Dunland Playable Culture

[Vardaen]

First time really posting here, so be nice

I run a PBP Website: http://brennor.dyndns.org/rpg where we have a long time game running that we are looking to convert from our current system over to TOR, because, as we all know, TOR is amazing! I run another TOR game there as well, but that's using all the published material already out.

This other game, War of the Ring: Rise of Orthanc, is an alternate timeline, where Saruman's Uruk-Hai captured the Ring and brought it to him and he's set himself up as Lord of the Ring. As a result we have some interesting Fellowship things going on, one of which is a small faction of Dunlendings who are NOT following Saruman. They refused to fight with and along side Orcs, and broke away fleeing north to Bree. One of the characters in the game is a Dunlending.

We've previously used Warhammer Fantasy RPG, and then a 40K Only War Revamp for LotR as our systems. Neither has been very good for us. So we are just starting to look at flipping to TOR. Since we have a Ranger, a Blue Mountain Dwarf, A Noldor, a Lothlorien Silvan Elf, and Dunlending, you can see we are really in need of the The Adventurer’s Companion! But even then we don't expect any playable Dunlendings.

So, long story short I made up a playable Dunlending Culture. I was hoping for some input from folks. I could use a bit of input. Thanks.

Download Here: http://brennor.dyndns.org/~steve/Middle ... unland.pdf

[Glorelendil]

Funny I just posted asking for some of those weapons you added. Maul damage seems high, and morning star encumbrance seems low, but I realize that it's hard to come up with stats that are both "balanced" and different from existing weapons. There aren't many variables to play with.

Here's an idea...

Bludgeoning weapons have the same stats as swords, but on Called Shots they have a Knockdown/Stun effect, which imposes a penalty on the adversary on their next turn? That way they're just a little bit different. Could even reduce Injury by 2 if the Called Shot effect were powerful enough.

[Vardaen]

I just took the weapon stats from, Voidstate's New Weapons for the One Ring, found on this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9

[Morgoth]

Thanks for sharing Vardaen! Over all, I like the culture. But, you said you're looking for input, so here's a few questions/comments/concerns.

1) Their attributes doesn't follow the standard model for attribute distributions. Most of the cultures (not counting Elves of Rivendell and Rangers) have a good attribute (which is always between 7 and 5), an average attribute (between 6 and 4), and a low attribute (between 4 and 2). Since your Dunlendings do not follow the normal model, the might not be as balanced with the other cultures.

2) Spirit of Vengeance is a nice ability, but it's very similar to Furious of the Beornings. I'd like to see them have something a little more unique. Perhaps, when they're wounded in battle, they roll the feat die twice (and take the best result) for attack rolls for the rest of the battle (or maybe just for a few rounds if that would be too powerful).

3) In their starting weapon skills, I would suggest making Bow favored since that would match with other cultures.

4) Their total starting skill ranks are 1 less than the other cultures. Might I suggest adding 1 rank in explore?

5) Old Hatred is a bit difficult, as it gives bonus against Rohirrim which are normally considered to be "good guys." It would probably never (or very rarely) get used in most campaigns.

6) Does Blessing of the Spirits stack with Insight being a favoured skill? I suggest that it makes Insight a favoured skill instead. That way, it avoids confusion and possible balancing issues.

7) Does Traveler of Eriador only work on your Travel rolls? If so, it's a bit weak (this essentially adds 2 to your roll, whereas an extra rank in Travel adds an average of 3.5). Perhaps it could affect Travel TNs and the TNs of Corruption checks from traveling.

8) Hammer of Isengard seems to step on the toes of Bearded Axe a bit.

9) I agree with Elfcrusher, that the damage of hammer weapon group might seem a bit high. I also agree with his suggestion to fix it.

[Vardaen]

Thanks for all the feed back! I finally had a chance to get back on here. I'll take a look at all the suggestions.

As for the weapons, I just used them from the Void State supplement, and didn't make them up myself.

[Vardaen]

2) Spirit of Vengeance is a nice ability, but it's very similar to Furious of the Beornings. I'd like to see them have something a little more unique. Perhaps, when they're wounded in battle, they roll the feat die twice (and take the best result) for attack rolls for the rest of the battle (or maybe just for a few rounds if that would be too powerful).

Perhaps, a number of round equal to their Body, that would likely work alright.

3) In their starting weapon skills, I would suggest making Bow favored since that would match with other cultures.

I did seem to leave off a favored weapon, good idea. Thanks.

4) Their total starting skill ranks are 1 less than the other cultures. Might I suggest adding 1 rank in explore?

Good catch, and suggestion.

6) Does Blessing of the Spirits stack with Insight being a favoured skill? I suggest that it makes Insight a favoured skill instead. That way, it avoids confusion and possible balancing issues.

This is based off the King's Man Culture Virtue for Bardings. It has basically the same wording, except that one helps with weapon skills. I'll have to consider this one in more detail.

7) Does Traveler of Eriador only work on your Travel rolls? If so, it's a bit weak (this essentially adds 2 to your roll, whereas an extra rank in Travel adds an average of 3.5). Perhaps it could affect Travel TNs and the TNs of Corruption checks from traveling.

I think making it all Travel Rolls and not just 1 helps this out.

5) Old Hatred is a bit difficult, as it gives bonus against Rohirrim which are normally considered to be "good guys." It would probably never (or very rarely) get used in most campaigns.

That's the fault I guess of playing a Dunlending. I have no issue with a culture being unbalanced on the weaker side if it fit thematically. I probably won't do anything with this.

[Blubbo Baggins]

2) Spirit of Vengeance is a nice ability, but it's very similar to Furious of the Beornings. I'd like to see them have something a little more unique. Perhaps, when they're wounded in battle, they roll the feat die twice (and take the best result) for attack rolls for the rest of the battle (or maybe just for a few rounds if that would be too powerful).

Perhaps, a number of round equal to their Body, that would likely work alright.

Actually, I don't think it would be imbalanced to make it the rest of the combat. Hobbits already get the Virtue that lets them ALWAYS reroll the Fate die when making a ranged attack. That even applies out of combat.
This would only apply when a Dunlending was wounded. Again, it is a good ability, but your Dunlending won't spend most of the time wounded, and being able to reroll the Fate die is very good, but I don't think unbalanced compared to other abilities.

[Morgoth]

6) Right, I understand that's it's similar to King's Man, but there are already rules that basically do the same thing.

7) Oh, does it affect everyone for that travel roll? But then again it only affects one of many travel rolls for a journey. Whereas Honeycakes reduces all travel roll of a journey. Also this reduced journey TNs by 2, where Honeycakes reduces TN by 2-6. Also Honeycakes gives an extra point in the fellowship pool.

[Vardaen]

BB you are probably right, and tracking rounds might just add more bookkeeping that isn't needed.

Morgoth, I don't see why they wouldn't stack, if the other virtue stacks.

Have to play around with options still. Thankful for the input.

[Blubbo Baggins]

BB you are probably right, and tracking rounds might just add more bookkeeping that isn't needed.

That was my main reason for thinking its probably worth just saying they get the ability the whole combat. Bookeeping isn't fun, and the designers of TOR have overall done a good job of avoiding abilities that require bookkeeping (it is there unfortunately, but is kept to a minimum).