Season 2 of LET’S PLAY: MIDDLE-EARTH ROLEPLAYING to feature Shelob at level 20.

Because obviously the players will all want to encounter a version of Shelob that their characters can fend off. Besides, if you don’t put that NPC in one of the game sessions the party will come up with an excuse to steer the campaign in her direction anyway. The real question is: do you let the party gack Shelob early? I mean, sure, you can just say “that was her twin sister Lazy-Lob, and she would have been ten times worse than Shelob! Well done!”

But that seems a bit too pat.

Moe Lane

PS: I swear to God, this particular lens does wonders to make me tolerate RINGS OF POWER.

The ‘Tolkien’ trailer.

So, yeah, I’ll be there May 1st.

I mean, obviously.

Moe Lane

PS: Heh. Just had a thought: if you had asked me, thirty years ago, I would have said that getting a Tolkien biopic on the big screen would be awesome. Which it is. But I’d have gone on to say, matter-of-factly, Because God knows we’re never going to get a live-action version of the Lord of the Rings itself, of course…

Tolkien biopic coming out May 10th.

So, I maybe watch one movie a year that doesn’t involve explosions or starships or fireballs or whatnot and it’s always interesting to see what will engage m — what’s that?  There’s a Tolkien biopic coming out?

Fox Searchlight and Chernin Entertainment have set a May 10 release date for biographical drama Tolkien.  Directed by Finnish filmmaker Dome Karukoski, the film stars Nicholas Hoult as J.R.R. Tolkien, the celebrated author and English professor whose body of work includes the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit series. Lily Collins plays Edith Bratt, Tolkien’s great love and eventual wife who inspired the elven princess characters in the Lord of the Rings saga.

Continue reading Tolkien biopic coming out May 10th.

So, they’re doing a Tolkien biopic.

Principal photography is finished on it:

Tolkien explores the formative years of the orphaned author as he finds friendship, love and artistic inspiration among a group of fellow outcasts at school. This takes him into the outbreak of World War I, which threatens to tear the “fellowship” apart. All of these experiences would inspire Tolkien to write his famous Middle-Earth novels.

So, who’s starring in it? Oh, somebody that you almost certainly know: Nicholas Hoult.  …What’s that? No, really: you know this guy.

Seriously.

You don’t think you know who he is? Fine. Continue reading So, they’re doing a Tolkien biopic.

Book of the week, plus upcoming books.

And so we remove The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress and replace it with the John Adams biography. But I also want to note that the following three books will be coming out very soon:

…and I’m looking forward to all three.