Dingle Dangers

One of the great things about The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings, the second edition of the acclaimed The One Ring: Adventures Over the Edge of the Wild published by Free League Publishing is The One Ring Starter Set. Why do you ask? Well, because it lets us roleplay members of the Hobbit community whom we not normally encounter. Drogo Baggins, Esmeralda Took, Lobelia Bracegirdle, Paladin Took II, Primula Brandybuck, and Rorimac Brandybuck, in many cases the parents or relations of three of the Hobbits who would form part of the Fellowship of the Ring decades later. Under the direction of the scandalous Bilbo Baggins, the quintet went off and had adventures of their own in the Shire, whilst at the same time The One Ring Starter Set presented the Shire for the roleplaying game itself. Sadly, the five adventures had to come to a close and with it the chance to play those characters again. Fortunately, there are available a number of sequel adventures, including Landmark Adventures, that can be run as part of, or after, the events of The One Ring Starter Set, or simply added to an ongoing campaign for The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings if it is being run in or around The Shire. The Ghost of Needlehole proved to be a sharp little ghost story, whilst the Mines of Brockenbores took the Player-heroes to the far north of the Shire to inspect a mine, and Sackville-Baggins Estates took them to the far south to explore a growing threat that comes to fruition at the end of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The next Landmark Adventure takes the Hobbits to the most easterly of point in the Shire and beyond!

The Withywindle and the House of Tom Bombadil is the fourth of the Landmark Adventure sites published by ‘Ryan of the North’. Having travelled to lands own by them funny folk down in Buckland, the route leads even further east, beyond the borders of the Shire across the Brandywine and then up the River Withywindle. Here careful Hobbits and Tall-folk alike can pick their way along a path that runs alongside the river up the Dingle as the valley is known, and eventually come to a strange stone house. This is the House of Tom Bombadil where he lives with his wife, Lady Goldberry. The leaping off point for this journey is The One Ring Starter Set since it details the nearby communities of Deephallow, Haysend, and Breredon, although a little information is given. In addition, The Withywindle and the House of Tom Bombadil will be of use if any of the Player-heroes decide to take Tom Bombadil as a patron.

The Withywindle and the House of Tom Bombadil provides a very little basic details about the communities before describing the nature of the journey up the River Withywindle. There is a lovely sense of bucolic warmth to the valley, of a hazy summer’s day, but travel along the Dingle, whether by foot or by boat is not without its dangers. Drinking its waters—a possibility should anyone decide to swim in them or fall in if their boat capsizes—has hallucinatory effects and is bad for Hobbits anyway, given their inability to swim, plus Old Man Willow casts a dark shadow over the valley, capturing the unwary and pulling them under his roots. Fortunately, the House of Tom Bombadil is far more welcoming. The journey there necessitates a roll of the supplement’s own ‘Withywindle Journey Events Table’ as well as the standard Journey table in The One Ring to highlight the differences and strangeness to be found in the Dingle.

The supplement provides a nice range of encounters and mini-adventures that extends the range and scope of The One Ring Starter Set. There are encounters with both recalcitrant and helpful inhabitants of nearby Haysend and Breredon, dealing with kidnapping badgers led by Badger-brock, and finding out how Tom Bombadil’s oars came be sticking up out of the water at the mouth of the River Withywindle. Plus there are treasures of nature to be found along the Dingle if the Player-heroes are careful and respectful of the valley’s denizens.

Physically, The Withywindle and the House of Tom Bombadil is cleanly and tidly laid out. The artwork, taken from the Artbook Compilation for The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings is excellent, whilst the map of the River Withywindle and the Dingle valley is surprisingly good. In fact, it is the best map that author has drawn for any of the Landmark supplements he has released for the roleplaying game.

If The Ghost of Needlehole was a good little adventure, The Withywindle and the House of Tom Bombadil is a good Landmark Adventure site with evocative description and lots of little story hooks. Whilst its contents are not official, they are good enough to be official, and The Withywindle and the House of Tom Bombadil very nicely expands and complements the description and details given in The One Ring Starter Set.