New LM ran 1st session of TOR (Words of the Wise)

[Bradge]

I'm a new Lore-Master to The One Ring who ran his first session of the game with a group of five players, only one of whom has played more than one other tabletop role-playing game. I decided to use "Words of the Wise" after reading posts here on suggested introductory adventures.

I started reading the description from Part One "The Blooding" that is meant to be back story for the fellowship, but I gave the players the option to have me improvise the encounter at Dol Guldur instead of just glossing over it as a past event. Naturally they chose to play it out. The results were mixed but they said they enjoyed it overall I think.

On the plus side, everyone survived despite being outnumbered and outmatched. I had them attacked by two Great Spiders outside the fortress while keeping vigil on it. Then, two back-to-back Eye of Sauron rolls later, I had them face the nemesis of the Tales of Wilderland series, who animated the corpse of a fallen elf. (He seemed an appropriate foe because he is said in ToW to have emerged at Dol Guldur and began his plots.)

At that point everyone should have fled, but most found a successful escape roll difficult because of the (presumed) high attribute for the nemesis. That was probably one of my mistakes. Another is I forgot to keep track of Hate points for their foes.

The battle consumed most of the long (all-night) session, which seems overly long compared to what I've heard battles taking. A handful of Great Spiders eventually joined the battle as it dragged on, but I didn't make them too aggressive. Rather they toyed with the heroes with cruel confidence. If I hadn't, they would have decimated the heroes I suspect.

One fellowship member, a heavily armored Slayer, almost didn't make it out due to horrible Athletics. The rest escaped with the help of a Hope point spent or a Gandalf roll. None ended up wounded or poisoned.

Some questions:

1 ) As far as I could tell, the stance of the heroes determined both how easy they were to hit and how easily they could hit their foes (Stance TN + Parry of self or target). Is that right? Does the stance of foes matter not at all except in deciding when they act?

2 ) The statistics in the book I used (I have all of them) for Great Spiders seemed incomplete. I don't recall weapon skill, damage or edge listed or the Hate.

3 ) Is it possible to use skills as one's action during combat? I presumed heroes could but that the use of a skill or maneuver meant they couldn't also attack that turn.

4) How is movement handled if a hero is too far from the action to be involved? I let them charge if they adopted Forward stance, or take a turn to arrive if they adopted Open stance.

5 ) If the heroes outnumber their foes, how many heroes can be in the rearward stance? As many surplus heroes as exist (compared to foes) or what?

6 ) I know a hero rolls their Armour for Protection rolls (for example, 2d6 +1 for some lighter gear) if a foe rolled its edge or higher. Does the foe roll their weapon skill again against the hero's roll? Or is the same attack roll number used again?

7 ) I am not understanding the roll for combat advantage that should have taken place at the start of the battle (I skipped it).

8 ) Do Woodland Men live by Rhosgobel, drawn by the stable presence of Radaghast the Brown? Or do they live in settlements further off? I presumed they lived very nearby the wizard -- essentially forming a village nearby.

[zedturtle]

Woo-hoo! New Blood! I'll try to answer most of your questions:

1 ) The battle consumed most of the long (all-night) session, which seems overly long compared to what I've heard battles taking. So I clearly had some parts of the battle wrong. Why may have this first battle dragged on for so long?

I don't know if you were using all of the GK's abilities, but he's a tough opponent for seasoned adventurers. No way that brand-new PCs could take him on. I think a "Fly you fools! This is a foe beyond any of you!" might not have gone amiss. Or have him taunt them, but he's got bigger fish to fry and he leaves them to die at the hands (claws) of the spiders.

2 ) As far as I could tell, the stance of the heroes determined both how easy they were to hit and how easily they could hit their foes (Stance TN + Parry of self or target). Is that right? Does the stance of foes matter not at all except in deciding when they act?

Yes. No, adversaries don't have Stance. Think of stance as being a measure of how aggressive someone is being in combat... in Forward Stance they take every opportunity, even if it leaves them exposed, etc.

3 ) The statistics in the book I used (I have all of them) for Great Spiders seemed incomplete. I don't recall weapon skill, damage or edge listed or the Hate.

Great Spiders have Ensnare 3 and Sting 2. The weapons are on page 241 (RE). That's about the only thing I don't like about the official monster stat blocks... I could stand a bit more repetition if it made the enemies easier to run.

Also, how many Great Spiders did you have? One or two Attercops per hero is a pretty good ratio for new heroes, Great Spiders are much tougher.

4 ) Is it possible to use skills as one's action during combat? I presumed heroes could but that the use of a skill or maneuver meant they couldn't also attack that turn. Also, how is movement handled if a hero is too far from the action to be involved? I let them charge if they adopted Forward stance, or take a turn to arrive if they adopted Open stance.

Some of the special actions allow attacks, some replace the attack. You always have the option as LM to allow other innovative use of skills.

I don't understand the other questions... Forward, Open and Defensive are all close combat stances, representing an approach (strategy) to the fight, not physical distance. Once opening volleys have been resolved, the heroes are "stuck in", thus the rules for escaping combat.

5 ) If the heroes outnumber their foes, how many heroes can be in the rearward stance? As many surplus heroes as exist (compared to foes) or what?

Two heroes need to be in close combat stances for every hero in Rearward.

6 ) I know a hero rolls their Armour for Protection rolls (for example, 2d6 +1 for some lighter gear) if a foe rolled its edge or higher. Does the foe roll their weapon skill again against the hero's roll? Or is the same attack roll number used again?

Each weapon has an Injury value, which is the TN for the armour test. An armour test (like all rolls) is Feat Die + some number of d6s; in your example it should be Feat Die + 2d6 + 1, against whatever Injury value the bad guy's weapon has.

7 ) I am not understanding the roll for combat advantage that should have taken place at the start of the battle (I skipped it).

Before a combat, roll Battle (TN 14). If the hero gets a regular success they get 1 Bonus Die, a Great Success is 2 and an Extraordinary Success is 3 dice. This represents things like heroes using terrain to their advantage, good manoeuvring and all that kind of stuff. Only one Bonus Die per roll, but you can "share" Bonus Dice, i.e. you don't have to have gotten extra dice to use your buddy's.

8 ) Do Woodland Men live by Rhosgobel, drawn by the stable presence of Radaghast the Brown? Or do they live in settlements further off? I presumed they lived very nearby the wizard.

Woodlanders have four major settlements: Woodland Hall, Woodmen Town, Rhosgobel and Mountain Hall.

- - - - - -

It sounds like you're very new to the game (no big surprise, you told us that) and I think you might have succumbed to a temptation that we all have on occasion, which is to see how many of the neat dials and knobs that the game gives can we tweak at one time? But it's easy to go overboard... it sounds like you might have had too many adversaries of too high an ability for new heroes. Chalk it up as a learning experience and spend your next game session focused on the Journey and Encounter systems so that your players don't think the game is nothing but fighting all the time.

[Stormcrow]

1 ) As far as I could tell, the stance of the heroes determined both how easy they were to hit and how easily they could hit their foes (Stance TN + Parry of self or target). Is that right? Does the stance of foes matter not at all except in deciding when they act?

Adversaries do not have stances. Your first statement is correct: a hero's stance determines both his chance to hit an adversary and the adversary's chance to hit him.

2 ) The statistics in the book I used (I have all of them) for Great Spiders seemed incomplete. I don't recall weapon skill, damage or edge listed or the Hate.

Statistics for Great Spiders are found on the Loremaster's Book, p. 77 or The One Ring Roleplaying Game, p. 242. Their weapon skills, Ensnare and Sting, plus their Hate, are listed there. Ensnare and Sting are given statistics two pages or one page previous, respectively.

3 ) Is it possible to use skills as one's action during combat? I presumed heroes could but that the use of a skill or maneuver meant they couldn't also attack that turn.

See p. 179 of The One Ring Roleplaying Game. The Tasks in Combat table lists each combat task and whether you can also make an attack. (Protect Companion is the only one that lets you.)

This information was not available in the original slipcase version of the rules. Clarifications and Amendments mentions this of Protect Companion, but doesn't talk about the other combat tasks.

For any other non-combat action, the Loremaster should decide whether the hero can also attack.

4) How is movement handled if a hero is too far from the action to be involved? I let them charge if they adopted Forward stance, or take a turn to arrive if they adopted Open stance.

This is entirely up to the Loremaster. There are no rules dealing with this.

5 ) If the heroes outnumber their foes, how many heroes can be in the rearward stance? As many surplus heroes as exist (compared to foes) or what?

There must be at least two heroes in a close combat stance for every hero in rearward stance. If there are four heroes and two adversaries, only one hero can choose rearward stance. It doesn't matter whether the adversaries are engaged in close combat or not.

6 ) I know a hero rolls their Armour for Protection rolls (for example, 2d6 +1 for some lighter gear) if a foe rolled its edge or higher. Does the foe roll their weapon skill again against the hero's roll? Or is the same attack roll number used again?

A combatant who makes a Protection test does so against the Injury rating of the weapon making the attack. It's not an opposed roll.

Example: An orc soldier with a spear attacks a hero wearing a mail shirt and a Parry of 4, standing in an Open stance. The TN is 9 (Open) + 4 (Parry) = 13. The orc rolls 16, including a 9 on the Feat die. The orc's spear's Edge is 9, so this is a Piercing Blow. The hero makes a Protection test with three Success dice and the Feat die, against the spear's Injury of 12. The roll is 17; the hero loses 4 Endurance points but does not gain a Wound.

7 ) I am not understanding the roll for combat advantage that should have taken place at the start of the battle (I skipped it).

It represents the heroes noticing tactical advantages in the area not specified by the Loremaster. Each hero rolls Battle (TN 14). Heroes who succeed gain extra Success dice that they can use at any time during the combat; great and extraordinary successes give two or three extra Success dice. During combat, any time you or someone else needs to roll, you can give them a bonus die.

8 ) Do Woodland Men live by Rhosgobel, drawn by the stable presence of Radaghast the Brown? Or do they live in settlements further off? I presumed they lived very nearby the wizard -- essentially forming a village nearby.

Yes, they live in Rhosgobel (in this game—it's not clear that this is the case in canonical Tolkien).

[Bradge]

Thank you for all of the answers. I will be sure to ask other questions as they arise. May my players be blessed with continued patience as I work on getting the hang of this.

[Majestic]

Great answers (an thorough!) already, so I won't add anything there.

As zed said, you may have put them up against adversaries a little too powerful for beginning heroes. But I understand the desire to not just 'skip over' that section of Words of the Wise. I also began my campaign with that adventure, and later on I realized how profound and impactful that little paragraph (about the PCs first encounter at Dol Guldur) would/should have been. So - when I started up my campaign again (after a nearly two year hiatus) - I made a point of really emphasizing what happened during the characters' first adventure together (that we'd never played through). I almost wish I had done as you did, and played through it, but I also realize that it would be extremely hard to get that balance right: to convey the appropriate amount of fear, tension, and danger without overwhelming them or hurting them seriously!

You're off to a great start. Don't hesitate to ask questions here, as you'll get lots of great feedback. Don't worry about getting some things wrong (most of us have done that), and you might consider letting your players know that it will probably be a little easier next time (at least for a little bit!).

Welcome to the forums!