Men of Bree

[Hermes Serpent]

As I've mentioned before I'm starting another campaign the first Friday of October and in case the Adventurers book previously mentioned hasn't come up for pre-order by then I've written up Men of the Lone-lands and Men of Bree as two possible cultures that adventurers in eastern Eriador could use by replacing Men of the Lake and Woodmen. I'm dropping Beornings and Bardings as being too far from their origin point, but keeping Hobbits and using Rangers with possibly Elves of Rivendell.

I'm happy with Men of the Lone-lands now thanks to zedturtle for suggesting a Cultural Blessing that fitted right in.

So Men of Bree, I thought that as a trading hub something based on Men of the Lake would work and so I've basically taken a Lakeman and reskinned him.

Men of Bree
1) (Swords) 2, Spear 1, Dagger 1
2) Spear 2, Sword 1, dagger
No Bowmen of the Guild or Water Legs but keeping the other Virtues, replaced with Militia Spearman and Solid in a Fight
Militia Spearman - Cultural Virtue
The Men of Bree have long seen to their own defence not trusting to some remote authority to save
them. Howeverthe enemies they have faced in the past have been brigands and ruffians rather than
trained soldiers. The drilling of the miltia under the Sheriff's of the town were always a source of
entertainment and more an occasion for meeting friends and sinking a beer or few. They have sufficient
training to stand together and keep their shield and spear steady.
A Man of Bree taking this Virtue may spend a point of Hope to use Protect Comrade for Ally even if they
have not declared a protected ally at the start of the combat round or are not in Defensive Stance. They
add +4 to the TN for hitting the original target but lose their next opportunity to attack.

Solid in a Fight - Cultural Virtue
The militia of Bree are farmers and tradesmen but they are fighting to defend their way of life.
They take comfort in having friends and neighbours around them in a fight. Having another Man of Bree
fighting alongside them gives them support and a feeling of solidarity.
A Man of Bree taking this Virtue may recover twice the normal number of Endurance points from a Man
of Bree using the Rally Comrades Combat action.

Serpent Scimitar is Replaced with Spear of Ash (spear) (AKA Bohemian Earspoon)
A Spear of Ash is a stout hafted weapon with a metal tang that extends down the shaft below the head and includes two 'wings' sticking out at right angles to the shaft. This feature stops the spear from being stuck in a victim and allows it to 'hook' the opponents shield out of the way.
When making a melee attack using a Spear of Ash, ignore any Parry rating bonus your target has that is due to them carrying a shield.
So comments. are the new Virtues and reward too much or too little?
What about a Cultural Blessing, Tenacious seemed a bit specific to Lakemen and I'd like to have a different Blessing for each culture.

[Glorelendil]

When I think of men of Bree I think of people who mind their own business and are relatively tolerant of strangers. I'm not sure I would give them as many militant virtues/rewards as a more warlike culture would get. That said, I'm having trouble thinking of good alternatives.

[zedturtle]

What about something like

News from the Crossroads

The men of Bree talk to many strangers and learn tales from far off lands. If you select this virtue, once per Adventuring Phase you may use a Region-lore trait that you do not posess.

- - -

If you want to make it a little more powerful, make it once per session. But I think that might be too much.

[Glorelendil]

Maybe a cultural blessing that gives them some kind of bonus to Insight, because they're good at reading strangers?

Or how about spend a point of hope to add +1 tolerance to an encounter?

[zedturtle]

Maybe a cultural blessing that gives them some kind of bonus to Insight, because they're good at reading strangers?

That's a good idea. Something like roll the Feat did twice and take the best result. Needs a good name...

Or how about spend a point of hope to add +1 tolerance to an encounter?

Very similar to Trader's savvy. Which I think is a pretty powerful ability, and could work for Breelander's too.

Edit: Also remember that Insight now benefits all Encounters. Doing both of these virtues makes for a very successful "faceman".

[Hermes Serpent]

I've generally kept the Men of the Lake Virtues that I have't changed so something that adds to Trader's Savvy might make that too powerful.

News from the Crossroads reminds me of the New from Bree Tolkien fanzine my old friend Hartley Patterson wrote way back in the early days of D&D.

The use of a Blessing to add lore is a bit too focussed as Region-lore is usually only for gaming a bonus die for travel in that region although I do sometimes allow other things as a reward for good role-play.

I rather like the roll the Feat die twice for Insight and take the best roll. As well as in Encounters it's especially useful as it covers the alternative use of Insight in an opposed test against Persuade or another skill in the Personality group.

How about; A character with this Blessing may spend one point of Hope before starting an Encounter to gain an extra point of Tolerance in the Encounter or may use it to roll the Feat die twice when making any Insight test and take the best roll.

Now I need a good name for such a Virtue.

So that's the Cultural Blessing dealt with. What about the other two Virtues and the Reward? I could easily switch out either of the Virtues for a less martial one but I thought the martial reward replaced the Scimitar one well enough. the keening bog-stone and the brazen armour also really need changing for something less martial but I'm still working on those.

[EPenna]

Solid in a Fight - Cultural Virtue
The militia of Bree are farmers and tradesmen but they are fighting to defend their way of life.
They take comfort in having friends and neighbours around them in a fight. Having another Man of Bree
fighting alongside them gives them support and a feeling of solidarity.
A Man of Bree taking this Virtue may recover twice the normal number of Endurance points from a Man
of Bree using the Rally Comrades Combat action.

Honestly, IMO this is a tad weak. Not due to the actual effect (recovering double the Endurance on a Rally Comrades roll is pretty sweet), but because it's really, really easy for the triggering condition (another Man of Bree in the Company) to never happen. In my experience, most Companies are multicultural, so at best you might have two members of the same culture in the group (unless your campaign pitch is something pretty specific that requires all player heroes to be from the same culture), so in most situations this Virtue will simply never be taken.

Very similar to Trader's savvy. Which I think is a pretty powerful ability, and could work for Breelander's too.

Trader's Savvy is actually pretty weak, mainly due to the existence of the Beorning Reward Noble Armour, which gives +3 to your Tolerance rating, compared to Trader's Savvy variable +1/+2/+3 (plus, Noble Armour also gives you a free Encounter advantage bonus die on top of the +3 Tolerance). I think this is supposed to be balanced by the fact that Lake-men are much better at talky stuff when compared to Beornings (although honestly, with 3 starting Insight and Awe, and 1 Inspire, the Beorning isn't bad himself, just very unsubtle), but honestly the difference is so big I'd certainly either Trader's Savvy or Noble Armor if I had a player hero on my table who took them.

[zedturtle]

I rather like the roll the Feat die twice for Insight and take the best roll. As well as in Encounters it's especially useful as it covers the alternative use of Insight in an opposed test against Persuade or another skill in the Personality group.

How about; A character with this Blessing may spend one point of Hope before starting an Encounter to gain an extra point of Tolerance in the Encounter or may use it to roll the Feat die twice when making any Insight test and take the best roll.

Now I need a good name for such a Virtue.

What about something like A Good Judge of Character?

[Hermes Serpent]

Thanks for the comment. The campaign this culture is designed for is going to be centred on eastern Eriador and I''ll likely have six players (it's a club game and I don't get to pick the players). I'm limiting the cultures to Hobbit's, Men of the Lone-lands (a variant on Woodmen), Dwarves, Rangers, Men of Bree and maybe Elves of Mirkwood and Elves of Rivendell. I'll be relying on a session zero to set the tone of the game and get the players to agree on a backstory of why they are adventuring together.

Some of them will be min-maxers who will go for the obvious Rangers and Rivendell Elves because they get higher attributes and some will play Dwarves because they get heavy armour and reduced penalties (although the last time I ran a TOR game at the club the player who did this spent the whole twelve weeks mostly Weary and thus hardly hitting anything). I'll have one who will mostly not engage but sits on the sidelines and only says some thing when it's time to loose his bow in which he he'll have four ranks. There'll be at least one Hobbit although that player may change his mind now that King's Blade is nerfed.

However if the Adventurers book comes out for pre-order before the end of September I won't have to worry, I'll just use the stats/cultures in there.

[Hermes Serpent]

Thanks. A Good Judge of Character sound great and has the 'it might be something from the books/ sort of ring to it.

I've just been reading the Hobbit from Tom's House through the party leaving Bree with Strider to see what might fit.