Search
Review of The Road Goes Ever On
 Goto [ Index ] |
Blurb from the publisher: 'The Road Goes Ever On is a set of four, double-sided, large format maps covering the greater part of known Middle-earth: Eriador, Wilderland, Rohan and Gondor/Mordor. With Player maps and hexed Lore Master maps, these provide an invaluable play aid for planning your Adventures in Middle-earth journeys.
Also included is a 32-page supplement, packed with ideas, new rules and guidance, which includes:
- Extra inspiration for Journey Events and the wonders of Middle-earth;
- Helpful tables to generate and inspire encounters;
- A generation system for Middle-earth ruins;
- A selection of pre-made monster groups to drop into your Journeys;
- Battle maps for campsites;
- A new optional system for awarding XP to those characters who chose to evade combat;
- Details on places to stay;
- Guidance for awarding XP on the road;
- Dooms of Departure and Oaths of Return.'
What you get: Your USD 29,99 or GBP 16,99 will buy you The Road Goes Ever On, a 34-page full-colour supplement that also includes four double-sided maps, for use in the Adventures in Middle-earth game line, the world's most popular role-playing game rules in the world's most popular fantasy franchise. 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 pdf only for EUR 12,74 or USD 14,99 or GBP 11,27.
The pdf is comprised of two different files. One includes the maps, while the other the actual sourcebook.
Contents: The four maps depict Eriador, Rohan & Gondor, Mordor, and Wilderland. They are printed on thick paperstock at a size of 43 x 56 cm. Both the players' and the Loremaster's versions follow the standard of Middle-earth map-making. The former come in one colour, with only the names of the sites of interest, while the latter distinguish the approximate boundaries of each region both with colour as well as runes. The latter also contain hexes.
The sourcebook contains nine chapters. Events Expanded adds new outcomes when it comes to journey events. Encounters On The Road helps the Loremaster create more cohesive encounters on the fly. There are five tables covering amongst others the time of day, the weather, and the culture of the people to be encountered. Special focus is given on the motivation of those encountered, with almost seven pages of entries. Bones of the Earth contains instructions on how to create interesting ruins. This is a step-by-step process, discussing who built it, what it was, what it looks like now, and what it is used for now. There are many options in each category, each of which gets its own proper description. Dangers Along The Way presents four enemy troupes, from goblins and wargs to trolls, orc warbands, and spider colonies.
Chapter five offers two battle maps for camps along the road, one literally next to the road, while the second one stands inside a ruin. Avoiding Battle is a set of optional rules to flee from pursuit while on a Journey. Wonders of Middle Earth contains ten ideas of things that the heroes will pass by in their journeys. These range in grandeur and importance from mines and fallen giants to caves and waterfalls. Lodgings along the road covers three different kind of havens the characters may find while adventuring: a poor farmstead, a rich farmstead, and a roadside inn. Finally, Sights None Yet Seen awards experience points for exploits undertaken on the road as part of Journey Events.
The strong points: If the material on this supplement sounds familiar, that's because it is. Even though it is not a one-on-one take on The One Rings's outright fantastic Journey's & Maps, it comes out as pretty close. The maps here are identical to the ones of that product. Any Loremaster worth his salt will use only the player maps during the session, in order to enhance the immersion and the feeling of authenticity.
The sourcebook itself comes out as extremely strong. It doesn't cover the same subject matter as Journeys & Maps; as an example, there are no rules for boats and ships in the present sourcebook. They share however other common material, even though it is divided differently among its chapters. Examples include the Bones Of The Earth chapter and the information presented in Wonders of Middle-Earth and Lodgings Along The Road. Where Journeys & Maps however is exclusively about journeys, the present book also dabbles in other matters, making it more akin to a collection of high quality articles addressed to the Loremaster. The influence of D&D concepts is evident through battle maps, more enemies to throw against your players and a more confrontational attitude. It isn't however all about turning Middle-earth into D&D; some concepts go the opposite way. I was looking forward to see experience awarded for journeys, and I am very happy to see it happening here. I also enjoyed the personalized awards depending on whether a player revisits, or refrains from visiting a place again.
I can't but highly praise the quality of the narratives. Travelling becomes mysterious and interesting again; a look at the numerous pages of motivations for your encounter listings is enough to convince you. It doesn't matter if you play AIME or vanilla D&D 5e. These narratives, ideas, and non-obtrusive rules can be used everywhere. In fact, they can even be adopted to different RPG genres and gaming engines.
Once again, the book's art is stunningly Middle Earth-like. I have a feeling that I have previously seen some images in TOR, I don't however mind that; it's practically unavoidable. Bonus points for the executive summary that includes the contents of each chapter just before its listing in the table of contents. Even if one leaves the book aside for years, he can have a good idea of what is where within instants.
The pdf version is very good, as has been pretty much every pdf rendition of Cubicle 7 products. The bookmarks go three levels down. Pictures are extractable, for you to use as you wish. The table of contents does not have live links, this is however is not a biggie. Even less so is the absence of an index. This is a sourcebook of only 34 pages after all.
The weak points: I wish this book was a word for word repetition of Journeys & Maps, yet it can't be. Some rules and concepts are (rightfully) eliminated, since the D&D ruleset deals with them differently. This, however, is hardly a complaint. There is not much that I find wrong with this product. If anything, I would have wanted to see a bigger sourcebook, dealing with even more subjects.
Conclusion: The Road Goes Ever On is totally worth it, because journeys should be lived, not side-brushed. I might rate it a bit lower than Journeys & Maps, its TOR cousin, this however doesn't make it less valuable. I recommend it for focused AIME lovers as much as I do for D&D enthusiasts who haven't touched any AIME product before. In fact, and when it comes to the latter, taking its low price, gorgeous maps, and limited rules into account, this might be the product you were looking for to give AIME a try.
For more info on The Road Goes Ever On 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 Road Goes Ever On 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.
