Ran Theft of Moon for Free RPG Day

[barefoottourguide]

I was supposed to run Cthulhu yesterday, but most of the players couldn't do it, so I canned the session, realized it was Free RPG Day and that the local store was running a special event. I contacted them at 2pm to see if they had room for one more 5pm game. They said they'd fit me in. I posted on social media I was doing this, and a 5pm I had a table of 5 players new to The One Ring.

The following contains story spoilers:

They loved the story. The competitions were great. They interacted well with the NPCs, but as a criticism of my pregen design I should have had more players with higher Persuade and Inspire scores. That slowed down the investigation. Awe and half the party using Hunting to follow the tracks and figure out more of what happened saved the day.

They weren't horribly impressed by the journey rules. I think if they'd rolled an Eye of Sauron on a Travel check they might have. The characters with low Travel scores definitely found it frustrating. Which is something the group walked away from. They found the system realistic and praised how quickly someone will get taken out by a good hit with an ax, but they weren't happy with how difficult the odds were of success on tasks while untrained at a skill or with one rank in the skill. One quote was, "This is the weakest dwarf I've ever seen in an rpg. He can't even cross a wet log over a river." Funny the realism in combat was a positive but skill wise was frustrating.

The River Hobbit tried to convince Cenric he was Jarn (one of the characters used a foresight feature to see the future and realized Cenric wasn't the BBEG but there was another, closer to Viglund. He succeeded, but I played it that Cenric thought the Hobbit was a scout of Jarn's/ Still. this made the Hobbit player happy and provided a distraction for a ranged ambush on Cenric. The combat roles were excellent.
Jarn emerged from the woods, and the dwarf met him in combat. "I don't have time for a dwarf," Jarn said.
"Do you have time for an ax?" the dwarf replied and rolled a great success on his attack. Followed by Jarn drawing his ax and rolling an eye of sauron and saying, "As a matter of fact, I do have time for an ax."

The guys playing the rearward dudes were frustrated that parry was added to the target number to hit someone and that they went last in the stance order. I think their impressions from the movies sullied their opinions, but their argument of dodging incoming arrows held water. How do others explain this?

My favorite highlight was when the High Elf got suspicious early on of Elthal and followed her around. She accused him of being perverted and flashed him, saying, "If this is what you want pointy ears, drink it all in." He had to make a fear test.

The group loved the story, enjoyed my telling of it but were picking the system apart. Some wanted it to be more Savage Worlds. Others can't wait for it to become 5e. However, for a 3 hour warning Free RPG one-shot, I thought it was very successful.
Garrett

[zedturtle]

Cool!

I wonder if the new players knew about using Traits for automatic success. That can alleviate some concerns with Journeys, but as rue once said, it kind of makes sense that if you go on a long dangerous journey in the wilderness, you might get tired and worn-out.

As for Rearward combat, the justification is that you're firing into melee... you're trying to find the perfect moment where you're not going to hit your friend, and are going to actually land a meaningful hit on the enemy. That enemy's combat alacrity (their personal Parry score) will affect your chances of doing that, but the fact that there is a swirling mess of blades, shields and people also affects you (the base Stance modifier).

The story regarding Ethal the Unkind is very funny, I shall have to pass that on to her inspiration.

Your concern with your pregens makes me think that I need to spend some time expanding out my pregens to full sheet characters... the half-sheet characters are compact for the layout, but a bit tough to use in actual play.

— • —

{ P.S. In case anyone's confused, the character formerly known as Jarn is named Guthred in the most recent version of the adventure. However, it's the same character with the same position in the story, just a name change. }

[SirGalrim]

Thanks for the insights. I am hosting this module at Arcon, the largest games convention in Norway next friday. The others Loremasters are not that experienced with TOR. Any particular advice for making it easier for them?

[barefoottourguide]

Thanks again Zed for a wonderful story.
SirGalrim, only concern the characters with rules about skills at the beginning. Limit characters to two contests at the Festival, telling them what skills they'll need to employ. When the goblin's found, have the marshal employ the heroes to help out (I gave them a backstory with the marshal/police) by interrogating the witnesses. Then teach the specifics for Encounters. Players wil want to go follow the tracks. Cut the action between the interrogations and the tracking. Let them find drag tracks and multiple sets of footprints, and allow them to return to the interrogations with this information to help the interrogations.
Then, have the marshal beg the players to get the sickle back before Beorn finds out. If they resist, then they'll be held as responsible for the loss of the artifact as the others. Then teach the journey mechanics. At this point I teach about the fellowship focus and pool.
After the travel draw the Falrock, let the players realize the thralls are doing this against their will. LEt them get close before unleashing the boss from the woods. Let the players hear the thralls talk about the pros and cons of helping. Their freedom's been promised if they see this mission complete. If they choose the wrong side, they'll never be free, and they have their families to worry about. Make it personal. Don't make the thralls goblins to be mowed down. Play Cenric as sly and wanting to talk thinks out before trying to escape (I've never had him get to talk before being ambushed) and the boss have no time to deal with adventurers, prompting teaching combat rules. The group may have time for an ambush before the boss arrives, based on their plans, so let opening volleys and Stealth rolls and social rolls crossing the log to distract Cenric occur.
At the end, returning the sickle, have Beorn there being explained to about the sickle being stolen... and him getting angry. Let the heroes be heroes in his eyes for presenting the artifact. It makes a great ending.
Garrett
Garrett

[zedturtle]

Thanks for the insights. I am hosting this module at Arcon, the largest games convention in Norway next friday. The others Loremasters are not that experienced with TOR. Any particular advice for making it easier for them?

Wow! Cool! Garrett's advice is spot-on, and remember loremasters only have to be one step ahead of the players. It might be helpful (if several people are to run the adventure) to step the other LMS through the adventure and the system... it doesn't need to take super long, just something like:

Part One --- this is all about how to roll the dice and use the skills {demonstrate some rolls and talk about the Gandalf, Eye and Tengwar icons}. Heroes will also learn about Great and Extraordinary successes and about how they can spend Hope to succeed (expect lots of Hope expenditures in con games).

Part Two --- this is all about Encounters: Tolerance is the economy of these scenes. {Explain about calculating Tolerance and Prejudice. Then talk about using unusual skills... }. Also make note of Garrett's suggestions... tracking the thieves for a little while or searching the tent should prove fruitful for folks who aren't much into talking.

Part Three --- this is all about Journeys: Talk about the basic rules and the chase rules and tie it back into the Part One explanation. Also, you might encourage LMs that have had the heroes fly through the first part (or just got really lucky on their Journey rolls) to have a 'fixed' scene... aka one of the Hazards turned into a 'must-see' scene just for pacing.

Part Four --- this could be another Encounter, but it could also be a Combat (quite likely). Talk to them a bit about combat, especially about how Stances work and how to calculate everyone's total Parry score properly. Tie back into Part One for the damage calculations. Edge works differently than anything else in the game, make sure that LMs know to be on the lookout for that.

But mostly just encourage everyone to have fun... it is much more about the story being told that any specific rules being right or wrong. Encourage the LMs to make rulings on the fly rather than get too bogged down in details.

---

Things not to worry about:

APs... probably not worth worrying about for a con game. You might want to say something at the beginning, but then explain that you're not going to keep close track because these are one-time runs.

XP... see above, unless you get done early and want to dig into the Fellowship Phase.

Shadow... If the heroes start going murder-hobo, then maybe you can talk about Shadow. Otherwise, it, Misery and Bouts of Madness won't probably show up in a con game (though, maybe, players do tend to spend Hope like water).

Good luck in any case and I'll be very excited to hear how it goes!

[killianred]

Glad you had a good time with your game. I had planned on running the same adventure here for our local game store, and talked to the guy who runs the store about it a couple months ago. Well, they didn't even post an announcement about it until the night before, and when I got there they wanted to put me in the back room (with no a/c) where no one wandering in would even know we were doing anything. Just as well, no one showed up except a friend from my regular group. So we bought a board game and played it for a while.

[zedturtle]

Wow, that's unfortunate. I hope that you and your buddy at least had some fun. Maybe another time (or another store) will prove more fruitful...

[killianred]

We did have a good time, and I still plan to run the adventure for my home group. Any chance I could get the next one in the series?

[zedturtle]

As soon as I get some free time, I plan to finish it: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6247

(Been slow going, only because of me letting the fire go out a couple of times... now that I'm reminded that folks are actively anticipating it, I will redouble my efforts to get it presentable and finished up.)

[Dedicemancometh]

Funny about that "weakest Dwarf/can't even cross a wet log" line, because that exact quote came up in my long running campaign back in February.

Some things about the system are excellent for Campaigns, and frustrating for introductory or one-shots.

Campaign trends that play out over time but suck for single adventures:
Invariably, at the outset points are spent for combat. Then, inevitably, newbs moan and groan about Journey rules... until after a couple of Fellowship Phases upping Travel and Athletics.

Likewise, the first time (be it early in the campaign or late), the fellowship engages a mystery, everybody moans about Riddle, Insight, and Persuade. Then they up them over the next Fellowship Phase or two.

Also, for some baffling reason, Standing -- or rather the ramifications of simply ignoring its advancement -- seems to be a perennial blind spot. Can't exactly explain why. Even overt hints from the LM and repeated frustrating Encounter scenes don't seem to penetrate player's skulls.