Some Questions

[Jacen]

Hello all, it has been quite some time since I posted here last but my group just decided to give the One Ring a go diving straight in with the epic DoM.

I have a few questions that have been nagging at me since I gave the revised rules a read. I played the game many years ago and ran a few adventures at that time.

My first questions regards Fellowships Phases, the rules state that a Fellowship phases last from between a few weeks and a few months. Assuming the adventuring phase also takes a few months and a rate of one adventure per year, what do you do with the rest of the time? I know there may not be a hard and fast answer to this but I was just wondering. So, for example, if 3 months a year are adventuring phases and 9 are fellowship how many undertakings should the group be a able to take in that fellowship phase time?

My next questions regards Journeys. A feeling at the table when I originally played the game was that the Travel skill was almost TOO important and the players felt like they were forced into burning AP to advance it quickly. I see that these rules were revised to make other common skills important to the incurring fatigue, which I liked, but in the revised rules the original system of only rolling Travel seems to have returned. Does anyone know the reasons for these changes? I would like to use the rules as presented in the revised book, but it would maybe help me if I understood the reasoning for changing Travel back to the prime method of fighting off Fatigue.

[zedturtle]

Hello all, it has been quite some time since I posted here last but my group just decided to give the One Ring a go diving straight in with the epic DoM.

I have a few questions that have been nagging at me since I gave the revised rules a read. I played the game many years ago and ran a few adventures at that time.

My first questions regards Fellowships Phases, the rules state that a Fellowship phases last from between a few weeks and a few months. Assuming the adventuring phase also takes a few months and a rate of one adventure per year, what do you do with the rest of the time? I know there may not be a hard and fast answer to this but I was just wondering. So, for example, if 3 months a year are adventuring phases and 9 are fellowship how many undertakings should the group be a able to take in that fellowship phase time?

Don't forget about Holdings... working on their own (or their family's or friend's) Holding could occupy quite a bit of time. Remember that the game represents the memorable bits of the year... the adventure and the substantial changes in the hero's life.

My next questions regards Journeys. A feeling at the table when I originally played the game was that the Travel skill was almost TOO important and the players felt like they were forced into burning AP to advance it quickly. I see that these rules were revised to make other common skills important to the incurring fatigue, which I liked, but in the revised rules the original system of only rolling Travel seems to have returned. Does anyone know the reasons for these changes? I would like to use the rules as presented in the revised book, but it would maybe help me if I understood the reasoning for changing Travel back to the prime method of fighting off Fatigue.

Since in the Revised Rules Hazards occur even if everyone passes their Fatigue Tests, you will still see the other skills being challenged. Allowing the Bonus Dice generated by the preliminary roll of Lore for Hazard generated tests also encourages the heroes to roll dice instead of invoke Traits.

[Falenthal]

Remember that the game represents the memorable bits of the year... the adventure and the substantial changes in the hero's life.

That's important to understand, otherwise the Fellowship Phase doesn't make sense.
Not everything in the adventurer's life is played. In fact, the character shouldn't be considered "adventurers", but crafters, traders, musicians, gardeners, hunters, etc. It just happens that destiny puts a backpack and a sword on them once in a while, and Radgast sends them -and no one else- a little bird carrying a message...

The other 9 monts the characters are just working in their hometowns, tending their old parents and helping their brothers and sisters with the family shop. Or hunting so that the whole town can have meat for the upcoming winter. Or guarding the mountain passes so that traders can travel safe to Eriador. Boring stuff not worth of a set of rules or a games' session time.

[Otaku-sempai]

One adventure per year is more of a guideline than a rule. Your mileage may vary. You might very well want to start the year off with a relatively short Adventure followed by a a brief Fellowship phase (where not all Undertakings would be available). A second Adventure phase would probably end with a longer Fellowship phase over the Winter, when the longer Undertakings would also be available. I'm not sure whether I would ever set more than two adventures within the same year, though.

I'll let others handle your question about Journeys.

[shipwreck]

I'll second what has been said about Adventure/Fellowship timing: it's a guide, not a rule. My campaign really hit the ground running. They got through all except one of the quests from Tales in just over 2 game years. Part of it was me pushing the narrative so that we could get to Darkening, part of it is just our play style; contrary to what Falenthal says, my players' characters really are pretty much professional adventurers. I think this mostly due to their gaming background and relative inexperience with the source material, but I digress.

So, at that pace we've had Adventure Phases that lasted only a week (unless I'm mistaken that's the minimum as stated in the RAW), in one case just to spend points and open Rivendell.

Now that we're through Tales and on to Darkening I mean to steer the chronology more towards the original intent: a few months of adventuring and most of the year spent elsewhere. I've set it up so that there should be some holdings which, as stated above, will help encourage that narrative.

As far as Journeys I don't have a lot of input. Our group has Honey Cakes which definitely take the sting out of it. I suppose you could house rule it so that a character could use Hunting or Explore for Fatigue tests? Not quite sure.

[Stormcrow]

I find an extremely regular rate of adventures very unlike Middle-earth. The heroes may as well open an adventuring office in Lake-town. Adventures should crop up when you least expect them. I also find important characters coming to the player-heroes because he heard they were "stalwart adventurers" to be so unlikely it prevents me from enjoying the game.

The closest Tolkien ever comes to this is when Gandalf gets Thorin and company to hire Bilbo as a burglar. But this exception just proves the rule: Bilbo ISN'T a burglar, he isn't a band of adventurers, he isn't stalwart, and Gandalf gets him involved because he thought it would do Bilbo some good.

Tolkien's protagonists nearly always go on adventures for one of two reasons: they have no choice, or the adventure is very personal. The Fellowship of the Ring has no choice if they want to stop Sauron. Beren is in love with Luthien. Turin is prideful and ambitious. Thorin wants his fabulous treasure. It's clear from Gandalf's talk in The Hobbit that hiring warriors, burglars, and heroes DOES happen, but the usual formula of Seal Team Middle-earth isn't right.

Unfortunately, most of the published adventures use the adventurers-for-hire approach, or at least the help-me-please-you're-stalwart-heroes approach. What are needed are good PERSONAL hooks.

[Glorelendil]

Those are all good points. (I mean, aside from the fact that a legal contract for burglar work didn't seem out of the ordinary.)

I'd love to see official adventures written with some more detail/options/hooks for the LM to use to make it feel like the heroes get swept up in the adventure, rather than being hired for it.

[Stormcrow]

Those are all good points. (I mean, aside from the fact that a legal contract for burglar work didn't seem out of the ordinary.)

It's often characterized as a standard, legal contract, but the Tolkien Professor has described it, and I agree with him, as a joke on Thorin's part, making fun of Bilbo. The dwarves thought they'd made their business very clear with their songs and stories, and were surprised when that wasn't enough for Bilbo, and Bilbo put on his "business manner (usually reserved for people who tried to borrow money off him)" and tried to "appear wise and prudent and professional and live up to Gandalf's recommendation." He wanted to know about "risks, out-of-pocket expenses, time required and remuneration, and so forth..." So the dwarves, who didn't for one minute believe Bilbo was actually a burglar, but who didn't dare gainsay Gandalf, wrote up a pretentious contract filled with legalese to mock him. This joke, of course, backfired on Thorin when Bilbo used it to justify his taking the Arkenstone as his promised fourteenth share.

[beckett]

I find an extremely regular rate of adventures very unlike Middle-earth. The heroes may as well open an adventuring office in Lake-town. Adventures should crop up when you least expect them. I also find important characters coming to the player-heroes because he heard they were "stalwart adventurers" to be so unlikely it prevents me from enjoying the game.

The closest Tolkien ever comes to this is when Gandalf gets Thorin and company to hire Bilbo as a burglar. But this exception just proves the rule: Bilbo ISN'T a burglar, he isn't a band of adventurers, he isn't stalwart, and Gandalf gets him involved because he thought it would do Bilbo some good.

Tolkien's protagonists nearly always go on adventures for one of two reasons: they have no choice, or the adventure is very personal. The Fellowship of the Ring has no choice if they want to stop Sauron. Beren is in love with Luthien. Turin is prideful and ambitious. Thorin wants his fabulous treasure. It's clear from Gandalf's talk in The Hobbit that hiring warriors, burglars, and heroes DOES happen, but the usual formula of Seal Team Middle-earth isn't right.

Unfortunately, most of the published adventures use the adventurers-for-hire approach, or at least the help-me-please-you're-stalwart-heroes approach. What are needed are good PERSONAL hooks.

I think that good personal hooks come from the individual's game table and the narrative they are collectively telling. I'm not sure a published adventure can attempt to know what personal hooks each game group will need or want for their characters. In that sense, the published adventure must be somewhat malleable (and I think they are) so the LM can tweak it to fit the needs of his or her group and the various reasons they've agreed upon for why they are stepping out their door.

With that said, I like Glorelendil's suggestion that the published adventures include some options to assist the LM in finding those personal hooks.

[Majestic]

Though they might not have the occupation of 'adventurer', per se, some of the characters will have Callings that push them out the front door. Especially Wanderers, who tend not to want to stay in one place for too long. But also Wardens, who strive to keep others safe (so go to where trouble can be found). And Slayers are probably eager to do what they do, what with all the Shadow becoming more prominent in Mirkwood. My group is full of Scholars, and it's even conceivable for them to want to explore ruins and find ancient texts and items (like the Lamp), which really gives them a reason to leave their studies and libraries. And of course Treasure-hunters have a rationale for not wanting to tend the family farm.

I guess what I'm saying is that the game itself gives lots of good reasons for your adventurers to want to "wander our their front doors".

As far as the OP, my group tends to do one to two adventures per calendar year (game-wise). There was one crazy period where they did three adventures one year, then four the next, but a big part of that was the timing of the ending of Tales from Wilderland, where the adventure itself encouraged the LM to roll right from one into the next one.

Normally, I let things happen more organically. My companions tend to get out and be proactive finding the trouble spots. That said, there's times where I stymie them and have things move a little slower, when necessary. For instance, my players were keen to investigate the troubles between the Beornings and Viglundings last session, but I reminded them that things seem to have cooled down for now. And though they were eager to investigate Dol Gulder, I had NPCs remind them that the Council of the North was coming up soon, and it would be a pity if pivotal persons - that otherwise would represent their entire peoples - were lost just a year before this important event.

As for Journeys, I think the system works great as-is. Sure some characters will fail some Travel rolls. But this just means they incur a bit of Fatigue, which is realistic of long sessions on the road. The vast majority of our Journeys happen during Spring and Summer, so it's only an increase of 2 per failed roll (nothing Earth-shattering).