Over in my Three's Company actual play thread, a hobbit only campaign, my first game session involved a cricket tournament. Based on feedback from the players and the notes I made, I've spent some time putting together an actual rules supplement for cricket, here:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/79541775/Hobbit%20Cricket.pdf

Yep, a set of cricket rules for The One Ring RPG. To be honest, I'm reticent about posting them here as I have no idea how they are going to be received due to the strange subject matter.

I suppose I just wanted to see if the TOR rules could be stretched to deliver on a playable and interesting set of rules to simulate the game of cricket - or at least a close approximation. I think that it can. See what you think...

Rich, this is absolutely priceless! I'm hugely impressed. In fact I fear that your continually awesome TOR material is turning me into something of a fanboy!

Cricket is undoubtedly the perfect "sport" for Hobbits and I particularly approve of your decision to aggregate up to overs rather than the more obvious "roll to hit" and "parry" for individual balls - which would have been pretty tedious I think.

Not surprisingly I haven't had the opportunity to try the rules out yet but they look excellent. I really like all the nice touches with Riddle for working out your opponent's play-style and Awe to psych them out etc. Every detail seems very well thought out indeed (Not that this is any real surprise given the quality of your previous contributions!)

I am now chomping at the bit to bring "Hobbit cricket" into my own campaign (or start up a league or something ). So all I have to do is work out how to divert my Fellowship to the Shire for a quick game. Perhaps around the time I run "Of Leaves & Stewed Hobbit" would be appropriate, though right now that seems far too distant.

Once again, many thanks indeed for sharing this. I keenly await whatever awesomeness you come up with next my friend!

This is great! My one quibble is that there doesn't seem to be enough time allowed for breaks. My own feeling would be:

Pitch inspection

Breakfast

Order of Play

First Ball

Second Breakfast

Opening Order (which will generally be longer, because they're the best batsmen)

Elevenses

Middle Order and Tail End

Luncheon

Opening Order

Afternoon Tea

Middle Order and Tail End

Dinner

Rich,

Love it. Now I just have to figure cricket out

Youtube hoh!!!

Spoken like a true Hobbit LOL

"Howzat!" can now be added to the Shire lexicon.
Thanks very much for writing supplemental rules that aren't focussed on the usual murder-hobo lifestyle we've come to expect from gaming.

And a serious question - how might the game handle rules for Hobbit golf?
It's clearly a Hobbit game and I dare suspect the Shire would also be a great for a golf course.

Love what you add to this great game Rich H

Heh, heh. You crazy person, you! Thank you though! I'm hung over at the moment and that's cheered me up no end - could do with a bromance!

Yeah, I wanted to try and get the balance just right. One roll for PCs didn't seem enough but you're right that rolling for for each ball would have been far too much. I went with limiting each batter to 5 overs so it didn't go on and on as well so I think it works as a whole...

Glad you appreciate it. Those are really just taking the idea of the Battle roll to obtain Combat Advantage and reskinning it for cricket. I was pleased with how they turned out though!

Do it! And then tell me how it goes!

It's an absolute pleasure and thanks for the positive response. Like I stated I was a bit concerned about posting these rules as I had no idea how they'd be received - it is a bit of a 'left field' idea, but it's great to see people have bought into the spirit of them!

Next thing I'm currently working on is a write-up conversion to TOR of the old Lord of the Rings Adventure Game scenario "Dawn Comes Early". I'm guessing with it being over 20 years old and completely out of print it'll be okay to share. I've just finished running it in my Three's Company campaign and it was a lot of fun.

Heh, heh. Yes, I did mull over how many breaks to have. I went with the number that I did as it felt just about right. I thought that any more could bethought of as silly to some people reading them but too few and it just wouldn't be hobbit-like enough! It's very easy to add more though if someone running it feels the need.

I'd say the Three Farthings team are a bunch of cheats. Frodo gets two goes at batting. Void game.

Love it Rich, great idea.

Cheers Khamul. I love the TOR system. Its a lovely set of rules and really easy to expand. Francesco did an extraordinary job with it.

I'm working on a conversion of it to Star Wars by the way. It fits so easily it's actually scary.

Heh, heh. Cool!

Bloody 'eck. The cheating so-and-so, so he does. Not any more (PDF updated)! Thanks for the spot Poosticks!

Cheers mate, glad you like it!

It was very much a driver to what I was trying to do. I really wanted my hobbit campaign to feel very different to the one set in Wilderland and I'm a great believer that the rules support and promote specific styles of play in addition to the kind of scenarios we play. I'm really pleased with how they came out.

It's clearly possible. The only issue I have with it is that it isn't as communal as cricket and as the game moves around a bit and across countryside/fairways then a different approach to the cricket rules would need to be adopted.

LOL Very happy to have brightened your day a little my friend.

Yeah, that's the beauty of it though. It's simple but golden. This is an extension of something I really like about TOR as a whole, IMHO it contains a whole load of simple (and very clever) ideas that are both flexible and flavourful.

I absolutely shall.

Sweet! I look forward to seeing this!

That's good to hear.
While I believe you can run a game where the rules aren't necessarily encouraging a certain style of play, actually having rules to support and make a game feel different are a great way to do it. And this is an approach TOR uses as a game system.

I'm no great golfing expert however I could have a think over your suggestion and in time see if a good idea(s) percolate.

I'll certainly let yourself and the forum if they do.