exist.

T.A. Shippey's The Road to Middle-Earth has an excellent discussion of these issues, particularlythe words "rabbit", "tobacco", "potato" and, of course, "hobbit."

Names

Anyone who names his or her ElfFredshould be shot. The same fate if the name chosen isPolonius, Nero, orXergaphon. The Road to Middle Earth insists, correctly, I think, the sheercentrality of names and their relationship to the depth of Tolkien's work, as a whole, should beevident. To those who have not, I can only say that names carry with them a sense of identity withthe thing named, and their own inherent English-ness or Welsh-ness or, whatever, suggestqualities of the thing named. So naming a character something stupid, is not, as it would be in anAmber campaign, a minor fault, but a cardinal blasphemy.

Unfortunately, though the appendices to the Lord of the Rings give an excellent account of thenames and name-origins of the LOTR, they are not much help in creating new ones or in namingeither PCs or NPCs. GMs and players have options:


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Use the genealogies. These contain a cross-section from each culture described, and, if youlook, you'll see that names are often repeated, so that if your character is named Turin or Helm,it's likely in honor of the other, more famous Turin or Helm. (The names of great heroes fromThe Silmarillion are always cropping up as names in Gondor, for instance.) Just make sure thatyou choose from the right culture's chart and that you won't be stealing the name of someonereally famous, still living, or recently dead. (Or a king, with Al- or Tar- in the title.) A Boromir orAragorn would get old really fast.

Use The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion has elvish roots printed in the back. It would not be

impossible (in theory) to shove them together as a new name for an elf or a High man.Unfortunately, you might be ramming together Quenya and Sindaran in your ignorance orignoring some important sound change. (Not that it matters much for the purposes of a game,but you'd hate to make Tolkien spin in his grave, wouldn't you?)

Do some research. Tolkien took names from other languages (living and dead.) The dwarvesare from the Icelandic Poetic Edda. The Rohirrim use Old English. Even orcish has an(unfortunate) similarity to Arabic. So with some digging around, you can often cook up lists ofnames from the right language.

Use an ICE book. This is best of all. ICE has put together lists of appropriate names in most ofits regional books just for this purpose. Mirkwood, for instance, has a list of names for Woodmen

and Lake-men (if I remember rightly). And the MERP books often have new Elves, Dwarves, etc,with new names created (authentically I hope) from Tolkien's own principles.

Or, you have the option of taking the benefit of the etymological meaning of a name andapplying that to your new character. Simply visit http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/elfnam.htm

Character & Item Examples

The following are meant as examples only. If I had time, I could create multiple versions of each,but I'm too lazy. GMs are encouraged to customize these based on the needs of the campaign,their own interpretation of the text of the LOTR, etc.

Example Items of Power:The Enchanted River of Mirkwood (20 points)

We never find out where this came from. It certainly seems to be evil or cursed, since it knocksout anyone who drinks from it. I think it likely to be a border-fence of the Elf King. The fact that aflying deer (not Saurons style) causing only sleep, not death or madness guards it, seems to bearmy theory out. Maybe the Elves come by every once in a while to pick up any sleepers caught bythe river.

Cost: 20 points

Power: 30

Activation: N/A (unwieldable)

Effects:

The river will put to sleep anyone who drinks or bathes in the water and fails in a simple PowerContest.

In times of war, the river will rise, and enemies of the King must win a power contest to cross it insafety.


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The Mirror of Galadriel (20 points)

Cost: 20 points

Power: 20

Activation: 15 Power

Effects:

Anyone who wields the Mirror can cause it to see into other places or into possible futures. If itssight lands on another Power, and that Power becomes aware of the wielder's gaze, an instantPower contest in engaged. The contest may be broken if the wielder has strength enough to lookaway. The Mirror cannot look into lands under the Shadow or other types of magical protection.Alternatively, the wielder may cause the Mirror to show (apparently) random images. These oftenprove prophetic or bearing on such troubles as the gazer is having. The wielder can also allowthird parties to see in the vision instead of themselves.

Mount Doom (50 points)

Mount Doom does a lot of different stuff. It is a perfect example of a sustained, ranged Thing ofPower. In addition to its obvious function of controlling the weather, it also served to forge the OneRing.

Cost: 50 points

Power: 50

Activation: 30 Power and the would-be-wielder must first beat Sauron in a Power Contest

Effects:

Mount Doom can spew out clouds over an area reaching from Mordor to the Western Sea. In

addition to making the land beneath dark, it also puts a spell of despair on Sauron's enemies andheartens his own troops. Mount Doom can shoot fire into the air. This property can be used as asignaling device between Barad-dr and Minas Morgul. Mount Doom acts as an aid to Crafting, ifthe Crafting is done inside the Chambers of Fire. Mount Doom adds 50 points to the Power of thewielder, if he or she stands inside the Chambers of Fire.

The One Ring (100+ points)

Cost: 100 or more, perhaps including Sauron's independent existence.

Power: 100

Activation: 35 Power

Effects:

Anyone who puts the One Ring on becomes invisible, even if they do not wield it. If they beat theactivation cost and become its wielder, they may alternatively forgo the invisibility or make theRing invisible instead of themselves.

Anyone who wields the One Ring has an instant mental connection to the wielders of the Seven,the Nine, and the Three. With a simple Power contest, the wielder may then read the thoughts orcontrol the wills of all the lesser wielders.


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The wielder of the One Ring controls the Nazgl, providing he or she can defeat the currentcontroller of the Nazgl. If he or she cannot, the Nazgl remain under the control of the previouswielder (that is to say, Sauron).

The wielder of the One Ring controls all the Things of Power made or enhanced by Sauron after hecreated the One, provided the new Wielder can defeat Sauron or the current controller in a Powercontest.

If the One Ring is ever destroyed, every work made by Sauron or any other Ring is destroyed as

well.The One Ring has limited intelligence and can respond to the will of Sauron, its current or previouswielder, or an agent thereof.

The One Ring acts always to corrupt the will of anyone possessing it or in its vicinity. Anyone whosuccumbs to it must attempt to wield it, something which Sauron, if he is awake and in range, willimmediately sense.

Anyone who becomes the wielder of the One Ring will eventually turn to evil.

In Mordor, the Ring becomes even more active. Whether it gains in Power is debatable, but,certainly, its activation cost rises and it is easier to sense. When carried near or in Mordor, and

not wielded, it becomes excessively heavy to its holder.

Anyone who wields the One Ring gains 100 points of Power.

Anyone who carries the One Ring but does not wield it gains limited unconscious access to itspowers. The operation of these proxy powers is up to the GM.

If the One Ring is heated in a fire, upon the inside of the ring can be read the in the Humantongues is thus:

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the Darknessbind them.

The Silmarils

Cost: 330 (for all three)

Power: 100 (each)

Activation: 50

Effects:Points:

Numbered *2

Naturally, there are 3 Silmarils.

Resistant to Deadly Damage Weapons3

Indestructable. Irreplacable.

Double Damage2


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This happens every turn to any wielder with Bad Stuff

(i.e: a servant of evil), and becomes more frequent in pain

and suffering proportionate to the number of Bad Stuff points

the wielder has.

Illumination

5Glows with the light of the Two Trees combined.

Brightness is in relation to the whim of the wielder,

But is always at least that of a brightly-lit lamp.

Additional Abilities/Powers:

Dwarves and Noldo Elves who see a Silmaril must resist versus the power of the Silmaril (100)or be consumed with lust for the stone and will fight even to the death for it.

If a Silmaril was broken (difficult or perhaps impossible) it would be capable of restoring theTwo Trees to life or the power contained in the stone could be used for practically any purpose,from the manufacture of whole new items of power (without cost), to granting of immortality, orbeyond. (at GM discretion).

The light of a single Silmaril was capable of burning away to mystical mist that hid Aman fromtravelers, thus allowing Earendil to find Aman and plea to the Valar for assistance.

Possession of a Silmaril grants the wielder Spellcasting powers beyond the scope described inthe magic section without restriction.

Spells cast by a possessor of a Silmaril will not fail, nor can they be redirected, canceled, orinterrupted.

Characters:

Charactername:

Aragorn II (AKA: Strider)

Sex: MALERace:Dunadan

High Man Height: ?? Weight: ??

Points

Ability: Rating/Level: Spent: GoodStuff:

5*

Strength: 23 / S 13 ZeroStuff:

0

Endurance: 23 / S 13 Bad

Stuff:0

Warfare: 36 / S 26


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Warfare: 12 / E 7

Power: 12 / E 12 TotalPoints:

42

Skills &Abilities:

PointsSpent:

Possessions &Items:

PointsSpent:

"Sting"Double

Damage

5

Glowing (w/DangerSense)

Danger Sense(w/Glowing)

Mithril Mail Shirt 2

Resistant to Double

Damage

Elven Cloak 1

Resistant to Extra Hard

Weapons

Phial Of

Galadriel

6

IlluminationDouble Damage to allies

of Morgoth

The One Ring

(temporarily)

Charactername:

Gollum (Smeagol)

Sex: MALE

Race: Hobbit Height: ?? Weight: ??

Points


0

Strength: 18 / E 13 ZeroStuff:

0

Endurance: 23 / E 8 Bad

Stuff:

2

Warfare: 15 / E 10


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TotalPoints:

38

Power: 5 / O 5

Skills &Abilities:

PointsSpent:

Possessions &Items:

PointsSpent:

The One Ring

(temporarily)

Character

name:

Gandalf the Grey

Sex: MALE

Race: Maiar-Istar Height: ?? Weight: ??

Points


5

Strength: 23 / S ZeroStuff:

0

Endurance: 24 / S Bad

Stuff:0

Warfare: 35 / S

TotalPoints:

232

Power: 60 / S

Skills &Abilities:

PointsSpent:

Possessions &Items:

PointsSpent:

Maiar Shapeshift ** Robes of Aman 2


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Resistant to DoubleDamage

Spellcasting 35

"Glamdring" - The FoeHammer

5

Farsighted 10 DoubleDamage

Glowing

Beast Speech

(all)

20

Narya - Ring of

Fire

35

Blessing/Cursing 15 Power: 35Activation: 20

Cost: 35

Staff 5

Illumination

**: 100 points (?)

Charactername:

Gandalf the White

Sex: MALE

Race: Maiar-Istar Height: ?? Weight: ??

Points


5

Strength: 23 / S ZeroStuff:

0


Stuff:

0

Warfare: 50 / S

TotalPoints:

232

Power: 80 / M

Skills &Abilities:

PointsSpent:

Possessions &Items:

PointsSpent:

Maiar Shapeshift ** Robes of Aman 2

Resistant to DoubleDamage

Spellcasting 35

"Glamdring" - The FoeHammer

5


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Farsighted 10 DoubleDamage

Glowing

Beast Speech(all)

20

Narya - Ring ofFire

35

Blessing/Cursing 15 Power: 35

Activation: 20

Cost: 35

Staff 5

Illumination

**: 100 points (?)

Charactername:

Sauron of Mordor

Sex: MALE

Race: Maiar Height: ?? Weight: ??

Points


0

Strength: 40 / S Zero

Stuff:

0


Stuff:6

Warfare: 40 / S

TotalPoints:

350

Power: 80 / M

Skills &Abilities:

PointsSpent:

Possessions &Items:

PointsSpent:

Master

Crafting

50 The One Ring 100+

Spell Casting 35 The Black Sword Mormegil 3Deadly

Damage

Maiar Shapeshifting100 points Black Scale

Armor

3

Dysfunctional

Resistant to DeadlyDamage


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The Shadow

Mace

3

DeadlyDamage

Mount Doom 50

Charactername:

Elrond

Sex: MALERace: Half-Elf Height: ?? Weight: ??

Points


0


0


Stuff:

0

Warfare: 28 / S 13

TotalPoints:

213

Power: 40 / S 30

Skills &Abilities:

PointsSpent:

Possessions &Items:

PointsSpent:

Spellcasting 35 Vilya - Ring of

Air50

Activation: 25Farsighted 10 Power: 50

Cost: 50

Sword

"Helkaluine"

6

Glowing

Deadly

Damage

Mantle Of

Doriath

45


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ConfersWarfare 30

Armor 2Resistant to Double

Damage

Charactername:

Legolas

Sex: MALERace: Sindar Elf Height: ?? Weight: ??

Points Ability: Rating/Level: Spent: GoodStuff:

2


0


Stuff:

0

Warfare: 25 / S 5

Total

Points:

30

Power: 16 / E 1

Skills &Abilities:

PointsSpent:

Possessions &Items:

PointsSpent:

Farsighted 10 Bow 2

Double

Damage

Shield 1

Resistant to Extra HardWeapons

Sword 1Extra Hard


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Character

name:

Boromir II

Sex: MALE

Race:Dunadan

High Man Height: ?? Weight: ??

Points


0


0

Endurance: 16 / E 6 BadStuff: 0

Warfare: 20 / S 10

TotalPoints:

35

Power: 12 / E 7

Skills &Abilities:

PointsSpent:

Possessions &Items:

PointsSpent:

Sword--"MightyBlade"

2

Double

Damage

Shield 2

Resistant to Double DamageWeapons

Helm 1Resistant to Extra Hard

Weapons


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