An Introductory Adventure

[zedturtle]

Re your examples for Travel & Battle, I think that telling a tale about battles you've been in or places you've travelled to actually require the use of Song or some other social skill - being a seasoned traveller or warrior and being able to tell tales about your deeds are two different skills - note that Song also covers the telling of stories and tales, not just singing and playing instruments

Don't make the mistake many players make about downgrading the social skills!

Robin S.

The goal is to have two suggestion for each of the common skills (so all 18 skills are represented and there were no dump stats). That way, a new Loremaster has ready answers for any player who asks what he or she can do at the fair. The social skills are critical in formal encounters; having a bit of leeway in a less stressful situation seems ok to me.

[zedturtle]

Yeah, I definitely thought of that as a possibility. Of course, in a con or intro session time will be of the essence so keeping it simple might be best.
It can still be very simple, it is just that the more people have riding on the outcome the better it is to involve them. Vs. "debate a wise woman in public" using Persuade, they would have more at stake on their Persuade roll here (and learn about how spending Hope can be useful).

As before, a possibility. But what happens if the characters fail the Persuade so horribly that they never get the opportunity to have the adventure?

For the theft, I'm trying to find some way of the Sickle being stolen that's both flashy and mysterious.
What is the story of the sickle? Since it is the only thing stolen, and the thieves come prepared (lugging around a dead goblin) it must be something special: simply very old and valuable Treasure Point-wise, or is it a crucial implement for local rituals, or some kind of Relic?

Yeah, in the original discussion (see link in first post) Jon suggested that it's some sort of powerful relic that also has a lot of tradition behind it. So it would both be a practical thievery and a blow to the morale of the people.

[zedturtle]

Very nice work Zed! You've put a lot of thought into that and looks to me like you're covering all bases for the core book. One thing though. The travel rules, do they cover some rules for an actual chase? Tracking, catching up etc. If they do, then that will be included of course. But if they do not I think it would be quite nice having your idea on how to run something like that - a chase weaved into the travel mechanics.

Yep, I will use the chase mechanics introduced in Tales for this. The Thieves will have a Lead value, and the heroes will be able to take actions in order to decrease the Lead. Rolling a Sauron will either increase the Lead or throw a complication at them.

I'm thinking that Lead will start equal to 3+1d6. The party will need to make regular Fatigue tests, but will also be able to take actions to reduce the Lead. Hunting, Awareness, Search and Explore seem to be the most likely candidates.

If the heroes don't catch up to the thieves before the journey is over, then they will catch them at the meeting place. In a certain way, this would be ideal... heroes who stake out the meeting location might learn who is behind the robbery. Those who just catch and kill the thieves without questioning them will be at a disadvantage (and probably gain Shadow... these are Men, after all).

Thoughts on the journey mechanics?

[Falenthal]

Thoughts on the journey mechanics?

The rules from Tales seem just fine.
For the starting Lead, the rules say:

At the start of the hunt, the Lead begins at a value equal to the Company’s highest Travel skill.

You might apply it using the thieves highest Movement skill instead of 3+1d6.

On the other hand, if you want to create a very simple adventure to teach the basic mechanics, I would advise to avoid a Travel-chase and do a normal Travel: the Companions must know where the thieves are heading and have to find someone who can point their goal in a map (finding that person and getting him to share this information might be a part of the adventure). Then you can show the players the "normal" Travel mechanics (how to calculate the route, the lenght of the journeys, the roles, the number of Travel checks, etc.).

For a more detailed chase mechanics, I plan to use this with Blood in the Waters. Hope it might help:

Chases
1) The group who runs has a Starting Lead equal to the highest Travel/Movement skill among it’s members. Optional: If time is being used as the Lead, 4 hours equal 1 Lead.
2) The pursuing group can make one Hunting skill check in the morning and another one in the afternoon (TN based on the difficulty of the terrain). If no success is scored, the group cannot move, as it doesn’t know which direction to follow. Raise the Lead by 1. For every C rolled (even it the roll wasn’t a failure), the Lead also raises by 1.
3) If at least one Hunting check was succesful, the pursuing group can continue the chase. Succeeding in a Hunting check doesn’t reduce the Lead.
4) The pursuing group can Force the March to catch up with the running group. Every character has to roll one Athletics (TN based on the difficulty of the terrain) per day.
A failure means an increase in Fatigue equal to the Travelling Gear.
Even if everyone failed the Athletics check, the Lead is reduced by 1.
If everyone was succesful in the Athletics check, reduce the Lead by 2.
5) The LM has to keep a record of the number of days passed, and apply Travels checks accordingly.
6) If the Lead reaches 7 (more tan 6), the running group has escaped.
If the Lead reaches 0, the pursuing group has catched up with the running ones.

----> EDITED: Simplified the chases rules and made them more generic.

[JoeArcher]

I bought the PDF of tales, but haven't read it yet. Sounds solid to me. I think a chase can be really awesome in TOR, because of all the skills involved and the whole journey system. I bought Hobbit Tales and intend to use that for journeys, but I don't know how that will work out yet. I have had a few games of Hobbit Tales with a couple of friends and my wife. First two games were a bit... awkward, but then it clicked. Hysterical fun. We had one game where my friend got screwed with everything. He had a bunch of item related cards and the first hazard was played as some robbers stealing his item. After that four more hazards were played and all kinds of creatures stole his stuff. We were laughing so hard. Oh sorry about the detour.

You made those indoors journey rules too? If that's what you're asking. Skimmed over them and they seem very interresting. I like the concept of handling the maps as POIs that are connected a lot. Haven't had time to study them enough to give honest feedback, but I'll get to it

[zedturtle]

You made those indoors journey rules too? If that's what you're asking. Skimmed over them and they seem very interesting. I like the concept of handling the maps as POIs that are connected a lot. Haven't had time to study them enough to give honest feedback, but I'll get to it

The underground travel rules are Elfcrusher... I've participated a little bit in that thread, but haven't had the time myself to do much more than critique his write-up. Moria was the first supplement I ever got for MERP back in the day, and (as the ur-dungeon) I'm following the development process avidly, when I get the chance.

Just reread your question, and understand it a bit better... I was just asking if my explanation of the Travel rules made sense. I think Falenthal might be right, maybe I should do a more traditional Journey and not introduce optional rules into what is supposed to be an introduction to the game.

[zedturtle]

According to the schedule I laid out for myself, I really should be talking about combat today. But, I had some more thoughts on the setup, so I wanted to do that.

The Sickle of the Full Moon

When the first Men moved north and swore allegiance to Beorn, their lord claimed to be a simple farmer and beekeeper. But his subjects soon noticed that whatever fields that he harvested with his own sickle did not ever need to lie fallow. When pressed on the matter, Beorn showed his new thanes his sickle, a heirloom of times lone gone. They called it the Sickle of the Full Moon, for its shape and engravings and for that it seemed a field harvested by the sickle needed only a month to recover before it could be seeded again.

Seeing the start of jealous, Beorn made an announcement. He would present the Sickle to one of his subjects, who could use it for a year, as long as it was returned before Beorn harvested his own crops in late Autumn. Then he would hand it off to a new family. But who to give the Sickle to? His thanes proposed a series of contests, with the Sickle given to one of the winners. That winner would then be responsible for returning the Sickle to Beorn, who would in turn give it to a new winner.

Over the years, this tradition has turned into a harvest festival wherein most families try to send a representative to get a chance at the Sickle. But any great gathering has other opportunities... people buy and sell; new friends are made and old stories told at the Festival. The previous winner is the Marshall of the Festival; it is now his (or her) job to pick a new holder of the Sickle from one of those who won one of the many contests being held.

- - -

Ugh. That got away from me.

The big takeaways... there's nine contests (i.e. half of the Common skills), the Marshall picks the recipient of the Sickle from the contest winners, and the winner has to present the Sickle to Beorn at the end of the festival (who now only does a symbolic cutting before returning the Sickle to the family who really needs it).

[Aeglosdir]

I like it.

What year is it? If set in TA 2946, the Beornings have been around for about five years. So it might be that it is turning into a tradition.

I have used something similar in my game: a Beorning celebration with deep roots in Woodman culture (which most Beornings would hail from) but intentionally given a new spin by Beorn himself or his followers: 'we are our own now, this is our thing'.

As an aside, I'm not a huge fan of the MERP Beijabar stereotype (a separate race of burly, hairy Beorn Jrs) but TOR's take on the Beornings is really good, I think.

[Falenthal]

The Sickle of the Full Moon

When the first Men moved north and swore allegiance to Beorn, their lord claimed to be a simple farmer and beekeeper. But his subjects soon noticed that whatever fields that he harvested with his own sickle did not ever need to lie fallow. When pressed on the matter, Beorn showed his new thanes his sickle, a heirloom of times lone gone. They called it the Sickle of the Full Moon, for its shape and engravings and for that it seemed a field harvested by the sickle needed only a month to recover before it could be seeded again.

Seeing the start of jealous, Beorn made an announcement. He would present the Sickle to one of his subjects, who could use it for a year, as long as it was returned before Beorn harvested his own crops in late Autumn. Then he would hand it off to a new family. But who to give the Sickle to? His thanes proposed a series of contests, with the Sickle given to one of the winners. That winner would then be responsible for returning the Sickle to Beorn, who would in turn give it to a new winner.

Over the years, this tradition has turned into a harvest festival wherein most families try to send a representative to get a chance at the Sickle. But any great gathering has other opportunities... people buy and sell; new friends are made and old stories told at the Festival. The previous winner is the Marshall of the Festival; it is now his (or her) job to pick a new holder of the Sickle from one of those who won one of the many contests being held.

the Marshall picks the recipient of the Sickle from the contest winners

Very, very nice.
I like the proposal by Aeglosdir of making it a new tradition, still evolving, which the players might see in different forms in following years.
Also, I think it's very important that the Sickle cannot stay in the same hands two years in a row.
In fact, if you introduce the Holdings a few sessions after, whoever gets a Holding in Beorning territory can remember the Harvest Festival and fight for the Sickle as a Fellowship Undertaking. It can grant some automatic bonus to the Holding Status for the year or something like that.

[zedturtle]

Very, very nice.
I like the proposal by Aeglosdir of making it a new tradition, still evolving, which the players might see in different forms in following years.
Also, I think it's very important that the Sickle cannot stay in the same hands two years in a row.
In fact, if you introduce the Holdings a few sessions after, whoever gets a Holding in Beorning territory can remember the Harvest Festival and fight for the Sickle as a Fellowship Undertaking. It can grant some automatic bonus to the Holding Status for the year or something like that.

I'm glad you guys like it... when Jon first showed off the Sickle, he suggested that it provide some sort of benefit to Holdings... I'm leaving that somewhat undefined at the moment, but I promise I'll get back to it.