Alessio Cavatore: Well, Tom Bombadil has been great fun to design, and I have to admit that he is a bit of a laugh, a tongue-in-cheek character that I have made completely invulnerable, invincible in combat and able to restore to full vitality any injured or cursed friend with a simple song (after all Tom is Master!). The drawback is that Tom and Goldberry, which in gaming terms is much the same as him, can be used only in scenarios set in the Barrow Downs or in the Old Forest (Tom will not cross the borders he's set for himself), effectively making them more of a force of nature than actual playing pieces, elements to be considered when writing one such scenario. For example the "Fog on the Barrow Downs" scenario in Shadow and Flame is pretty much a stand-alone mini-game, where four Barrow Wights are chasing the four Hobbits lost in the fog, trying to lure them to their tombs and kill them before Tom can reach them to stop them. Tom is all-powerful, but he cannot be everywhere at the same time.

Heren Istarion: What were your first thoughts of Tolkien and his works? And how have they changed/developed or grown since that time?

Alessio Cavatore:I thought it was unbelievable how a person could create an entire world and convey such a strong feel of "reality" to it. Now I understand a bit better that his works are far superior to the rest of fantasy literature because behind them there's the entire life of a genial and passionate man, a life spent studying the languages and the cultures he's taken inspiration from.

Make sure you catch the interview in its entirety in the August2003 edition of the Journal of Heren Istarion Parma Nölé. Alessio shares with us his thoughts on reading Tolkien, adapting books and film to gaming system, his favorite aspect of the game, new features and highlights of the Return of the King Games Workshop releases and beyond!