Number of players for published adventures?

[Minstrel_of_Gondor]

Good evening forum, you're looking swell.

I have a question as a new game master of The One Ring. I have all the supplements up to Ruins of the North presently.

I ran The Marsh Bell when I had 5 players, and it worked well. I was down to four players for the first adventure in Tales From Wilderland, and now I'll be down to 2-3 at the most (the two I'm sure of are playing a dwarf and elf from Rivendell).

My question: is this too few players for continuing the Tales saga? Or beginning Darkening of Mirkwood? Or Ruins?

I realize that an experienced GM can accommodate smaller groups, and though I am long in the tooth with RPGs (I started gaming with D&D back in 1980), I don't have the experience in The One Ring yet.

Any suggestions or advice? Thanks be to ye!

[zedturtle]

Good evening forum, you're looking swell.

I have a question as a new game master of The One Ring. I have all the supplements up to Ruins of the North presently.

I ran The Marsh Bell when I had 5 players, and it worked well. I was down to four players for the first adventure in Tales From Wilderland, and now I'll be down to 2-3 at the most (the two I'm sure of are playing a dwarf and elf from Rivendell).

My question: is this too few players for continuing the Tales saga? Or beginning Darkening of Mirkwood? Or Ruins?

I realize that an experienced GM can accommodate smaller groups, and though I am long in the tooth with RPGs (I started gaming with D&D back in 1980), I don't have the experience in The One Ring yet.

Any suggestions or advice? Thanks be to ye!

Cool! Welcome Minstrel_of_Gondor!

The game somewhat assumes four players (or at least four heroes) but you can work around that, especially with a generous interpretation of the Journey rules. Having a Woodman (with a Hound), a Beorning (with Twice-baked Honey Cakes) or a Hobbit (any flavour) is especially useful, but I think with a bit of discreet Loremastering, you can make a smaller party work.

Of course, you'll want to carefully pay attention to the scaling suggestions in the published adventures... most tend to have a couple of toughs that are always present and a scaling amount of mooks to supplement them. If you only have a couple of heroes then you might want to forego the mooks entirely.

And, of course, you could always have each player control more than one character, or have a "floater" character that belongs to the group as a whole to round out the roles.

[Glorelendil]

If you decide to round out the party with an NPC ("Loremaster Character" in the local parlance) try to avoid making it a full fleshed out hero with its own character sheet and attack rolls. Use the Hound of Mirkwood as the archetype: its presence can give the heroes advantages, but without dice rolling.

In fact, that would be an interesting extension to the game: a subsystem for creating LMCs that help small Fellowships with their weak spots without stealing the spotlight. E.g., imagine Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pipping as players, and Aragorn as an LMC. For the Bree to Rivendell journey, anyway.

[Rich H]

And welcome to the forum too, Minstrel_of_Gondor.

Zed and Glor have got the player numbers covered; works perfectly for my group as I have 4 players in addition to myself.

If you decide to round out the party with an NPC ("Loremaster Character" in the local parlance) try to avoid making it a full fleshed out hero with its own character sheet and attack rolls. Use the Hound of Mirkwood as the archetype: its presence can give the heroes advantages, but without dice rolling.

In fact, that would be an interesting extension to the game: a subsystem for creating LMCs that help small Fellowships with their weak spots without stealing the spotlight. E.g., imagine Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pipping as players, and Aragorn as an LMC. For the Bree to Rivendell journey, anyway.

I think you could build something just extending the RAW systems already in play. Off the tope of my head, things like the following could be options:

1) Extend the idea of bonus dice and maybe restrict their usage to specific skill groups depending on the LMC; although for someone like Aragorn I'd suggest there's no need for that restriction. You could even have it refresh during the adventure in the same way the Fellowship Pool does.

2) Boost the Fellowship Pool to provid extra Hope while the PCs are accompanied by the LMC.

3) Reduce the TN of certain tests and tasks depending on the competencies of the LMC.

... Maybe there are others.

[Falenthal]

More ideas for LMCs:

Build a "pool" of LMCs with your players that can be increased during the adventures. At first, they can be described just in broad strokes, and define them only when needed. Every LMC could grant a small benefit in each of the main mechanics: Combat, Encounters and Travel. At the beginning, or at some moment during an Adventure, the players can decide to call upon one of their LMC friends to come along in the adventure, if it makes sense.

Examples:
- A Lake-town trader who has travelled most of Wilderland and knows some words in every language in Rhovanion.
Grants a +1 to Tolerance for all Encounters, allow the Guide to cover an additional role during Travels, if a companion does a Rally Comrade during Combat, he can roll the Feat die twice and keep the best result.
Can be called upon if the company is in the surroundings of Lake-town.

- An elf maiden that patrols the Elf-path. In an Encounter the company can use the Trait Fair once as if they had it, during Travels reroll any Hazard that targets the Look-out, during Combat inflict 5 damage (as a Bow) to any enemy for each Gandalf Rune rolled (player's choice). She can be called if the company is somewhere between Thranduil's Halls and the Forest Gate.

- A Barding knight, carrying an oversized tower shield and with the manners of a noble man. During Combat, only one companion is needed in a melee position for a second one to be in Rearward. During Travels the players can decide to reroll their Preliminary roll, but must keep the second result. During Encounters the companions do add their Favourite Attribute to all Common Skills when using a Hope point.
He can be called upon if in Dale or the Lonely Mountain.


As adventures go by, new NPCs can be added to the pool if the role-playing and the story allows it: Oderic after Kinstrife, Dinodas after Of Leaves..., etc.

This can also help a lot to fleshen out the different Fellwship phases. It can be their friends who tell the characters of the different things that happen in their homelands. Or even they can be affected by the things described in the Passing of Years, like a Woodman friend whose cattle has been killed by "the Bloody Ghost" (aka Gollum).

[Glorelendil]

Players could perhaps be able to invoke the LMC's traits as if they were their own. At least in some situations.

[Rich H]

Players could perhaps be able to invoke the LMC's traits as if they were their own. At least in some situations.

That's a really cool idea; a lot like scene Aspects in Fate. That's really all you'd need mechanically for it to work and provide some meaningful advantage. Would also get the players taking part in the narrative and describing the LMC and how they supported them or how their traits were used. Love it.

[Otaku-sempai]

Short Answer: Four to five player-heroes seem to be as close to an ideal number as I can find. Six should be easily manageable.

[shipwreck]

Good evening forum, you're looking swell.

Thanks!

[Kurt]

Hi Minstrel_of_Gondor and welcome!

In past games I played (D&D), we kept the character active in the campaign when people were away (sick/travel/work etc). I suppose if a player left on a permanent basis I would keep the character in the game until I found a replacement player and then perhaps retire it when suitable. When retiring it's nice to have the character still around (perhaps in a sanctuary), it keeps the world a living world and creates a more immersive feeling. A few years ago I had to leave a game permanently and it was always nice to hear that my character was still in the game as an NPC helping the townsfolk in local area.

Having said that, fortunately I don't have this problem with TOR. Winterwolf and I seem to be the only LM's in town and there is a queue to get in both our games. I am hopeful that more LM's will be available soon, one of my players manages a popular game store in the city and he loves TOR. He will be stocking The One Ring on the shelves soon which will give the game more visibility. I told him to make sure that he is part of the Bits 'n' Motar deal so we can get the pdf's too.

Cheers,
Kurt