A Descent into Dullness

Like all right thinking people I fail to see why this had to be three movies. But on the plus side the superfluous Necromancer stuff meant that we got a Galadriel/Elrond/Saruman vs. Wraith Kings rescuing Gandalf fight. Christopher Lee didn't really get to do a lot of ass whuppin' in the previous trilogy. Plus I really enjoyed seeing Billy Connolly as Dain, smushing orcs with his hammer and riding his battle hog. And the opening sequence between Smaug and Bard was pretty intense. Overall a good movie for a needless cash grab...

So, not unexpectedly, the latest Tolkein/Jackson film is gorgeous to look at. And its clever and funny and heart-warming and thrilling and all to be expected. The question is, are all the extra bits worth it? In the sense of making one film into three. Bilbo does a lot more than he does in the book. Even at this early point. He decides on his own to race after the dwarves to join their party. He's the one who stalls the trolls until daylight. And he gets lost under the mountain after sneaking away from the goblins. The bits with Radegast were nice and I love his sleigh drawn by oversized bunnies. But they really only add into the whole extra backstory, not the core story of Bilbo and the dwarves. Same for the meeting in Rivendell between Elrond, Gandalf, Galadriel and Sarumon. Not that seeing more Christopher Lee isn't great...

So lots of unnecessary fluff, but ENJOYABLE fluff...

[Poll #1176808]

I hate riding the plot railroad. Oh yes I do...

So after surviving our first mass combat we discussed our next move. Eventually spoonyone made a command decision that we'd escort the various human peasants to the next fortress that hopefully hadn't fallen. Cousin Eggy the Forsworn wanted to go to the Cave of Dooooooom and try and rescue his wife. Happily the only player he wanted to do that, Autumn, her wood scout was still comatose from nearly dying. So we let him go off on his own. Better than me executing him as a traitor and becoming a kinslayer...

Josh was unhappy with our decision and kept trying to hint that the more noble thing to do would be to go to the cave for no damn reason anyone could think of. Sure orcs were coming out of it, but since the line of forts guarding Angbad had all fallen the cave was no longer in behind our lines, so who cares. So we get the peasant horde to the next village, which had been mostly abandoned. While resting for a day we meet with Baron...something. I can't keep these names straight. It was something with a B, so I'll call him Baron Baron. We informed him that the human king and most of the rest of the nobility of the House of Beor was dead. Which made him the new king...

So we have a wake, coronation and war council thing. Where we see that King Baron had some magic ring from one of the High Elf muckity mucks. After that he tried to imply that there could be no way that Eggy would be forsworn, 'cause he was so awesome. And that his wife and Eggy's wife were friends. Then he insults the dwarf, convinces Menandor the Elf to give him my fealty and has me take a group of troops to help Eggy. Right as everyone is preparing to fight another force of orcs. So with another battle, everyone decides to help me on my mission. We ride to the cave, deal with a sniper and try to rush the cave. Except theres a big bad in it. First it rocks everyone with a massive fear attack, then it shatters the dwarf's axe (poor Brendan) and finally magically holds the three of us who make it to the cave...

Thing turns out to be a wraith lieutenant of the Bigger Bad that will eventually become Sauron. It taunts us and then runs off, because it doesn't want to get mobbed by the fifty cavalry. Though with its massive fear aura, I don't see how that would have been a worry. But whatever...

So with mush railroading, Josh gets us to the cave, where we "luckily" find a book listing enemy troop movements, including deaths caused by moving thru the tunnels. And then the dwarf collapses the cave. Oh yeah and we rescued Eggy...

A frustrating night character wise. But I actually had a good deal of fun, thanks to the interactions of the players. Including Brendan blowing water out his nose after one silly joke. Plus we not so seriously considered (and by that I mean me, Brendan and Noah) going all KoDT and offing the king and naming my guy the new king...

And tonight marked our first real session. My character Aranor, son of Eranor, princeling of the House of Beor and liegeman of Malarin (sp?), Nualdor. Also a dwarven master smith, human woodswoman and elven healer (none of whose names I can remember right now). As we were feasted by...some other high elf guy, the fortress of Angbad exploded in magma, balrogs and orcish hordes. So we were sent by high elf guy to first check on my people and then maybe to go to the other Nualdor elf guys...

We ended up scouting ahead for the refugee remnant of my people on the advice of my cousin, Eganor? Something like that. Ended up breaking up a potential ambush, fighting a werewolf and then interogating an orc officer. Who reveals that Eggy is a traitor. And something about a cave to the south east. Which is where we should be picking up next week...

I can see where Josh is trying to go with this campaign. But its hampered in part by my and spoonyone's large lack of knowledge of 1st Age stuff. Also by the fact that the two of us (and kafeixuesheng also) inability to treat everything with the gravity Josh wants to imbue it with. Because, well its a game. Yeah, its a game meant to explore some big, epic themes. But still a game meant as a social gathering...

Also I think Josh might need to worry less about system mechanics. Not abandon them. But rely on them less. Because if there is one thing that can drag down a feeling of grandiose story its worrying about how many feet you can move in a round to close with some orcish sword fodder. But still, I'm hopeful for the game. Its good to have an enthusiastic GM and players willing to work around character flaws to work together...

Edit: Also kafeixuesheng reminded me that high elf guy gave everyone gifts. spoonyone got a big helping of lembas. The healer got some magic elf herbs. Dwarfy got himself a super-smart elfsteed. Autumn's woodsy woman got an elf blade. And me? My combat monkey? He got a harp. Its a really nice harp. But it soooo doesn't fit my character. Josh mentioned later that 1) it was always a planned gift for someone, but no one made a minstrel/bard type and 2) he's hoping I phase out the noble part of my character class and go for a warrior-poet kind of thing. Unlikely. Still, its a very nice harp...

Spent last night talking with my friend Josh about the 1st Age Lord of the Rings rpg he wants to run. He seems to be wanting to do something big and epic in nature, so we'll see how that plays out. I'm probably going to run a human warrior from the mountain dwelling House, though I forget the name of them. Of course he's using the recent Decipher rpg, which I don't own. So I'll have to see if I can track a copy of that down before next Wednesday...

Plus I've got a couple play-by-post games that will hopefully start up. A restart of the Kingdoms of Kalamar game I used to play in (meaning I get to bring back Davan Scratcheye my kobold bard) and a Call of Cthulu game. I'm thinking of running a con artist/medium. Except I'd like to give him actual "psychic" abilities. Anyone know of a Chaosium supplement with rules for that?

Also, since I was discussing the LotR game, I missed the Lost so if anyone wanted to post some spoilery recaps so I don't have to try and dl it I'd appreciate that...