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kdresser wrote:My PC won't open my PDF. Anyone else have this problem?

You may also want to try redownloading the PDF... it might have been corrupted, especially as OneBookShelf (DriveThru/RPGNow) has had some technical glitches of late.

Ugh this dumb PDF. I have a hard copy I purchased I'm reading through as well (only to find out my D&D DM had a copy I could have borrowed for free lol).

I have one more question for the crew (that some of you answered in part already), but what do you appreciate/love about TOR that you didn't get in D&D or other RPG's? What things does TOR do really well that you haven't seen many others pull off?

P.S. Has anyone successfully implemented minis and/or other visual stimuli like drawn-out dungeons, etc?

kdresser wrote:I have one more question for the crew (that some of you answered in part already), but what do you appreciate/love about TOR that you didn't get in D&D or other RPG's? What things does TOR do really well that you haven't seen many others pull off?

That's a *big* question that could lead to really involved and detailed responses if examples are given but I think the vast majority of people that love playing TOR would say that it's the way the system and advice within the books is put together to support a distinctly Tolkienesque playstyle. It isn't just playing a campaign set in Middle-Earth, it's built to play a Tolkienesque campaign and all that comes with that - eg, Hope, Shadow, Journey rules, the power-level of PCs, etc. The One Ring does all those things exceptionally well. That's about the size of it.

kdresser wrote:P.S. Has anyone successfully implemented minis and/or other visual stimuli like drawn-out dungeons, etc?

The Combat Stance mat works perfectly well for using miniatures. I use minis all the time in this way and on the Travel mat so that players can easily select their character's stance, role, etc. They are just a pretty substitute for using tokens. I've used scenery and the like as well but it isn't remotely required as TOR doesn't have any specific rules that really require exact positioning and movement within the game. You'd be using them because of a personal preference and nothing more.

kdresser wrote: I have one more question for the crew (that some of you answered in part already), but what do you appreciate/love about TOR that you didn't get in D&D or other RPG's? What things does TOR do really well that you haven't seen many others pull off?

For me it's partly what Rich says...it's not just in Middle Earth but it feels like Middle Earth...but also that you play a "normal" person who becomes a hero despite overwhelming odds. The goal of the game isn't to accumulate enough power that you kill demi-gods in epic battles, and it isn't even to kill things and take their loot, it's to tell a story. And the rules support that in a number of ways. So I think I would like the TOR ruleset even in other settings. (For a while I was working on a port of the system to Conan's world).

Glorelendil wrote:So I think I would like the TOR ruleset even in other settings. (For a while I was working on a port of the system to Conan's world).

In the same vein, I still have my Star Wars conversion to finish off.

Rich H wrote:

Glorelendil wrote:So I think I would like the TOR ruleset even in other settings. (For a while I was working on a port of the system to Conan's world).

In the same vein, I still have my Star Wars conversion to finish off.

I wish I had unlimited time and thus was able to do a Prydain conversion properly.

In regard to using maps, I did do a 'dungeon-crawl' about a year ago where I actually used geomorphs from Heroic Maps (my favourite provider of such things) to allow the players to explore:







Here's the full map, which they never saw:



But breaking out the miniatures and the maps might defeat the mood of the game, because combat (and other actions) in The One Ring is not static. A hero with a Forward Stance is not necessarily on the front-line of a group of soldiers, but is instead anyone who is being very aggressive in a combat. Once can imagine a Forward hero quickly moving in and out, repositioning herself against foes as the battle swirls and she moves with it. Static miniatures on a table cannot hope to represent that feeling, and can sometimes lead to issues of blind-spots, where players don't realise that they can change up their engagements from round to round or do moves other than whack the enemy in front of them.

Rich H wrote:

Glorelendil wrote:So I think I would like the TOR ruleset even in other settings. (For a while I was working on a port of the system to Conan's world).

In the same vein, I still have my Star Wars conversion to finish off.

I have a zombie apocalypse conversion that plays pretty well.

kdresser wrote:Ugh this dumb PDF. I have a hard copy I purchased I'm reading through as well (only to find out my D&D DM had a copy I could have borrowed for free lol).

I have one more question for the crew (that some of you answered in part already), but what do you appreciate/love about TOR that you didn't get in D&D or other RPG's? What things does TOR do really well that you haven't seen many others pull off?

What TOR does that others don't do well:

• Travel Montage.
• low power but pervasive magic
• Middle Earth's monsters
• The Hope economy
• Songs as magic (In Rivendell book)

D&D 5 has a travel system similar, but vastly inferior, to that in TOR. Only one other game besides these two have I seen with a workable travel mechanic - Crimson Cutlass - and its is quite different.

Low Power but all-pervasive magic is the hallmark of Middle Earth (and Narnia). TOR has lots of subtle magic. D&D has lots of overt magic. RuneQuest and HeroWars/HeroQuest do lots of low-powered but overt magics.

In most games in fact, the magic is pretty overt. TOR, it's subtle - mostly worked into the character abilities.

The hope economy is also great. It's not unique to TOR - it's directly comparable to Fate Points in Fate, Plot Points in Cortex Plus, Att pools in Albedo: Platinum Catalyst, and a number of others. It is, however, tweaked to be beautifully thematic.

The use of music as magic in a subtle but powerful mechanic is a huge increase in the (already high) Tolkienian feel.

P.S. Has anyone successfully implemented minis and/or other visual stimuli like drawn-out dungeons, etc?

Oh, yes.

Minis on play mats work great for both the combat and travel systems.

Minis on map...
just use colored poker chips under or tokens beside.
Typical cheap poker chips are red, white, and blue. Red forward, white open, blue defensive, none rearward, but must be more than two bases distance (assuming a base is 1.5-2 yds). Move about 5 bases (7-10yd); replace attack with athletics roll for extra 2 bases per success level, TN by terrain.

I prefer the abstract for TOR. But it's not hard to convert to a more minis based approach.

Valarian wrote:

Rich H wrote:

Glorelendil wrote:So I think I would like the TOR ruleset even in other settings. (For a while I was working on a port of the system to Conan's world).

In the same vein, I still have my Star Wars conversion to finish off.

I have a zombie apocalypse conversion that plays pretty well.

Indeed. I enjoyed reading it.