Robin S' House Rules

[Robin Smallburrow]

Wasn't sure if people have seen these, so this is just a reminder of my House Rules (also available on my Resources Page):

Tom's House Rules for The One Ring

A. New Traits

As per p.197-198 of the Revised Rulebook, character can as an Undertaking choose a new Speciality or Distinctive Feature, provided in the case of Specialities that they spend at least one Fellowship Phase learning such a skill with a recognised master.

New Specialties
Acrobatics/Circus Performer/Jester/Musician
Acting/Dancing
Administration & Law
Alchemy
Archer/Marksman
Art (Painting etc.)
Astrology/Astronomy
Beekeeping (especially for Beornings)
Camouflage
Cartography/Geography
Disguise (could be lumped in with acting)
Fortune Teller/Foresighted
Gamester/Gambling
Geology & Mining
Heraldry
Historian/Scribe
Horse Archer (see below re riding)
Hypnosis
Interrogation/Torturer
Linguist (could be with historian)
Lip reading
Quick Draw
Riding (I notice previous treatment has made this a virtue, but in my view s/be a specialty)
Sea-craft (sailing etc.)
Strategy & tactics (military)
Teamster
Trapping (this is a specialised skill as distinct from Hunting in general)
Unarmed Combat (especially for the monks!)
Weather Watching

New Distinctive Features
Ambidextrous
City Dweller (means not used to rural)
Fell-Handed (like Helm the Hammerhand)
Flamboyant
Hidden Strength
Lucky (careful with this one as open to abuse)
Phobia (plenty to choose from!)
Rustic (not used to towns/cities)
Strong Willed
Tiresome (tough one to play in a Fellowship)
Tolerant
Weak-willed

B. Racial Shadow Weakness - Fading (Elves Only):
As the long centuries have gone by, you have gradually lost interest in the affairs of Middle-earth, to the point where your physical form has faded to invisibility. You can now only affect the physical Middle-earth through the minds of others, and can no longer take the Straight Road across the Seas for the Undying Lands.

Forgetful You have started to lose interest in current affairs and current concerns, being more interested in events in the distant past (which to you seem to have only happened yesterday). To others it seems that you 'tune out' for periods of time, as if you are in a trance. How long this occurs depends on the situation, but these occurrences will become more frequent and the 'trances' will go on for longer with each 'bout of madness'.

Prankster The endless days, weeks & years have made you bored, to relieve your boredom you like to play pranks, especially on foolish mortals. These pranks are not malicious (usually don't cause death or injury), but can result in other types of loss (economic, Standing etc.). This particular weakness is why elves have a bad reputation with many races. Examples: 'The Emperor's New Clothes', 'Fool's Gold', etc.

Slowed You have spent so long within your refuge (could be as large as Lothlorien or as small as a tree) that you find the real world speeds by too fast - within your refuge you are unaffected, but if you leave your refuge you act in slow motion (-5 to most actions OR everything is now a prolonged action for you). To others who enter your refuge time seems to slow down. Example: Rip Van Winkle's tale.

Fading Your physical body is now starting to fade, becoming invisible to others unless they can see the Unseen World. Starting with your hands and feet, parts of your body will 'fade' in and out of visibility for varying times but gradually longer periods, seriously impacting on your ability to interact physically with the world. How this affects you in game terms depends on what has 'faded' - if your weapon hand has faded, for example, you can't pick up or use a normal weapon (although you could use a special weapon such as Anduril).



C. Combat ideas

1. Optional 'Called Shot' - all characters can also nominate a location they are targeting, and then roll a Location die to attempt to target a specific body location (eye, head etc.) but at +2 TN.

2. Penalties for being Wounded - a character who is wounded is penalised as if Weary (ie ignores rolls of 1-3 on success dice). A character who is Weary AND Wounded also ignores 1-3 on the Feat die. When a wound is caused a Location die is rolled to determine where (by whoever is doing the wounding), and this may result in additional penalties (eg a Head wound means -1 to Wits etc.).

3. If an archer rolls an Eye, must roll a d6: 1-3 has only one arrow left.

4. Any who successfully Ambush can also choose engagement as well as winning initiative. Extra successes when Ambushing allow for extra rounds of ranged weapons, or to Charge an opponent.

5. Extra combat dice can also be used to boost a Parry rating for one roll.

6. Reach - a target who has a weapon of greater reach than an opponent and is aware of the attack makes them harder to hit by adding to the TN the Reach difference b/w weapons: 0 Unarmed; 2 Dagger; 4 Short Sword, Axe; 6 Sword, Great Axe, Mattock; 8 Long Sword, Spear; 10 Great Spear, Lance, Pike

D. The Subtle Magic of Middle Earth and Shadow Points
As the very world of Middle-earth tends to reward 'good' acts and punish 'bad' acts, I feel that there should be more of a penalty for having Shadow Points than there is currently.
The way I see this working is as follows:
Once a character has Shadow Points = Heart Rating, these points begin to affect his actions in the following ways:
1) As a modifier to relevant Skill Tests/Tasks, depending on the situation: eg as a negative modifier to the character's attempts to Persuade, but may actually add as a positive modifier if using Awe to intimidate.
2) Hazards will usually target characters with higher Shadow Points first
3) Likewise, any 'negative' roll that requires a random character to be chosen will target a character with higher Shadow.


Robin S.
Happy to discuss these! I also like the ideas put forward about Reducing Endurance Loss & Armour absorbing impact of blows, but haven't playtested these enough to see if they work. The Elves' Fading is in addition to the Shadow Weakness they get for their Calling, it doesn't replace it!