Cooperating on a prolonged action

[Uristocles]

Cooperating on a prolonged action seems like it doesn't actually grant any better odds in TOR, right? Basically it seems like you're just splitting the chore up among different people.

The only reason I might see wanting to do it from a player perspective (aside from out of necessity because the LM told you to use the different skills of different characters!) is to maximize the use of Hope points.

From a LM perspective I like it because it dissuades a group of players from actively seeking cooperative rolls all the time.

Any other thoughts?

[zedturtle]

Yep, divvying up the need to spend Hope, the chance for APs and maybe the ability to use Traits. But they're not super encouraged in The One Ring, as you said.

[Glorelendil]

The mechanic I came up with for my Delving rules is that players have an incentive to minimize the number of "attempts", and each attempt can consist of multiple heroes participating. That is, if two heroes both roll, that's considered one "attempt". But if one hero rolls twice, that's two attempts.

So even if one has skill: 4 and the other has skill: 2, it could take fewer total attempts if the skill: 2 guy participates.

Does that make sense?

[Angelalex242]

...Hmmm.

I'm not sure this is such a good thing.

Teamwork IS a major theme in Tolkien. Nobody stands alone. Not Aragorn, not Frodo, not Bilbo, nobody. Gandalf tried standing alone once and immediately ended up dead for his trouble. Good thing he got better.

I'm thinking we should go to houserules and come up with a way to encourage team playing.

[Rich H]

...Hmmm.

I'm not sure this is such a good thing.

Teamwork IS a major theme in Tolkien. Nobody stands alone. Not Aragorn, not Frodo, not Bilbo, nobody. Gandalf tried standing alone once and immediately ended up dead for his trouble. Good thing he got better.

I'm thinking we should go to houserules and come up with a way to encourage team playing.

You seem to be suggesting that teamwork is the sole purview of co-operating/combining on a single action, whether prolonged or otherwise; it doesn't. It can take many approaches, which are available in the TOR game, and 'playing as a team' happens all the time in my game.

[Angelalex242]

I am suggesting that if a character with 1 or 2 ranks in a skill wants to help the main user, they shouldn't be penalized for doing so. Or perhaps they might give the main user a bonus die if they succeed. Or even roll twice and take the better on feat die.

[Rich H]

To be clear, you made no reference to any kind of mechanic in your first post - your original comment was a broad statement about teamwork, and lack thereof, in the TOR mechanics which simply isn't true. You've now suggested some mechanical application and that has already been discussed in detail in a thread recently:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4098

... with lots of options explored and offered.

[Majestic]

The game does seem to have a built-in limit on characters just continuing to roll until they succeed (two uses of a Skill, under usual circumstances, per day). As a LM I don't like situations where there's no chance of failure. In other words, what's the point if the characters are searching an area and they all just sit and roll dice until one of them succeeds at a Search test?

The Eye of Sauron optional mechanic provides an excellent way of having an in-game reason why characters don't just choose to roll "for the heck of it". Now that character with 1 in a Skill might just leave things up to his companions who are better at that activity. They still have the option of "helping out", just to hope for that roll of a Gandalf (1 in 12), but they have the same odds of bringing attention on the party as well.

[Angelalex242]

Speaking of cooperating...

If two high elves have Books and Maps, and they both make their lore rolls, can they reduce a blighted zone by 4? Or are they simply redundant?

[Ferretz]

Hmm, it has been a while since I played TOR now. Going to start a new campaign soon, but I'm waiting for the Adventurer's Companion and Horse-lords of Rohan (yes, yes, C7 will let us know at the website whenever there are news on these ).

But I seem to remember that cooperating on skill checks would lower the TN if its not prolonged, at least. And if the check is prolonged, it wouln't be lowered, but several characters could use their different skills and traits to complete the task together.

In some cases, a regular skill check could also be made into a prolonged one, if I remember correctly... hmm, I think I need to flip open the book again.

E.