LotR The Hall of Fire Magazine 02.pdf

2004 II II ISSUE 2 2 2 2 2

J ANUARY

ANUARY 2004

2004

ANUARY

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T T HIS

HIS I

I I SSUE

SSUE

G REETINGS

REETINGS

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IIIII T ’ S A

A A LL

LLL O

O O PTIONAL

PTIONAL : C

: C OMBAT

OMBAT P

P P ACING

ACING

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A LLIES

LLIES AND

AND A

A A DVERSARIES

DVERSARIES

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A PC ’ S S

S S O -C

- -C ALLED

ALLED L

L L IFE

IFE

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EATURE C

C C REATURES

REATURES

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A T A G

G G LANCE

LANCE (L

(L OT

OOT R F

R F ORM

ORM )))))

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AAN F

F F LAVOUR

LAVOUR

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P OSTMASTER

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C ALLING

ALLING A

A A LL

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G G AMERS

AMERS

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W HAT

HAT ’ S O

O O UT

UUT T

T T HERE

HERE

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C REDITS

REDITS AND

AND C

C C ONTACTS

ONTACTS

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C ONTACT

ONTACT T

A A T :: :: :

codawebzine@hotmail.com

T T HE

H HE H

H H ALL

ALL OF

O OF F

F F IRE

IRE A

A A

Issue Two - January 2004

The Hall of Fire

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LANCE

OOT

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G REETINGS

REETINGS

LLL !! !!!

Let me be the first to say Happy New Years to all of you; I hope that all your roleplaying needs were met over the

holidays (well, the ones that could be sated). And now to business... Well WOW! I must say the initial response to the

webzine has been very gratifying to say the least. Within the first few minutes of my adverstisement of its release, praise

and helpful comments began pouring in and I’d like to say thank you to all who have written in showing your interest

for submitting your own content. For those that have requested it and for future reference, here are the guidelines for

your fan submittals

REETINGS , S

, S ALUTATIONS

ALUTATIONS ... H

... H ELLO

ELLO A

A A LL

LLL

Articles

– Length: >500 words, 1000+ would be nice

– Font: Courier, Size: 12 pt

– Style format: Standard paragraph

– File format: Text (*.txt) or Word (*.doc)

Fan Flavour or Allies and Adversaries or Featured Creatures

Have the format of your write-up be in the same format as Decipher's published works.

Calling All Gamers!

The advertisement is to be less than 100 words and if you would like a graphic to go with it, it can be no more than 1” x 1”.

With the support of you, the dedicated readers and fans, this publication can only get better.

There is one more item I would like to mention, an interview I'll be having with Doug Burke, Decipher's liason to

their RPG messageboards. If you would like to ask him a question, then send an email to the webzine's email address

with your question to the webzine with “INTERVIEW” in the subject line. As he gets constantly asked about the rules on

the messageboards, I would like to keep the questions more to things that you, the readers, would like to know about

him, his job, etc.

Once again, thank you for interest and happy gaming!

Matthew A. Kearns

aka GandalfOfBorg

Editor

The Hall of Fire

Issue Two - January 2004

G REETINGS

A A

, S

... H

REETINGS

ALUTATIONS

ELLO

Articles

Fan Flavour or Allies and Adversaries or Featured Creatures

Calling All Gamers!

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II II I T ’ S A

LLL O

O O PTIONAL

PTIONAL

C OMBAT

P P ACING

ACING

illustrate the problems inherent in the overly

abstract standard “mook” system, and then will

suggest a variant system that is still fast and

simple but incorporates Health and weapon

damage.

by Scottomir

Frodo has disappeared in the

woods around the Falls of Rauros,

and his cousins Merry and Pippin

run off to search for him. Tasked by

a suspicious Aragorn with

protecting the young hobbits,

Boromir, the captain-general of

Gondor, chases after them.

Suddenly, orcs of Isengard and

Mordor pour into the woods and

charge the hobbits, thinking

that Merry or Pippin may be the

little person whom Saruman seeks. Boromir arrives on the

scene in the nick of time, wading into the Uruk-hai with

sword and shield. But, the big man is badly outnumbered

and repeatedly suffers grievous wounds. Then, the little

hobbits leap upon the orcs with their knives. Due to their

small size, they easily stab the bigger orcs and more

easily avoid their clumsy blows. While Boromir is badly

hurt and forced to retreat, the heroic hobbits defend him

and slay the attacking Uruk-hai…

At least that’s how the scene plays out using the

accelerated combat pacing by Decipher (see The Lord of

the Rings RPG Core Rule Book , p. 270). This accelerated

system (sometimes called “mook” rules) is designed to

speed up combat by

treating hordes of enemies

as one-success, two-

success, or three-success

targets. The foe’s Health

and armor as well as the

hero’s Strength and

weapon don’t matter at

all. If a character gets a

complete success on his

attack test (regardless of

his weapon type or

Strength), it counts as a

“one success” hit; a

superior success counts as

a “two success” hit, and

an extraordinary success

is a “three success” hit. A

marginal success on the attack test is ignored, considered

to be a hit that is not hard enough to hurt the foe. This

system does indeed speed up combat, but you’ll quickly

find out that it strongly favors the small and agile and

completely nullifies the advantages of big, strong

characters with heavy weapons. This article will try to

Hobbits, the Ultimate Warriors?!?

Here’s the crux of the problem with the Core

Rule Book’s recommended system: damage

doesn’t matter, only accuracy. All that matters

is getting a higher degree of success, not

hitting harder or wielding a more damaging

weapon. With this system, you’ll have

players lining up to use Precise Attack while

blanching at the thought of Power Attack or

Two-Handed Attack. The staff (or better yet

a shield bash) is the ultimate weapon, since damage

doesn’t matter but the parry bonus still does. Heck,

whether you are attacking with a great-axe or a dagger is

irrelevant; all damage is the same.

Which brings us to the hobbits. According to the size

rules, attacks made by bigger combatants versus smaller

targets suffer a +2 TN modifier per size-level difference,

while attacks made by the smaller combatant against the

bigger foe benefit from a -2 TN modifier per size-level

difference. Thus, when hobbits fight Uruk-hai, the orcs’

Defence is effectively 2 lower while the hobbits’ Defence

is 2 higher. So in our example above, the orcs are going to

have a considerably easier time hitting Boromir than

Merry and Pippin, and the hobbits will find it easier to hit

the orcs than their skill

level warrants. Boromir’s

only advantage is his

higher ranks in Armed

Combat. In fact, if Merry

and Pippin had an equal

number of ranks as

Boromir, they would be

much better at fighting

orcs than Boromir ever

could hope to be, for he

will never benefit from

the +2/-2 size modifiers.

Boromir’s mighty

longsword and superior

strength don’t matter

using the core book’s

system. The Uruks’ Health rating, Tough Skin, and armor

don’t matter either. Each Uruk is merely a “three success”

target brought down after a combination of successful hits

— whether those hits are from a longsword or a hobbit

knife makes no difference. Boromir might as well have 4

instead of 12 Strength and the Uruk-hai might as well

wear lingerie as orc-mail.

Hobbits, the Ultimate Warriors?!?

Issue Two - January 2004

The Hall of Fire

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OMBAT

An Accelerated Alternative

So, what is an alternative that keeps combat pacing

simple and quick but doesn’t ignore Health and weapon

damage? A very effective fix is simply to replace the one-,

two-, three-success structure with a specific amount of

damage that reflects the opponent’s Health and Wound

Levels. If a creature in a horde takes damage equaling at

least half of its full Health Levels (round up) from a

single attack, it falls “mortally wounded” and is removed

from combat (just like a “three success” hit in the

standard system). If the creature takes damage equaling at

least two full Health

Levels from a single

attack, it is “seriously

wounded” (comparable

to a “two success” hit)

and will likely to try to

flee on its next action.

If the creature takes

damage equaling at

least half of its Health

score (round up) from a

single attack, it is

“lightly wounded”

(comparable to a “one

success” hit). Any

attack that inflicts less

damage than half the

creature’s Health score is a “glancing blow” that is

ignored (like a marginal su ccess in the standard system).

Just like in the standard system, the hits stack: a

creature that is “lightly wounded” (one-success hit) twice

becomes “seriously wounded” (two-success hit), and a

creature that is “lightly wounded” three times or “lightly

wounded” once and then “seriously wounded” becomes

“mortally wounded” (three-success hit). Just like in the

standard system, you do not need to track Health boxes or

worry about wound penalties. However, it should be

pointed out here that, using the Core Book’s rules, it is

quite difficult for even a terrifically strong warrior to deal

enough damage to “mortally wound” the typical foe in a

single blow. Even making a Two-Handed Attack with a

longsword a 12 Strength, the warrior’s maximum possible

damage is 24 (2d6+5+3+4). Using our variant system,

that would be enough to “mortally wound” a medium-size

creature with a Health score of 8 (and no armor). A

Narrator who wishes to use this variant system for

accelerated combat pacing but still wants to see lots of

foes dropping in a single blow is advised to consider

optional rules that increase the possible range of damage

a hero can inflict. See “It’s All Optional: Dealing More

Damage” in issue #1 of The Hall of Fire for more

information.

Let’s now apply our modified “mook” rules to the

horde of Uruk-hai attacking Merry, Pippin, and Boromir.

According to Fell Beasts and Wondrous Magic , Uruk-hai

have 6 total Health Levels and a Health score of 12. In

order to “mortally wound” an Uruk in a single blow, a

hero would need to inflict 36 or more points of damage

on the orc (three full Health levels). To “seriously wound”

an Uruk in single blow, the hero would need to inflict at

least 24 points of damage (two full Health levels). To

“lightly wound” an Uruk, the hero would only have to

inflict at least 6 points of damage (half of the Health

score). Any blow that inflicts less than 6 points of damage

is a “glancing blow” that the Uruk shrugs off.

The Narrator simply has to jot down the number of

Uruk-hai on a piece of scrap paper, leaving space to write

“L” (lightly wounded), “S” (seriously wounded) or “M”

(mortally wounded)

next to each Uruk-hai.

At the top of the paper

he writes “6/24/36” to

indicate the damage

ranges. Since the Uruk-

hai have Tough Skin (1

AR) and probably wear

orc-mail (6 AR), the

hero actually has to deal

out higher amounts of

damage; the Narrator

could just write “7 AR”

next to the 6/24/36

range to remind him or

he could put the armor

right into the damage ranges (13/31/43).

So now Merry and Pippin, despite their size advantage,

are going to have a hard time with their little knives

inflicting even a light wound on the orcs. Boromir, with

his great strength and mighty longsword, is much more

likely to hurt the orcs and they, in turn, will be very happy

they are wearing their mail! In conclusion, this variant

system puts poor Merry and Pippin in the danger Tolkien

meant them to be in and restores the lordly Boromir to his

rightful place as their would-be rescuer.

The Hall of Fire

Issue Two - January 2004

An Accelerated Alternative

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An Accelerated Alternative

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