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The latest release by Decipher, Inc. for their The Lord of the Rings Role-Playing Game, the Hero's Journal is, in essence, a glorified 32-page character sheet.
The Hero's Journal breaks down as follows:
Page 1: A space for the character's and player's names, and the name of the character's associated chronicle.
Pagess 2-3: Character generation summary (which is also available on their website as a freely downloadable PDF). The text on both is essentially identical.
Pages 4-5: Spaces for the usual character information such as Race, Gender, Size, Age, and spaces for Attributes, Reactions, Weariness, and Health.
Page 6: Spaces for Racial Abilities and Order Abilities.
Page 7: Boxes for descriptions of 10 Edges.
Page 8: Boxes for descriptions of 10 Edges.
Page 9: Boxes for descriptions of 10 Flaws.
Pages 10-15: Skill lists, arranged alphabetically. However, the skill lists are arranged in vertically-oriented text, as opposed to the horizontally-oriented text contained in the remainder of the booklet. This requires the user to flip the booklet sideways to read the skills. A very strange layout decision.
The Skill lists contain several specialties for each skill, along with a list of the skill's related Attribute and a space for skill ranks, modifiers, total rank, and a checkbox for whether the skill is an order skill or not.
Pages 16-17: Spell lists that contain an alphabetical list of all spells, their casting time, range, duration, Weariness TN, Cost, and page reference to the core rulebook.
Page 18: Blank weapon list, also arranged vertically like the skill lists.
Page 19: Blank spaces for equipment, gear, and wealth.
Pages 20-21: Lined pages for notes.
Page 22: Space for character illustration and symbol.
Pages 23-32: Lined pages for notes/journal.
The Good:
The Hero's Journal is a decent character sheet, if you don't mind writing all of the information longhand as opposed to using a electronic version of character sheets. Unlike the character sheet found in the core rulebook, the Hero's Jounal has lots of room for skills, specialties, abilities, edges, feats, and the like.
At 5.5" by 8.5", and at only 32 pages, the Hero's Journal is a slim booklet that could easily be tucked inside the core rulebook or slipped into a briefcase or book bag. All of the character information would presumably be contained therein, giving players everything they need to play their character in one place.
The Bad:
1. Almost half of the Hero's Journal consists of blank, lined pages. While this may be useful for players who cannot afford looseleaf paper, it could easily be considered wasted space.
2. Some pages are laid out with horizontal text, some with vertical text. Very strange to have it laid out this way. It would have been much easier and user-friendly to have all the text on all pages oriented the same direction.
The Ugly:
The price. At $9.95, this Hero's Journal is committing highway robbery. It's a worthwhile product, but not at the MSRP. Considering that it's essentially a one-use character sheet, no self-respecting role-player is going to spend 10 US dollars on a character sheet, no matter how well laid out or attractive.
A bundle of five of these Journals at the same price might have been worthwhile.
This reviewer's suggestion? Collect the $10 from your pool of players, buy one Journal, and get thee to your local photocopy shop. Remove the staples and run off many many copies. That's about the only way to recoup the money spent on this product.
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