Posted: June 02, 2000 at 19:42:52: by Tamim the OLOG
: : : If the GM doesn't care for accuracy with respect to works of
: : : Tolkien, sure, I agree. But it's only fair to point out that
: : : there are inaccuracies in the data. At the very least, the
: : : GMs can look for such flaws and correct them in their own
: : : notes.: : Accuraacy up to a point is great. When one is GMing a game
: : one has to invent things all the time. : I'm not talking about what is made up. I'm talking about what is easily checked against the appendices. I'm sure I'm not the only Tolkien fan who knows the last prince of Cardolan died in 1409 and that the last Heir of Isildur in both Cardolan and Rhudaur died decades before then as well. : Would YOU want to be the Game Master who flips out that gross error only to be corrected by 3 of your players? The sloppy research has a negative impact on any players who know the material. Players who don't really know it won't react that way, but I've known way too many nit-pickers in my time (and I have certainly been one of them) to want people to go running off to the gaming session thinking the material on that site is really trustworthy. : It's not. That's the point. : The fact a lot of it is made up is not the problem. Everyone who has run a game knows you have to have a lot of details (the players will asked about the dangedest things, after all). But if you're going to run a game based on Tolkien's world for people who like to scan the appendices, you're shooting yourself in the foot if you don't get your basic facts straight. : Let the buyer beware. : You get what you pay for. : It's always easier to find the flaws in someone else's work than in your own. You are of course right. The material provided for gaming should not be contradictory to Tolkien's writings. My point is that the GM doesn't have time to check if the material is correct or not. If he notices it at once ( Gandalf can fly according to ICE) that is good. If he doesn't then less harm is done by compromising the canonicity than by spending half of the gaming time checking for references. Iff one of the players notices the mistake one can always say that this is my world not that of professor Tolkien's.
After all it is not very fun, if the players know exactly what will happen after 192 years. The characters can change the world:
thank god for the chaos theory.
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