New LM - Keeping track of enemies

[Olorin93]

Hello! I'm a rather new LM; acquired the game a few months ago and have only tried it once since. I live pretty far from my friends due to studies, but we're going to try TOR again this summer.

I've been going through the books a few times now, and my head is spinning. I think most of it is falling into place, but it is a lot to take in. The first time we tried it (The Marsh Bell), we made a lot of mistakes, such as adding armour value to the combat Target Number and connecting the die results to amount of damage inflicted. I have now figured out that armour, aside from encumbrance, really only matters in Protection Tests. (Right?)

Our native language isn't English, either - though we are all relatively good at English, it is troublesome to explain and find new words for in-game features in the group. Running official scenarios require a great deal of planning, since I can't read descriptions and events right off the page.

My main question is this: do you have any certain tips for keeping track of several enemies' remaining Endurance, Hate, etc. at once? Last time I just copied the stats from the LM book to several pieces of paper and crossed out and wrote a new number when an enemy lost endurance.

Also curious about the progression of time. I read somewhere that, after a fight, a character can recover Endurance equal to his/her Heart rating (?) in 30 minutes (?). How do we know how long that is? Do I ask the players if they want to wait for 30 minutes and recover X Endurance or 60 minutes and possibly be fully healed?

Neither I nor my friends have any prior experience with tabletop RPGs. I just found out about the LM screen and Lake-Town source book, and have ordered them. Seem like life-savers. If there are any particular beginner tips and tricks, please enlighten me. The Adventurer and LM books are gorgeous and make for nice reading, but they are not overly great for easily looking things up... A more brief reference guide would be great. Is there one, official or fanmade?

Very relieved these forums exist; this would be quite heavy to figure out on your own. Thanks for reading!

[aramis]

I have now figured out that armour, aside from encumbrance, really only matters in Protection Tests. (Right?)

My main question is this: do you have any certain tips for keeping track of several enemies' remaining Endurance, Hate, etc. at once? Last time I just copied the stats from the LM book to several pieces of paper and crossed out and wrote a new number when an enemy lost endurance.

For prepared fights, I use a series of checkboxes for end, and circles for hate.

EG:
Orc Leader ❏❏❏❏❏ ❏❏❏❏❏ ❏❏ ❍❍❍
Orc Soldier 1 ❏❏❏❏❏ ❏❏❏❏❏ ❏❏ ❍
Orc Soldier 2 ❏❏❏❏❏ ❏❏❏❏❏ ❏❏ ❍
Orc Soldier 3 ❏❏❏❏❏ ❏❏❏❏❏ ❏❏ ❍
Orc Soldier 4 ❏❏❏❏❏ ❏❏❏❏❏ ❏❏ ❍

If not, I write the numbers down and use hash-marks.
Orc Leader
E 12
H3
Orc Soldier 1
E12
H1
Orc Soldier 2
E12
H1
Orc Soldier 3
E12
H1
Orc Soldier 4
E12
H1

Also curious about the progression of time. I read somewhere that, after a fight, a character can recover Endurance equal to his/her Heart rating (?) in 30 minutes (?). How do we know how long that is? Do I ask the players if they want to wait for 30 minutes and recover X Endurance or 60 minutes and possibly be fully healed?

No. they only get the 30 minute heal; to recover again, they need a full night rest.
If wounded, only a full night gets any End back at all.

[trystero]

The Adventurer and LM books are gorgeous and make for nice reading, but they are not overly great for easily looking things up...

If you haven't already got the PDF index for the slipcase books, compiled by forum member James R. Brown, I'd recommend getting a copy: it makes rules lookups considerably easier.

• Full-colour version
• Printer-friendly version

(The newer revised edition contains an integral index.)

[Hermes Serpent]

I use my pdf copy of the rules to copy the stat blocks and paste them into a text file to use in combats. If I cross off damage in pencil I can easily reuse the sheets several times. I also copy the information about the Special Abilities into the same document to make that easier to keep track of.

The TN of the fight is always the TN for the stance plus the Parry of enemies. Bad guys add their Attribute Level to attacks if they use a favoured weapon or if they use a favoured skill and always add the AL as extra damage when rolling a Tengwar.

Page 144/145 of the Adventurers book explains how much Endurance you recover and how long it takes. The fatigue incurred for travelling is only removed when sleeping in an Inn of other safe place, not on the road. Get the Clarifications document of the revised rules as it more clearly explains some of the tough to understand material.

[Heilemann]

I know it's an extra expense, but I highly recommend you buy the new Revised Edition of the rules which was released only last week. It's much easier to find your way around in, and it has a crap ton of clarifications and improvements that will help things go smoother (like how Advancement Points are awarded). You could of course also just get the free Clarifications document Cubicle 7 put out, but then you're still stuck with two rule books, which was always a pain in the butt for us.

We run our game on Roll20, so a lot of the damage tracking etc. is taken care of through my setup of that system, so there I can't be of much help.

However, while I have a good grasp of English, we run our game in Danish, so I can sympathize with having to deal with that language barrier. I simply translate it live as we go along. I try to prepare as much as possible, but I feel that since most of the 'dialog' is half-modern, start-stop fantasy-fication with me interjecting a lot of 'eeeeh' and 'hmm' in between words and sentences, doing live-translations (which I try to not make the players aware of) the same way makes no real difference.

Know your players' characters. In Roll20 I can access them at will; that saves me a lot of trouble, because I can on-the-fly adjust the game to the kinds of abilities they have, or ask them leading questions like 'don't you have orc-lore?' when they forget to use it, which is constantly. I'd make a copy of their sheets.

This isn't D&D. That much should be clear from the books themselves. But as a LM, it'll be up to you to make it clear to the players through means like Corruption Tests, the untrusting peoples of Wilderland and things that go bump in the deep, dark places of the world.

[Olorin93]

Thank you all your replying! I've obtained Rules summaries and some quickstart guides for my players. I have a decent grasp of combat and being Wounded/Weary now - moving on to Shadow points and Miserable.

I played a combat round with the ready-made characters yesterday and did wonder what happened when enemies scored a great or extraordinary success. I suspected I should add the Attribute Level just like a hero's Damage rating. Thanks for confirming this, Hermes Serpent!

And we're Swedes, Heilemann, so I guess we're in rather similar boats! There have been many "ehh"s so far. I'll consider getting the Revised edition if we keep going with the game for a while.