Hello fellow MERPers (Middle Eart Role Players)

I just bought TOR and got the PDF this past weekend and am curresntly digesting the Hero Creation.

I have a question on Previous Experience al. The new Hero starts with 10 points of previous experience to allocate.

In the Adventurers Book the example on page 75 shows Athletics going from 1 point to 4 points and it costs 9 points.

So,
If a character template assigns 3 points to a skill
then I want to add another point to that skill
I must first buy all the levels prior to that one, true?
So a total of 9 points will be spent to gain the 4th point?

I am just getting into this so please bear with me.

Out of curiousity later when a Hero "levels up" (if that is a proper analogy) must the same formula be used to gain an extra point in a particular skill?


Thanks!

I am 99.999% sure it would only cost 4 points to raise it from 3 to 4, as having a skill of 3 from a template already assumes that you have purchased levels 1 through 3. You only pay the costs from the current level of your skill up to the desired level of skill.

I concur with Claybor. The first three ranks have already been paid for, so you are only buying the 4th rank.

Claybor is right: to go from level 3 to level 4 is just four points--you don't pay for levels you've already received from your culture. The example on p. 75 of the Adventurer's Book (level 1 to level 4) is indeed nine points; if the player in question was buying a Common Skill up from level 0 to level 4, it would cost her ten points (one for level 1 + two for level 2 + three for level 3 + four for level 4).

Very good.
Thank you for the replies
I appreciate the clarification.

Please bear with me

So when a Hero has advancement points to spend, if a skill has 4 points allocated then to raise that skill another point the player would have to spend 5 points?

I am going to assume you mean a skill level of 4.

(Points are what are used to raise the skill, so 4 points would only give you a level of 2 with 1 point left over if purchased from 0)

So, to raise a skill from level 4 to level 5 would cost 5 points, correct.

I hope I didn't confuse you more with the 'points' distinction above.

examples;

To purchase level 1 = 1 point

To purchase from 0 to level 2 = 1 + 2 points = 3 total

To purchase from 0 to level 3 = 1 + 2 + 3 points = 6 total

To purchase from 1 to level 3 = 2 + 3 points = 5 total

To purchase from 2 to level 3 = 3 points

To purchase from 4 to level 5 = 5 points

No, not al all, I misused the termnology and I am glad you made the distinction and yes that is what I meant.

Excellent I have a complete understanding of this now.
Thank you

Regarding Favored Skills;

I am trying to piece together how favored skills are chosen.

1) When you select a culture you go with the Favored Skill on the Chart in the given culture.
2) When you choose a Background you get another Favored skill

So I looked at the Character sheet for the Beorning, Beran of the Mountains and he has 4 Favored skills underlined.

I am working through the process and please verify if I am understanding this correctly;

3) When you select a Calling it presents you with two Favored Skill Groups;
n Berens case... Personality and Survival

So.. do you look across the line of the Common Skills List and just choose any skill along that line?
Or must you select a skill according to something I haven't picked up on yet?

And...
I see it says choose either one from each group, or two from the same group.

Does this sound right?

At this point I am still not sure what the skill group check boxes are for.

Thanks

Yes that sounds right.

3) You get two favoured Skills from the two Skill Groups listed for your Calling. These can be for the same Skill Group of different.

The three check boxes are there for Advancement Points. In an Adventuring Phase, you can only ever gain 3 Advancement Points from any one Skill Group. The first is the easiest to earn and the 2nd and 3rd should be progressively harder as determined by the GM.

At the end of anAdventuring Phase, add up you ticked boxes and add that to you Advancement Point total on your second sheet. Then remove all the ticks for the next session.

The idea is that PCs that use a broader range of Skills will develop more quickly than a PC that spams the same Skill over and over.

Very interesting!

So if the Hero Player wanted to earn advancement points in a particular skill would they request or "role play" a "task" from the Loremaster?

I read something about that briefly when I first breezed through the book when I got it.

To earn an Advancement Point, you need to use a Common Skill in a notable fashion. This includes:

1. A test that embodies a Trait
2. A test where there was great consequences if failed
3. A test with a high TN

I don't think it is meant to be so much the player requested a task from the LM as something that will arise naturally in play. Its like awarding a bennie or drama point for when a PC does something cool, accepts some risk, or acts in character.

The Advancement Point is awarded in relation to the Skill Group of the Skill used, so that you can't spam a single Skill Group in one Adventuring Phase. However, once earned, it can be spent on increasing any Skills.

Advancement Points are detailed in the LMB on page 30.

Thank you for Clarifying this and letting me know the page number in the LMB.

Actually I haven't cracked open the LMB yet... I'm trying to avoid that until I completely understand Hero Creation... though as you can imagine I'm chomping at the bit!
I know me well enough that once I open that Pandora's box I won't be able to close it again! (been there, done that)

Thanks for the replies

TOR is one game where the other half of the story is in the LM. For example, the Journey and Combat stuff in the LM add a lot to the rules in the AB.

I actually really like the split. Its menaingful when often it isnt. The players have all the rules they need from their POV in the AB. The LM has quite a lot of additional rules targetted solely at them in the LMB.

Using the current example, knowing what Advancement Points do is in the AB but how they are awarding is in the LMB.

Very Good I look forward to getting on with it.

I have a question about early on in Hero Creation...

In the Cultural sections, Weapon groups that are enclosed in (brackets) are Cultural weapon groups.

But it is unclear as to what Underlined weapons are, other than a guess at "Favored Weapons"

I'm sure I will get to it at some point, but just Out of curiousity, how do these two variations affect gameplay?

1) Favored ?
2) Cultural ?

Thanks!

Any underlined skill is favored: spend a Hope point to add the relevant favored Ability score to your roll total. This includes non-Cultural Weapons skills.

The skills in brackets (the Cultural Weapons skills) can only be acquired during character creation. They can never be turned into favored skills through the acquisition of a Virtue level--the benefit for having them is diversity, not depth. You can raise a Cultural Weapons skill with Experience Points, but that's that.

The cute wrinkle is that you can count Cultural Weapons skill toward the cost of an individual Weapons skill from that Cultural Weapons group. So a character with (Axes) 2 who wants to specialize in Great Axe only has to spend 6 points to get Great Axe 3 instead of 12 points--he's not raising the score from 0.

Thank you for the reply. That helps piecing things together

A question about Background.

If a player wanted to create a Custom Background, could they do so?

1) Assign the three Attribute scores as long as it doesn't exceed 14 total
2) Choose a favored skill
3) Choose two Distinctive Features

There are no rules for creating Custom Backgrounds, so there is no official answer. Though those three steps broadly cover the basics, there is some yet undefined subtleties in the system.

For example, the sample Backgrounds all exhibit a prioritisation of Attributes based on Culture:

Primary Attribute: 5 to 7
Secondary Attribute: 4 to 6
Tertiary Attribute: 2 to 4

For example, Elves are Wits, Body, Heart. Hobbits are Heart, Wits, Body etc

Whether these patterns should be maintained in new Backgrounds to represent a Cultural influence on Attributes is unclear.

Similarly there may be some thought about having Cultural influence to Favoured Skills and Distinctive Features.

In at least two different places in the AB, Backgrounds are referred to explicitly as 'examples'. So I'd say that designing your own is certainly on the table. As to how precisely a Background should be constructed, I would personally go with what you layed out, but someone (I think it was Skywalker) noticed that there was a pattern to the Attribute ranges for each culture, and if you wanted to stay close to the TOR templates, you could do this too.

I haz ninja'ed Arandil!

Thank you for the reply.
I know my players will ask this.

Not only that, but also this on AB pg 33:

I thought I had read that somewhere but I have tried to absorb a lot in three days so I wasn't sure if it was something I read on a forum, mailing list or what!

But I knew I would get reliable info here

Thanks

Zoinks! And I didn't even notice until now!