Forum

It's odd that they changed a couple of skill names without addressing the more obvious and jarring (to me anyway) issue of some skill names being nouns ("Hunting") and others being verbs ("Persuade"). Why not "Hunt" instead of "Hunting"? Or alternatively, why not "Persuasion" instead of "Persuade"?

It's odd that they changed a couple of skill names without addressing the more obvious and jarring (to me anyway) issue of some skill names being nouns ("Hunting") and others being verbs ("Persuade"). Why not "Hunt" instead of "Hunting"? Or alternatively, why not "Persuasion" instead of "Persuade"?

This has always tweaked at me too, but I am thankful to be able to say it didn't actually bother me, it just felt like room for improvement.

As an example of using "scan" in LoTR:
"Aragorn walked behind him, grim and silent, stooping now and again to scan some print or mark upon the ground", The Two Towers, "The Riders of Rohan".

As an example of using "scan" in LoTR:
"Aragorn walked behind him, grim and silent, stooping now and again to scan some print or mark upon the ground", The Two Towers, "The Riders of Rohan".

Does anyone else imagine Aragorn as a Cylon while reading that sentence?

To be honest, Enhearten is not that bad, but I also prefer Inspire.

But SCAN?! It sounds way too modern! Search was much better.
scan: 1706, "close investigation," from scan (v.)
search: c. 1300, from Old French cerchier "to search" (12c., Modern French chercher)
source: www.etymonline.com

The only time I remember "scan" in The Lord of the Rings:
"They will take you into a dark room, my Lord, an scan your very skull. They will make toys of your Lordship, ten thousand at least, for children to play stupid games with."
Yes, that was a prank on Bernard Hill by Viggo Mortensen

As an example of using "scan" in LoTR:
"Aragorn walked behind him, grim and silent, stooping now and again to scan some print or mark upon the ground", The Two Towers, "The Riders of Rohan".

That's good to know that this was actually used in the books, I feel better now

I'd rather see Inspire and Search return. I doubt inspire will get returned, but Motivate instead of Enhearten would be far more intelligible.

The new Inspiration rules feel more than slightly ripped from the pages of D&D. I would really consider strongly reverting to Inspire and changing the Inspiration mechanic to something a bit more thematically Tolkien and relate it directly to Hope: Hopeful, Courage / encouraged, Bravery, defiant, fey, or something of the like. Often the most desperate and brave actions characters take are not described as “inspired,” I’m not sure it’s the best description for characters hoping to challenge or reverse fate anyway.

As soon as I got the alpha character sheet I replaced the word Scan with Search.

I left Enhearten with reluctance, purely because of the Inspiration mechanic.

I currently using a hybrid of the rules editions. I discarded the new Travel rules because they are too focused on the Guide and assigning Fatigue on a failed test seemed unnecessary. And they lack atmosphere. Journeys and Maps was a great additon to the original game and adds a lot to the mood.

The new Inspiration rules feel more than slightly ripped from the pages of D&D.

The point has been made, and my skill in modern anthropology is not strong enough to argue the truth or falsehood, that TOR had it first, and D&D got it from AiME which got it from TOR, and TOR is just cycling back around to learn from its children and firm it up as a more core mechanic. Let the bickering commence.