Reviewing The One Ring

[beardo1976]

Heya folks,

I run a little gaming blog called The Drunk Umber Hulk and I've recently started reviewing The One Ring products. I really love this game and want to make others aware of it! I'd love if you TOR veterans could take a look and let me know if there are any glaring issues in my posts, I'd hate to misrepresent the game in any way. I'll be working my way through the entire product line and hopefully producing some of my own content (depending on how much time I have, the new baby is quite demanding! )

You can find the blog here:http://thedrunkumberhulk.blogspot.com/, there is a tab near the top that will take you to all of The One Ring posts. Thanks!

[zedturtle]

Just from a quick skim it does look like it could benefit from another editing pass and there were some issues with system stuff. For example, the Eye of Sauron is not an automatic failure, just a '0' with the chance for other bad stuff to be triggered.

When I get some time, I'd be glad to see you some more detailed notes, it's just going to take a little while to get in front of a real keyboard.

But your great enthusiasm for the game shines through, so keep it up!

[bluejay]

Sent you a PM! Great work on these reviews.

[Deadmanwalking]

Very nice. I'm always glad to see people talking about TOR (since it's awesome).

And because I'm a compulsive editor, a few minor rules errors:

1. As noted, Eyes of Sauron are not automatic failures, just a 0 and potentially other bad stuff happening. You can still succeed having rolled one, though.
2. In your Character Creation example, you say Traveling Gear has a starting Encumbrance. That's incorrect. Traveling Gear determines how much Fatigue you gain when you fail a Travel check, but has no inherent Encumbrance of its own.
3. Also in Character Creation, the sheet you show has Stealth 3, when it should have Search 3 instead. Just a typo, basically, but it leapt out at me.

[Majestic]

Great job, beardo!

And congrats on your little one!

Overall you do a good job conveying the essence of TOR, and capturing the flavor of the game. A few things you might clean up:

- The default setting for the year is TA 2946, rather than 2945.

- You should change "roll-play" (in your section on Traits) to "role-play", as your usage can have different, negative connotations for some (and I don't think that's what you meant).

- To be more clear on getting advancement points, you might mention the quality of the rolls (gaining tengwars), as that's one of the most common ways players gain them.

- Instead of an Encumbrance increase, it should be that travelling gear raises Fatigue (by 2 or 3, depending on season).

- ICE's game should be MERP, rather than MERP's.

Again, great job with the review!

[Majestic]

Also, great review of Heart of the Wild, too.

And FYI, if you let Cubicle7 know about your binding problem, they'll replace it for you. I've had to do that with a couple of their books, and their customer service is tops in the industry!

[beardo1976]

Thank you everyone for the corrections and kind words, I'll be making some changes and will get everything updated this evening! You're an eagle-eyed bunch!

Thanks again!


Jason

[beardo1976]

Heya folks,

Just a quick update, over the next few weeks I have reviews of The Darkening of Mirkwood, Tales from Wilderland, the Loremaster's Screen and Lake-Town Sourcebook, Rivendell and Ruins of the North coming, one each Friday. More will follow as I am able to complete them. I hope you enjoy!


Jason

[beardo1976]

The Darkening of Mirkwood review is up! Thanks for looking!

http://thedrunkumberhulk.blogspot.com/

[beardo1976]

Heya folks,

My review of Tales From Wilderland is up. Thanks to everyone for all the great feedback and support, its much appreciated!

http://thedrunkumberhulk.blogspot.com/2 ... eview.html