So hey! I really enjoy being a part of this forum, and I really like you good folk abiding here. So I'm going to lay a little honesty on you all.

As a community we have an enormous amount of passion for this game, and many of you are asking how to help ensure the best future for The One Ring. I've received a bunch of lovely emails and PMs over the last couple of weeks asking this very thing.

There's a couple of very straight forward things we can all do. First up is talk about The One Ring on forums outside of this one, talk about The One Ring to store owners, talk to other gamers. Don't be a... what's the appropriate word... orc about it. Don't bend people's ears or bore them. That won't get people enthused. But when there's a reasonable opportunity, in an appropriate venue, or if you have ideas to share then share them as widely as possible. The video we shot at Origins with Bryan, Bryan's friend who's name I didn't catch, and Paul was awesome. Nothing makes gamers beleive in the quality of a game more than other gamers.

Second, and with this one I'm really hurling myself on your understanding, is to consider where we're at with releases from our perspective. This is a huge ask, and definitely only relevant to the folks directly asking how they can help. There's nothing wrong with just being a regular customer who buys the books as and when and enjoys playing, and that's that. We love you just as much. But for those who have asked:

I think everyone is all buzzed up about the covers that were unearthed on PSI playhouse. And on one hand that's great! This is evidence of what we’ve always said - that TOR has a strong schedule of upcoming releases. The pdf issue has not "killed" TOR, nor was it ever in any danger of doing so. There is a robust schedule of releases planned, with at least 3 books in production right now.

But here's the rub. Tales just came out in print (in fact as I'm writing this is it due in stores tomorrow). For you, our forum faithful it's almost like an old book. You had the pdf months ago, many of you have played it to completion. And so we could see that as a drawback - you guys are wanting the next thing, you're done with Tales. Old news to you guys. And that means you’re looking forward, asking questions about future products. And fair enough!

This means Tales coming out may not get the attention it deserves.

However to take a more positive view, many of you are in a prime position to share advice on running it, write reviews, and generally share your experiences of the seven adventures. For the vast majority of players out there this is a new book. Beleive me when I say a great many people haven't even heard of TOR yet, let alone Tales from Wilderland. You can help change that.

Now of course we'll be doing our bit too. I'm going to shoot some video of the book just as soon as I get it (doh left my copy at GenCon!) which should be today. We'll get the videos out there, we'll update our website with the already existing videos and so on. There will always be promotional stuff coming out of c7/Sophisticated games. And we're be more than happy to share your reviews, actual plays, characters and so on through our social media channels. To be crystal clear, we're absolutely not asking for crazed "evangelists" who shout down other games, or make a nuisance of themselves. Fair and balanced, honest commentary is more useful than blind crazy fandom that won't hear a bad word said against the game of choice.

Many of you already engage in loads of positive commentary about the game all around the net, and we're extremely grateful for it.



So if you’re one of the people who wants to help, then this is how you can do it. Talk about The One Ring, talk about Tales, write reviews on line, write up your actual play, your characters and the like and share them with your fellow gamers!

And thanks for taking the time to read this.

Great post Jon, thanks.

I'm going to concentrate on my AP here and on RPGnet as that alone is proving difficult to commit time to given my current circumstances! ... I could write an Amazon review for TfW though - a no brainer for a 5 star award if ever there was one!

You're right about 'Tales...', it does feel like an old product - I bet some here have actually used all the adventures in it before the hard copy even came out! That does mean though that as well as writing excellent reviews they could also put together some GM prep/guidelines for running though which would be really well received here and on other RPG sites, I'm sure.

I've sent you a PM about something else as well. Didn't want to discuss it in public though at the moment, just in case.

My group's just picked up TOR as their ongoing campaign after a very good experience with The Marsh Bell and I'm GMing a modified version of TfW for them. I'll be posting an AP at rpg.net - I was going to move it here, but to get the word out rpg.net would be better.

Double post here and at RPGnet, Ovid - I do that with mine and I think it works as you get different people looking at them on the two sites. There is an overlap of some people but I think its worthwhile.

I've been pacing myself... so we are playing other stuff.

Once I get "Tales" this might change, but if I know myself I will wait for even more products before I switch.

I'm a huge fan of this game. HUGE. I love it to bits, and do (will continue to do so) promote it at every turn when speaking to other gamers. The only negative I have is the lack of products. If we get the next three products in the pipe out there, so as to at least guarantee one full-blown campaign with setting and all... then it's a solid buy, and I will start to run it.

Until then I'm faithfully waiting.

Patientia ut 'me.

/wolf

Great post from Jon.

As this is my first post, i could not be of much help here beside "promote" the game at the table of our group.

To be honest - to gm TOR i think i'll wait for the Loremaster's Screen.
(b.t.w. any idea when the product will be available as i belong to the buyers of the special GenCon book, that sadly will not see the light of the day? The preorder was changed to the Loremaster's Screen)

Nonetheless, i'm deeply impressed by the proximity to customers Jon and Francesco always demonstrate on these forums.

Purely for the purposes of keeping on topic, we won't field any questions about deliveries or release dates here in this thread. But equally we're not ignoring them: Suffice for now to say that we will announce release and preorder dates the very moment we have them.


All contributions thus far extremely gratefully received.

To me, TFW will be new, even though I have the pdf, since I can't stand to read anything on the monitor. And I'll certainly mention the book more than once in my German rpg forum of choice.

However, until Heart of the Wild arrives, I'll probably be a reader, but not a gamer. Setting material is most important for me to start a campaign, especially one in middle earth. Adventures are nice, but to me, they are more or less bonus material, and I rarely use them as written.

I'm still looking forward for TFW, because from what I can tell, it does feature a lot of interesting NPC, setting material and story ideas, which will all come in handy when I'll finally start with my campaign.

Jakob, it was one of our design goal to make Tales from Wilderland much more than a simple anthology of adventures. It is basically a guided tour of Wilderland!

Francesco

Interesting - the more background material für TOR, the better!

Thank you very much Jon for the heartfelt 'call to arms'!

On my part, I will start to play Tales again with a new group sometime in late september. It will be probably an intimate thing, with only 3 players. I can't wait, as I know these players very well, and I know how much the adventures in Tales can deliver when played intensely. I'll probably post updates on my blog, with eventual comments on gameplay.

Francesco
P.S.: since we're talking about what you might do, a pet peeve: on Rpggeek the game was slowly climbing his way up in the charts, but was shot down in July when 4 very suspicious users rated it a 1, without comments. Know if there's anything we can do about it?

I love the game! I simply can't stop reading Tales from Wilderland - it's arguably one of the finest collection of adventures I've ever seen for RPGs, in more than 30 years of gaming.

I tell everyone who will listen.

This leads me to a quick recommendation to Jon & whoever else may be working on this: You may wish to expand what you're already doing on Facebook. The YouTube videos are great & well received, but I spoke to several friends on Facebook who hadn't even heard of TOR

At any rate, just my two pence...

Would that coincide with the time that TOR was no longer available in pdf format?

Because that would be an amazing coincidence if it was unrelated and there were some people on these forums that were real 'haters' as a result of the pdf's being pulled!

Jon, you know I'll be doing my part here in Arizona. I love introducing players to TOR. Cross your fingers or say a prayer, I may even get a chance to Loremaster a game with Shane Hensley, the creator of Savage Worlds. I met him at GenCon and confirmed we live in the same town, so I hit him up on facebook. He's heard of TOR and seemed interested in playing in a month or so. Of course, if he could GM a game of Savage Worlds: Pirates of the Spanish Main at my house, that would be phenomenal too! At GenCon he told me he gets a hankerin' for some bennies

Francesco, what is your solution for fixing the "suspicious users" problems? My wife is Italian and she's got an uncle Danny, but I don't think he knows anything about the internet. Believe me though, when her dad was alive, he could fix anything!

I didn't think about that... How sad if that's the case - you don't rate a game, and then you shoot it down for that reason? A pity.

Francesco

I'm sorry if I'm being ignorant, but: will be a 'Tales from Wilderland' 2nd printing? Because I usually buy from Amazon.com or The Book Depository (cheaper international shipping), but it's 'temporarily out of stock' there, it was available for a couple of days, but I didn't have the chance to buy. I don't want to lose my copy.

Returning to your request: I'll keep writting my weblog (in spanish) about TOR and introduce new players in local conventions. Even when this is marginal to boost product sales.

I suppose one solution would be for all like minded people to rate it positively and therefore those crappy reviews would affect the product less as the statistical average rating would become a truer reflection of the supplement's real quality.

Do you have a link to it Francesco? ... Never been on RPGGeek.

I mentioned that in RPGGeek general forums when they were talking about ratings formula and such. I said there were a dishonest action by these supossed 'users' (they rated '1' around 40 games, just because). But my mention wasn't strong enough, since admins didn't do anything about it.

I have reported this situation formally, now.

I've just had a look on RPGGeek (didn't realise it was a sister site to BoardgameGeek!) and I can't see any ratings of 1 for either product???

I've been reading mostly for the past weeks, but nonetheless active reader. As a suggestion for support, I'd be more than willing to include a review (e.g. one of the things you suggested) of it (or any other TOR product now or in the future) in Other Minds. Issue 14 is drawing near, but if someone has a review or would be willing to write one now and get it to me in the next four weeks or so, I could include it in that Issue.

Cheers
Tolwen

Another great way to help a game, although a bit time consuming : create fan-made stuff and made them easily available.
By easily available, I mean nicely put in a pdf rather than lost in the middle of a forum (now, I understand cubicle 7 won't help with this task for licence reasons. But we, as fans, can do it ourselves. Some people have already done some things)

As a player, the creative activity of the fanbase plays an significant role when I choose a game.
Besides, it can bump a TOR thread when the release of a new fan-made scenario or a new fan-made culture is announced.

It's time-consuming and not everybody can do it.
But fot those who are already creating something for themselves or for a forum, it's a quite small step.

Well if anyone here wants to turn the stuff in my sig into a nice pretty pdf feel free. I don't have the knowhow to do it.

Hey, I can't 'like' a post here!

It's a bit confusing. They have separate entries for the game line, and for the product. Here's a link:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/rpg/4395/the-one-ring

Just wanted to chime in and say that I still believe in The One Ring, and even though I've parted ways with my former group (they went more for hack'n'slash than the Tolkien mood), I'll buy the books as pre-orders appear. I'll also start looking for a new group at some point now.

Looking forward to the new stuff, and I'm not at all done with Tales.

-Eirik

When I go to www.theonering.info I expect to find a website dedicated to TOR using game artwork and fonts (something like this: www.numenera.com). But it redirects me to C7 blog, instead.

Why don't you take advantage of this domain? It will be a great for marketing!

Good OP Jon and happy to help in any way I can. Think it is a superb game and you have all done a great job.

I've been posting on twitter some stuff re: TOR and my game, inc. a pic of my lovely copy of TfW that arrived yesterday.

Here's a post I put on our club site http://warwickshiregamers.6sided.net/2012/...8/the-one-ring/

We've had a couple more sessions since then, so can update. Also post in RPG.net so will add something there

I can honestly tell you guys the word is out in Turkish tabletop roleplaying communities. I know like five people who are ordering the core set and are very excited about the Tales. Five person is not much I know but the rpg community here is not that big and it shows that many people will learn about it and order the books themselves after the first guys got it and show people etc.

Also I think the actual plays and journals are really helpful and make people want to play the game so if anyone want to "advertise" TOR I think best way is to write their own great memories and adventures.

Here are some other ideas for grassroots marketing of the game that everyone on these forums may be able to do:

1) Volunteer to GM demo games of TOR at your local FLGS. Most stores love to have people giving demos because they can advertise it and sell product. Heck, even the offer to demo might inspire the store owner to order more stock.

2) If you can devote the time to it, run a regular TOR game for Tolkien fans at your FLGS... but advertise it so you can Narrate for people you don't already game with. It will give you an opportunity to meet new Tolkien fans, and others a chance to fall in love with TOR! One of the biggest challenges facing gamers is finding someone who wants to Narrate (GM); help them overcome that obstacle.

3) TOR makes a great gift! I gave away 10 sets last Christmas and I am planning on doing the same this year... It's only a few months away. I know this isn't a realistic expectation, since the core set is $60, but if there is someone really special in your life who shares your love of Tolkien and roleplaying... Then they NEED a copy of TOR!

4) Volunteer to Narrate games at gaming conventions. All of the TOR games were fully booked at GenCon this year, so it clearly needs more Narrators!

5) Keep your core set handy so that when you're talking it up to the gamers at your FLGS, you can break it out and let them bask in its beauty... and perhaps run a quick demo for them.

6) If you're a fan of virtual or PbP gaming, volunteer to Narrate a demo online. I imagine you could get MANY interested parties, given the sheer interest on these boards alone.

7) Narrate, Narrate, NARRATE! Narrate for as many people in as many games and as many s as you can! Spread the word brothers and sisters! Hallelujah!... Ok, seriously, just run the game for people whenever you can. People love to play games, and they especially love to play games where the GM has a real love for the rules and the source material. I think that everyone on these forums exceeds those criteria!

Can you think of other ideas? I would love to hear them! Let's get out there and show the gaming community how awesome TOR is! Gilthoniel A Elbereth! A tiro nin, Fanuilos!

Francesco:
I would not worry too much about the 1's in that BGG-rating, checking their profiles I notice that they are game-haters and wonder why they even bothered to register... They seem to score everything but a hand full of titles 1 and only logged one or two games as owned. So...

If four or five goblins like that can lower the overall score it just goes to show that not enough people have bothered to rate it.

There is one or two users rating it at 3 and 4 though that I would take seriously.

Me? I just upgraded my rating to a 9 to compensate!

/wolf

Yes. I am amazed at how much Rpggeek is less popular than its boardgame counterpart. BGG is much older, and boardgames more popular in general, but I wasn't expecting such a gap.

A 4 is from Sage Latorra, a game designer from the 'indie' movement. Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, of course, but I am a bit surprised to see a game designer go out and bash the work of someone else openly. I certainly wouldn't do it, but to each his own.

What? You didn't rate it a 10 immediately? You unbeliever...

Francesco

Depends on the 'indie' writer but it doesn't surprise me - the indie scene can be horrible if you're not 'in' with the 'right' people for writers and gamers alike from what I've seen and experienced of it.

Let's keep things positive. Everyone is entitled to their opinion of our work, and indeed to express it.

Some of my best friends are indie games designers. No really.

Also, RPGnet has its own game index. I ranked it as 10 out of 10, of course. (hint, hint)

It is in my opinion a FAR better ranking of rpgs than rpgeek.

I know... I'm a traitor to the cause and should probably be shot!

I love the game. It's close to perfect, but not 100% there.

One of the thing that keeps my finger off the "10-button" is the same thing Sage Latorra, complains about. i.e. it IS hard to find the things you are looking for.

The game is a lovely read but can be tricky to navigate when you want specifics. Last week I tried to find out what game-effect the "Wounded" status had... Straight forward one would think... but it took me a while... I blame the lousy Index.

(I should probably print out the Fan-made "Living" Index...)

I'm not setting a "10" unless there is absolutely nothing more to wish for, and here we have a couple of tiny, minuscule things like that...

/wolf

I don't think we're turning things negative... I have nothing against bad reviews, and such like. But I personally see negative votes from designers on sites like BGG as a petty form of criticism. That's why I don't do it (and there's plenty of games I hate...).

Francesco

Sorry for de-railing the conversation here... but let's take a minute to ponder the BGG rating system



Now... I personally think anyone rating this game 1 is just trying to pick a fight. :-)

4 I can respect. I certainly don't agree but you know...

Now we should probably stop this line of discussion or start our own thread.

/wolf

...let me take the chance to add a shameless plug... I'm really happy the screen will be out shortly. I am the kind of gamer that forgets the rules (especially my own, as I confuse the different iterations of every rule!) so to have most of the useful stuff there, clearly laid out, is a dream!

Francesco

The screen will be lovely but I'm really looking forward to the information on Laketown and other groovy delights packaged with it!

Just wanted to say i'm doing my modest part here in israel. I already volunteered to narrate ToR games at the 2 biggest gaming conventions in my litte country... pepole getting to know and love the game

Not to mention that tommorow my groups TfW adventures shall finally begin!