(TFT) Review: Mines of Moria - Middle Earth Quest by I.C.E.

[Rick Smith <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi Everyone,
	I picked up this expansion on ebay
and have played thru it.  Here is a quick
review.

	Mines of Moria - Middle Earth Quest
is published by Iron Crown Enterprises and
is a standard sized paper book book with 
~256 pages (5 or so are advertisements).  The 
cover price is $3.50.   

	It is a pick your paragraph type
book where your decisions send you to 
different numbered areas of text.  The
decisions you make allow you to pick your
own adventure.


	If you remember, I was not highly
impressed with I.C.E. Moria supplement.  I
felt that tho it had several clever ideas
it had a few problems.  First the person
writing knew very little of geology or 
metallurgy and the lack showed.  Second the
mines felt 'one mile wide and one inch deep'.
In other words there was a huge amount of 
territory covered but it was covered in 
such a quick fashion that it lacked the 
details that would make me want to buy the
product.  The final problem was that the 
inclusion of a hell to challenge the super
high powered Rolemaster characters.  (This
did not feel like anything from Tolkien
IMHO.)

	I had hoped that this supplement 
would add some depth to my second concern.


	The story, is that a dwarf family
asks you to enter Moria to recover a will
that is stored near the hall of records in
the vastness.  Cool idea!  This makes the
adventure a quick in and out raid, rather
than a large exploration / looting 
session that would go beyond the scope of
the paperback book.  

	I was also looking forward to 
playing the book.  Hey this is a solitaire
adventure, I can GM myself!

	I started playing and found the 
adventure to do a pretty good job of 
capturing the feel of Middle Earth.  The
setting takes place a few years after the
end of the events in The Return of The
King.

	You have a companion (a young 
dwarf from this family).  He knows most
of the way to the will.  He helps and
advices you thru out the adventure.


	Each paragraph had how much 
time you spend in this area.  You had
to return the will in 14 days, so this
added a bit of time pressure.  It does
add more paper work / busy work to the
adventure.  Overall I enjoyed this 
addition to the game and did my best 
to keep track of the time with out 
error.


	Soon you find that the map you
have been given is badly out of date.
There are many tunnels that have been
added and you are soon picking passages
at random trying to find you way thru
the caves.

	This 'you are in a maze of many
tunnels, almost all alike' was the most
tedious part of the adventure.  To be 
fair, the adventure drove me forward
from one little maze, to the next little
maze, so I did feel that I was making 
progress.  Also if you were alert, a
number of paragraphs had clues that 
would help you guess which way to go.
Tho it took 45 minutes or so, I eventually
flipped my way thru the maze and found
my way to the adventure.

	I was taking a low risk strategy;
I was not doing any extra exploration, 
just get in and out as quickly as 
possible.  I took a bit of pride in finding
my way while avoiding unneeded fights.  I
had been in 1 fight which was unavoidable,
and one easy fight that looking back I 
could have avoided if I left as soon as it
looked like I had made a wrong turn.  When
I reached the hall of records I had been 
in only two fights and had not taken a 
single point of damage.


	Arriving at the hall of records,
I was forced into a fight and promptly
died.  Using their simple combat system,
I estimate I had about a 15 to 25% chance
of winning the fight.

	Pretending I had won that fight
and continuing, I had no trouble completing
the adventure.


	I did not feel like trying again
so I read thru all the paragraphs, (with
a little flipping to see how they linked
together).


	Overall feeling for the adventure.
	----------------------------------

	The writer did a good job of setting 
up the adventure and setting the scene.  There
was not a lot of added details that would 
make Moria a richer, more detailed place.
Basically they used what was in the supplement
rather than adding to it and giving Moria 
more depth.

	I would give them a B for the setting
and making me feel I was in a giant dwarven
palace. 


	The actual game was poorly designed.
If you used their system to roll up your
own character, you would likely end up with a
significantly weaker character than the pre-
rolled one that they gave you.  Many of the
dangers in the maze were absolute death traps,
where you roll poorly and die. 
	
	Additionally the majority of the 
'decisions' you make which take you to different
paragraphs, are chosen by random die rolls.
Roll this  go to that paragraph, roll that and
go to a different paragraph.  This gives you
some more replayability since you are effectively
drifting randomly thru the adventure (and on
replay you will pick a different random path),
but it was frustrating.

	Many of the decisions you made are
meaningless, 'go down one of these 3 random 
passages.  You come to a 4 way intersection,
pick randomly another 3 random paths...'  So 
the choices you actually make are meaningless,
and the important decisions are made randomly
(often adjusted by your skills).

	
	I do not see how you could win this
adventure with a home made character using this
adventure.  (Unless you were really lucky.)  If 
you used an existing character from Rolemaster 
or MERPS (the simplified Rolemaster system for 
the Middle Earth Role Playing game) a tough
character would have no problem.  But as written
it is too tough.  


	As an game / adventure supplement I
would give this product a C-. 

	Rick
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