Search
Review of Rhovanion Region Guide
 Goto [ Index ] |
Blurb from the publisher: 'The Rhovanion Region Guide is an invaluable resource for Adventures in Middle-earth further describing the lands of the River and the Forest - the rolling Vales of Anduin and the trackless forest of Mirkwood. It expands on the descriptions given in the core Guides, offering new sanctuaries and new perils for Player-heroes to discover.
Each region is described in detail, listing potential friends and foes, sites of interest and potential adventures.
An expanded bestiary contains a host of strange creatures and servants of the Enemy, from the beasts of the forest to the fabled Great Spiders.
Variant Cultural Backgrounds for the Wayward Elves and Wild Hobbits offer new options for adventurers.
New Fellowship Phase actions bring the wild to life in your games.
Follow the Anduin river down from the chill springs of the Misty Mountains to the southern edge of the Wild! Explore the dread forest of Mirkwood, running from the lonely thickets of the north to the very gates of Dol Guldur! Enter the Heart of the Wild, and defend it against the rising Shadow.
The Rhovanion Region Guide contains material previously published for The One Ring Roleplaying Game in The Heart of the Wild.'
What you get: Your USD 39,99 or GBP 26,99 will buy you the Rhovanion Region Guide, a 140-page full-colour hardcover which serves as a regional sourcebook for Adventures in Middle-earth, the adaptation of the world's most popular fantasy franchise to the world's most popular RPG. With that price the buyer gets both the pdf and the physical version when purchasing either from Cubicle 7's e-shop or from the physical stores participating in the Bits & Mortar programme. The game can also be purchased as a single pdf file for only EUR 12,25 or USD 14,99 or GBP 10,81.
Those playing The One Ring remember that we had examined The Heart of the Wild together already. Seeing how the two reviews cover the same material presented under a different system, they share many similarities.
A note of interest is that In The Heart of the Wild was nominated for the 2014 Origins Award for Best RPG supplement, when it first came out. Ironically, it lost out to the Dungeons & Dragons 5e Monster Manual after a popular vote (as opposed to a vote by a committee of experts).
Contents: The Rhovanion Region Guide is an archetypal regional book. It is divided in three parts. The Lands of the River covers the Vales of Anduin. First comes the history, followed by the geography of the places under discussion. After a brief introduction, each listing covers the wildlife, the inhabitants, notable characters and notable places. Even though they are not always explicitly marked, ample adventure seeds are included in the narrative, as well as useful instruments for the Fellowship phase. Each listing is also accompanied by a map.
The Greatest of the Forests covers Mirkwood and its haunted (or not so) regions. The format is the same, with a thoroughly researched history, as well as new ideas on adventures, additional background and advice to both the Loremaster and the players.
New Adversaries is a 16-page bestiary containing 12 different monster types and individual monsters or adversaries. That includes basilisks, forest goblins, as well as Maghaz the Orc captain.
The book ends with the full map of the region as well as a three-page index.
The strong points: I can't really say anything different than what I stated on The Heart Of The Wild review. This is perfection, the way sourcebooks should be created. The present tome is not an autonomous island in a sea of knowledge. It travels in a well-established path, effortlessly blending in with both previous products as well as the books that followed it in the game line. We have already seen Wilderland Adventures together. Even a cursory examination shows how elements from there have been retouched and expanded here. The material contained in The Darkening of Mirkwood campaign for TOR hasn't been published yet for AIME, thus that added value is missing, at least for the time-being. Once it gets published things will become clearer.
The narrative is immersive, entertaining in its own right without being used in the context of a roleplaying game. How the Necromancer manifested (or not), and what a traveller or anybody else in the region would perceive is a fine example of how much information a one-paragraph text can convey. The descriptions are meaty, with many details, without however feeling dry or detached. Even though there are no pre-made boxed texts that can be read to the players as is, the information and text more than make up for it and can be used with almost no adjustments. The adventure hooks are very strong, exuding a sense of wonder as well as one of foreboding and prudence, taking into account the regions and their particularities. There's a good balance between people, general locales and particular locations in order to keep every Loremaster happy. I am satisfied with both how the general map as well as the maps of the smaller communities are used. It's just the right amount of information in order to make places look different to one another and get the imagination working.
I have a feeling that only Middle-earth scholars will be able to immediately discern which is Tolkien's information and which is the one that the two writers inserted in this product. I consider myself a Middle-earth fan, and I was not able to tell the difference. This is excellent!
The bestiary is a solid addition, almost a staple for a game based on D&D. The order of the adversaries has been rearranged to better fit the intricacies of this system, other than that however everything is here. Some of the monsters might be similar to one another at times, yet that is exactly the point. Even one spider can be dangerous or outright deadly. Two of them together, looking as different, should have the characters shitting their pants.
The art is once again of a very high standard; the image of the Wood-wight is enough to send chills down your spine. The spirit of Middle-earth is ever present, even though some of the images could have also fit in other iconic settings like Conan. The cover itself is incredible, never mind that it is framed and covered behind the trademarks and titles. That's the second cover for the exact same content (the first was the very dark cover of The Heart Of The Wild) which transcends from just good to 'wow!'. Unless I am missing something here, the image of the severed head in page 123 is brand new. Frankly, this is mind-blowing imagery, the sort of thing that in days past I would have printed out and stuck on my custom GM screen.
The pdf is of a very high quality, and in line with practically all other Cubicle 7 releases. Everything is right where you expect it to be, including bookmarks for all the chapters, sub-chapters and boxed texts. Pictures are extractable, for you to use as you wish. The table of contents and the index do not have live links, this is however is not a biggie.
The weak points: With the exception of the stats the rulebook presents the exact same information from The Heart Of The Wild. It presents the information in an almost identical way, using a similar layout. It is not a director's cuts, it does not contain extra material, and nothing of importance has changed. If you purchase it believing that you will find something else, you will be disappointed.
Even though adventure hooks abound, don't expect ready to run adventures; this is a sourcebook after all. Idem if you expected numerous new rules, items and equipment, even though there is quite the number of new Fellowship Phase undertakings, opening a couple of places as sanctuaries, as well as options for characters like the Wild Hobbits of the Vales of Anduin. These are however interspersed into the narrative. They are not presented dryly as if in a character option book.
If anybody complains about how he likes his Tolkien canon pure and untouched, I will have to resort to violence. The whole idea about a roleplaying game is to expand on a premise in order for said premise to become playable. Here we have a prime example of fantastic writing that is indistinguishable from that of one of the masters of literature. Would anybody seriously complain?
Conclusion: The Rhovanion Region Guide is one of the best sourcebooks that have come out for D&D, and no, I will not take any cheap shots at it because the material was first written for another system and presented through that system's lens. Every D&D player should buy this book, irrespective of whether he plays AIME or not. The only ones who might want to pass are those who already own The Heart Of The Wild.
For more info on the Rhovanion Region Guide, Adventures in Middle-earth overall and Cubicle 7 visit its website at http://cubicle7.co.uk.
Shameless plug: for more gaming news and content (including, for example, pictures of the Rhovanion Region Guide that I am unfortunately not able to upload on RPG.net for the time being), and to better keep track of my reviews, subscribe to my Antonios S facebook and twitter page.
