"DM of the Rings" - Part the Third! Quiz

Answer: All of them

The Dungeon Master in "DM of the Rings" is obsessed with running the campaign exactly in line with the story. Anything the characters do that contradicts the story will immediately cause an awkward moment. At the doors of the Golden Hall in Edoras, this is extremely apparent.

It begins when Aragorn says "I'll hand over my weapon, if Gandalf hands over his staff". Of course, the story relies on Gandalf being able to carry his (magical) staff in with him, and the others coming in unarmed. When Gandalf (who is under the DM's control) pulls his "Oh, but this is just a walking stick" routine, to try and get the story back on track, the others suddenly catch on and begin to claim that all of their weapons are just walking sticks. Legolas even carries a whole quiver of little walking sticks!

Answer: Yes

Despite trying to pass their weapons as walking sticks, the party members eventually reason that if Gandalf is allowed to bring in his staff, they can hand over their weapons safely because he'll probably take care of any trouble himself. They regard Gandalf as an all-mighty Deus-Ex-Machina, which basically he is. Once again, they somehow end up playing along with the story for all the wrong reasons!

Answer: A disease

In the middle of the non-interactive portion where Gandalf exorcises King Theoden, Aragorn decides to alleviate his boredom by making advances at Eowyn. The Dungeon Master finds this extremely uncomfortable (as he's the one playing Eowyn!), and eventually, to avoid the weirdness, simply states that they have sex and that Aragorn should get himself checked by a cleric within the next 1-6 hours.

Answer: Bree

Aragorn thinks back and realizes that the last "Shop" was at the very beginning of the campaign! So much for their get-rich-quick scheme.

Answer: 99 lbs.

Aragorn is using an old trick that is inherent to many of the older role-playing systems. He's carrying JUST below the amount that would cause him to become "over-encumbered". The others make jokes about how he can carry all that equipment (consisting of several weapons and whole suits of armor) without all of the problems that such a feat would cause in real-life, like not being able to pass through doorways, having a hard time pulling anything out of your backpack, and making an awful racket wherever you go. Role-playing games sometimes have ridiculously complex rules regarding some aspects (like combat), and ridiculously simplified rules regarding other aspects. C'est la Vie!

Answer: Force-march the peasants.

They calculate the chance of "random monster encounters". The results indicate that a forced-march would kill off fewer peasants than an onslaught of Orcs. Fortunately, they forgo this decision because they forgot to bring a whip!

Answer: Ogres

To be honest, the vast majority of monsters encountered by the Fellowship in Lord of the Rings are Orcs, Uruks (super-orcs), and the occasional Orc on a Warg. This may be fine for a book or a movie, but in a role-playing game it can easily become tedious.

Answer: One of the dice falls behind the computer.

An Orc rolls his attack, and the die falls behind the computer. The rules say that they have to play the value that was rolled, but they can't see the die, so it all becomes a weird lesson in quantum mechanics, similar to the "Schrodinger's Cat" paradox.

In short words, since it's impossible to tell whether the orc hit or not, and by observing the result you would have to change it (move the computer and disturb the die), Gimli is neither dead nor alive! Fortunately, the situation is resolved when they find a good angle to see the value on the die, and it turns out that the Orc missed. Phew!

Answer: False

Actually, he fails his riding roll to get off the warg, and so goes over the cliff edge with the beast. In truth, it feels like no matter what he rolled, he would've gone off the cliff anyway. Apparently the DM really really wants to punish Aragorn (can't blame him).

Answer: The Princess Bride

The three party members quote the entire cliff-climbing scene from the Princess Bride almost to the letter! Oh well, at least they're not quoting the Holy Grail for once!