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Following is a detailed overview of The Fellowship of the Ring Sourcebook's contents; a breakdown of the good, the bad, and the ugly; and a final recommendation regarding the book and its value to The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game line. Readers interested in the bottom line should scroll down to...The Bottom Line.
Reviewer Caveat: I have never read an I.C.E. MERP supplement, so no attempt has been made in this review to compare Decipher's LOTR RPG efforts to I.C.E.'s LOTR line. Readers interested in such a comparison should look elsewhere.
Content
The contents of the book are divided into an Introduction and three chapters: Following the Journey, People, and Places. The writing is effective and evocative, with few typographical errors to be found. The writing discusses both the book and the movie, but does not necessarily show a bias toward one or the other. A concerted effort was made to include information that was not included in the theatrical version of the story, something that should please the purists and fans who prefer the books over the films.
Chapter One: Following the Journey
This chapter summarizes the events of the first part of The Lord of the Rings, both the novel version and the film version. In the film section of the summary, italicized text explains some of the differences between the book and the movie--useful information for someone who may not be as familiar with one or the other.
The summaries of both the film and the book are more than adequate, though someone familiar with the story may not find much use for the contents of this chapter.
Chapter Two: People
This chapter describes many of the key characters from the first part of Tolkien's story and provides RPG statistics for those characters. Each character write-up consists of an RPG stat block, an "In the Novel" section of text that discusses the book version of the character, an "In the Film" section that discusses the film version of the character (obviously), and an "In the Game" section that provides ideas on how the character might be used and portrayed in a Narrator's chronicle.
Virtually every stat block in the book will need to be massaged by a Narrator wishing to use a given character in their chronicle. The skills listed for the characters include their skill ranks only; their attribute scores and other related modifiers have not been factored into the stat block. As a result, none of the characters in the book can truly be used "out of the box," unless the Narrator opts to fudge things a bit.
Most of the stat blocks do not add up precisely when recreated using the game system's character generation rules. This is unfortunate, in this reviewer's opinion. Had these stat blocks been created 'legally,' they would have been much more useful for the player or Narrator new to or unfamiliar with the system, as they could have been used as ideal examples of character creation and advancement.
Many of the stat blocks contain system-specific errors; errors that are corrected with the game's official errata.
The characters presented in Chapter Two include:
- Aragorn
- Arwen
- Bilbo Baggins
- Frodo Baggins
- Tom Bombadil
- Boromir
- Meriadoc 'Merry' Brandybuck
- Barliman Butterbur
- Celeborn
- Elendil
- Elrond
- Galadriel
- Samwise 'Sam' Gamgee
- Gandalf the Grey
- Gil-Galad
- Gimli
- Glóin
- Glorfindel
- Goldberry
- Gollum
- Gwaihir
- Isildur
- Legolas
- Lurtz (the main Uruk-hai from the film--does not appear in the book)
- Saruman the White
- Sauron, the Dark Lord (does not include statistics because, frankly, they're not needed and their inclusion might only encourage very brave or foolish players to think "Sauron only has X Health? I can take him!")
- Peregrin 'Pippin' Took.
Finally, one new spell for the game, Wizard's Fist, is presented in this chapter.
Chapter Three: Places
This chapter contains descriptions of many of the key locations found in the first part of The Lord of the Rings saga. The descriptions include several useful adventure hooks for each location.
The locations covered in this chapter include:
- The Argonath and the Falls of Rauros
- The Barrow-downs
- The Buckleberry Ferry
- Hobbiton and Bag End
- Isengard
- Lothlórien
- Moria
- The Old Forest
- The Prancing Pony
- Rivendell
- The Redhorn Gate
- Weathertop
Most of the location descriptions are accompanied by an attractive map that details the location; its surrounding terrain; and where appropriate, the approximate path the Fellowship took through the mapped area. Some of the maps are inconsistent with later products, such as the Rivendell map, which does not match the map of Rivendell found in the later release Maps of Middle-earth II: Cities and Strongholds. Some of the maps, such as the one for Tom Bombadil's house and The Prancing Pony, could easily be modified and used in any chronicle to represent most any dwelling or roadside tavern.
Additional Contents
Several items and creatures are presented in both descriptive text and in game terms throughout the book. The items presented in this book include:
- Andúril
- The One Ring
- Sting
- The Phial of Galadriel
- The Horn of Gondor
- Vilya, The Ring of Fire
- Nenya, The Ring of Water
- Bill the Pony
- Narya, The Ring of Fire
- Glamdring
- Aiglos
- Asfaloth
- Elf-bow of Lórien
- Elven-boats
- Dúnadan Blades
- Fireworks
- The Palantíri
- The Mirror of Galadriel
- Elven-rope
- The Watcher in the Water
- Old Man Willow
- Miruvor
- Athelas
- Pipeweed
- Lembas
- Elven-cloaks
(Most of these items were given similar (and in a few cases, identical) treatment in the core rulebook and in other supplements, such as Fell Beasts and Wondrous Magic and The Two Towers Sourcebook.)
The Good
This book packs a lot of information into its 128 pages. Dozens of characters, items, creatures, and adventure hooks provides Narrators and players with a great deal of material they can use to enhance and inform their own chronicles. The maps presented in Chapter Three are very useful, and could be used in most any chronicle.
As an added bonus, the endpapers are blown up versions of cartographer Daniel Reeve's excellent maps of Middle-earth, adding a very nice bit of class to an already-beautifully laid out book.
The Bad
Chapter One may prove to be wasted pages for some. Many of the items described in the book are presented in other supplements, which could make some discerning buyers leery of buying a book seemingly full of repeated information.
Not so much a bad point as a disappointment is the lack of any original artwork. It would have been nice to have the non-movie characters illustrated with original art, similar to the efforts in The Two Towers Sourcebook.
The Ugly
Stat blocks that aren't 'legal' to the system rules and that aren't usable 'out of the box,' requiring a Narrator interested in using them to spend time revising them. Further, the stat blocks are rife with errors, requiring one to review the official errata for corrections.
The Bottom Line
The Fellowship of the Ring Sourcebook contains enough valuable information and material to offset the flaws in the stat blocks and the dubious value of Chapter One's summaries. This reviewer recommends this supplement for use with The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game. It brings good value to the line, if only for the sheer volume of character and place descriptions that may be used in any chronicle.
I give high Style marks for the overall attractiveness of the book, the use of movie stills, and the cartography; and the effective and evocative writing. Substance marks take hits from the flawed stat blocks, though the sheer volume of material keeps this product higher than 'average.'
(Closing comment: This is my first full review for RPG.net. All suggestions and comments are appreciated. I plan to review the other supplements for the LOTR RPG line, and I'd like to make sure I'm providing you with the product-specific information you want to know. Thanks for reading!)
