My guess is that this has been discussed before but the search is returning an error and I went back 10 pages without seeing anything so thought I would ask again.

I will be LM'ing my first game of The One Ring tomorrow and, although I understand (and like) the Encounter rules, I cannot really see how it's going to flow in a game. Mainly, I do do not really understand how many dice rolls should be used and for what roughly (beyond the two very general areas -- introduction and interaction). I read the sections in Adventurer's and Loremaster's books plus have read over the encounter write-ups in the intro adventure and one of the Wilderlands adventures but still fuzzy on it.

Anyone have any opinions / comments that could help clear it up for me and lead to my running fun interactions for my players that have both structure within the rules (chance for failure, direction for RP, etc.) and allow for role-playing? Thanks.

Yeah, there are clear rules about how many failures are too many, but no advice on how many successes are enough!

One bit I would ignore is where having a spokesman during the Introduction stops others taking part. I'm generally against excluding players from roleplaying opportunities unless strictly necessary. I see no reason why a successful spokesman couldn't introduce the whole company in a way that allowed any of them to speak.

When I first read this I found it interesting but oddly mechanical in the way it read. In practice I use it as a guideline and only for formal type Encounters, where there is a certain amount of information that can be gathered or favor that could be gained or lost.

In the published adventures "Tales from the Wilderland" there are some really good examples. Here are a couple of non-specific examples without spoilers.

An NPC want's to hire the company to perform a task, but doesn't know if he/she can trust them. Have a social encounter per the rules, where the characters get to use social skills to provide information, get information or generally impress the NPC. Then provide the following results once the PCs are done by choice or have failed too many rolls.
0-1 success - The NPC offers each character a basic amount of Treasure Points (2 or 3 for the whole group).
2-3 successes - The NPC is some what impressed with the company and offers the basic amount plus an additional point of Treasure per character.
4-6 successes - Apply the above results plus something in particular that this specific NPC would have at their disposal. Free lodgings, a future favor, a letter of introduction, etc...
7+ successes - All of the above plus something that will really be of a help to the company later in the adventure of campaign.

The same could also be applied for an argument or settling a dispute or determining someones guilt. The examples in the campaign follow the formula above. I have specifically omitted the details of each.

I have found that with 1 success I give the company the bare minimum they need to continue the adventure and scale it up from there.

Good luck.

Hey all - there were two threads that provide some helpful info several months ago. I dug around till I found them.



THIS THREAD

THIS THREAD TOO



I believe they can provide much insight towards running smooth and successful Encounters - and prolonged skill challenges - which an Encounter is by another name just a prolonged skill challenge of sorts.

Templar has it.

When you read the text, it comes off as a much more formal system that requires these structured turns where you have to say something or else.

In play, I run it just like I do any other situation. I have a formal Introduction, but after that I let the situation play itself out, every so often prompt for a roll, and just track successes and failures in the background.

Hi, wiley!
I already contributed at post #4 on the first of the threads that SirKicley linked so I won't repeat those points here, and templar72 (and the second of those threads) already neatly cover the use of successes. But I can riff on the subject a bit more...

It's occurred to me since I made that earlier post that the central importance TOR gives to Courtesy might be (a) a bit 'Edwardian' -- reflecting Tolkien's gentlemanly culture as much as the quasi-medieval cultures of Middle-earth itself, and ( an excuse to give polite and inoffensive hobbits a role in which they excel above the rest of their Fellowships.* It's certainly 'very Bilbo'...

Despite the skill being called "Courtesy", for some cultures the most appropriate mode of address might include introducing yourself with Nordic-style boastings, even complemented with Awe-based muscle-flexing(?). Courtesy may be perfect for not giving offence, but strangely-spoken persons of small stature might ought to have a hard time convincing anyone that they're best suited to the adventure at hand...

I do like the fact that TOR encourages the use of a spokesman. Real conversations do not work well with half a dozen people chipping in at random until some sort of point has more or less been got across. So I view the dialogue around the gaming table as something like the rough 'speech notes' in which everyone contributes to what -- in the game world -- the spokesman (mostly) says. And let's face it, he probably says it better than any of us could roleplay, unless you have a very talented group, so the table-talk is really only a simulation or approximation.

If you do want other people to be able to have a full role in the Encounter -- like if the spokesman actually isn't that great at Persuade? -- maybe you can finesse the spokesman's role towards introducing others, lowering those punitive TN14 Task rolls for them. That way the talky Player-hero still gets to be central, and receives the appreciation of his Companions for the role he plays, but not at the cost of relegating everyone else to the silent back row.

I also have a little house rule that's intended to play up the role of languages in the game.
It's good that the prevalence of the common speech (Westron) means no one should be excluded from a conversation. But TOR doesn't give languages the significance that IMHO Tolkien would have liked to. One way to get languages into the game a bit more is to give +1 Tolerance for some niceties in the relevant language (or dialect, even?) if the audience's first language isn't Common. Think of the bit in Lorien where Gimli is moved by Galadriel showing her knowledge of a few dwarven place-names.

Cheers!
--Os.


* Those who don't let their massive Parry rating go to their heads and adopt the role of gung-ho swashbuckling frontline dagger-wielders. </rant> ;-)

Or Pippin in front of the Steward of Gondor.