New House Rule Forum

[Jon Hodgson]

Hello all!
We have set up a new sub-forum for house rules. The forum description hopefully explains what it's all about:

The unique One Ring rules set invites tinkering and secondary creation. Whilst The One Ring works brilliantly as written, we provide this forum for those who want to make their own home-brewed versions of the rules. Note that none of these should be taken as 'official'.

From this point on all threads about house rules belong here.

We'll see how this goes, and we'll feel our way on exactly what gets moved there. It seems like a good plan to keep the more experienced players' house rulings and home-brewed rules in their own special place. New players can head there once the feel comfortable with the rules as written, rather than getting the unintended first impression that lots of house rules are needed.

We'll be going through pre-existing house rule threads over the coming weeks moving them to the new forum.

[Glorelendil]

Excellent!

I honestly never considered...until your post earlier today...that all these house-rules discussions (and critiques of existing rules) might sound like "dissatisfied customer base" to first-time visitors. And I've certainly been guilty of dissecting rules and suggesting variants.

Maybe I'll create a macro to hit before all my posts: "TOR is the best RPG ever, which is why I can't resist tinkering with the rules..."

[Majestic]

Yeah, I'd never really considered that before either. But stepping back from things a bit, I imagine it could be quite confusing for new folks to read so many tweaks, adjustments, and changes. Not to mention it could be confusing as one learns the rules. Potentially too many knobs and widgets, before one has a solid grip on the base mechanics.

I think it's a great idea to separate things, as it should allow newcomers to wait until they have a solid familiarity with the rules before wading into the deeper water of adjusting anything.

[Jon Hodgson]

A natural desire to sound unbiased makes this hard to say out loud, but I genuinely think TOR is built in such an interesting way that it's real tinker-bait for homebrewers.

So it's a tricky balance - we don't want to shut down anyone's creativity, and there's some really cool stuff in the house rule threads. But equally yes, when they dominate, as sometimes happens though sheer enthusiasm, or a contentious idea for a new rule, and there's a 41 page thread about a specific virtue? New players could be forgiven for thinking there are big problems with the ruleset. Which there aren't. It's great. It's the best roleplaying game I've played in a good 10 years.

[Glorelendil]

It's the best roleplaying game I've played in a good 10 years.

Not "ever"?

[Deadmanwalking]

Definitely a good call.

TOR is an excellent game, and needs far fewer House Rules than most, but I don't think I've ever in my life run a game without at least a few house rules...I just like to tinker with things, I guess. And various people with similar attitudes discussing things, while perhaps inevitable, should definitely be situated somewhere where it doesn't detract from how good the game is in anyone's mind.

[Jon Hodgson]

It's the best roleplaying game I've played in a good 10 years.

Not "ever"?

The thing is I dunno that I can trust my judgement back into my early 30s, so I'm erring on the side of caution due to lack of reliable data.

[Glorelendil]

so I'm erring on the side of caution due to lack of reliable data.

Dude, you are on the wrong Internet.

[Rich H]

Excellent idea and completely agree with how house rules can be seen by others - I often look at other games and can get put off buying them for such a reason so other people may well feel the same with TOR; and that would be a mistake!

It *is* a system that I love tinkering with though; I think it's because, as written, it has a fair few significant subsystems present in the RAW so you read it and want to create even more.

[Rich H]

It's the best roleplaying game I've played in a good 10 years.

Not "ever"?

The thing is I dunno that I can trust my judgement back into my early 30s, so I'm erring on the side of caution due to lack of reliable data.

That's really great to read. I know that you must love the work you do and enjoy gaming as a hobby too but it must be awesome to also be working on one of the best games you've ever played.