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I'm running through To Journey's End and Eagles Eyrie, and we're now at Amon Naugrim. The company has just arrived, and the next session they'll be facing off against the orcs. They got pretty hammered by the scout party last time, so it'll be interesting to see what'll happen this time.

I'd like to spice it up though, and I'm looking for insights and ideas. They talked about wanting to set up traps and such, and I'm not sure what to do there, but it's definitely something I want to look into; maybe a use of hunting or craft to make them and Battle to know where to put the traps. And depending on the success it'll be more or less effective. But then how many traps can they do in a day of preparation?

Any more thoughts on how to break up the battle a bit, to avoid it being 'I hit again' etc.?

I would definitely have them make Hunting rolls (Battle if needed) to place the traps. If they were successful in the roll then I would say the Orcs start the fight weary.

Beran wrote:I would definitely have them make Hunting rolls (Battle if needed) to place the traps. If they were successful in the roll then I would say the Orcs start the fight weary.

Nice and simple, I like it a lot. As in "I'm stealing it and putting in my toolbox"

Enemies can't be weary, can they? After all they don't have fatigue...

They are Weary when they reach zero Hate but I don't see why the condition can't be applied in other instances.

Ah; that had passed my nose by. That's a great idea then.

With weary being a huge deal in terms of the effect on rolls, if you didn't want to go that far and depending upon the type of traps used, you could also allow Hunting rolls to place the traps to give extra rounds of opening volleys as the Orcs are slowed down.

Regards,

Shane

Extra bonus dice could be another way to go.

Or perhaps you could combine all 3 ideas.

Battle = chance for a bonus dice (+ the normal battle roll at the start of battle)
Hunting = chance for an extra round of opening volley
Craft = Orcs count as weary for a turn.

That way everyone (hopefully) can get stuck into making traps and beefing up defences.

I like that. Maybe give them a chance to do two, maybe three rolls as preparation, and have those be the options, and each can choose which to go for.

Resurrecting this to look for answers to the question of how to run the battle. We were supposed to play today, but we had to push it back a week, giving me some more time to prepare.

It seems to me that TORs system wasn't really made to be much help in a situation like this, where the geography is well-defined, and influential on how the battle can be fought. There are a few mentions of restrained pathways and such in the rules, but nothing too definite.

Now, we're playing on Roll20, and I've got tokens and everything setup, including the Amon Naugrim map and a battle mat. http://cl.ly/image/22011Y2z3M2q/Screen% ... 9%20PM.png

But because TOR has no tactical movement rules, I'm not entirely sure how to play this out. Obviously because the hill is steep, and requiring a stated attempt at scaling it, it acts as a wall between whoever is on top and those beneath. This dictates a) which side gets to determine engagement, and b) who they can engage.

So I suppose I need to track a number of things in this case?

1) Who is below?
2) Who is above.
3) Who is on the stairs, and in what order.

It's all a bit confusing; I'm wondering if anyone else has a better approach?