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Post by luckydogwilson on Aug 2, 2007 17:29:43 GMT 1
Sat down with my S.O. to watch a movie and she suggested Return of the King. The movie begins with Gandalf and company's visit to Saurman, now "imprisoned" in Orthanc. While the movie does not follow the book in that Saurman should not die at this time, it does show Gandalf casting him out of the order (of wizards) the breaking of his staff, and off course the loss of the Palantir.
This lead me to wonder whether it should be possible to actually "kill" Saruman in game terms with the Ent cards? It does not seem clear that Saruman, even if he really cannot leave Orthanc (an open question), is not still dangerous with his voice, his staff and magic (same thing?) and his Palantir (to summon help?).
Also, I like to see the book events, at least potentially mirrorred in the game. Gamewise there is simply no reason for Gandalf to make a trip to Isenguard, much less take along the balance of the fellowship.
I have not posted with any specific house rule in mind, and the game scarcely needs anything to strenghthen the SP, but I wondered if any other players had thoughts on this.
Completely off the top of my head Saruman is not killed by Ents (retains his action dice), but may be "killed" (demoted/cast out if you prefer) if Gandalf the White (any FP character?) is ever in the Isenguard space. If this had a mechanic relating to the FP leadership value there would potentially be a reason to bring Strider et al. along for the trip.
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Post by Krieghund on Aug 2, 2007 18:28:34 GMT 1
Interesting idea, but you would need to have more conditions on Saruman's elimination than just Companions in Orthanc. Since the Companions may move unrestricted by enemy Armies, they could just go there whenever they want to "cast out" Saruman.
I prefer to think of the Ents' eliminating Saruman to be symbolic of their breaking of the power of Isengard (thus the loss of an Action die), rather than literally killing Saruman.
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Post by mrweasely on Aug 2, 2007 20:52:21 GMT 1
I agree with Kreighund. The ents elminated Saruman's strategic significance.
Another interesting question is whether the Isengarder corruption of the Shire was a game event, envolving actual armies and giving the shadow 1vp, or was it a coda to the WotR?
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