Misc rules clarifications

[Prancing Pony Tales]

Hi there,

I have a collection of rules in question with our group. Can one of your TOR veterans answer these?

1. How does a PC grapple a foe? Does it require a successful dagger (unarmed) attack, then an athletics check?
Does a grappled foe get to attack the PC?
Can PC attack the foe when grappling it?
Also, what is the called shot effect for an unarmed attack (if any)?

2. Social Encounter sequence: How exactly does a companion assist in an Encounter? Specifically, If Bob is the elected party member who speaks for the party, how can one of the not-introduced party members contribute to the success of the encounter? In the book it says something like "they may not be able to contribute directly, but could us Insight or Riddle to make suggestions." Well what exactly does that mean? Does a successful Riddle give the party's speaker an extra success die? or a +1? or does it mean the assisting companions successful Riddle test counts directly as one of the required successes for the encounter?

3. When a PC rolls an eye on an attack, it triggers a called shot from the foe. Does the called shot effect take place on a simple success on the foe's next attack, or is a great success required, as with PC initiated called shots? Further, what if the foe gets an extraordinary success?

4. In the Rivendell expansion, the Rangers of the North have a cultural ability which grants the distinctive feature "foresight" which can be evoked to trigger a day of sort-of prescience that stems from their ancestors. It is obvious that foresight is evoked just like "elusive" would be by saying "Hmm. It seems like my Ranger might have a sense of whether releasing this prisoner may connect to dark maneuverings in M.E." or else "Oh, man I just said that I had a feeling something bad was going to happen on this trip to Bree, and then we were attacked!"
In my last session, I never managed to envoke foresighted, because it always felt like I was always saying "Hmm, maybe my ranger would have foresight about whether this campsite, inn, stranger, moonrise, pint of ale, or what-have-you, will lead to dark turns of events? No? Ok." or else just saying "this campsite, inn, stranger, moonrise, pint of ale or what-have-you, gives me a bad feeling." hoping something will happen there that make the statement foresight. Just felt phony trying to activate it like that. Can you suggest ways to envoke it with more finesse or better narrative placement?

5. When building the refuge at Girdley Island, can the fellowship divide the first 3 tasks (clearing, opening and transporting materials) between them and complete them all in the first fellowship phase, or does each player have to spend 5 fellowship phases total on this refuge?
Also, do all players have to focus only on the building (Building I and Building II) for 2 fellowship phases?

Thanks folks!

[zedturtle]

1. The brawling rules are found on page 175 of the core rules. There's some more detail in Ruins of the North about less-than-lethal attacks as well.

2. During an Encounter, the Loremaster is keeping track of the number of successes that the company is accumulating. A success at reading the intent behind a Loremaster-character's words (i.e. an Insight roll) or at figuring out what has been left unsaid (a Riddle roll) might count towards those successes. Furthermore, a Loremaster might provide the hero with additional information gleaned from those rolls.

3. The adversary needs to roll a Tengwar in order to trigger the Called Shot. Most Called Shots involve normal weapon damage (computed as usual, so a successful Called Shot always does 'above average' damage) but an adversary is free to select the most appropriate Called Shot that it can use.

4. I responded in the other thread. You invoke a Trait by doing one of three specific things with it: using it to achieve a basic success instead of rolling; using it to get an Advancement point after a successful roll or using it to allow a roll when none was allowed. It's up to you to explain what that means in the context of the fiction. Once the Foresighted Trait has been activated, it's in play for the remainder of the session (for whatever that means to your group).

5. Most of this seems like questions for your Loremaster as it up to them about the requirements for each stage (what makes sense based on what has gone before). As written, at least one companion has to take part in each stage, but there's no requirement for the company as whole to participate.

[Stormcrow]

1. The brawling rules are found on page 175 of the core rules. There's some more detail in Ruins of the North about less-than-lethal attacks as well.

No, there are no rules for grappling.

I recommend using the normal (Dagger) attack to determine a successful grapple, but with no damage, then during the other side's turn making an opposed test of Athletics to determine whether they can break free of the grapple.

2. During an Encounter, the Loremaster is keeping track of the number of successes that the company is accumulating. A success at reading the intent behind a Loremaster-character's words (i.e. an Insight roll) or at figuring out what has been left unsaid (a Riddle roll) would count towards those successes. Furthermore, a Loremaster might provide the hero with additional information gleaned from those rolls.

I don't think the "passive" reference has to do with counting up successes, which is, let us remember, an optional rule, and isn't always relevant even when the rule is used.

"Usually, only characters who introduced themselves properly during the introduction may take an active role in the following interaction. On the other hand, characters who didn’t introduce themselves may take a more passive role, for example proposing actions using Insight or Riddle."

I think this means unintroduced characters can't perform tasks that interact with the Loremaster character, but they can perform tasks that gather information for the introduced characters. "I want to use Riddle to tell whether he is telling the truth." "I want to use Insight to tell whether he would react better to a proposal of taking arms or a proposal of negotiations."

These rolls wouldn't contribute toward counting successes, which is usually about the Loremaster character being impressed with the player-heroes. The character isn't going to be more impressed because of secret counsels of heroes they never speak to.

3. When a PC rolls an eye on an attack, it triggers a called shot from the foe.

An adversary only attempts a called shot when a player-hero fails AND rolls an Eye.

3. The adversary needs to roll a Tengwar in order to trigger the Called Shot.

The called shot is triggered by the hero failing an attack with an Eye. Any called shot FAILS TO HIT if there is not at least one Tengwar on the roll. Damage of a called shot is exactly the damage you'd otherwise expect, PLUS the special effect of the called shot (meaning a called shot is always at least a great success).

[Falenthal]

1. The brawling rules are found on page 175 of the core rules. There's some more detail in Ruins of the North about less-than-lethal attacks as well.

No, there are no rules for grappling.

I recommend using the normal (Dagger) attack to determine a successful grapple, but with no damage, then during the other side's turn making an opposed test of Athletics to determine whether they can break free of the grapple.

The conditions for the Size Victim special ability could apply for heroes grappling a foe. Would use Dagger, too, as is the ability for brawling and unarmed combat. The TN for the foe to free himself could be 10+Hero's Body Attribute:

If the creature’s main form of attack has hit, the creature
may hold on to the target to reduce the mobility of the
victim: a seized victim cannot change stance, and sees its
Parry rating reduced to half (rounding fractions up).
A hero may free himself by forfeiting his attack and rolling
Athletics against a TN equal to 10, plus the Attribute level
of the seizing creature.
The seizing creature cannot attack with its main weapon
as long as it is seizing the target (but can freely use a
secondary attack if it possesses one).

[zedturtle]

These rolls wouldn't contribute toward counting successes, which is usually about the Loremaster character being impressed with the player-heroes. The character isn't going to be more impressed because of secret counsels of heroes they never speak to.

I went ahead and tweaked my answer to 'might', since you're right that the heroes would need to capitalise on that knowledge in order to benefit from it.