Simplifing The One Ring

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Ncatalano
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Simplifing The One Ring

Post by Ncatalano » Tue Jan 06, 2015 4:09 pm

My friends wanted to play the game with me but I think it would be too complicated for them. What rules do you guys think I could take out from the game ?

Glorelendil
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Re: Simplifing The One Ring

Post by Glorelendil » Tue Jan 06, 2015 4:18 pm

Ncatalano wrote:My friends wanted to play the game with me but I think it would be too complicated for them. What rules do you guys think I could take out from the game ?
None. It's already a rules-light game.

Learn the rules thoroughly yourself so they don't have to. Then as you narrate the story you can give them options and tell them which dice to roll. They'll catch on soon enough.
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Stormcrow
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Re: Simplifing The One Ring

Post by Stormcrow » Tue Jan 06, 2015 4:37 pm

I wouldn't exactly call it rules-light. Some of its mechanics are quite intricate. Understanding how to cause wounds, for instance, is not trivial.

It's not a modular game; remove one piece and you have to adjust a lot of other pieces.

I would say you should try ignoring the rules for journeys and encounters, until your players have mastered other parts of the game. Prompt them regarding traits, and try to make it clear that traits are not meant to be bonuses to things they try to do; they are "hooks" for the players to engage in the setting. Perhaps you can handle the awarding of advancement points yourself, rather than waiting for players to ask for them.

bluejay
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Re: Simplifing The One Ring

Post by bluejay » Tue Jan 06, 2015 4:39 pm

Rather than removing rules perhaps you could introduce them slowly.

For instance in the first adventures have the characters travelling in familiar and safe territory (more or less) so you can either omit the journey rules or perhaps just call for a single Travel roll. You can add in the full rules at a later date.

Same kind of idea with encounters. Make it into a simpler Courtesy or Awe check.

Basically start off with the meat that you know your players will enjoy and focus on those rules initially. You can simplify the rest to start off with. Then once they're enjoying the game you can bring in the other rules and see how much they expand upon the game (or not if you prefer to keep it really simple).

With battles you don't need to stage ambushes initially and you can keep them fairly simple and straightforward until the rules feel comfortable.

As Glorelendil says this is a fairly rules-light game and in the end it's not too hard to run everything. As a Loremaster you should be learning everything and then helping the players along with it.

Hope this helps!

As Glorelendil says
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fjw70
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Re: Simplifing The One Ring

Post by fjw70 » Tue Jan 06, 2015 5:15 pm

As I like to play games with the kids I am always looking to simplify RPGs. I like a lot of the rules in the game but there seems to be a lot of fiddly bits (attributes, favored attributes, skills, skill groups, favored skills, etc.) but I haven't played yet so maybe it's simpler than it looks.

I am looking to run a game in Middle Earth but I am trying to decide if I should use TOR or just use the flavor of TOR and pair it with 5e D&D. I know D&D very well and am very comfortable in converting and modifying it.

I got the revised TOR book recently (before the bundle sale unfortunately) to try to get a good handle on the rules.

zedturtle
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Re: Simplifing The One Ring

Post by zedturtle » Tue Jan 06, 2015 6:15 pm

fjw70 wrote:As I like to play games with the kids I am always looking to simplify RPGs. I like a lot of the rules in the game but there seems to be a lot of fiddly bits (attributes, favored attributes, skills, skill groups, favored skills, etc.) but I haven't played yet so maybe it's simpler than it looks.

I am looking to run a game in Middle Earth but I am trying to decide if I should use TOR or just use the flavor of TOR and pair it with 5e D&D. I know D&D very well and am very comfortable in converting and modifying it.

I got the revised TOR book recently (before the bundle sale unfortunately) to try to get a good handle on the rules.
As I said in the thread over at rpg.net, TOR is a game that proves that a great system can help support a great setting. I can think of a half dozen hacks to make D&D more TOR-like but I think the basics of the game for a player with an experienced LM is "roll these dice, if they add up to this number or highe you succeed. If you see something other than a number on the die face something special happens."
Jacob Rodgers, occasional nitwit.

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Glorelendil
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Re: Simplifing The One Ring

Post by Glorelendil » Tue Jan 06, 2015 6:45 pm

Stormcrow wrote:I wouldn't exactly call it rules-light. Some of its mechanics are quite intricate. Understanding how to cause wounds, for instance, is not trivial.
I don't disagree...there's a lot of subtlety to how the rules interact. And some of them don't resemble other RPGs which can increase the learning curve.

But there aren't a lot of rules. And, as you point out, they are interdependent. If you decided to ignore Encumbrance, of example, a lot of other things would break.
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Glorelendil
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Re: Simplifing The One Ring

Post by Glorelendil » Tue Jan 06, 2015 6:48 pm

Yeah, I would not recommend using 5e in Middle Earth. No matter how you tweak the rules you are going to lose a lot of the flavor of Tolkien's writings.

Unless your players are looking for the movie version of Middle Earth, not the book version. That is, they want to see the places and meet the famous characters and wtfpwn some orcs, but don't really care about the deeper themes. Then 5e is probably fine.
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tomfish
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Re: Simplifing The One Ring

Post by tomfish » Tue Jan 06, 2015 8:26 pm

IMO, there are some rules you could omit at the beginning of the game and introduce later (some already mentionned above) :

- Favored skills and attributes
- Encounters / tolerance
- Called shots
- Preliminary rolls
- Initiative (players go first unless ambushed)
- Advancement points / skill families (reward with a fixed amount at the beginning)
- Company objectives (make it obvious)
- Fellowship focus

(As some of these changes impact negatively the players I suggest you increase the fellowship pool a bit).

I am not saying to drop these altogether and I realize some elements here are really key to the spirit of the game, but I think they can be temporarily put aside for a complexity-averse company.

Of course you will lose some of the flavor at the beginning, but once your players are hooked, it is easy to introduce these elements progressively...
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Glorelendil
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Re: Simplifing The One Ring

Post by Glorelendil » Tue Jan 06, 2015 9:23 pm

tomfish wrote:IMO, there are some rules you could omit at the beginning of the game and introduce later (some already mentionned above) :....
As long as the goal is to bring them back in after the first session or two I could see that working.

The only one I'll disagree with is Favoured Attributes: You're both gimping some cultures, and making many virtues/rewards pointless and/or confusing.
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