Regarding Bombadil, I think that the general consensus and an accurate speculation is that we're not gonna see him here, as well as the Old Forest, Barrow-downs, etc. What I think will happen in the future is that in a possible "Eriador" cycle we'll see him in an adventure pack and he'll be an objective, and possibly in the far future we'll have him as an ally. That's my take on it, and I hope I'm wrong because this is the perfect expansion for him but I don't think we'll see him for a long while.

my big wish is just for a load of named locations -- the same ones that we visit in the book. i'd much rather visit the old forest than just any old generic forest location. i want to see hobbiton, bree and the prancing pony, farmer maggots farm, bombadil's house... then it will feel like we are really playing the book

i hope they don't put a load of enemies in where there are none in the book, either. i play LOTROnline and they've got a load of goblins and orcs just a short walk from hobbiton. i hope FFG don't do something like that.

Regarding Bombadil, I think that the general consensus and an accurate speculation is that we're not gonna see him here, as well as the Old Forest, Barrow-downs, etc. What I think will happen in the future is that in a possible "Eriador" cycle we'll see him in an adventure pack and he'll be an objective, and possibly in the far future we'll have him as an ally. That's my take on it, and I hope I'm wrong because this is the perfect expansion for him but I don't think we'll see him for a long while.

Yeah, I really fear you're right, and hope so much you're wrong. Because really, they shouldn't come up with the logic crap that Bombadil doesn't go wandering Middle-earth. He's much more likely to wander through it (and he probably has done) than Eagles flying into Moria. No excuse ffg, I know it is hard to design but please, please, pretty please, give us Bombadil and Goldberry.

Are you up for a petition Richard?

Actually, I would sign or help to redact a petition but Black Riders was designed and completed long ago, and I fear it's too late to do anything

Are you up for a petition Richard?

sure- but i think 1 petition from me is enough for this game...i dont want to gain a reputation as an upstart haha

I think we WILL actually see Bombadil, Old Forest and Barrow-Downs in this first Black Rider saga set. I reason this because the set is called "Black Riders." To me, this means the entire point of the set is to highlight the journey out of the shire while being chased by the Nine. Nate French has so far been extremely sympathetic towards the books' plot in the creation of this game. I see the quests looking something like this:

Quest 1: "Escape from the shire" -This is where Bombadil, Old Forest and Barrow Downs would come in. We wouldn't be fighting Black Riders in this quest just yet, but certain treachery cards would bear their impending doom upon us.

Quest 2: "Safely to Bree" (Or something to this affect). Aragorn is an objective type of ally in this scenario who joins the companions. Weathertop is stage 3 of this Quest.

Quest 3: "Flight to the Ford" -We have to make it to Rivendell in this one. The Black Riders come on strong.

Well, this is my wishful guessing of what to expect!

Something I was very dissapointed with in the preview is that The One Ring, the focus of the entire story and one of the most powerful artifacts in Middle Earth, does absolutely nothing. The only thing it does is have some rules written on it, but no actual ability or any kind of ingerence in the game. You could pretty much ignore it and nothing would be lost. Bullsh*t. At least give it a stat booster or ANYTHING. But no, it's just some rules everybody's gonna remember anyway and nothing else.

Yeah, it's not impossible to still include the Old Forest and Barrow-downs. The reason for the detour was after the Black Riders. And even Bombadil mentions them. It is not like the story doesn't move ahead in those three chapters, though it does certainly move around a bit. However, having done all of that in quest one (of the three) would mean we will have done eight chapters in one quest, leaving four for the other two (I know the chapter count doesn't always count and the first two chapters will be represented only very slightly, probably).

I think we WILL actually see Bombadil, Old Forest and Barrow-Downs in this first Black Rider saga set. I reason this because the set is called "Black Riders." To me, this means the entire point of the set is to highlight the journey out of the shire while being chased by the Nine. Nate French has so far been extremely sympathetic towards the books' plot in the creation of this game. I see the quests looking something like this:

Quest 1: "Escape from the shire" -This is where Bombadil, Old Forest and Barrow Downs would come in. We wouldn't be fighting Black Riders in this quest just yet, but certain treachery cards would bear their impending doom upon us.

Quest 2: "Safely to Bree" (Or something to this affect). Aragorn is an objective type of ally in this scenario who joins the companions. Weathertop is stage 3 of this Quest.

Quest 3: "Flight to the Ford" -We have to make it to Rivendell in this one. The Black Riders come on strong.

Well, this is my wishful guessing of what to expect!

I kinda like this setup except that we know for a fact that Gildor is gonna be in the first scenario, and that means the focus will be the Black Riders as well. The other two are very likely to be like that, but honestly the last thing I would want to see is more objectives, ESPECIALLY an Aragorn objective. No need for that at all, objectives should be a last resort device. My guess is that he's gonna be an ally card in the pack.

Something I was very dissapointed with in the preview is that The One Ring, the focus of the entire story and one of the most powerful artifacts in Middle Earth, does absolutely nothing. The only thing it does is have some rules written on it, but no actual ability or any kind of ingerence in the game. You could pretty much ignore it and nothing would be lost. Bullsh*t. At least give it a stat booster or ANYTHING. But no, it's just some rules everybody's gonna remember anyway and nothing else.

I get what you mean, but at the same time it's not really used in the books either. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the only two times its used throughout the course of the stories is by Frodo at weather top and by Sam shortly after the encounter with Shelob and Frodo is taken away. It wouldn't be that faithful if the card effect had some powerful ability whenever it was never used as a weapon in the books. We know its important and the gravity it lends to the quests and that's fine enough I think

Something I was very dissapointed with in the preview is that The One Ring, the focus of the entire story and one of the most powerful artifacts in Middle Earth, does absolutely nothing. The only thing it does is have some rules written on it, but no actual ability or any kind of ingerence in the game. You could pretty much ignore it and nothing would be lost. Bullsh*t. At least give it a stat booster or ANYTHING. But no, it's just some rules everybody's gonna remember anyway and nothing else.

I get what you mean, but at the same time it's not really used in the books either. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the only two times its used throughout the course of the stories is by Frodo at weather top and by Sam shortly after the encounter with Shelob and Frodo is taken away. It wouldn't be that faithful if the card effect had some powerful ability whenever it was never used as a weapon in the books. We know its important and the gravity it lends to the quests and that's fine enough I think

I also get what you mean, but what I was thinking about is that they should have given the ability Frodo has to the One Ring. It makes a lot more sense, and in the case they want to expand and possibly make other ring bearer heroes, they can keep the ability the One Ring gives (that is, exhausting it to become "invisible" and replace the encounter card) in the ring itself to allow for more compatibility.

I can see the logic in that; fair enough

Good points all! Hey rich, my reasoning of including so much in one quest is based on the fact that they did just that in the Hobbit Saga sets. There are a mere 6 quests from the start of the book to the very end. One could easily argue that the Hobbit story could have been stretched far beyond 6 quests, however, seeing as how the LOTRs is far more of an intricate and developed story you may be right!

I am so exited to see the main story come to life!

The barrow downs is one of my favourite parts of the story, so I really want to see that part of the story in the game.

Well ... here we can get a glimpse of what to expect

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4286