LOR Timeline

By Feanorthespirit, in Player community

Posted at

Recently there was a post as to why FFG doesn't post a timeline for playing the many expansions / sagas published. My friends and I put together a rough timeline for playing according to the published novels timeline and forwarded it to FFG for comment. They (as usual) were very responsive. I wish I held of to the essage but it ultimitely said that saga expansions are just that.. true to the tieline as published. While deluxe expansions may or may not take place during a specific period they are esentially 'side stories' to be played outside of sage games. Makes sense but I still can't help but incorporate deluxe into the saga campaign! By referencing the calender it the LOR published 50th aniversary book we loosly placed the events as we see them occuring. But my friend YOU ARE RIGHT... a rough timeline from FFG would be welcome somewhat akin to their additions of 'chapters' in the "B.R''s, "The Road Darkens" amd "The Treason of Saruman". SAGA descriptions.

/\/\

Posted at

Here is what FFG wrote to me on the subject... any comments ??

Hi!

The saga expansions (The Hobbit, Black Riders, The Road Darkens, and Treason of Saruman) tell the story of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. These expansions take place during the same time period those books take place, and feature the characters, places, and events of those books.
The deluxe expansions and adventure packs - that is, everything else - all tell side-stories that are not tied into the above sagas. For example, while Khazad-dum and the Dwarrowdelf cycle have similar locations and events to the latter half of The Fellowship of the Ring, they are considered a side story and do not take place during the same timeline as The Fellowship of the Ring.
As described in the rulebook, all of our deluxe expansions and adventure packs take place during the 17 year gap between when Bilbo celebrates his 111th birthday and when Frodo leaves the Shire (so, in between The Hobbit and The Black Riders). While we don’t give explicit dates or years for when these adventures occur during that 17 year period, our story places the order of these expansions to be the same as their order of release (Shadows of Mirkwood first, then Dwarrowdelf, then Against the Shadow, etc).
Hope that answers your question. If you have any others, feel free to ask me directly. Thanks for playing!
--------------------------------------------------
Matthew Newman
Associate LCG Designer
Fantasy Flight Games
Posted at

Well... like Mr Newman said, it was explicitly stated at the beginning of the rulebook that the adventures designed by FFG for the game (excluding the Saga expansions, which follows the book's events) are supposed to occur during the 17 years timespan between Bilbo's 111th birthday and Frodo's departure from the Shire. In the books, with the exception of the hunt for Gollum led by Gandalf, and it's capture by the orcs of Barad-Dûr, there is not many important events during these years , so it gave the designers the liberty they needed to create "fictive" adventures that are reasonably coherent with Tolkien's timeline (at least for the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle, I dont own the other cycles yet).

So yeah, there's nothing new in all of that. I don't know what you expected really.