Players: What do you want out of The One Ring?

[zedturtle]

I'm happy to say I just joined one of Vardaen's PBP groups and I'm pretty excited to finally get to play, rather than LM (#lmproblems). I'd say the first thing I want out of the game is a good storytelling/gaming experience. One thing I've learned is that if it bends (or even breaks) canon a bit, not in an outrageous way but just a bit, in the name of a good time I'm actually okay with that. My primary lens for said 'good time' is the land. I think it's the land, probably even moreso than the characters, that really grabs me with Middle-earth. It all starts from the ground. Tolkien's maps and descriptions of locales is so grand and wonderful and the land is so wonderful, that that is what I want to interact with in a game of TOR as much as anything else.

tl;dr - the first bullet

That's awesome, and I think something that a lot of players are really into... sometimes the players seem to 'stumble around' for a little while... I think this is part of it... they just really want to go look in Elrond's cupboards, as it were.

[zedturtle]

Well, I've only ever run the game, I've never played it. But if I was a player, I'd say yes to all but making changes. I'd be most interested in fighting bad guys and monsters, and interacting with the world and its canonical characters . The other thing that springs to mind is my character becoming renowned as a hero in Middle-Earth: who wouldn't love that! Tales From Wilderland allows the characters to become heroes to the Beornings and the Woodmen, so that when they face the final conflict they're already earned plenty of renown.

Good points, especially about becoming famous.

I also agree with what Rocmistro said about the power of myth.

And Barliman Butterbur's grandfather is called Barnabas in my game!

So he is, so he is (in my game as well). His father is named Barnabas as well (Barney... the heroes met him as a teenager recently). He (Barney) dislikes the repetitive naming, and has vowed to not name any of his (theoretical, yet) children Barnabas!

[Rocmistro]

I hear the name "Humperdinck" is starting to become en vogue

[Earendil]

And Barliman Butterbur's grandfather is called Barnabas in my game!

So he is, so he is (in my game as well). His father is named Barnabas as well (Barney... the heroes met him as a teenager recently). He (Barney) dislikes the repetitive naming, and has vowed to not name any of his (theoretical, yet) children Barnabas!

Oh, I may have nicked that from you, actually! I was thinking what name to give him, and I seemed to remember Barnabas being mentioned somewhere (but I wasn't sure where, or if it was indeed a Butterbur that was called that) and it seemed appropriate. Possibly you'd mentioned it previously, and the vague memory popped out when I needed it! I haven't named his father, though; I may nick the "Barnabas junior" idea from you too, if it ever comes up.

In my game it's 2950 and Barney (yes, i call him that too!) has recently had a son, Berriman (to be called Berry for short) who will eventually be Barliman's father. I doubt the campaign will go on that long, but it'll be cool if it does.


(Sorry, drifting quite badly off-topic there...)

[zedturtle]

I hear the name "Humperdinck" is starting to become en vogue

Yay, verily, the name "Humperdinck" is ringing in the streets of Laketown.

[zedturtle]

And Barliman Butterbur's grandfather is called Barnabas in my game!

So he is, so he is (in my game as well). His father is named Barnabas as well (Barney... the heroes met him as a teenager recently). He (Barney) dislikes the repetitive naming, and has vowed to not name any of his (theoretical, yet) children Barnabas!

Oh, I may have nicked that from you, actually! I was thinking what name to give him, and I seemed to remember Barnabas being mentioned somewhere (but I wasn't sure where, or if it was indeed a Butterbur that was called that) and it seemed appropriate. Possibly you'd mentioned it previously, and the vague memory popped out when I needed it! I haven't named his father, though; I may nick the "Barnabas junior" idea from you too, if it ever comes up.

In my game it's 2950 and Barney (yes, i call him that too!) has recently had a son, Berriman (to be called Berry for short) who will eventually be Barliman's father. I doubt the campaign will go on that long, but it'll be cool if it does.


(Sorry, drifting quite badly off-topic there...)

More likely, we both got it from the source (Barliman was called Barnabas in initial drafts by Tolkien). More detail later, when I have a real keyboard.

[jamesrbrown]

Next time I see you, I promise to throw you to the Wargs!

See, now that's the kind of thing that gets my gaming adrenaline going. Bring it on!

Let's not wait till we see each other again. Have you ever used the Azrapse Online Character Generator to play a game of The One Ring? We should try it sometime if you're up late at night, even if it's only for a couple of parts of an adventure at a time. We have 2-3 hours difference depending on time of the year, but I'm sure we could make it work for 30-60 min at a time.

I've done this with a couple of friends and it works beautifully. Recently, I even used it to introduce a friend to The One Ring and we played online while in the same room with a combination of talking and typing. So much fun! Sometimes you can write your thoughts better than you can speak them.

[zedturtle]

Next time I see you, I promise to throw you to the Wargs!

See, now that's the kind of thing that gets my gaming adrenaline going. Bring it on!

Let's not wait till we see each other again. Have you ever used the Azrapse Online Character Generator to play a game of The One Ring? We should try it sometime if you're up late at night, even if it's only for a couple of parts of an adventure at a time. We have 2-3 hours difference depending on time of the year, but I'm sure we could make it work for 30-60 min at a time.

I've done this with a couple of friends and it works beautifully. Recently, I even used it to introduce a friend to The One Ring and we played online while in the same room with a combination of talking and typing. So much fun! Sometimes you can write your thoughts better than you can speak them.

Yeah, you were telling me about that... and I definitely agree with the 'writing is better' (though it can be dangerous... my PbP games have spoiled me on that, and I tend to be a quieter player in face-to-face games, so it's hurt me on occasion).

I'll contact you off-line, and we can set something up (maybe it can even be a test... ).

[Rue]

I would echo what Rocmistro said, it's very much about experiencing the power of myth and telling myth that makes me love playing TOR so much. That and getting to poke around in Elrond's cupboards. The fighting monsters is exciting, but isn't the main reason I play, I'd say I'm much more of the "wander around seeing Tolkein's world, and occasionally getting a glimpse of the mighty" style player. Achieving fame isn't a huge lure to me, although if it made sense in the campaign I don't object to it per se, but it isn't something I really anticipate happening. I love the idea of maybe doing something against the Shadow that makes the quests of canon a little easier, "off scene" as it were.

[mirdanis]

When you play The One Ring are you:

1) Wanting to interact with the world (visit places, regardless of whether or not 'anyone' is there)?
2) Wanting to interact with the famous people of the world (do you want to hold forth with Gandalf, bandy words with Saruman, try to impress the Elf King, etc.)?
3) Wanting to interact with the 'little people' of the world (do you care what the name of Barliman's grandfather was? Are you curious about how Beorn gets his honey? About the trade imbalances in Lake-town)?
4) Wanting to engage the Enemy (maybe not directly, but fighting Orcs or worse)?
5) Wanting to solve mysteries (figuring out how things came to be, or what's going on with that shady guy in the corner)?
6) Wanting to make changes (throw canon out the window, or maybe you're the reason why the world looks the way it does in the books)?
7) Wanting something that I forgot to list here (there's probably a thousand things, at least)?

I would say that when I play TOR - and I've only been a player for one-shots a few times, mostly I'm a LM - my personal priorities are 1, 2, 3, and 5, and to a lesser extent 6. There are plenty of things about the canon that I love - maybe 90% of it. But there are huge gaping holes in fascinating areas of it, and while I also love Middle Earth's preservation of mystery (and C7's preservation of that tradition), there are some things that I just really wanna know about! So, I may make small changes to canon once in a while, but I'm more interested in filling in the gaps.

1 - Interacting with the world, visiting places - Yes. I live on the remains (2.5 acres) of a 19th century farmstead (once 325 acres) in the middle of what is now a bustling suburb of a fairly large city (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) and although we have dark enough skies to see some stars at night, I've only ever seen the Milky Way a few times. There are virtually no vast uninhabited spaces left on our planet now, so few places where the handprint of Man is not in evidence. I relish the opportunity to wander Middle Earth in my imagination, exploring plains, rolling hills, streams, fells, mountains, ravines, and rivers for days without meeting another speaking being or seeing an artificial light.

2 - Interacting with the great and powerful of Middle Earth - Well, I mean, yeah. Who wouldn't want to examine old books of lore with Elrond, learn about woodcraft with Celeborn, talk history with Galadriel, have an ale at the Prancing Pony with Gandalf, celebrate Midsummer with Thingol and Melian, explore Gondolin with Idril and Tuor, or talk politics with - well, okay, maybe not Denethor.

3 - Interacting with the 'little people' of the world - The little people, the small events, are what truly make Middle Earth rich and real, just like our world. In my game, the times when my players get to interact with the great and powerful are pretty rare and special, so I try to make their interactions with ordinary folk interesting and engaging. I have immensely enjoyed fleshing out the background of Ennalda the Spearmaiden, Beorn's fosterling, who hated adventurers but was the daughter of one; Leofa, my original NPC who was the sister of the Hermit of Mirkwood, bearer of Wolfbiter; Arciryas, healer of Gondor and servant of Saruman; Bofri son of Bofur, sent to live among the Wood-Men to explore the Old Forest Road; and even the half-Easterling tavern-keeper of my original tiny Rohan settlement of Pinetop, who charged 8 silver per person for a disgusting meal and an insect-plagued night's sleep at her filthy flop-house of an inn. When the PCs told her that was highway robbery and that they would give her no more than 4 silver each, she swore at them in 3 languages, threw a wooden tankard at the head of the Dwarf (and hit), and "invited" them to sleep in the goat-pen if that was all they thought of her hospitality.

As far as engaging the enemy, I know combat makes gaming exciting to many players, so they enjoy it; but I'm just now, after a year and a half of LMing, getting really comfortable with the combat system and beginning to run smooth combats. I'm great at setting the scene, telling the story, and constructing a rich, multidimensional, realistic, immersive experience of Middle Earth for my players to enjoy; but I suck at numbers-crunching! Thanks to Cubicle Seven for their light hand with the rules of TOR compared to some other RPGs we can all think of!