The Quests of Middle-earth - Page 8
© Michael Martinez
Eomer, however, represents a classic helpful NPC encounter (note for non-gamers: an NPC is a non-player character, a character handled by the game referee or game master). One can almost imagine Tolkien sitting there with Chris, John, and Michael (and maybe Priscilla) working out the encounter. "That's 2 six-sided dice, Chris." "All right, dad, I've got a 7." "Wonderful charisma roll, Aragorn! This NPC has warmed to you almost at once!"
Reminds me of the time 20,000 Bosque riders surrounded our party as just as 12 giants on dinosaurs were about to overtake us. The Bosque riders came to see why 12 giants were interested in us, and they had a wondeful time tossing the baby in armor back and forth as they led us back to their camp (the "baby" was a dwarf -- Bosque riders were sort of giant-like themselves). You never know what to expect when the cavalry comes thundering over the horizon.
With all their scrolls, artifacts, talismans, potions, runes, magical devices, spells, mages, fighters, clerics, healers, half-thises and half-thats, gamers managed to take on almost anything and get away with it. Sure, I've heard stories about entire parties being wiped out. Why I even remember one time when....But it's not like Tolkien. That is, in a role-playing game, players like playing with all the gizmos. Tolkien's characters don't really get gizmos.
Can you imagine Gandalf sitting on the back of the barge, making necklaces of Flight all day long as the Fellowship breezed its way down Anduin? "Yo, Aragorn! Another group of Orcs are massing on the east bank ahead!" "Good, Boromir! You and I can use the experience!" While Aragorn and Boromir wipe out whatever war-trolls come along, Legolas and Gimli will wipe out the Orcs, and the hobbits will use their poisoned arrows and compound bows to pick off the mages Sauron sends against them. By the time the Fellowship reaches Rauros Gandalf will have made enough invisibility rings and amulets of flight to get everyone to Mount Doom safely, and poor Gollum is blubbering back on the river bank.
I've always wondered why people don't ask, "Why didn't Gandalf just teleport everyone to Mount Doom?" instead of the infamous "Why didn't the Eagles fly Frodo to Mount Doom?" (Answer to the second question: The Shire's Eagle Taxi Service was on strike for that adventure.)
Tolkien would have had no stories to tell if his questing characters were as powerful and resourceful as the typical RPG character may become. And it's not like Fingon was the equivalent of a first-level fighter when he lopped off Maedhros' right hand. The arbitrary rules one applies to story-telling are quite different from the arbitrary rules of role-playing games. It will be interesting to see how the "Dungeons and Dragons" movie handles the mixture of the two. I've read that the storyline is very similar to that of a gaming adventure.
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