Huorns: those between Ents and Trees!

HUORNS

Description

    Tolkien's character Treebeard describes both Ents that become tree-ish, and trees that become Entish. Meriadoc Brandybuck believed Huorns to be the former, although Treebeard would not say much about them. Huorns can create darkness to conceal their movements and are capable of moving quickly and quietly. They still have voices and can speak to the Ents, but unlike Ents, they do not seem able to speak intelligibly to other races.

    According to Treebeard, Huorns have become queer, wild and dangerous. They watch over the trees but are in turn looked over by Ents. Merry believes there are hundreds and hundreds of them in the darkest dales of Fangorn forest. It is possible that some of the trees of the Old Forest, especially Old Man Willow, were Huorns as well. Both forests were once parts of the same primeval forest. A connection is implied by Treebeard's statement in response to Merry's question as to whether the Old Forest was similar to the dark spots of Fangorn forest:

    "Aye, aye, something like, but much worse. I do not doubt that there is some shadow of the Great Darkness lying there still away north; and bad memories are handed down. But there are some hollow dales in this land where the Darkness has never been lifted, but the trees are older than I am."

History

    Huorns could have existed as far back as the First Age when the Ents appeared. They make their first appearance in The Two Towers when they take part in the Last March of the Ents and participated in the Destruction of Isengard and the Battle of the Hornburg, destroying all orcs trying to escape the battles.

Etymology

    Huorn is the name in the "short-language" of the Ents, given because the Huorns "still have voices". It includes the Sindarin noun orn which means "tree". The meaning of the hu element is unknown, Tolkien himself seemed unsure. In the Huorn entry in a wordlist published in Parma Eldalamberon Tolkien gives the possible Sindarin roots hô, hyoba and hû. The description of hô could be interpreted "speak, show" which would correspond with the earlier names for Huorns in The War of the Ring which all meant "talking trees".

Game Statistics (for GURPS 4.0)

    Attributes: ST 30, DX 10, IQ 6, HT 20.

    Secondary Characteristic: SM +2, HP +20, Per +4, Will +4, Basic Speed 5.5, Basic Move 8.

    Advantages: Constriction Attack, Damage Resistance 8, Doesn't Breath, Doesn't Sleep, Extended Lifespan 7, Haigh Pain Threshold, Indomitable, Injury Tolerance (Homogenous), Obscure 6 (Vision [cloud of darkness], Defensive, Area of Effect 8 yards, Mobile, Persistant), Plant Empathy, Reduced Consumption 3, Regrowth, Resistant to Disease +3, Resistant to Poison +3, Speak with Plants, Spines (long), Terror (Always On), Unfazeable.

    Disadvantages: Bad Temper, Berserk, Cannot Speak, Fragile (Combustible), No fine Manipulation, No Sense of Humor, Sense of Duty (Trees), Social Stigma (Monster), Stubborness.

    Skills: Brawling 14, Camouflage 15, Gardening 15, Herb Lore/3 14, Observation 13, Power Blow 12, Stealth 13, Survival (Forest) 15, Throwing 12, Tracking 12.
    Attacks: Punch 15 [3d+2], Kick 13 [3d+3], Throw (what the Huorn can reach, usually large boulders) 13 [various damage].

[Note: Description, History and Etymology taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huorn!]

TOR to GURPS conversion, BETA 2 - UPDATE!!

    A quick update on my conversion PDF. Added some stuff and started spelling/mistakes check.

    Available at: TOR to GURPS Conversion [BETA2]

The One Ring To GURPS conversion: BETA 1!

    So, here it is. After some day of work I completed the Beta version of my TOR --> GURPS conversion. All template for races are ready, and so are the rules to manage corruption and taint derived by the Shadow.

    To fully enjoy this conversion you need to own The One Ring manuals (or, at least, being able to access them as PDF files, if you get it), because I omitted many text stuff in order to avoid copyright issues.

    Still, by simple reading my document, you can have a feeling and an idea of what I'm creating.

    So, here is the link to the PDF: TOR to GURPS Conversion [BETA1] . Have a good read, have pity of my bad english and mistakes, and, please, share your thought about this.

    UPDATE: A new version of the PDF is available. More stuff, minor change and spell/mistakes check. Link: TOR to GURPS Conversion [BETA2]

Beornings: The One Ring --> GURPS conversion

    The One Ring (TOR from now) is a great game produced by Cubicle 7. This game is set in the area around Mirkwood, a few years after the fall of Smaug (long before the events of The Lord of the Rings). The game relies on a rather low level of power, even if it allows you to play as characters already "heroic" confronted with common people. It places a strong emphasis on Shadow, corruption and the loss of Hope faced by adventurers who decide to deal with the Enemy, venturing out of the civilized lands, in the wilds subject to the influence of the Shadow.

    Many of the game mechanics are truly innovative and full of Tolkenian flavor. It is, without any doubt, a true gem of its kind and, probably, the best Tolkenian RPG created so far.

    It has, however, some major limitations in simulation, and its point of greatest weakness is probably the combat, which is monotonous and repetitive for the players, whose options during an armed conflict are severely limited.

    For many gamers this is not an obstacle, but for others, perhaps accustomed to systems based on d20System or in any case much more simulative, is a strong limit. I just started playing a campaign of TOR with a group used to D&D3.X and video-rpg-games: all of them immediately appreciated the setting, but they were shocked by the combat brutality and limitation and by the unforgiving corruption system. After all they're used to play heroic fantasy, and therefore not to see their characters suffer the psychological effects of fighting Evil (yes, with capital E ^_^).

    For this reason I want to try to convert the campaign to GURPS, so as to present them with a more comprehensive and simulative set of rules, still capable of supporting a high lethality of combat and a psycho/phisical degeneration due to contact with the Shadow.

    GURPS Horror offers a very nice set of rules for corruption, so I'll just use them, tweaking them where I need.

    So, the first step is to convert the races presented in TOR, which are Hobbits, Woodsmen, Bardians, Mirkwood Elves, Beornings and Lonely Mountain Dwarves.

    I decided to start from Beornings, which I am particularly fond of. So here is the template of the people who gathered around Beorn, with a brief description stolen from Lord of the Ring Wiki.

    As always, comments and opinions are always largely appreciated.

Beornings

    Beornings, also known as skin-changers, were a race of men that were able to change into bears. They were descended from Beorn, from whom they inherited their name and their ability to turn into bears. They dwelt in the Vales of Anduin between Mirkwood and the Great River. During the Third Age they guarded the Ford of Carrock from the Orcs and Wargs (though Gloin lamented that their tolls were high) and they also aided the Elves in defending their kingdom in northern Mirkwood.

    Original Beornings are magical shape-changing beings who could take different forms at will. Little is known about them and of their abilities. The only skin-changers identified by Tolkien were Beorn and his descendants (who could take the shape of a man or of a bear). Actually, they're a great community of common men who gathered around the mythic figure of Beorn, becoming the guardian of the areas between Misty Mountains and Mirkwood.

    They had the same life-span of mortal men, and could speak in both the tongue of men and of bears. They did not seem very fond of Dwarves, and were enemies with the Goblins. The people of Rohan shared kinship with them. They hunted neither bird nor beast and lived mostly off of cream and honey.

    The Beornings were well known for their honey-cakes, which they likely made in their bee farms and sold openly to others, at least until the return of Sauron, for then the Beornings no longer trusted strangers and their trade stopped. Gimli considered the Beornings the best bakers he knew, though they were not so willing to give out their cakes to travelers during the days of the War of the Ring.

    During the War of the Ring, while wearing the One Ring at Amon Hen upon the seat of seeing, Frodo Baggins saw many things from afar, including the land of the Beornings aflame. This hints at an attack by Sauron's forces upon the Beornings, though the outcome of this attack is unknown.

    Gandalf believed that Beorn might have come from the mountains, making the Beornings descendants of the men of the mountains. The only known leaders of this people were Beorn and later his son Grimbeorn.

    Racial Template
    Cost: 13.
    Attribute Modifiers: ST +1 [10]; HT +1 [10].
    Advantages: Fearless 1 [2], Hard to Subdue 1 [2].
    Disadvantages: Intolerance (Orcs & related) [-10], Berserker (15) [-5].
    Skills: Two Handed Axe/Mace DX-1 [1], Intimidation Will-1 [1], Survival (Mountain) Per-1 [1] or Survival (Woodland) Per-1 [1] , Tracking Per-1 [1].
    Other suggested traits: Many Beornings have the Animal Empathy or Empathy advantages, and one or more mental disadvantage(s) or perk(s) which categorize them as "grim" persons.

    Every attribute, advantage and disadvantage of the template can be removed by paying/gaining the appropriate amount of points. This template represents just the very common Beorning: heroes are often different from standard.

    A Beorning able to change to bear form is, probably, a descendant of Beorn himself. Such a character will probably be very powerful (and rare): the creation of such a force of nature should be fully agreed with your game master!