Looking Back: The Black Riders

I love the Campaign experience.

A progressive building of characters is something Lord of the Rings has lacked for me, but I had not settled on the ideal solution (the Pathfinder card game is an option, but investing in two growing game systems might be too much). I've seen a few player variants, but the problem is the power creep any variant added in. The designers did a great move giving us reasonable Boons, but countering them with Burdens. Do I get to see all my characters grow? No, but I get a sense of achievement for having made it through the quest and get to come out with a slightly strong team (and possibly slightly injured).

So the new mechanic is a win, but what about the quests themselves?

I loved A Shadow of the Past. It had a great thematic feel to it, giving you that sense of hiding from the nazgul and trying to escape past the (with increased difficulty). It is amazing a little band of hobbits made it out of the Shire alive with the nazgul on their tail, and you get that feeling in this quest.

But A Knife in the Dark and Flight to the Ford did not quite give me the same thematic joy. This was especially true with the powerful, menacing spies in A Knife in the Dark, who gave me more trouble than the nazgul themselves. I would really like to see the two quests combined.

Here is what I think: You get past stage 1 of A Knife in the Dark, then discard all spies from play upon clearing it. Advance to stage 3 of A Knife in the Dark, then advance to stage 2 of Flight to the Ford (or even stage 1 first). I would also have Frodo hindered in some way (unconscious, as in Flies and Spiders) after the battle at Weathertop. And Weathertop should be obligatory to explore. This might be an easy enough variant to do that I'll try it on my own one day. Tough, but thematic and potentially a blast.

One quest was great (A Shadow of the Past), one quest was alright (A Knife in the Dark), and one quest was on the lower end of good for me (Flight to the Ford). No lousy quests and I will probably play through all of them again (especially once I get my hands on Fog on the Barrow-downs and The Old Forest). The campaign system itself is worth the price of purchase and makes even mediocre quests worth playing over.