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Rich H wrote:Personally, I'd just wait for the 5e version of the rules to come out. If you're new to RPGing and getting acquainted with it through D&D 5e then picking up those new rules would seem like the most prudent thing to do.

Heresy!

But probably good advice.

They are very different sets of rules, though learning TOR without preconceived notions of other RPGs can be ad advantageous. Of course, if your primary goal is to play a game you're familiar with in a setting you love, then waiting for D&DME might be worth it. But if you want to play different RPGs and get a sense of the range of possibilities, then TOR is not a bad choice. (Quite a good one, in my opinion.)

Hi kdresser, welcome to the forums. You can search YouTube for "the one ring rpg gameplay" and you'll find a few videos of actual game sessions you can watch. You can easily note the differences between a typical D&D session and a typical TOR sessions this way. There are also a couple members of the forums here who post links to videos of their gameplay sessions as well - searching for 'Company of the Whiskey Drinking Bear' might yield some results.

I'm a longtime RPG gamer who took the plunge into game mastering with TOR with a handful of friends who were willing to learn the game along with me. We recently finished Tales from Wilderland and are moving on to Ruins of the North. If you want to start a good One Ring game, my top tip for you would be to find Tolkien-loving gamers who are more interested in the role-playing and storytelling aspects of RPGs, rather than the combat, magic-using, and loot-collecting aspects. Roleplaying, story-telling, and exploring Middle-Earth are what TOR is all about.

I did once try to get a TOR game going (online via roll20) with a group of D&D friends and it was kind of a bust. A couple of the players have Chaotic Neutral (borderline evil) tendencies, and in general just wanted to kick down doors and kill things.

They didn't really appreciate TOR.

So, yeah, pick your players.

Rich H wrote:Personally, I'd just wait for the 5e version of the rules to come out. If you're new to RPGing and getting acquainted with it through D&D 5e then picking up those new rules would seem like the most prudent thing to do.

:'( We want to increase the number of fans of this game, not to chase them away.

I foretold it, Middle Earth for DnD will ruin TOR

Am I officially a doomsayer?

Yepesnopes wrote:Am I officially a doomsayer?

Not really but the OP *is* new to the hobby and is getting into it through playing D&D5e. Personally, I think it would make sense for them to hold off and take a look at how those rules shape up than spend money on a system that they don't know or may struggle with potentially. They can always pick up the TOR books later as either additional material or if they want to give a new system a try - they aren't going anywhere!

How would the design and navigation of dungeon be done in a more narrative-based RPG like TOR? Without the visual representation, how would one navigate a dungeon...especially one with multiple potential paths to follow?

The way we've done it since 1974, descriptively.

kdresser wrote:How would the design and navigation of dungeon be done in a more narrative-based RPG like TOR? Without the visual representation, how would one navigate a dungeon...especially one with multiple potential paths to follow?

Descriptions and interaction between players and GM for the most part; the GM would have a map to refer to if needed, even if it was just a simple flow chart of locations and their relationship with each other.

Out of interest, have you ever read any of the Choose Your Own Adventure books? It's oversimplifying what I'm trying to illustrate as the options presented within those are naturally limiting but it's a good place to start... Often those books would be adventures set within a dungeon that you, as the hero and reader, had to navigate. This was done by the author presenting paragraphs or descriptions and then presenting the reader with various choices - each one leading to their own specific paragraphs that the reader would be instructed to go to. Even without visual representation they'd give the reader a good idea of what was happening etc. Those books are pretty much a simplified and limited RPG for one player.

kdresser wrote:How would the design and navigation of dungeon be done in a more narrative-based RPG like TOR? Without the visual representation, how would one navigate a dungeon...especially one with multiple potential paths to follow?

I think there's also a probable disconnect between the types of stories that one tells in TOR and some of the kinds of stories that one can tell in D&D. In most all of the published adventures for The One Ring, the players are directly or indirectly helping someone... a merchant or noble needs guards for a trip, someone has gone missing and family members ask for help, a local lord has a problem and needs someone independent to take a look into it, etc. There is very rarely any adventures that are "go stab these people in order to get money" or even "go into this dangerous and trap-laden hole and, if you survive, come out with fabulous treasure on the other end". Instead, the heroes help to build communities and fight against the Shadow. That isn't to say that they don't get paid on occasion or that they don't find themselves some magical treasure, it's just that the why's are more important than in some D&D games.

I say some D&D games, because it's totally possible to play D&D in the TOR style. It's just not the only way, and lots of people play in other ways.

If you get a chance, check out Theft of the Moon. Hopefully that will give you an example of the sort of adventures that one might get up to in The One Ring.