From the Mouth of Sauron Issue: E-1 Date: 12-17-93 An Experiment This is an experiment. Prior to the start of game 117, I ran a newsletter to help coordinate team information and strategy. The newsletter was discontinued with the start of the game, since many of the members have e-mail and the remainder could be contacted by phone far more quickly. Alas, the U.S. postal service simply proved less than adequate in comparison with other methods of exchanging knowledge. Given the much faster response time inherent to e-mail,I thought I'd give a shot at putting together an electronic newsletter. There may be alot of interest, there may be none; I'm curious to see what you all think of the idea. I'll run a couple of issues to 'test the waters' and see how people respond. If there's sufficient interest, The Mouth will go out every Friday. If not, the newsletter will be discontinued and revert back to a simple file of updates on encounters, artifacts, and so forth. Newsletters rely upon contributions by the readership. If you like the idea of a newsletter, then by all means feel free to send in a contribution. Possible subject ideas might include (but certainly aren't limited to): - questions concerning game mechanics, encounters, etc. that you'd like to have answered by a veteran reader. - strategy and tactical ideas. - humor (my favorite) - personal opinions on styles of play - analysis of various nations, allegiances, etc. - information or data on the market, combat, etc. - interesting experiences, examples of brilliant or poor play, neat tricks - just about anything you can think of that's even remotely connected to ME-PBM (e.g., essays on Tolkien's body hair, whether or not his nephew actually wrote most of the Silmarillion, etc). I'll print anything you send me except for personal attacks upon another player or blacklists. If you submit something, you don't have to do it under your own name. Aliases are fine; just you and I will know who wrote the article or response. Should the writing bug nip you one in the ass, simply send your article to me at my e-mail address with an attached note saying that you want it to go out in The Mouth. Also indicate what alias, if any, you want to use. Don't use neat-looking formats, because I'll just have to reformat it for inclusion anyway (the various systems of individual players cut word-processing documents to hell). Format During these first few issues, the format of the newsletter will run like this: - editorial observations by yours truly - letters (forum) - changes to basic game information (artifacts, setups, etc.) - changes/additions to encounters - rumors of all sorts - questions that someone would like answered - articles submitted by the readership As this counts as the first issue, the only items here are my comments (above) and various changes to artifacts and encounters, plus a few notes. Mayhap the next issue will be somewhat more interesting Information on Artifacts The baselines on the artifact list are slightly off in a number of cases. I never bothered to correct these until now. Most of this information was provided by my teammates in game 117 (who're somewhat more thorough than I am): - Collar of Command, 160: this is a Command +30 artifact, not Command +25. - Dragon Helm of Dor-Lomin, 61: my best information says this is a Command +15 artifact, not Command +10. However, I recently heard a rumor that this artifact has been changed to +30. Anyone with an interest may want to do a 'research artifact'; I'd appreciate hearing about the results. - Ring of Impersonation, 4: this is an Agent +25 artifact, not Agent +20. - Lorglin, 8: This is a mage +15 artifact, not mage +20. - Orb of Seeing, 35: This is a mage +30 artifact, not mage +35. - Galadriel has Nenya (12); Gandalf has Narya (13). This was inadvertantly switched on my artifact list. And for some more rumored secondary powers: - 15 Tinculin: Access to Spirit Mastery.* - 16 Mothras: Alternate list has this as access to Dark Summons, not access to Spirit Mastery.* - 18 Tablets of Dark Knowledge: Alternate list has this as access to Dark Summons, not access to Spirit Mastery.* - 77 Ungolrist: This has a bonus to fighting spiders. - 81 Sil-Maegil: This has a bonus to fighting evil creatures.* - 101 E Voronwe: Access to teleport. - 127 Aranruth: This has a bonus to fighting evil creatures.* - 133 Dagger of Green Wisdom: Access to conjuring ways.* All of those marked with an asterisk haven't been independently confirmed by other sources. I list I recently received actually had an entry for the One Ring. It said that the Ring gives a character a +90 to his best ability and a Stealth rating of 100. Sounds a bit far-fetched to me. One other list I had in my possession said the Ring gives a character a +60 to his best ability and also a stealth bonus, but that hasn't been confirmed either. Rumors Rumors abound in the game, most ludicrous. Rather than attempting to make an educated guess, or spending hours poring over data to see if you can confirm or deny what you hear, I suggest you ask Bill at GSI directly. To date, I've sent my a half-dozen letters chock-full of questions, and as a result, I've learned an astonishing amount concerning how the game works. It also helped to dispel a number of far-fetched but much-treasured 'old gamers tales' concerning encounters, the economic system, combat, and so forth. Some examples: - the defensive bonus provided by fortifications is 10%-20% of the constitution value of the owning army. Towers give the force a 10% bonus, citadels a 20%, with everything else falling in-between (I think these figures were clarified in the November issue of Whispers). - Most ideas on how the market system works are hogwash. It's rather complicated, but follows many real-world rules of supply and demand. Quickly, market prices aren't determined by treasury alone; it's possible for a single player to buy out the entire stock of a resource on the market (I've done this a number of times); sells don't have built-in limitations, other than what's provided by the overall capacity of the market; pricing is interconnected and limited by an 'averaging' factor; the basic laws of supply and demand play a very big role in determining prices and capacity; and much more. - for most encounters, you can skip the '290' order and go directly to the '285' order, providing a response. Of course, you have to know what you're facing, since you won't get an option list like you do with the '290' order. - dragons can encounter more than one person during the turn. If a dragon finds someone in the hex, others (who don't get the encounter description) can do a '285' and react to the dragon. They'll do so individually, so characters can't 'gang up' to fight a dragon (although they could fight it one after another, eventually cutting it down if they're all good enough). These are just a few examples of what Bill has told me in our Q&A sessions. It pays to talk to the game creator; no player will ever know more than a small fraction of what he does. If you have questions that you want answered by Bill, you can just drop him a card directly. In addition, I compile lists and send them off to him every once in a while, so I'll be more than happy to forward any questions you have by putting them down on the list (makes life easier for Bill if they come in one letter). Loyalty Ranges There's some interest in learning what loyalty ranges correspond to the description you get when an emissary does an 'Influence Other'. Rebellious seems to be 1-15, marginal 16-25 or 30, etc. Anyone who's interested can send what data they have to me; I'll compile it and put the results out in the next newsletter. Revised Files The data files I have on ME-PBM have been revised substantially since I first sent them out a few weeks ago. The formatting problems inherent in the expanded margins were also taken care of, for those of you who have systems that trash files with long line lengths. I also revised the results, so that the 'escape' entry was cut into 'escape unharmed' and 'escape injured'. If you want the revised files, simply drop me a line and I'll send them out. Those of you who've indicated you want the revised files anyway will get them along with this newsletter. Also, for those who've indicated they want entire files, I'll probably only send these out once every couple of weeks if I get alot of changes, or once a month if I don't. I'm sure that you don't want to pore over a new list just to find a couple of new additions. Encounters I'm always looking for new information on encounters. Anyone with a hankering to add to my list is more than welcome to do so. Curtain Call That's the end of the first electronic issue of The Mouth. Hope you found it worthwile! Tom