Other Minds Content Magazine Main Features Issue 3 2 Editorial – Third time is a charm May 2008 5 Of Barrow-wights – Part Two Publisher Neville Percy Other Minds Volunteers 9 J.R.R. Tolkien, Words, Phrases & Passages in The Lord of the Rings - A Editors Assistant Editors Game Designer’s Guide to Parma Eldalamberon 17 Hawke Robinson Chris Seeman Chris Seeman Thomas Morwinsky Chris Wade 15 The Rings of Power – history and abilities Proofreaders Art Director Thomas Morwinsky Neville Percy Hawke Robinson 31 The Palantíri Oliver Schick Chris Seeman Thom Denholm Production Staff 34 The Guild of Venturers and the Hawke Robinson Thomas Morwinsky Númenórean colonies Hawke Robinson Eric Dubourg Other Features 43 Fine print Next Issue’s featured theme will be 44 Creative Commons license Supplement: Umbar-dalad (“Under Umbar”) Dwarves Hawke Robinson submission deadline is: July 1 st 2008 Unless otherwise noted, every contribution in this magazine is published under the CreativeCommons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license (b n a)) The exact license of a given contribution can be found at the beginning of each contribution. OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE Editorial: Third time is a charm First and foremost: We are very late! Sever- role-playing-oriented –elaborations on the is- Last but not least al real-life reasons, technical problems and sue. Not all has gone well in the past months, Other Minds other responsibilities have delayed Second comes a highly insightful review of and you might have noticed that not every- #3 well beyond its original schedule. Despite the latest issue of the Parma Eldalamberon, thing that was announced in the last issue has that, we are still here – and this is a good dealing with Tolkien’s invented languages. materialized as promised. This applies both to thing. Chris Seeman provides us with the most inter- the Uswë Númenorello supplement as well as the Now what you see before you is the third is- esting parts that concern RPG issues. This rating option for all Other Minds issues on the sue of Other Minds! And that alone is a cause brings us much in the way of new first-hand website. Please accept our apologies for these for celebration. By now we have a small but information on the Northwest of Middle- delays. The rating form is now finished at last. steady stream of contributions, so that the earth. Some of this conflicts with established Please log in on the Other Minds website. The magazine slowly works in the way we want it RPG canons, while others shed light on some image below shows the position of the link to be: A broad forum for various visions and rarely touched topics. In either case, this ex- (green circle) on the website once you are interpretations of Middle-earth. cellent read is a real jewel for every Tolkien logged in. The more ratings that are given for Compared to Issue #2, this incarnation of enthusiast. each issue and contribution, the better the Other Minds may seem as a hodgepodge of Our third contribution is an extensive essay overall picture will be. All of you can help us themes, but this diversity is deliberate. We about the Rings of Power by co-editor Thomas to make Other Minds ever better by giving us a want to have a healthy mix of “themed” and Morwinsky – their purpose, history and even- good picture of what you like best. “free” issues. For either of these, it’s mostly tual fate. Many of this may seem obvious, but We will provide a comprehensive statistic in your active input that influences our decisions. a lot of misconceptions – both by RPG and one of the next issues, once the number of rat- If you want to see certain specific theme treat- movie sources suggest some interpretations ings allow a reasonably resilient analysis of the ed of Middle-earth treated in our pages over a distinctly different from Tolkien’s intentions. data. The more ratings we get, the better! whole issue, please make workable suggestions We hope you find this treatise as informative how to fill it. If we do not get specific sugges- as we do. Thomas Morwinsky tions backed up by fitting contributions (or To make a good thing even better, Chris May 2008 drafts that illustrate your point), we will make Seeman is present with a second contribution “thematic” issues according to what we deem – this time he provides us with a combined es- best. say on the academic aspects of This is in no way a rant about missing con- the palantíri plus stats for their tributions – quite the contrary! As said above, use in Decipher’s Lord of the we do get fine submissions. We only want to Rings Role-playing Game. We make clear that you as our readers and con- are happy to have a contribu- tributors may also shape the content of the tion that applies to both of our magazine! Commit yourself and you might see target audiences – the more your pet theme treated in great depth! academically-minded as well So far, for some general musings, what we as the gamers. have in the pages of Other Minds this time is – Last but not least of the sub- in our opinion – a great mix of various topics: missions for this essay comes Eric Dubourg’s essay on the Guild of Venturers and the Content Númenórean colonies in Mid- We are glad to announce that we indeed dle-earth. It should have been have a good range of contributions ranging published already in our previ- from the very scholarly to the more gaming- ous issue, but unfortunately, it and practically-related. could not be made ready in We start with Neville Percy’s second part of time. Now we catch up with his treatment of the Barrow-wights. This that and hope that with all the makes a fine final chapter on this topic. We essays on the Númenórean ac- think that with the Barrow-wights completely tivities now available – includ- discussed, few questions concerning Tolkien’s ing the present one – there is ideas and inspirations for these creatures re- a sound basis for more work main unanswered. This comprehensive treat- that builds on these! ment is the perfect base for further – more 2 ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2008 Addendum In conjunction with Other Minds Magazine Is- There is also a dedicated chat room for peo- An additional number of notes. Many thanks sue 3, I have made available MerpCon II's ple who like real time conversations, so please to Thomas for stepping up with so much hard campaign Umbar-dalan (“Under Umbar”). I swing by the website and click the “Chat work and long hours dealing with technical was tempted to submit the MerpCon III mod- room” link on the left to join with any Java-en- and content issues. He really was the key to ule “First Contact”, but it is a massive cam- abled web browser. this issue actually getting completed. paign, and needs some cleanup before release. The upcoming issue #4 of OM is meant to Maybe it will come OM6. Of course, what correspond with being released at MerpCon As for the “Escape From Númenor” (Uswë we’d really like to see is modules submitted Númenorello) module, a (nearly finished) re- IV. In this spirit, we are attempting to have from everyone else, so please start sending in the magazine theme correspond with the con- lease is now available, basically an entire issue your adventure modules, with any theme or behind. It still has some rough spots and is a vention theme of “Dwarves” (see setting in Eä, so we can start lining them up http://www.merpcon.org for more details work in progress, but you can download the for upcoming issues. latest snapshot from http://www.numenor- on the convention). So if you have ANY topics project.com. There are many significant functionality im- related to Tolkien's Dwarves, please start provements coming soon to the website as sending in your submissions as soon as possi- Eventually, with the help of feedback from well. In addition to Thomas’ mentioning of ble. Send email to [email protected]. readers, a fully polished and finished version the Survey forms (please send any bugs, sug- Even if you only have a rough outline, letting will materialize and be integrated with the gestions or problem reports to webmas- us know will help, so please don't be shy! printed version of Other Minds magazine Issue [email protected]) , an additional feature com- Finally, we could really use some more #2. Hopefully this will materialize before ing up very soon includes forums that will link MerpCon IV. artwork submissions to the magazine, so with email notification, and subscribing to any please, if you have any content you think We are really hoping to get a module sub- piece of content to be notified of any changes would fit any issue, don't hesitate to contact us mission for OM4 in time, that fits the Dwar- or comments (this goes beyond typical RSS and send your works. ven theme coming up with the next issue. So if subscription feeds, though that is already sup- Many thanks to everyone for all their sup- you have such a campaign or adventure, please ported on the website). Please watch the web- port in making this magazine better with each submit it as soon as possible to your trusted site for notifications. issue! publishers! Hawke Robinson May 2008 3 OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE BarukBaruk Khazâd!Khazâd! KhazâdKhazâd aiai mênu!mênu! MerpCon (Middle-earth Role Playing Convention) is the only annual non-commercial, non-profit, international convention focused exclusively on role playing gaming in J.R.R.