Need help understanding TOR

[Mim]

@HermesSerpent: You write an excellent summary of how to play.

You post regularly, so might I suggest that you place that in your name sig, similar to the way that Rich H. does with his contributions? You may be able to help other people. Just my two pence

[Hermes Serpent]

@Mim, I don't think that was all my work just something I pulled out of the old forum and amended and formatted nicely for my players. I will think about putting the pdf up in my G+ Drive though.

[Mim]

Thanks again for posting & formatting it for us & your G+ Drive sounds like a good idea.

[Orientalist]

Once again, thanks to all, especially to Hermes, Oskar and Elmoth.

In the end, I think I should admit it and move on. I will never be able to play this game. I've started reading again the books and the suggested reviews, actual plays, etc and I realize this game is a bit too much for me to chew. Even if I will suddenly start to understand how the rules works I will not be prepared (mentally) to DM the game for anyone, not even for my family. It is a VERY intimidating game for a DM.

This game is huge. Trying to break into it feels like trying to decipher an ancient code written in an unknown language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4YqSF-dcqI

I will continue to buy the TOR books and supplements, I absolutely love them. It is nice to browse them and think that one day I will play this awesome game. Until then, back to muuuuuch simpler games like World War Cthulhu, Doctor Who or Pathfinder.

[Elmoth]

It took a weekend for me to "break" it, as you say. This is way lower than a lot of other games out there. I do not find it specially intimidating

You need to know that basic difficulty to do stuff is 14. You roll XD6+D12, X being your skill level for the ability. So a skill of 41% chance of success, and skill level 3 about 2/3 chance of success. If the D12 gets you a Gandalf rune, you get an autosuccess, and if it is an eye of sauron you are screwed. The 6s you get make your successes better. If you are tired, the 1-2-3 values in the die are not added up when you roll, so you roll significantly lower. You are weary when your Endurance falls to your Fatigue level (fatigue is adding up all the Encumbranc eof the gear you carry). These mechanics works for all stuff.

For combat, you select one of the 4 stances (forwards, open, defensive or rearward). Rearwards can only be chosen if 2 guys on your side are fighting in the other stances. Each one has a target number that is used to hit and be hit. To hit you use the target number + the Parry of the opponent. SI if you are in Open (9) and the orc you face has a Parry of 3, you need to roll 12 or more to hit him. They will have to roll 9 + YOUR Parry to hit you.

If you hit and roll equal or above the Edge of your weapon (for example, 10 for a sword, so you get an edge on a 10 or a Gandalf rune) you score a Penetrating hit. A critical hit, basically. Then the target needs to equal the damage of the weapon (16 for a sword) rolling his armor dice+D12. If he equals or rolls above, you score normal damage (5 for a sword) if he does not, he gets that same damage AND is wounded. If wounded, most enemies fall dead automatically. A hero wounded does not die immediately unless he is wounded again or is wounded AND falls to 0 endurance in the same turn. being wounded is important because you recover really slowly and are in danger of dying if wounded again.

If you fail a roll, you can spend a point of Hope to add the Attribute associated with the skill to the roll. If it is a favoured ability (the underlined ones) you add the FAVOURED attribute level (the higher number in the smaller circle). That value is added to your basic result.

And this is the basic mechanic of the game Way less complicated than most games out there. There are other stuff (sub-options for the diverse stances, how you recover Hope points, the use of valor and wisdom...) but you can have a whole adventure with what I just wrote above. The basic adventure in the book seems like a good place to start, since it shows quite a lot of the mechanics in diverse situations in a straightforward adventure.

Cheers,
Xavi

[Orientalist]

WOW Elmoth!

That REALLY helps, thank you! Yes, this kind of down-to-earth, bare-bones mechanics I need to know in order to start learning the game.

Fantastic advises there Elmoth!

[Hermes Serpent]

Actually Elmoth slight correction. When the attacker gets a special hit (varies according to type of weapon) the defender rolls their Protection on the Feat die plus the armour dice and has to score the Injury Rating. A failure scores a Wound plus the damage from the weapon. Extra damage only occurs if you rolled a six on the success dice (the D6's) and is Body value extra damage for each six.

The Injury value of a weapon has nothing to do with the amount of damage inflicted.

[Elmoth]

Corrected it and added a small bit about success probabilities. with TN 14.

[alien270]

I will continue to buy the TOR books and supplements, I absolutely love them. It is nice to browse them and think that one day I will play this awesome game. Until then, back to muuuuuch simpler games like World War Cthulhu, Doctor Who or Pathfinder.

Pathfinder is definitely one of the more complex games out there! Another piece of advice is that you should try to unlearn much of what games like Pathfinder have taught you. There won't be a rule for everything in The One Ring. It has a straightforward, flexible core mechanic that can be applied to a wide variety of situations, unless you've got a specific Virtue or Reward that provides an exception to that rule.

I can see Traits being a sticking point for experienced gamers who are new to TOR specifically. Don't think about them in terms of "what mechanical benefits do they provide?" They let you influence the narrative, sometimes bypassing the rolling of dice because it's something your character is so good at that they're going to succeed.

[stumbler]

Nice summary Elmoth. I vote that you turn your summary into a quick start 'pdf' that can be shared with new players. (That being said, head still spins with the what attributes, ratings, and other factors are involved in resolving a hit and figuring damage, etc.)