Under Angmar's Shadow

Under Angmar's Shadow
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 		Under Angmar's Shadow

Welcome

Welcome to Under Angmar's Shadow, a freeform (theatre-style) game set in Tolkien's Middle-earth, approximately 1,400 years before the events depicted in "The Lord of The Rings". The game takes place in the city of Tharbad, capital of the ruined Kingdom of Cardolan. It spans a period of several months leading up to the coming of age of the Princess Nirnadel, sole heir to the Cardolani Crown.

The aim of this site is to provide potential players with information about the game. Note that there is a lot of information on this site. Feel free to dip into it as much or as little as you wish. The information on this site will be provided in soft copy as a set of Acrobat (.pdf) documents to all the players well in advance of the game. There is therefore no need to visit and print out every page of this website.

Before deciding to play in the game, please read the notes about where the game is to be run. Please also read what you can expect from one of my games and what is expected of you as a player.

This is the Home Page for the game and can always be reached by clicking on the "Home Page" link at the bottom of each page. This link is always accompanied by the button showing the broken crown (the picture to either side of the title of this page).

The site is split into five main areas:

  • the Home Pages, describing the game itself and this site
  • the Game Pages, describing how the game will be run and organised
  • the Background Pages, discussing Cardolan's history and politics
  • the Rules Pages, describing the various mechanics of the game
  • the Casting Pages, details on how to play, and the casting form

The Home Pages

There are four pages in this section: The Home Page is a short guide on how to use this site. It also serves as an introduction to the rest of the site.

The main way of getting around the site is to use the navigation buttons at the bottom of each page. These will always be there and will contain:

  • a link back to the Home Page
  • links to the other sections and/or
  • links to the other pages within the section
The links provided within the text are there for ease of use only. For example, the Princess Nirnadel may have a link to her entry on the Who's Who page. This is so that you can find out additional information about the Princess without having to navigate manually through the site. When you have finished with the additional information, hit the "Back" button on your browser to return to where you were.

To aid navigation, a site map has been provided.

The Game Pages

Under Angmar's Shadow is an 8-hour game that will be split into 4, 1.5 hour sessions, with 45 minutes allowed for game start and another 45 minutes for game wrap. There will be a half-hour meal break in the middle of the game.

Each session represents a month in the life of Cardolan, although the linkage between the passage of Real Time and Game Time is somewhat flexible.

There are three pages in this section:

The Background Pages

This is the main section of the site, giving the background to the game and to the setting. A general introduction to the background can be found here. There are also five specific background pages:

The Rules

The Under Angmar's Shadow is a game of political debate and alliance building. The aim is to highlight the roleplaying aspects, so you will find that most characters characters do not have special abilities. If you do play one of the few characters with a special ability, you will find it described in full on your character sheet.

However, as befits a political game of kingdom building, there are some aspects that can't be dealt with simply through roleplaying. Therefore there are specific rules to cover aspects of the game such as army movements, battles and trade.

There are three rules pages:

How to Play

Like all my games, Under Angmar's Shadow is a pre-cast game (ie you don't provide your own characters: they are provided for you). Casting is the process of ensuring that you get a character that best meets your requirements as a player. In order to help me cast you, all players are required to fill out a casting form. Once you have been cast, you will be sent a character sheet, detailing:

  • who you are with a brief background and character motivations
  • what your aims and objectives are
  • who and what you know

Please note that you can only be cast if you have already registered to play the game. For more details on where the game is being run and on how to register, please click here. Please note that preference will be given to people who have not played the game before.

Since Under Angmar's Shadow is a large game, with a lot of background material, the aim is to have the game cast and the character sheets sent out to the players at least a month before the game. This gives you plenty of time to read the character sheet and costume for the part. Although detailed costuming is not compulsory for the game, I would request that players make some effort to costume (ie a blanket worn as a cloak is preferable to t-shirt and jeans).

In order to meet this deadline, it is important that the game fills as soon as possible so that I can cast the game and get the character sheets out to you as soon as I can.

The casting section contains three pages:

Please read the main Casting Page before filling out the casting form. If possible, I would prefer people to use the on-line casting form.

Games Page
Games Page
History
History of the Game
www
What, Where, When
The Game
The Game
Background
Background
Rules Page
The Rules
Casting
Casting