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I'm getting ready to start a One Ring game, and I'm having trouble getting my head around the Encounter system, which works quite differently from other social conflict systems I've seen.

It has a mechanically-defined failure condition (run out of Tolerance), but not an equivalent success condition that I can see. How have folks here decided when players have "won" an encounter? By "win" I guess I mean "got what they want out of it".

I've seen the tweak used in Tales from Wilderland, but I think that's addressing a slightly different issue.

Its not immediately clear, but I think you'll see from the adventures how its supposed to work. Best thing to do for your encounters is have a list of increasingly good success ratings based on the number of successful skill rolls. For example someone has run off with the town's magical and legendary treasure - who's going to have the privilege of recovering it?

1-2 successes - the player's characters are chosen, but no one really expects them to succeed and look for other heroes to help
3-4 successes - the PCs are chosen and wished well by the town with the promise of a small reward (1 Treasure each)
5-6 successes - the PCs are obviously the right people for the job, there is rejoicing they've chosen to attempt the task and improved Standing within the town or greater Treasure will be forthcoming upon their return.
8 Successes - as above, plus the best tracker in town insists on coming along and making their journey easier (get free attribute bonuses to all Travel rolls)

So, essentially work out a marginal, average, good and great result and use that depending on how well the gang do in an encounter.

It can seem counter-intuitive when someone wants their nephew returning and you've (as a player character) got to beg them to let you help ("You know what, if you don't want our help then screw you, we're off to Rivendell for a party"), but once players know that the goal is to make as good an impression as possible to improve their legend and rewards and make things easier on the journey, then they normally buy in.

First I have to say I love the game and just wrapped up a lengthy campaign.

Now I have to say I modified the encounter mechanics to be a lot less...mechanical.

From your original post I did want to point out that hitting tolerance does not mean failure RaW. In fact it rarely means that (with an exception of an encounter I can think of in TfW). Your players can simply propose tasks until they reach it.

The encounter mechanic resembles in its structure the skill challenges of 4th edition dnd. The skill challenges felt to me and to my group a very artificial rule having as result to abandon it. However, on the contrary with the 4th edition my players feel very comfortable with the encounter mechanic. All of our encounters roll very smoothly without ruining our immersion. Maybe you should allow the role playing to dictate the kind and the proper time of the tests and not the mechanics themselves.

Hi all - thanks for the advice. It helped get my head around my problem.

usgrandprix wrote:From your original post I did want to point out that hitting tolerance does not mean failure RaW. In fact it rarely means that (with an exception of an encounter I can think of in TfW). Your players can simply propose tasks until they reach it.

This is what blew the fog away. Thanks! You're totally right, of course. Tolerance isn't about failure. It's about when the players have to stop calling for tasks in that scene. I was overcomplicating things - the bulk of an encounter should be handled using the standard rules: players state their actions, dice are rolled as the fiction demands it. If player's ask for something that's big I can set the TN higher, and then break it down into a more achievable prolonged action to give the task the time and attention it deserves.

What really interests me about this is the idea that players might end up prioritising which questions to ask or favours to call for. When tolerance is low, you potentially have a limited number of things you can ask for. Really interested to see how this will work in play.