TOR adaptations for one-shot sessions format

[tomfish]

Dear fellow loremasters,


I have found recently that playing TOR one-shot sessions was quite enjoyable, sometime even more satisfying than long-running campaigns (I'll have to figure out why, but it probably has to do with a sense of immediacy, and completeness at the end of a session).

The issue I have is that Hope VS Shadow, one of the most interesting mechanics in The One Ring is not really suited for one-shot sessions, as Hope is meant to slowly decrease and Shadow slowly increase until the bouts of Madness start showing (if they ever do).

I'd like to think about a one-shot adaptation where bouts of Madness and Negative traits can happen, and keep it linked to Hope Vs Shadow score (so not just by Rolling an Eye on a corruption test, which is the mechanic I initially thought of but totally random and independent from player agency).

I did not think this through before, so here are a few ideas top of my head :

- Change nothing to the rules, but start with pre-generated characters which have accrued quite a lot of Shadow and spent some Hope (giving them 2-3 points difference only). Drawback : that means characters must be relatively advanced and experienced, not necessarily ideal for some scenarios.

- Find a way to make Corruption tests dependent on Hope minus Shadow score, and have bouts of Madness happen when they are failed. Drawback : not really a very TOR-oriented mechanic.

- Have Shadow accumulate much more quickly (for instance triple or quadruple all Shadow gains) but add mechanics for Shadow recovery during the session (Song, Encounters, Craft, etc.). Drawback ?


I'd really like to make these small adaptations to keep one of the core mechanics of the One Ring interesting in a one-shot format.

Any comments, or other ideas ?

Also, are there other elements of the rules you'd keep aside for doing one-shots (apart from the obvious like experience and progression) ?

[Deadmanwalking]

Personally, I'd just be inclined to start everyone with, like, 1/3 of standard starting Hope, to reflect the fact that you very rarely want to spend more than that in a session. Even starting at 0 Shadow, that gets people perilously close, since it makes starting Hope scores around 3-6.

You give a Fellowship Pool as normal, of course.

You explain that a normal game would have more Hope...but also few ways to recover it. People will almost certainly be willing to roll with it.

[zedturtle]

How about this as an idea?

Starting Shadow for a 1-shot is equal to Valour + Wisdom

Starting Hope for everybody is equal to 6 + basic Heart.

That allows everyone a bit of a margin, and keeps those Cultures that are especially Hopeful (like Hobbits) a bit ahead of the pack. But it's close enough (especially for one-shots, where Hope is spent like water) so that folks will feel a bit of the burn.

It also, if you run multiple games with different experience levels, allows players to get a bit of a handle on how Hope is important to starting heroes and less useful for older heroes.

[Falenthal]

Both ideas look good to me.
Personally I don't give them the Fellowship Pool, however. It's an extra source of Hope points that will bias your calculations. Besides, it's a mechanic that has to do with a group of people (both the characters and the players) that have been together for some time, and know and trust each other. Not so fit for a one-shot.
The Twice Baked Honey Cakes Virtue, and the Hobbits' Blessing do lose, in my one-shot games, the power to increase the FP. Only reducing the TN of the Fatigue tests, and rolling the feat die twice on Corruption tests, are enough of a benefit to me.

[Deadmanwalking]

Both ideas look good to me.
Personally I don't give them the Fellowship Pool, however. It's an extra source of Hope points that will bias your calculations. Besides, it's a mechanic that has to do with a group of people (both the characters and the players) that have been together for some time, and know and trust each other. Not so fit for a one-shot.
The Twice Baked Honey Cakes Virtue, and the Hobbits' Blessing do lose, in my one-shot games, the power to increase the FP. Only reducing the TN of the Fatigue tests, and rolling the feat die twice on Corruption tests, are enough of a benefit to me.

I dunno. The Fellowship Pool strikes me as useful and necessary as a teamwork builder mechanically. If one player is low on Hope, but the whole party want him to spend to succeed, well, he can spend from the Fellowship pool. It helps them think like a team to have a team-based resource.

Thematically, it's not necessarily an issue either. I mean, out of character it's a one-shot, but nothing says the characters can't have known each other and worked together for some time. Many of the best one shots I've played have had built in connections between the PCs and backgrounds reflecting those (one paragraph backgrounds, mind you, but still). This setup also lets you assign Fellowship Focuses, which is fun in several ways even without the Hope recovery element.

And, for the record, I'd be inclined to advocate slightly more than 1/3 starting Hope if going without the Fellowship Pool. The 1/3 sounds about right assuming there is such a pool. Oh, and for the record, I'd round up on the 1/3 thing...though if creating characters with this system in mind, you can avoid needing to fairly readily.

[Earendil]

The one time I ran a one-shot, I gave the characters one-third hope for this reason. I rounded to the nearest whole number whether that was up or down, as that gave the best balanced result to my mind.

I kept the Fellowship pool as I think it's a big part of the game, encouraging them to think as a team as Deadmanwalking says. I didn't give them any Shadow, though there was a chance or two to gain it during the session, so a Bout of Madness was unlikely, but not impossible. (It didn't happen: in fact it's never happened in my campaign either. )

Giving them a starting point of Shadow would probably be fine, but no more than one, I think (assuming you're going with one-third Hope).

I also made up the characters with some extra starting experience: weak starting characters are fine in a campaign, but for a one-shot you generally want them to be more capable, or the players may get frustrated.

[tomfish]

Very interesting this 1/3 Hope approach, I'll have to try it to see how it goes. I also may have characters with a couple of Shadow points and maybe a negative trait.

I am attracted to using more negative traits, as they don't seem to happen very often in most TOR games I know of, but they add a very Tolkien flavour (in my opinion Tolkien characters, behind their obvious moral qualities, also have shades of grey which make them "real", and I'd like to see that more).

Thanks for your inputs, very useful.

[Falenthal]

I LMed today a one-shot demo of TOR in a small con. I had four players and used the usual starting Hope, and no Fellowship pool.

My conclusion was clear:
For the next time, I'll go with your proposals of reducing Hope to one third, and giving a Fellowship pool.

It didn't go that bad, but Hope was spent like water, and there were nearly no failures in the tests during the game as a consequence. Not such a bad thing for a demo, as it allowed the adventure to keep rolling without having to stop now and then because everyone failed an important test or such.
But Hope wasn't seen as something really important.

Let's see how it goes next time.

[Indur Dawndeath]

You could also let the players decide by purchasing XP and AP for Hope and Shadow.
Lets say 1 Hope equals 2XP and 1 Shadow equals 8 AP.
Accept a permanent Shadow and a negative trait for a Wonderous magic item, or two for an enchanted weapon / armour...
Some players would get close to misserable and others would have a nice margin, but it would be the players choice.

I would have fun creating such a character for a one shot...

Cheers

[finarvyn]

I haven't had a chance to run TOR one-shots yet, but I like what I'm seeing here.

(1) Seems to me like in a one-shot it's important to limit the amount of Hope so that players realize that it's a valuable resource not to be wasted. The 1/3 rule certainly seems to have the right feel to it, and it's a simple fix. Actually, limiting Hope is nice in a long-term campaign as well as in an one-shot, as long as there are ways to regain it otherwise.

(2) I agree that the Fellowship Pool is important in building that "team" concept. I'm a big believer that players need to learn to be cooperative, as so many folks are attracted to the "mysterious stranger" concept which doesn't work well with others of the same type.

Looking forward to more discussion on how this has worked in actual play.