I…have no idea what all that means.
Wait, Skald has never played D&D? We seriously need to get this boy some dice.
And sourcebooks! Lots and lots of sourcebooks!
(I consider my interest in roleplaying games as a smoke screen for my interest in roleplaying game sourcebooks…)
I have dice. I use them to play Monopoloy.
Well, craps too, in theory. Though in fact I only ever really play that at a casino, and the casinos frown on bringing my own on for some reason. Bastards.
What’s the problem? I’m sure you remember where all the pips are.
Seriously, though, you would really enjoy role-playing games, and I’m genuinely astounded that you don’t already play.
Skald, have a look over here, please: Middle Earth FA64 D&D Game: Ninth Adventure – Against the Cultists
I addressed you because I’m not sure which days of the week you acknowledge the existence of the, uh, you know, things people go to the theaters to watch. And the Witch King used a mace (a club with spikes on the business end) in the books (I think) but in the that-which-shall-not-be-named he used a morningstar (a stick with a chain at one end from which hangs a spiky weight - needs a bit more skill, but has extra oomph because of the length and flexibility of the chain).
I was once a little geek-boy. Of course I know what morningstars & maces are. (The former have always struck me as terribly stupid weaponss, but then I’m a coward.) I didn’t understand the thing about +1 and all.
And it’s Thursday. I admit the movies exist on Thursdays specifically so I can spit at the name Peter Jackson. (Though he only really deserves it for the third one, and of course The Lovely Bones.)
In AD&D as it is meant to be played, ie First Edition, a +1 weapon has a relatively minor enchantment that increases a player’s chance to hit with his +1 weapon by about 5% over his chance with a non-magical weapon. The +1 weapon also does one point of extra damage per hit.
So know we’re saying Skald is the most incompetent person into Tolkien’s legendarium? [joking]
To continue this hijack*, here’s a good essay about who’s to blame and what lesson to learn from the Cold Equations.
- and without reading the whole thread, so apologies if this is a double post
Thanks for an interesting alternative explanation! That makes a lot of sense. When I heard the story as kid, I always thought “that’s what the story requires of her”, because in a lot of Grimm’s stories, people carry the idiot ball. Somebody is told to not do something - goes and does; somebody is told to do something - doesn’t.
(That’s why I was first shocked, and then chuckled, at Chrichtons inversion in Timeline at the end, the group is in the forest, and a peasant comes begging to them. Narrative kicks in, when the kind-hearted time-travellers, following old-forgotten fairy-tales, want to give a small thing to the peasant … at which point it turns out it’s a trap of a gang of roving bandits, and the time-travellers escape just by a hair being killed!
Sadly, it isn’t. Or maybe you meant Hevensday?
Is it Wednesday everywhere on Earth?
At the time you wrote that it was Thursday, it wasn’t Thursday anywhere on Earth. it was mostly Wednesday, with a dash of Tuesday.
OK, I’m making that up. I assume you mean you live in UTC+5 or eastward.
Actually I was just screwing with y’all. 
But when I wrote that it was 10:30 my time and thus just after midnight Tokyo time. It had been Thursday there fore half an hour. I had in mind a complicated joke abou Ainu, but nobody bit.
Before your spitting, once again I will remind you of what you yourself consider the second best scene ever put on film (and also that the same man was responsible for what you consider the best), not to mention the Lighting of the Beacons of Minas Tirith. In fact, I’m not clear on why you have in particular chosen RotK for your particular dislike. Personally, I, apparently alone in the universe, am vaguely nauseated by the line “You bow to no one,” so I get that tastes vary, but why RotK as a whole?
But dis The Lovely Bones all you like; I haven’t seen it and don’t expect to.
Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered, a sword-day, a red-day, ere the sun rises! Ride now! Ride now! Ride for ruin, and the world’s ending! Death! Death! Death! Forth Eorlingas!
Pallas help me, what did I name the BEST sequence put on film? Because nothing beats Theoden telling his men, “Okay, there’s no possible way we can win this battle. We’re going anyway, because we’re like that. Who’s with me!”
My problem with RotK that, despite having the three best scenes in the series (the charge of the Eorlingas, Sam versus Shelob, and Eowyn versus the Witch-King), the majority of it is repellent and unwatchable dreck. Aragorn is a poncy twit throughout the theatrical version, and a poncy MURDERING twit in the Extended Version. The opening sequence with Smeagol transforming into Gollum is boring, unneccessary, and disgusting. Frodo inexplicably becomes a nincompoop. Sam cries all the damn time. Yes, I know Sam was a crier, but not THAT much. It’s like he’s suddenly Welsh. There’s too much stupid Dwarf humor. The whole bith with Arwen’s fate being bound with the Ring is pointless and silly. They passed up a perfectly good excuse to have Arwen die. The bit with the lighting of the beacons is dull (though I know everyone else disagrees). As you mention, that “you four bow to no one” is dumb. I mean, yes, Merry & Pippin made men of themselves, but their contriubution was nothing next to Frodo & Sam’s, and if they’re going to be elevated to that level, so should Eowyn, Gimli, Legolas, and Eomer. They passed up a perfectly good opportunity to have Arwen die, and YES I know I said that twice. And Denethor’s mile-long run while on fire was risible.
Pippin’s song was nice though.
ETA: I suddenly realized you had posted to what I named the best sequence. Yeah, that rocks too. RotK is so bad because the other two were so wondeful. Also they didn’t kill Arwen when she was right there being boring and useless.
Ummm… can I have her? I have a nice soft shoulder for her to cry on, and I promise to never ride off and fight smelly orcs.
Don’t make me tell you about the beacons. Bloody unrealistic is what they are. If the reason why Rohan tarried was that Gondor had situated all their beacons on snow-covered mountaintops at least a three-day mountaineering exhibition beyond Base Camp and the treeline, I’m sure Tolkien would have informed us about the matter. In geographic detail, throwing in as many anecdotes about the Royal House of Elendil, Elvish customs and Quenyan grammar as he’d been able to decipher from the Red Book.
And about incompetence, I’d like to throw in Turgon. First of all, classical little-brother complex towards Fingon. Second, let himself be talked into leaving Valinor instead of showing a bit of backbone. Third, one sortie from Gondolin in uncountable long-years of wars. Then, when Ulmo’s messenger finally shows up, ignores him (in the politest of ways, but still ignores him). Say what you like about Bombur et al, but at least they tried. Turgon can’t even bring himself to do that.