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Re: TOR vs AiME, can't decide which...

Posted: Thu May 10, 2018 7:11 pm
by Kenomica
Elmoth wrote:
Thu May 10, 2018 3:32 pm
Just in case it might be useful to the discussion, this was posted by John White in the G+ AIME Community. A review of his experience playing AIME compared to regular D&D.
Just finished our campaign. Homebrew adventures. PCs were 9th level for last game. They foiled a plot by Allatar the Blue to release Melkor from his void prison below the Withered Heath.

A few comments:

Cubicle 7 successfully brings Middle Earth to 5e. Classes and cultures are distinct and nicely flavored. Balanced? That depends on your campaign. We have numerous combat encounters. The Scholar class was very weak for us.

The journey mechanic is fun. But at higher skill and proficiency bonus levels, it is not quite as challenging. As the PCs advanced in level, I began using the journey events and arrival mechanics more loosely to fit the campaign narrative.

At high levels, PCs -especially the weapon master warrior - dish out a lot of damage. Almost auto hits due to various advantage conditions and 5e’s lower AC’s.

The PCs took down an adult white dragon in two rounds. Of course one PC did die.

The also fled (and later killed) a balrog (D&D balor) and killed Melkor (a Lich). Three PCs down - last man standing revived two comrades. The third was very dead. Combat with the lich would have been tougher if it had lackeys in support.

AiME does not have enough monsters. I do like the Lore Master’s Guide features for modifying monsters and terrain. Lots of orc encounters, but they all felt different.

We treated heirloom weapons as magic weapons. Other than that, the setting is low magic. Fun for a while, but I think my group began to miss the free wheeling spell casting of D&D.

Shadow points are cool - but severely punishing. A miserable PC is almost unplayable.

Overall, depending on your group’s style of play, I highly recommend Adventures in Middle Earth. At least for a shorter campaign. No magic, no long rest in the wild, Shadow points - all make this is a challenging almost unforgiving setting. On the other hand, PCs become quite formidable themselves.
Not to be disrespectful to another's campaign, but that doesn't seem very Tolkien-esque at all to me (slicing through balrogs & dragons and...Melkor?!) - definitely not my experience with AiME so far. :shock:

Re: TOR vs AiME, can't decide which...

Posted: Thu May 10, 2018 8:48 pm
by Glorelendil
Kenomica wrote:
Thu May 10, 2018 7:11 pm
Not to be disrespectful to another's campaign, but that doesn't seem very Tolkien-esque at all to me (slicing through balrogs & dragons and...Melkor?!) - definitely not my experience with AiME so far. :shock:
Agree.

A year or two ago a few of us (meaning a few of us here on the forums) did a one-shot PbP to test out a homebrew TOR Balrog. We each created very powerful, but RAW, TOR characters. The Balrog didn't stand a chance.

This was partly because we had designed characters specifically for fighting a single, very powerful adversary, but I think even more because he was a single adversary.

An official Balrog would, I think, need to be even more powerful than what we used. More importantly, a Balrog would be smart enough to have minions. (The trick then, I suppose, is to lure him into a trap. Just be careful your party leader doesn't fall into the trap with him...)

Re: TOR vs AiME, can't decide which...

Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 4:15 pm
by Majestic
I think it's quite Tolkienesque, it's just more First Age than Third Age. There were a number of Balrogs in the Silmarillion, after all.

Re: TOR vs AiME, can't decide which...

Posted: Sat May 12, 2018 4:20 pm
by ronsharma
Just go with TOR man ;)

Re: TOR vs AiME, can't decide which...

Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 1:54 pm
by Kenomica
Irinyir wrote:
Tue May 08, 2018 11:45 am
Obviously the easy answer is buy both of them, although financially I'm also in a position to only invest in one system at the moment.
Exactly. I wish I could invest in both too - as well as one of the best gaming companies :mrgreen:
Irinyir wrote:
Tue May 08, 2018 11:45 am
Having done some more research, I've decided to try out TOR first. Mostly because a lot of people say it is probably the best Middle Earth roleplay in regards to capturing the feel, spirit and essence of Tolkien’s works. The artwork throughout all the TOR material is also beautiful and this has been another factor in my decision.

I will certainly give you my thoughts on TOR once I’ve tried it out.

Thanks
Good luck! I hope you enjoy it - I look forward to hearing how you find TOR! :D

EDIT:

Had a sort of mini 'talk about the campaign session' today. Based on this discussion, we started talking about TOR & the differences. We are actually considering changing to TOR since now, after much discussion, we realise the abstract treasure system is actually quite well done - I like the idea of 'day to day pocket change vs Treasure' as well as seeing how the combat abstraction leaves more room for RP in combat.

Still not 100% sold on TOR's Standing rules (seem a bit off?) Journeys (seem a bit more boring and less RP friendly than AiME's events) and Encounters/Audiences (Same reason as Journeys)