The first news is that the Kin-strife manuscript is not yet in Virginia on Jessica Ney's desk (Jim Morrison lied); it is, however, in the final stages of editing and is scheduled for completion within six weeks. No further news on the Arnor module, except that it hasn't yet materialized in the stores. The good news for those of us who have been working on The Kin-strife is that resolution of differences between our authors and Jason Beresford over the history, layout, and political structure of Umbar during the Usurper's reign has finally been achieved.

This ongoing discussion has embraced questions about the adequacy of the original 1982 Umbar module, particularly in terms of the contradictions which exist between its map and Tolkien's comments about the layout of the haven (cf. my treatment of one of these details in my article in this issue). The biggest change that will be appearing in The Kin-strife and the new Umbar realm module will be the creation of an entirely new haven foundation alongside the old 1982 city map, in order to better reflect the political, military and economic prominence of Umbar, as well as the natural (rather than man-made) character of its haven. The old city map will be retained, but the history of this "secondary settlement" remains largely unwritten.

Apart from this module news, I would like to report the unusual coincidence of no less than four Middle-earth games at a recent west coast gaming convention (all of which used different rule systems)—it's quite rare to find more than one Middle-earth game at most cons these days, so maybe this one was just a fluke, or maybe it's getting more popular. Wouldn't that be nice? The next time I write up this column, The Kin-strife will be finished (now that's a scary thought). Talk to you in July!

Reporter: Chris Seeman