#RPGaDay - 4. Most recent RPG purchase

Lovely art, lovely book.

The most recent RPG related purchase I made was the pre-order of the Rivendell Supplement for The One Ring RPG. My love of Tolkien’s world pre-dates my love of gaming. The Hobbit and the SF of Andre Norton such as the Solar Queen books came into my life sometime between the age of 7 and 10, and have clear influences on my gaming preferences. (Norton was one of the influences on the Traveller RPG).

Now, Rivendell is a PDF at present, and I hope to get the physical book before the year end, despite the Late Summer release it is listed for, but my read through says it will be worth the wait(*). Rivendell is beautifully presented and looks like an excellent addition to the game. It introduces everything needed to adventure between Bree to the West, Rivendell to the East, Angmar to the North and Tharbad to the South, in the period between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It also details the Dunedain and High Elves as cultures for player characters, whilst suggesting that their use is minimised to maintain the feel of the game. The book (PDF) makes me nostalgic for the games of MERP I used to run at school, set before the Northern Kingdom fell.

Had this question have been answered last weekend, the RPG related purchases would have been dice for Ubiquity (for the new edition of the Space: 1889 RPG) and dice for The One Ring (mainly as I am not certain if I will sell my original edition when the hardcover comes out). I find more of my purchases being board and card games these days, mainly as there seems to be more chance to get a short game of one of these, especially with the pressures of being a “grown up” married with children and a job that is quite demanding.

(*) Cubicle 7 can often be delayed - I have one product that was due in 2010 but they make lovely products.