Need help understanding TOR

[Hermes Serpent]

The One Ring game is designed to be a role playing game that plays like the written work of Professor Tolkien, the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

If you haven't yet read at least The Hobbit then get a copy and read it. That will set the tone of the role playing game. This is very much like the social aspects of England in a much earlier time - the 1920's and '30's. Everyone is fairly polite and though there is not much evidence of the absurdities of the English social class system the orcs/goblins are definitely lower class. If you've seen things like Upstairs Downstairs or Downton Abbey on TV you'll see that these model the social conventions of their time.

The main thread of the Professor's Lord of the Ring's books is the war of the Free Peoples against the Shadow, often seen as a analogue of the fight against the rise of facism in the 30's when the Professor was writing the books. To that end the player-heroes take the part of members of the Free People fighting against the rise of Sauron. The tone is very much black and white, Good vs. Evil.

The Darkening of Mirkwood, which is the soon to be published campaign, will provide a framework for that fight of Good vs. Evil to slow down the rise of Sauron which culminates in the story written in Lord of the Rings.

So what do you do. You, as player-heroes, are set tasks and challenges to fight against the Adversaries who are assisting Sauron. The players and LoreMaster/GM are encouraged to role play and speak in character as an integral part of the story. The advancement system encourages using skills to gain Advancement Points to increase skills and to turn up each session and advance the story to get Experience Points to spend of increasing you Wisdom, Valour and combat skills.

You could also listen to an actual play session or two (there are several about) to get a feel for how some people play the game.

[jamesrbrown]

Have you read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien? That would be a great way to begin understanding the setting of Middle-earth. If you haven't read it yet, allow me to give you a very brief synopsis. Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit who'd rather stay home in safety than go on an adventure, joins a company of Dwarves to reclaim Erebor (their home under the Lonely Mountain) and their treasure, which has been taken over by an intelligent, fire-breathing Dragon named Smaug. Along the way, they overcome many challenges.

In The One Ring, there are three basic heroic ventures: journeys, encounters, and combats. The heroes will go on an adventure together as a fellowship or company, and during their quest, they will most likely participate in all three types of heroic venture. A typical short adventure might include an opening combat, a journey, an encounter, and then a final combat. This is the format of the adventure Words of the Wise written by Dominic McDowall-Thomas, with Francesco Nepitello. During play, the player-heroes will propose Tasks using their Common skills and Traits to accomplish things and gain Advancement points. If they play a good game and succeed well at their objectives, they will also gain Experience points. Advancement points can be used to increase Common skills while Experience points can be spent to increase Weapon skills, Wisdom, and Valour.

There is so much more to the game than that. I realize you have an English language struggle, but if you're up to it, I invite you to read my review of the game to understand even more. Just click here to download it!

[Eluadin]

To anyone new, more so if they might play the role of Loremaster, I suggest watching the C7 interviews of Francesco Nepitello way back in 2011. Jon Hodgson acted as chief interrogator. As all of us were waiting for the game's release, these Interviews really helped people understand where the game and C7 team were coming from in designing TOR.

Brilliantly and with a little bruglar's luck (hmm, expert Treasure-hunter if you please or so I'm being told over my shoulder), C7 has stayed true to this vision first articulated in the 2011 interviews. You know, everyone has a perspective. Having the designer's perspective helps even more!

These interviews are on YouTube if you search for Cubicle7TV.

Warm regards,
Scott

Ps.
This forum never ceases to amaze me with the encouragement and advice freely offered. I'm one of those who benefit on the side, not having asked the question but garnering rich treasure from the answers.

[LiMaYa]

I'm sorry for the late reply. My boyfriend got really sick so I was very busy taking care of him. Only, good thing of him being sick is he started to read the Fellowship of the Ring so I hope he likes the books and movies then he'll want to play with my girlfriends and I.

I think my problem is that this game isn't very quantitative and more qualitative. So my english barrier is stronger unless there is a Japanese or Chinese translation. So, it takes me a lot longer to understand it versus the other games I've played which are much more math/stats/ based. Fewer abstract and more quantifiable rules. Thanks for the advice!

[Orientalist]

Hello all,

I have the same issues as many RPG players around the Net. I have no idea how to play The One Ring.

I've bought all the books, I love the aesthetics, the language, really, everything about them. I have tried many many times to learn how to play the game, printed many cheat sheets found online, watched some Youtube sessions (not very interesting), returned to the core books again and again but still: no idea how the game is supposed to work. Currently my players are my wife and my kid. Veeeery casual players, in other words. We all love Tolkien (me, for 20 years now). I will love to teach and play The One Ring with them but reaching Saturn seems a more doable action than playing this game.

Sure, there is the Language barrier as well, English is not my main Language but even so, so far I had no problem teaching and playing Call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder, Numenera, D&D, DCC or Cubicle 7's Doctor Who.

Are there any (radical) suggestions for a very lost The One Ring RPG enthusiast? Suggestions for at least getting the basics of how the game plays and how an adventure works?

[Oskar]

Hi Orientalist!

Can you try to analyze the situation?


What is it that is missing?


For whom is this a problem? Has your wife or kid complained? Or are they reluctant to play more? Or do you all share this problem?


When does the problem appear?
On certain parts of the game,, like on the Journey in the wild, or when interacting with NPCs or is it during combat? Or is it more process-oriented - that they have a hard time focusing on the task?
Or are you guys just not having fun?

You seem to want to ask about the rules and how to play the game.

Have you tried to play the introductory adventure "The Marsh-Bell"? (found in the LM-book)
What parts where fun and what parts where more boring when you played it?


Answer this and I will try to help you out.

[Hermes Serpent]

More thoughts on top of Oskar's.

We know what role playing games have you previously played but what do you think is different about playing TOR?

In all those games you generate a character - same in TOR.
The character joins others in doing things in a game world - same in TOR.
Are you able to describe what your character is doing in the game world -- no different in TOR.

That's the main things regarding playing.

Now GMing/LMing/Running the game as referee is slightly different.
You can show the players the map (the one without hexes) and ask them where they want to go. Now you may have an idea of something for them to look for - The Marsh Bell (looking for missing dwarves) or you may just offer then the chance to examine Middle-earth. The Company Objectives (AB p120) will help here. If their objective is to rid the Mountains of Mirkwood of orcs then killing orcs in the Mountains of Mirkwood is what you can give them.

The better way of starting is to have the heroes look around their starting location - Esgaroth/Laketown for example and set up some encounters with people. The Laketown sourcebook that comes with the screen has lots of people to visit. These people have suggestions for tasks that the heroes can do or you can insert your own 'hooks' to get the players started.

Tales from Wilderland starts out with a hook concerning a merchant being attacked by his employees and goes on from there. You could use this as written or start your own adventure in a similar way.

[Orientalist]

Thank you Oskar and Hermes!

Rather than waste your time I will start again reading the two main books. At this moment everything is VERY HAZY in my mind. I don't even know where to start. What I cant understand about playing The One Ring? Well ... everything. My case is not a case of "oh, that I understand but how exactly do you do X or Y thing?". No, I don't understand anything regarding The One Ring. As you can see, I am in a very dire situation. Here are these wonderful wonderful books in my hands, I cant start to play it and teach the game to others and I don't even know when to roll the die and how to read them.

So I will read the books again and then, in a few days, I will post my questions and confusions here.

Many many thanks!

[Hermes Serpent]

I'm going to suggest that you make a character to start.
Once you have a character then you can show others how to do that.
Here's a check list:
1) Select a Heroic Culture – There are seven possible cultural choices for a character in TOR (page numbers in Adventurers Book or LakeTown Source Book).
Bardings (p35) (Cultural blessing p37, Backgrounds p38)
Beornings (p41) (Cultural blessing p43, Backgrounds p44)
Men of the Lake (p25 LTSB) (Cultural blessing p26 LTSB, Backgrounds p27 LTSB)
Woodmen of Wilderland (p66) (Cultural blessing p69, Backgrounds p69)
Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain (p47) (Cultural blessing p49, Backgrounds p50)
Elves of Mirkwood (p53) (Cultural blessing p55, Backgrounds p57)
Hobbits of the Shire (p60) (Cultural blessing p62, Backgrounds p63)
These cultural choices provide basic attribute values for a character.
1. Record a character’s Cultural blessing and skill list.
2. Select two Specialities from the list for your character's culture.
3. Roll (or choose) Background from the list for your character's culture.
4. Record Basic Attributes and Favoured Skill from the list for your character's culture.
5. Select two Distinctive Features.
2) Customise your Hero
1. Choose your hero’s Favoured Attributes (1, 2, 3 in Body, Heart and Wits, used as a bonus in tests of favoured skills).
2. Spend Previous Experience to buy skill levels.
3. Choose a Calling and Favoured skills.
There are five callings that the characters may choose to personalise their character – Scholars (p72), Slayers (p73), Treasure-hunters (p73), Wanderers (p74) or Wardens (p74). These determine the type and level of skills you have and your weapon skills.
Skills
Favoured skills are underlined and describe a character’s peculiar talent in the field described by the ability.
(Cultural) skills are enclosed in brackets.
4. Generate the scores for Endurance and Hope (based on your culture + your Heart score) .
5. Prioritise the scores for Valour and Wisdom (choosing your starting Reward or Virtue).
6. Record Starting Gear and Fatigue (The Encumbrance total of your equipment).

Having made a character the next step is Journey's (LMB p31)
Select the start and end point for the journey.
Count hexes on the hex map (LMB p33) and multiply by 10 and that is miles. Divide by 20 (miles per day) and you get days of travel. According to season you travel a certain number of days between Travel tests. Each season related number of days every character tests their Travel skill (roll Feat die plus number of dice in that Travel skill) against a target number of 14. On a failure add one or two points (according to season) to your fatigue total. If the character gets an Eye of Sauron symbol then the Loremaster calls for a hazard (there's a list on p35 of the Loremaster book). Play out the Hazard (it's just like a Wandering monster in D&D).

At any time during an adventure a company can have an Encounter with someone notable. This may be a questgiver or someone with information.
Set the Rating of the Encounter by the level of Wisdom or Valour depending upon which the person values most (LMB p52). Each failure of the skill test (roll a skill - Courtesy, riddle etc against target number 14) is tallied against the Rating of the Encounter and when the number of failures matches the Rating then the NPC has nothing more to say.

Hope this helps you understand the game.

[Elmoth]

I would suggest reading these 2:

1. Basic game reviews. These will show you the basic die mechanic and more or less make a walkthrough of the game. Here are a pair of them. The internet is quite abundant with these if you need more:
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15710.phtml (I like this one)
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15457.phtml


2. Some Actual plays. These will set you on what a game looks like. I recommend the Up the Reiking River one by John Marron and his troupe.
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?592 ... king-River

3. Do try to understand one mechanic at a time, not all at the same time. Check how a basic test is done.
Then go and check how the combat stances and combat attacks are done and the effects of a successful hit. Then check under what circumstances you score a penetrating hit and its effects. Then the other things in combat.

Once you are confident with these, check how Hope can be used in regular tests and in combat situations.

Etc etc. Do not try to swallow it all at once or you will choke. Happens with most dense RPGs, so you already know what I say for sure

4. Play around the character creator online. it explains a lot of the mechanics on character creation easily by reading the "?" boxed texts. You can find it here: http://azrapse.es/tor/sheet.html

Hope that helps,
Xavi