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.
Jacob Rodgers, occasional nitwit.
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