Well, I'm back from my holiday and from running The Dragon's Ring (see my sig below) at Arcanacon, I had five groups of players (only two with the full complement of six PC's), so my thoughts after running the same adventure five times:

1. Whichever 'side' holds the initiative has a HUGE advantage in combat - the one time the PC's lost the initiative they actually had some problems, with one PC wounded and another close to being KO'd. Generally I found that an adversary was down or nearly down before even getting an action!

2. The players loved the general mechanic of sharing bonus dice (we used the Preliminary Rolls idea), although some commented that the game did seem similar to one called 'Dragon Age' (which I have not played).

3. I think that the Hope points and Fellowship points need to be halved (or at least reduced) for a Convention-style game, as in just three hours of gaming they don't seem to be as important as they should. I recall one player spent about 6 Hope points in about 30 minutes! Nor does Shadow really become much of a factor in a short Con game - perhaps if an Eye is rolled for an important Corruption test it triggers a Bout of Madness??

4. The average Orc is no match for any PC's with at least 2 skill in a weapon - most of them go down after just one or two hits. Spiders, trolls or other creatures that take away or reduce the initiative advantage of PC's are a different story...

5. Weary only really becomes significant if there are no other PC's to support the Weary character -this was certainly noticeable with the larger groups - better armour is more important.

6. The larger fellowships also had a big advantage, because this meant they could have a few PC's to stay in Rearward stance and fire arrows throughout the combat - this was a significant advantage.

7. The most neglected part of the game for both myself and the players was with the use of Distinctive Features (Specialties are easier to recall as they are special skills) - any ideas on how to keep these in mind??

Overall I feel the players generally had fun and liked the game - combat was certainly fast and deadly, although I did feel that many of the adversaries were not as dangerous as they could be - I am trying to think of a way to reduce the advantage of the side that holds the initiative (usually the PC's).

Robin S.

I actually came across the initiative issue with my players a week or so ago. They were ambushed by orcs and failed their awareness rolls, and consequently got no opening volley. One of the characters ended up on half endurance before even being able to make an attack, simply because the enemy got so many attacks in during the opening volley and their first turn

Regarding the importance of initiative, I think it's a deliberate part of the game's design and something that's pretty important to success in combat. I quite like the idea that if you're going to attack something/group then you have to think about setting things up so that you ambush your opponent or devise some way of attacking them so that holding the initiative is not as valuable as it usually is.

If both sides are aware of each other (which will be most of the time), then the Heroes automatically hold the initiative as defenders. This is a very good thing because they will make their attack rolls first (but see Engagement below). (It took me awhile to wrap my head around defenders vs attackers in this system, but I finally understood. Defenders attack first because they are prepared. Attackers are charging in and will make attack rolls after the Defenders.)

Ambushing is risky, but useful for gaining an extra, unanswered round of ranged attacks against the enemy and lowering the difficulty when checking for Combat advantages. However, if the ambush attempt fails, the Company does not gain initiative and combat resumes as normal. This means if there is time for an opening volley, the enemy will get to shoot first (if they have any ranged weapons; if not, the heroes may still shoot as the enemy closes in; but when close combat resumes, the adversaries will get the first attack). The Companions check for Combat advantages as attackers (because they are not holding initiative) using a severe difficulty (TN 18)*. Then, close combat begins. If they had succeeded at the ambush attempt, they would have checked for Combat advantages using an easy difficulty (TN 12).

It is important to resolve whether a Surprise attack is successful before rolling for Combat advantages and before the companions make their attack rolls. The result of the Surprise attack roll determines the TN for Combat advantages. *I made a mistake in my review of The One Ring when I allowed the player-heroes to check for Combat advantage using a moderate difficulty (TN 14). It should have been severe (TN 18) because of the blown ambush attempt.

Engagement
The advantage that initiative holds in the game is parallel to the advantage that superior numbers holds. If there are more (or the same number of) heroes, they each get to choose an adversary to engage from all eligible targets (leaving no adversaries unengaged). The opposite is true if there are more enemies than heroes.

Therefore...

1. If the heroes hold initiative, they will attack first, but if there are more enemies, the Loremaster will be choosing who they are engaged with. This could work for the player-heroes or against them.

2. If the heroes hold initiative, they will attack first, and if there are more or an equal amount of heroes compared to the enemy, the player-heroes get to choose their own engagements. This is the best possible scenario for the heroes.

3. If the enemy holds the initiative, they will attack first, but if there are more or the same amount of heroes, the player-heroes will choose engagements. This could work for or against the adversaries.

4. If the enemy holds the initiative, they will attack first, and if there are more enemies than heroes, the Loremaster will choose the engagements. This would be the worst possible scenario for the heroes.

I love this system. It really makes for some interesting combat tactics and situations!

Great summaries, Robin and James. Stuff like this really helps in understanding the game!