How is Smoking supposed to be used?

[SirKicley]

I was originally going to say "and we need a specific character quality to smoke a pipe?" But, then I read SirKicley excellent examples. However, it does have a limited use in most games.

It's important to remember that having a trait isn't required to be able to know how to do it. A trait means that it's a character-defining aspect of you. It is so much a part of you that it can lend itself to a number of areas that most other smokers would not.

Limited use? Yeah - but as I said - I've found ways to use it in 2 out of 3 games; which is a pretty solid record. I don't expect any of my distinctive features or traits to be used more than half of the time - but I have 5 to choose from and find ways to utilize them. Ultimately it's a good roleplaying tool that evokes imagination and creative uses. Which for me at least is a lot of the fun of this game.

Robert

[Stormcrow]

However, it does have a limited use in most games.

It is applicable to wherever the character wants to make it applicable. The examples of traits in action, in which Trotter leaves a hall for a smoke, illustrates the player using his trait to accomplish something that would seem to be unrelated to anything.

People often confuse the Distinctive Features of The One Ring with the special abilities of other games. They are not this. The point is not to have a bonus. Distinctive Features makes it possible and desirable to play up a character's unique personality, by rewarding such play. You can get automatic successes and override the loremaster for simply being Stern or Merry! You'll want your character to act like more than some skills and abilities in order to gain these benefits.

So don't think of distinctive features as special abilities. They're player-controlled plot hooks and escape hatches.

[poosticks7]

If anyone wants to turn my lists in the old forum into a Pdf feel free to do so (hint hint Rich)

I'm a bit busy at the moment so I haven't been on much lately.

[Rich H]

If anyone wants to turn my lists in the old forum into a Pdf feel free to do so (hint hint Rich)

I'm a bit busy at the moment so I haven't been on much lately.

I'll happily does so matey when I get time but at the moment my latest contract has me working away from home all week and working looooooooooooooooong hours so I'm not getting a lot of time to spare. Will try and make an effort to catch up with all things TOR over the next couple of weeks, which also includes typing up my play test notes for a game Francesco sent me!

[Osric]

Poosticks' list at http://cubicle7.clicdev.com/f/index.php ... topic=4190 notes the ways Smoking can benefit tasks under Riddle, Courtesy, and Stealth.

If it's not obvious to anyone, Tolkien's direct example of the Riddle application to gain clarity when puzzling something out is when Gandalf in Moria has to choose between three possible routes.

I'd add to this the example of the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, who famously (or notoriously) used to light or relight his pipe to buy himself thinking time when posed a difficult question by an interviewer.

Also, along the same lines as the Courtesy one, having a pipe with a fellow aficionado might well afford an advantage on an Insight task for sizing him up. (If he was avoiding being sized up it'd be opposed by his Riddle, I guess, and the Loremaster should presumably veto the invoking of Smoking for an automatic success. Heh: "the invoking of Smoking"...)

In my game it occasionally makes for a neat roleplaying detail or good piece of characterisation for the dwarf, Toki the Toymaker -- whose player did not choose this genuine Old Norse name by accident! But it admittedly doesn't often manifest as the specific TOR examples of (1) an automatic success, (2) thwarting a Loremaster fiat, or (3) justifying a diamond for an Advancement Point.

Cheers,
--Os.

[buddhax]

Has someone skilled did the the PDF with Poosticks7's hints?

Really good work, Poosticks7.

[Rich H]

Has someone skilled did the the PDF with Poosticks7's hints?

It's on my 'to do' list. I'll be fleshing it out with guidance notes/tips within this and other (older) threads and discussions.

[buddhax]

Has someone skilled did the the PDF with Poosticks7's hints?

It's on my 'to do' list. I'll be fleshing it out with guidance notes/tips within this and other (older) threads and discussions.

Great! Looking forward to see your work.

[aramis]

I had a player use it to benefit when travelling - Smoke and Skeeters don't mix, and they were in swamp, a favored skeeter hatching venue. "We made it! And note, my friends, no mosquitoes bothered you while I lead into the wind!" (He used it for an Adv. Point trigger.)

At another point, he used it to draw out a troll from its cave... right into an ambush by the rest of the party.


Now, I, myself, used to smoke a pipe. It was great when hiking - it really does discourage mosquitoes. More than once, my lit pipe was used to light slightly damp tinder in the damp - you can dry the surface enough with the pipe to get it started. It's also rather relaxing if not inhaling, and if one is tired or fatigued, some deep inhales gets the stimulant nicotine into the system. And, on winter days, a warm pipe bowl is great when you need to warm up the fingers for delicate tasks. It's also not uncommon to have 2 or 3 different tobaccos - I used to carry 2 routinely. Captain Black gold or royal for "I need a fix" and Heather and Honey blend for a relaxing smoke; I often would also carry a third blend, usually a cherry blend. Each was a different cut, and burned differently; Captain Black smoked fast; the heather and honey quite slow. (Heck, I could take one cigarette, load it into the pipe instead, and get 30 minutes of smoking time... but the same pipe, with the H&H, would smoke continuously for about an hour.)

[SirKicley]

I had a player use it to benefit when travelling - Smoke and Skeeters don't mix, and they were in swamp, a favored skeeter hatching venue. "We made it! And note, my friends, no mosquitoes bothered you while I lead into the wind!" (He used it for an Adv. Point trigger.)

At another point, he used it to draw out a troll from its cave... right into an ambush by the rest of the party.


Now, I, myself, used to smoke a pipe. It was great when hiking - it really does discourage mosquitoes. More than once, my lit pipe was used to light slightly damp tinder in the damp - you can dry the surface enough with the pipe to get it started. It's also rather relaxing if not inhaling, and if one is tired or fatigued, some deep inhales gets the stimulant nicotine into the system. And, on winter days, a warm pipe bowl is great when you need to warm up the fingers for delicate tasks. It's also not uncommon to have 2 or 3 different tobaccos - I used to carry 2 routinely. Captain Black gold or royal for "I need a fix" and Heather and Honey blend for a relaxing smoke; I often would also carry a third blend, usually a cherry blend. Each was a different cut, and burned differently; Captain Black smoked fast; the heather and honey quite slow. (Heck, I could take one cigarette, load it into the pipe instead, and get 30 minutes of smoking time... but the same pipe, with the H&H, would smoke continuously for about an hour.)

Good stuff Aramis. Thanks for sharing.



In last week's game I ran, the hobbit used his trait for one success in a roleplaying encounter....



SPOILER: Stewed Hobbits adventure....
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The heroes had just gotten to the Easterly Inn - beginning Stewed Hobbits adventure in TftW. When Dody approached the party with his quest needs, they identified that he was quite anxious and upset about the situation and of hearing of the goblins/orc in the nearby mountains where his brother was.

The hobbit wanderer of the party offered a "soothing blend of pipeweed" to Dody to relax him, essentially using the Specialty trait to auto-win one courtesy roll for their roleplaying encounter. They finished with the encounter with the 7 successes needed to maximize their standing with Dody and only 2 fails (out of the 5 allowed for the Tolerance).

So they did extremely well.

I know that Smoking trait will come in handy again when they meet Shanker to identify the pipeweed he's carrying that he stole from Dindy.


Robert