My first live, tabletop session of TOR

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Glorelendil
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My first live, tabletop session of TOR

Post by Glorelendil » Sun Dec 21, 2014 7:26 pm

Up until yesterday all of my TOR games have been online, either through roll20 or via PbP. Yesterday I LM'd my first session of TOR for 3 first-timers, at the local gaming shop. I ran The Marsh Bell (apologies to all the folks who have written excellent starting adventures, but in case this turns into a campaign I wanted to save the adventures west of Mirkwood to work into TfW).

I printed out the 6 characters from the back of the book and let them choose. Only 3 people showed up, so I let them each increase their main weapon skill by one. That turned out to be completely unnecessary.

SPOILER ALERT!

The steersman got the boat stuck several times, so they all lost endurance jumping into the water to free it, but by the time they left the boat behind they had all gotten enough rest to get it back. (The Hobbit's virtue did, in fact, shine in this situation.)

In the fight against the Ogre they rolled an unbelievable number of great and extraordinary successes, and by the 3rd round the Ogre was weary. The close combat characters both had axes, so they wisely went defensive and fished for Gandalfs. It took about 3 more rounds for one to appear, the ogre failed his Protection test, and down he went. I think he only hit once.

Then they decided to go looking for his lair. (One of the characters was Trotter, and her backstory is that Bilbo's tales inspired her to go adventuring, so she knew all about the troll cave.) I know there's not supposed to be one, but again the roll (Search or Hunting, I can't remember which) came up a Great Success with a Gandalf, so I ruled they found a muddy little lair with a tiny trove. 1 Treasure each and a single magical treasure roll. 2 of the 3 rolled Gandalfs, then one of the two got a single Tengwar. He was rewarded with a white elven gem from the First Age.

The rest of the adventure went fairly smoothly. The Hobbit resisted the Bell's enchantment and, after trying everything else imaginable and getting a few hints, used Song (with a point of Hope) to rouse the other two. They rescued the dwarves, and on the way out the Hobbit, a Treasure-Hunter, rolled Awareness and saw a single coin glinting in the entry to a tunnel, which I placed to tempt them to explore that tunnel. She took the coin (and got a shadow point for it after failing a corruption roll) then made a good Stealth roll and scouted out the tunnel. She saw all the treasure, but when the eyes appeared she bolted and everybody fled and got home safely.

They all had a great time, and started asking me which books they needed to buy.

Oh, and there were Warhammer and Magic: the Gatheing games going on at the shop, and we had a variety of observers asking questions and expressing interest.
The Munchkin Formerly Known as Elfcrusher
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zedturtle
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Re: My first live, tabletop session of TOR

Post by zedturtle » Sun Dec 21, 2014 7:32 pm

Sounds like loads of fun.

But I'm wondering about that Ogre... did he eat the Troll? :)

- - - - - -

And no, you won't offend me by not running Theft of the Moon... there's a reason why they put The Marsh Bell into the rulebook after all. ;)
Jacob Rodgers, occasional nitwit.

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Glorelendil
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Re: My first live, tabletop session of TOR

Post by Glorelendil » Sun Dec 21, 2014 7:58 pm

zedturtle wrote:Sounds like loads of fun.

But I'm wondering about that Ogre... did he eat the Troll? :)
...

Yes, I meant Troll.

Too much D&D and WoW lately....
The Munchkin Formerly Known as Elfcrusher
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zedturtle
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Re: My first live, tabletop session of TOR

Post by zedturtle » Sun Dec 21, 2014 8:30 pm

Glorelendil wrote:
zedturtle wrote:Sounds like loads of fun.

But I'm wondering about that Ogre... did he eat the Troll? :)
...

Yes, I meant Troll.

Too much D&D and WoW lately....
Yeah, I noticed you and Toph making the same slip of the tongue and was wondering if everyone had had a conference without me. ;)
Jacob Rodgers, occasional nitwit.

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Falenthal
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Re: My first live, tabletop session of TOR

Post by Falenthal » Mon Dec 22, 2014 11:59 am

In fact, I used a Marsh Ogre from the Lake-town supplement instead of a Troll when running The Marsh Bell.

I'm saving Trolls for later... :twisted:

Great job, Glorelendil!
There're never enough TOR players in the world. I need to learn from your example and make a presentation game here in Girona.

Majestic
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Re: My first live, tabletop session of TOR

Post by Majestic » Mon Dec 22, 2014 10:04 pm

Awesome work, Glorelendil. Sounds like you all had a great time. Kudos on spreading the word about this great game!

Did you find any major differences in running the game in person, as opposed to online?
Tale of Years for a second, lower-level group (in the same campaign).

Glorelendil
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Re: My first live, tabletop session of TOR

Post by Glorelendil » Tue Dec 23, 2014 2:38 pm

Majestic wrote: Did you find any major differences in running the game in person, as opposed to online?
The only real difference, although it's a huge one, is that I wasn't wondering whose "turn" it was, mine or a player's. I kind of rushed the very conclusion, getting back to Laketown, but otherwise we did the whole adventure including choosing characters and explaining rules, in just over 3 hours. Being able to see facial expressions and body language is big.
The Munchkin Formerly Known as Elfcrusher
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shipwreck
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Re: My first live, tabletop session of TOR

Post by shipwreck » Sat Jan 03, 2015 1:49 pm

Man I'm so glad you got to do it live! It is so much more fun, IMO.
Elfcrusher wrote:But maybe the most important difference is that in D&D the goal is to build wtfpwn demi-god characters. In TOR the goal is to stay alive long enough to tell a good story.

Dedicemancometh
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Re: My first live, tabletop session of TOR

Post by Dedicemancometh » Sat Jan 03, 2015 7:03 pm

I had a similar experience, six players, a lot of excellent rolls -- I didn't throw the Troll at them, but I think, in retrospect, I probably should have even though it is optional. However, when it came time to battle the Marsh Dwellers in the central hall (six of them), everything went sour with their attitudes. They easily obliterated the first wave of Marsh Dwellers, and then basically quit the game in disgust!

The concept of Wounds along with Endurance loss just freaked them out. I think maybe they had D&D-itis. I'll try again in a couple of weeks. Maybe a different store, too. (To avoid certain negative personalities that haunt that particular town.)

Glorelendil
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Re: My first live, tabletop session of TOR

Post by Glorelendil » Sat Jan 03, 2015 7:20 pm

Dedicemancometh wrote:I had a similar experience, six players, a lot of excellent rolls -- I didn't throw the Troll at them, but I think, in retrospect, I probably should have even though it is optional. However, when it came time to battle the Marsh Dwellers in the central hall (six of them), everything went sour with their attitudes. They easily obliterated the first wave of Marsh Dwellers, and then basically quit the game in disgust!

The concept of Wounds along with Endurance loss just freaked them out. I think maybe they had D&D-itis. I'll try again in a couple of weeks. Maybe a different store, too. (To avoid certain negative personalities that haunt that particular town.)
I think it's a fairly common expectation in fantasy RPGs that if there's a big pile of treasure and a bunch of monsters, you're supposed to kill the monsters and take the treasure.
The Munchkin Formerly Known as Elfcrusher
Journey Computer | Combat Simulator | Bestiary | Weapon Calculator

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