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Guys, the idea that characters have different areas of expertise is basically irrelevant to the arguments that have been made about TNs being too punishing. That statement will almost always be true - and it isn’t like I oppose character specializations. Rather, one of the reasons I do not like it i...

Well Aiden one way you could do it would be to make standard of living for Elves a multi-part question: part lineage or geographic, and part current mode of living or occupation. For instance a refugee from Eregion can easily explain why they have access to an extra Useful Item from their past life....

I really hope the region books will continue to provide “interesting places” as hooks for random scenes or tie-ins for adventures. I loved many of those locations like the creepy statues of the petrified people frozen in terror at the edge of the forest, and the Parliament of Spiders. Just brilliant...

While this all an nice theoretically, I don´t see how you can come up with a "one-size-fits-all" rule that is robust and offers fun gameplay reliably Why do you think so? Just for perspective, the game has detailed rules for long journeys and traveling encumbrance, skill checks and prolon...

"Too bad we burned all our Hope on that Council. I heard Mordor is a rough zone to adventure in." “It’s not actually so rough anymore since it’s not a Blighted Land, we just have Disadvantage on all our rolls. At least we won’t have to worry about Shadow Corruption!” RE: desired level of ...

There is supreme irony behind saying we can’t use the Council of Elrond chapter as a model for Council rules in the books: this is literally the council for which the rules are named, and at the time he wrote it, Tolkien didn’t yet know which direction the story would take. Which is of course, the e...

There’s a lot they could have done. A simple idea would be to return to Tolerance factor, but to assign it to each NPC with a stake in the discussion, so that there is the possibility one could either storm out or “forfeit” and yield to the party. Another would be to establish a clear (and RP releva...

Simplicity in design is a good thing; would echo gyrovague again by saying I prefer simple but elegant and evocative mechanics, things that bring you into the game’s world and present multiple interesting choices that are all consistent with central themes and features of that world. Middle-earth is...

I have to be honest, I don’t think the Lord / Commoner distinction makes much sense for the Elves of the late Third Age. What would seem to be more deterministic of their lifestyle is whether they live a sedentary life in an Elven settlement, or whether they live a “wandering” or itinerant lifestyle...

Honestly, the Council rules are a bit disappointing. I thought that the overhaul would have produced a system for generating narrative outcomes beyond pass/fail, something the system has needed for some time, and something which I would expect to be modeled on the Council of Elrond.