CHARACTERISTICS, SPECIAL RULES, AND HEROES

Adam: One of the biggest challenges that we encountered with The Scouring of the Shire was making sure that the rules for the Hobbits reflected their genuine abilities. We "scoured" the books for any references to Hobbits fighting and their other skills. In the end, we came to a few conclusions. First, all Hobbits should have the Throw Stones skill. Tolkien himself writes in The Fellowship of The Ring, "If any Hobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew very well." From this passage, we decided that the Throw Stones special rule should apply to all Hobbits. Our next problem was establishing the basic profile for a Hobbit Militia. In the end, we settled for a very low stat line. Our rationale being that the Hobbit Militia represent those Shirelings who simply have had no formal training in fighting and have spent the most part of their lives eating cakes and dozing under trees. Hobbit Archers and Shirriffs are each a little better at fending for themselves, which is reflected in their Fight values and weaponry.

Heroes were a harder thing to handle, since the Heroes of the Shire are, by all accounts, quite weak compared with warriors of other lands. Consider Paladin Took, a Hobbit well advanced in years, and Fatty Bolger, who never even leaves the Shire. Neither is a Hobbit of any particular martial prowess, and so the characteristics of each reflect that.

When creating the profiles for the Hobbit Heroes, we took care to ensure that the returning Travellers (Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin) were not overshadowed by those Hobbits who had remained in the Shire. The end result of this process is a clutch of Hobbit Heroes who are beyond question the weakest Heroes created thus far. However, within the confines of The Scouring of the Shire scenarios, they are really quite impressive.

The same is true of Sharkey, who has only a fraction of Saruman's former power. Sharkey has fewer spells at his disposal as well as less Might, Will, and Fate. Despite these shortcomings, he is an awesome power in The Scouring of the Shire scenarios and is capable of bringing down any Shire-dweller in short order. That is not to say, however, that he is all-powerful, for he can be beaten!

THE FIRST HALF

Sharkey's Ruffians attempt to put down the Hobbits.

Adam: When Mat and I sat down to plan what we could put into The Scouring of the Shire, we had a wealth of good ideas. Obviously, the main focus of the supplement had to deal with the events of the chapter in question from The Lord of The Rings, but there was plenty more we wished to deal with. Dividing the workload between us was simple and (relatively) painless. I managed to secure for myself (with only a modicum of whining, moaning, begging, and bribery) the first half of the supplement – the Scouring of the Shire itself. I was overjoyed, because of my overwhelming enthusiasm for Hobbits and all things Shire-related.

My first port of call was to read up on the Shire. The beginning of The Lord of The Rings has a chapter within the prologue titled "Concerning Hobbits," and these passages became my guide for getting the feel of the Shire and the details about Hobbits right. Tolkien himself painted a very particular picture of Hobbits and detailed a good amount of their history. Thus, as I fleshed out the background sections and wrote the introductions to the scenarios, I had plenty to work with.

The scenarios in the first part of the supplement tell the story of the Scouring of the Shire in six parts. We begin with the first intrusions of the Ruffians into the Shire and culminate in the greatest battle ever fought within the bounds of the Shire. By extracting what information Tolkien gives us, I was able to create six scenarios (okay, so Mat did the leg-work on one of them) that give us an insight into the characters involved and what went on.

One character in particular that emerged as I studied the events was Paladin Took. Although readers never meet him in the narrative, it becomes clear that this sensible and forthright Hobbit has little truck with bullies and denies the Ruffians access to the Tookish lands. Immediately, I seized on the idea of the Tooks bravely trying to hold out against the depredations of Sharkey and his rogues, something I think that has come across well in the campaign section of the supplement.

Next: The History of The Shire
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