The One Ring as a Third Player

[animalmother]

Sauron started the war sooner than he planned because he believed one among the Wise, or possibly a human such as Aragorn or Denethor, would seize the One Ring and become a new Dark Lord of the West. He had to strike before its new master mastered it. Whoever controlled it would control the Elven Rings and the Nine Rings.

The Ring, Tolkien wrote, acted as if it had a will of its own. Lust for it had driven Gollum mad, and Saruman was corrupted by his desire for it. The game needs, not merely Saruman, but the One Ring itself as a Third Force. Saruman is merely one of the instruments through which the evil will of the One Ring is seeking to manifest itself. Saruman, and all like him who have been corrupted and are looking for the Ring, are really the Ring looking for a proper instrument for itself.

Sauron seeks to KILL the Companions of the Fellowship, so that he may recover the Ring for himself. The Ring seeks to CORRUPT the Companions of the Fellowship, so that they might be tempted to become new Dark Lords in their own right. No one is immune to its temptation -- not even Galadriel or Gandalf, although they are obviously stronger than a Boromir or a Denethor. Elrond, Celeborn, Glorfindel, Dain, Theoden, all the Leaders, even the Nazgul must be tempted to take it for themselves.

Gollum and Saruman are controlled by the Ring at start, and search for it. The Ring Player's Action Dice would be limited to two at start. Its power to corrupt would grow each turn, not merely when the Fellowship enters Mordor. A successful attack by the Ring on a Leader, a Companion, or a Minion would be a secret from both the FP and SP player, until it's sprung as a nasty surprise, in the form of an attempt to take the Ring. If successful, the new Lord of the Ring cannot hide his Precious, and acquires vast new powers proportionate to his/her greatness. On the other hand, hobbits Frodo and Sam, if they succumbed, would presumably slink away with it like Gollum to some out of the way hole -- or would they?

The Ring Player would place his Character Cards face down on the Table, and slowly add corruption points to the character, until he controls the character sufficiently to risk a snatch at the Ring. The Ring Player would also want to be careful that his new prospective Dark Lord has force at hand sufficient to keep it from being recaptured by the White Council or taken by Sauron. Strategy Cards would include weird natural phenomena, and geographically related powers of the ring. They would also include cards which gave the new Dark Lord command power over various forces of evil, and the lesser rings.

[mrweasely]

Its certainly an innovative idea! Nice job. The normal "3rd power" is Saruman, which doesn't work well due to martial realities. Moving it to the Ring is clever. Commanding Gollum is also very neat.

[doriath]

Really nice idea. Love it and made me think a lot.

But i think in the end i think the idea that the Ring is still part of Sauron more logical. It acts, as if it has a will of its own, because it has its own strategy to return to Sauron. Perhaps it is smarter than the diminished Sauron at the moment or IS even more Sauron than the Necromancer is Sauron. At least the Necromancer depends on the Ring. But also the other way around maybe. It didn't use Isildur to hunt down the elven Rings. No. It faithfully betrayed Isildur and waited for its master to return. It doesn't give a d**n about other big leaders.
If it had a seperate will from Sauron, it would have not wanted to be wielded by him, the only one, who could control it. Who, having a free will wants to be controlled?
In this case it would have done everything to destroy Sauron for good. Well maybe it did try to corrupt Saruman and Boromir (to fight Sauron), but who knows what they would have done when in control of the ring.
At least Saruman kind of helped Sauron by keeping Rohan binded. And if the ring had the power to corrupt others so easily, it would have gone with Isildur or some other guy to conquer the world instead of waiting for Sauron.
It didn't seem to understand either that it was going ti be destroyed untill possibly at the end.

That is my theory now.
But i only used favorable arguments.
There is still Gandalf theorizing that Saruman can fight Sauron using the Ring. Gandalf himself and Galadriel contemplating to use it against Sauron. Maybe this is actually the Ring putting this idea in their head. Or maybe the Ring can decide, being the stronger part of Sauron, to forsake the Spirit (Necromancer) and rule through someone else (as Sauron).
But this again doesn't explain why Sauron rebuilds Barad-dur and wages war. Why would he do that, when the Ring just has to possess a big leader?
Perhaps Sauron as a multiple persona uses two different approaches, that only make sense on their own. War on the free people and corrupting them at the same time. Perhaps only desperately making war on Sauron, will corupt the others enough for the ring to wield its full power over them.
The multiple Persona Sauron/Ring is trying to create a scenario, in which he can't lose. He wins through force or he loses by force only to corrput those who win. The same tactics he used against the Numenoreans. It worked once for Sauron.
He can't anticipate, that the ring may be destroyed by those holding it. That is the card up Gandalfs sleeve.
But he never considered the Eagles. Maybe they are also corrupted by the ring or Saurons eye over the sky is better than on the ground.
Well anyway thanks for getting me thinking about this =)

[mt77584]

Dec 31, 2006 7:17:56 GMT 1 animalmother said:

Sauron started the war sooner than he planned because he believed one among the Wise, or possibly a human such as Aragorn or Denethor, would seize the One Ring and become a new Dark Lord of the West. He had to strike before its new master mastered it. Whoever controlled it would control the Elven Rings and the Nine Rings.

The Ring, Tolkien wrote, acted as if it had a will of its own. Lust for it had driven Gollum mad, and Saruman was corrupted by his desire for it. The game needs, not merely Saruman, but the One Ring itself as a Third Force. Saruman is merely one of the instruments through which the evil will of the One Ring is seeking to manifest itself. Saruman, and all like him who have been corrupted and are looking for the Ring, are really the Ring looking for a proper instrument for itself.

Sauron seeks to KILL the Companions of the Fellowship, so that he may recover the Ring for himself. The Ring seeks to CORRUPT the Companions of the Fellowship, so that they might be tempted to become new Dark Lords in their own right. No one is immune to its temptation -- not even Galadriel or Gandalf, although they are obviously stronger than a Boromir or a Denethor. Elrond, Celeborn, Glorfindel, Dain, Theoden, all the Leaders, even the Nazgul must be tempted to take it for themselves.

Gollum and Saruman are controlled by the Ring at start, and search for it. The Ring Player's Action Dice would be limited to two at start. Its power to corrupt would grow each turn, not merely when the Fellowship enters Mordor. A successful attack by the Ring on a Leader, a Companion, or a Minion would be a secret from both the FP and SP player, until it's sprung as a nasty surprise, in the form of an attempt to take the Ring. If successful, the new Lord of the Ring cannot hide his Precious, and acquires vast new powers proportionate to his/her greatness. On the other hand, hobbits Frodo and Sam, if they succumbed, would presumably slink away with it like Gollum to some out of the way hole -- or would they?

The Ring Player would place his Character Cards face down on the Table, and slowly add corruption points to the character, until he controls the character sufficiently to risk a snatch at the Ring. The Ring Player would also want to be careful that his new prospective Dark Lord has force at hand sufficient to keep it from being recaptured by the White Council or taken by Sauron. Strategy Cards would include weird natural phenomena, and geographically related powers of the ring. They would also include cards which gave the new Dark Lord command power over various forces of evil, and the lesser rings.

My little "Saruman scenario" touches very, very mildly on the topic (current at the bottom of the thread of 'Saruman as an Independent Player.' It is based primarily on some philosophical readings about Middle-Earth I've studied. The presuppositions of my scenario is based on what is shown in the books and films that Gandalf (in the Shire), Strider/Aragorn (at Rivendell), and Galadriel (in Lothlorien), make a resolute decision not to take the One Ring, even if freely offered. I honestly hadn't thought of Boromir, probably because Gondor and especially Minas Tirith are extremely close to Mordor itself. Also, I think that if Boromir were to take the ring to anyplace in Gondor, how could there be a "Free Peoples" player? Would the Nations remain "At War"? For those who haven't painted the minis, the other "blue armies" begin battling Gondor, side with the "red armies." or "call it quits"? I think the game is a rather tough as it is. I just added Saruman because he was trying to "play both sides." My scenarios didn't actually cause a "true victory," it ended in a stalemate that would make gameplay significantly shorter.