Need help understanding TOR

[Vaeldroth]

Hi all,

I purchased the TOR game about a year ago when it came out. I was initially stoked, having just-re-read The Hobbit and played LOTRO for awhile, that I'd be able to run a good game of this. However, coming from a 2nd edition AD&D background, I'm really having a hard time understanding how this game is supposed to work. The mechanics seem a lot more complex than anything I've played before.

I played it once when it came out with another DM, but I was lost on how he was adjudicating the whole thing. I was just following directions the whole time for the most part.

There seem to be some abstract ideas that I'm not understanding, such as a lack of gear lists, and what some of the skills do, like "riddle" and "smoking".

Other games I've played are: Star Wars D6, FFG's WHFRP(also totally lost with that one), and several non-RIFTS Palladium games.

If I wanted to run this for a group, what do I need to know to do so with competence?

[Rich H]

... Sorry to be blunt but from your post it sounds like you actually haven't read the rulebooks based on your lack of understanding of things. I recommend you do so, it will help, or if you have previously then sit down and read them again so that they're more recent in your memory.

[Beran]

He said that he had originally planned to run a game... so, I think it safe to say he has read the rules. Now, that being said this game does have a fairly large learning curve. In my group it took the GM and three of us players reading through the rules to get everything straight.

[Rich H]

He said that he had originally planned to run a game... so, I think it safe to say he has read the rules.

You'd be surprised how often that can not be the case.

[Vaeldroth]

Yes, I have read the rules. What I meant by lack of a gear list is explained on page 108 of the player's book. I am used to a gear list of sorts detailing every item the adventurer is carrying, so TOR's way of dealing with equipment is somewhat perplexing.

I really don't understand your attitude here. I was hoping someone could advise on perhaps what sort of a game this is, and maybe someone's own learning experience/difficulties with the system.

As it is, I'm unable to find an interested group in the area, so I think I'll just sell the set.

[Mytholder]

OK, let's start with the basics and get you orientated.

Grab one of the sample characters from the back of the Adventurer's Book. You can ignore most of it for now. See common skills and weapon skills in the middle of the page? They're what you'll be rolling most of the time. When you make a skill roll, you roll a number of d6 equal to the value of the skill, as well as the special 12-sider with the Eye and Gandalf runes (the Feat dice). You need your total to equal or exceed a Target Number, usually 14.

So, the Bride has a hunting skill of 3. She'd roll 3d6+ the feat dice when making a Hunting test.

The Feat dice has two special runes on it. Rolling a Gandalf-rune is an automatic success. Rolling an Eye isn't an automatic failure, but it counts as a 0, and if you fail when you roll an eye, something bad happens to you.

Clear so far?

[SirKicley]

To directly answer your question:

TOR approaches RPGs less anally (if you will) than many other RPGs - especially those heavy on D20. Equipment, money, and many other aspects of the game are "abstract". In many ways this makes the game more easily playable and enjoyable - you can focus on the "game playing" the narration, the roleplaying etc, and not worry about so many of the "crunchy" bits that bog games down. (Like keeping track of a lot of money or keeping track of travelling gear - do I have a torch left? How many Pitons have I used? How many flasks of oil do I have?). After learning to play the game, most people tend to enjoy the more freeform, unplugged, simplistic nature of record-keeping; because it doesn't get in the way. You merely have to learn to abstract, and the Loremaster has to make a lot of arbitrary (fair and go with the flow) decisions that answer many of the non-absolutes. ("Do I have one of these?" "Hmmm, well you have the Mountaineering Trait - so it makes perfect sense you would have a rope, grappling hook, and pitons and some crampons...)

The Traits, and Distinctive features and other issues are abstract also. Unlike a Feat or Special Ability that give a "+2 to this" or "increases damage to that" etc, these only have a couple of narrative sentences to explain what the Trait describes about your character. These traits and Distinctive Features are not just way to describe your character - but they DEFINE his very essence of what makes that person tick. They are so ingrained in their personality that they are both a guide to how to roleplay the character, but also serve to allow certain skills to flourish and even automatically succeed when that skill test directly reflects a trait of a character. For instance you wouldn't expect Kobe Bryant to lose a game of HORSE against some high schoolers. You wouldn't expect Eric Clapton to not know how to play Happy Birthday on the guitar, you wouldn't expect Michael Phelps to drown swimming in a pool - etc. These iconic people have aspects of who they are that clearly defines them. In TOR, someone who's has the Keen Hearing trait doesn't just have good hearing - his hearing is so good that he's renown for it; his friends and family know this so well, they'll go a mile down the road to be out of earshot. Bill Cosby isn't just a humorous person - he's downright hysterically funny. Everyone who knows the name Bill Cosby identifies with him being funny. It would be a trait. So do what Mytholder suggested - look at the pre-gen characters in the back of the book and look over the aspects of the character - then try to imagine what type of character from a personality standpoint would be like. What about his personality, and history, and tendencies would be. A person who has a shy, soft-spoken and timid personality (librarian, artists, computer programmer) would have a completely different lifestyle as someone who is bold, loud, and obnoxious (athlete, rock star, moviestar, construction worker, etc). Someone who is True-Hearted, Honest, and Compassionate (Police officer, social worker, firefighter, EMT), would have made many different choices in their life than someone who is Silver-Tongued, Manipulative, Dishonest (Salesman, Politician, Lawyer). Etc. So in short - these are "guidelines" and meant to be abstract to allow your imagination to take center stage - not the mechanics and rules of every nuance.


On another note - how we approached learning the game is that we spent the first three get-together games just learning ONE aspect of the game. The first one we spent the first 2 hours going over character creation and then spent 3 hours doing JOURNEY rules. The second game we got together and spent 3 hours doing combats and then 2 hours doing Roleplaying encounters. The third game we got together we did a Fellowship Phase together, and worked on Q&A and updating/Advancing characters and changing them a bit - to account for what we learned during the three games. The characters stayed pretty much the same from a flavor standpoint (still a Hobbit Warden with such and such Background), but some of the skill points were re-allocated, and equipment modification made to account for better understanding of the Endurance vs Encumbrance mechanic. All of the above were basically selected from the Marsh Bell adventure and just cherry picked the events that contributed to that system we were learning. So we took all the combats and did them together, and we did all the major roleplaying encounters and did them one after the other and moved the story along in a clunky out of order fashion - but it served the purpose.

The next Adventure I created myself at LM, and did a true-to-form start to finish, using what we learned from the workshop sessions, and the game went smoothly. (You can of course do sample combats and encounters that you created first and then run The Marsh Bell as is, if you prefer, but I wanted published adventure to serve as my tutorial to make sure everything was being done right.

[Chris Gardiner]

Hi Vaeldroth,

I don't want to pile on with advice - the last couple of emails have got some great stuff in. But don't be discouraged - TOR works a bit differently from some other games, but probably less differently than you'd think.

The best way to learn is to just have a crack at the Marsh Bell adventure using the pregenerated characters and learn as you go - with an online group if there's no-one locally interested.

I'm playing in a play-by-post game at the moment which is full up, but the GM (Aiwendil, on these boards) has been happy to let people who aren't playing observe so they can get a feel for the game. The initial thread about it is over here, and you'd like to observe you can contact him via DM.

[Mim]

Gareth, Sir Kicley, & Chris, you post some excellent replies, very well-written. I'm going to use these steps to muddle through my own game.

[Aiwendil]

As a follow-up to Chris' post, I am happy to let people join and observe our game. I am running a home-made crash-course quest right now to gain a greater understanding of the rules. I only recently found out about the TOR product-line (earlier this year) and am therefore new to the mechanics. Not to mention I am running this PbM game via a forum, which is also a new medium for me (been running PbM games for about fifteen years now, but mostly via email).

Anyhow, if interested, feel free to ping me and I'll let you join as an observer... I'm not the best story-teller out there but I suspect you will get a better understanding once you see a session in play (even if virtual). We have a great fellowship right now and while I can't speak for others, I'm having a blast running this adventure for this fine group of Middle-Earth aficionados.

Cheers,

Aiwendil