I've run "The One Ring" twice so far--a one-shot for my home group, and the same adventure again for a different group at a convention. I used the pregens from the books, but I wrote a different adventure (which I will share once I convert it from my crazy shorthand).

1) Combat isn't nearly as deadly as I thought it would be when I read the rules. Little guys like Attercops and Orc Soldiers go down pretty quick. With a few decent rolls, a fellowship of four heroes can whittle down a 35 Endurance critter in just a couple of rounds. It's still dangerous enough that a huge swarm of Orcs can overpower the heroes, but combat still feels pretty heroic.

2) I'm no historical re-enactor, and I've never been an advocate for realism in gaming (quite the opposite), but the armor rules in TOR feel more "real" to me than just about any other game. Most attacks will knock you around inside your metal shell for a bit, tuckering you out, but not really hurting you, but if a solid smack pierces your armor, you're gonna' be hurting bad.

3) Caranthir the Elf's keen greatspear is a devastating weapon! 9 damage with an 8 Edge is wicked!

4) For one-shot games, I recommend cutting the heroes' starting Hope in half so it feels more like the dwindling resource it should be. 16 Hope is too much for one session.

5) I like how combat doesn't leave anyone out. At first I was leery about using a Great Spider's "Dreadful Spells' ability, because I didn't want to keep an unlucky character from attacking for 9 rounds. Then I realized that the victim would still be able to contribute to the fight by rallying comrades and defending his friends. Nice!
Even slightly disabled, no one is left feeling useless!

I see now that most of these comments are combat-oriented. My sessions still included all the social rules, but they worked pretty much as I thought they would from reading the books. Functional but nothing special, and not nearly as involved as, say, "Houses of the Blooded."

I only had a short journey in the game (one round of Fatigue Tests) since I had a time limit to work with. I'm eager to see what a longer travel sequence is like.

So, after two sessions, I'm loving this game. Once I'm finished with my current Smallville campaign, this is probably going to be my next long-play game. I can't wait for the other books.

Just a question: How much hope are your players using in a session. I was under the impression that if you used more than 1 or 2 a session you were on a downward spiral because it comes back very slowly.

Mitch

I'm not Attercop, but I can tell you about our hope usage. In sessions without a fight, people are spending 1-3 or 4 points, and getting it all back from the fellowship pool or their fellowship focus (helps that we have 4 PCs, but 2 are Hobbits so the pool is 6 points).

In sessions with combats, spending runs about 2-5 or 6, and after 5 sessions of play, only 2 characters are down at all, and those are only down 1 point from max Hope.

We're not seeing any downward spiral at all.

John

That sounds about right. I think my players each spent about 4-5 Hope in each session. But... in the game where the players only started with 6-8 Hope, spending Hope was a major decision. When they started with 12-16, spending Hope was pretty easy.

I imagine that's be different in an ongoing campaign where the players are more concerned about their long-term Hope budget.