The Larch
I was recently gifted by my very generous gaming group, a couple of books. The first and second editions of MERP. I was overcome by this, very generous present, and have been flicking through these two essentially new copies of my most cherished game. It has certainly been bringing back memories to go through these volumes, and look at the art again. One thing that is very notable in the 2nd edition book, is the move away from the use of stock art and clip art, towards the delightful and beautiful black and white line art of Liz Danforth. With the huge number of pieces Danforth provided for the 2nd edition of MERP, there was no need for the very basic and not-quite-Middle-Earthy clip art of 1st edition. Wonderful. Well, except for one piece. One piece of clip art made the jump from 1st ed to 2nd. And it isn't really one that has all that great a tie to Middle Earth. The Larch. The Larch is just that. A wood cut or black line art piece, clearly modified to add what I always though ...