TOR with only two players

[Grands-Pas]

Hi, I'm thinking about starting a small TOR campaign but I only have two players. We would start with Zed's learning scenario and then probably move to the Marsh Bell, Tales from the Wilderland, etc...

Of course I would have to adjust adversaries but apart from that is it feasible rule-wise. I know the journey rules require normally more adventurers than just two but what else is going to be a problem? And before anyone suggests it, we are not interested in running more than one character per player.

Thank you in advance guys.

[zedturtle]

Okay, cool! Glad to hear about a new group starting up...

With Theft, the final conflict will be just one thrall, Cenric and Guthred. It will probably be a tough fight, but I think doable.

If your players are interested, heroes that have abilities that can help out with the various sections of the game are very important to smaller fellowships: a Woodman with a Hound, a Beorning with Honey Cakes, A Rohirrim with Old Songs or a Household Esquire, a Dunlending with Ill Omen, etc. But you probably should be resigned to some failures during the Journey phase... but getting Fatigue isn't all that bad, and your chance of a Hazard goes down just because there are less dice being rolled. Take Hardy as a trait and then no dice are being rolled, and no Hazards.

The subject has come up before, here's a discussion about three players, focused on Tales From Wilderland: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3214

Here's a smaller thread on one or two players: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4444

[Otaku-sempai]

If you are concerned enough to be apprehensive about having only two Heroes and if your players are experienced role-players then you might consider letting one or both of them play two Heroes. But you can probably manage using common sense.

[bluejay]

I've been running a campaign for a two player group for about six months now. Admittedly they are a Woodman with Hound of Mirkwood and a Beorning with Twice-Baked Honey Cakes. Also early on I gave them a few easy adventures to allow them to accumulate a bit of experience before we started Darkening of Mirkwood and Tales from Wilderland.

The caveats aside, it's worked really well and we're having a great time ploughing ahead through the campaign.

[jamesrbrown]

Try it out! I actually prefer smaller groups to larger ones. Only because there is much more focus around the table and the players seem to participate even more. Things are generally less chaotic. The One Ring is very easily adjusted to accommodate smaller numbers. Actually, you might even keep things the way they are and encourage them to adjust their actions instead. What would two heroes do in the face of 4-6 enemies? What would they do if they encountered a troll? Should be interesting to see what they decide.

The two friends can choose each other as a Fellowship focus and this will give them all the more reason to protect one another and do their best to avoid being harmed.

If you wanted to give them Loremaster character allies, I suggest creating a table similar to the one on p. 34 of Tales from Wilderland to keep track of their fate in combat, rather than taking the time to roll for them, etc. After the player-heroes take their actions, roll a Feat die for their allies and see what happens.

Also, creating some random battle events (also modeled on p. 34) will give your combat added flavor.

[shipwreck]

I wonder if two Rangers, or a Ranger and High Elf, might be viable? Since those are kind of "advanced" classes, and way more powerful, it might smooth things out, in addition to the other suggestions the more experienced Loremasters have provided.

[bluejay]

I wonder if two Rangers, or a Ranger and High Elf, might be viable? Since those are kind of "advanced" classes, and way more powerful, it might smooth things out, in addition to the other suggestions the more experienced Loremasters have provided.

I don't think Rangers are particularly powerful to be honest and they have some significant limitations (particularly regarding reclaiming Hope). Honestly I think a Beorning with a Great Spear is easily as formidable (and arguably better at Travel thanks to their Twice-Baked Honey Cakes virtue). Also the Beorning will progress faster due to the slow experience for Rangers and High Elves.

Also this combination cannot use ranged weapons except in their opening volleys or particularly extenuating circumstances (something the Hound of Mirkwood's Protect Companion ability helps with).

Curiously a fellowship composed entirely of Rangers cannot uses the Fellowship Pool at all. It's an interesting situation and something I've pointed out to Francesco in the past. Definitely a massive limitation.

[Glorelendil]

Agree about Rangers not really being that powerful. I found the Hope constraint nearly crippling.

I'd go with Beorning with Honey Cakes and Woodman with Hound. With the Woodman, go melee not ranged: all ranged would do is get the Beorning hit more (as the only close combat hero) while the Woodman misses more often (because of stance), but as melee the Hound can impose Weary which is awesome.

An additional option, discussed in some other threads, is to give them an NPC who doesn't take an independent role (that is, with his/her own dice rolls) but rather assists the heroes passively (passively mechanically that is; actively in terms of narrative). Sort of like the Hound itself, or a Lakeman's family retainer. Or look at Baldor in the first couple pages of TfW, in the encounter with the Brigands.

So create an interesting NPC that has a reason to stay with the heroes for an extended period, and will help them however they are weakest. Maybe (if neither player is a Beorning) it's an elderly Beorning, too gray to fight, but still bakes excellent Honey Cakes and knows a lot about the region. Or a pre-adolescent Dúnedain, alert with sharp eyes, an experienced camper, but not a fighter. Something like that.

[bluejay]

So the group I'm currently LM-ing is exactly that: Beorning with Twice-Baked Honey Cakes and Woodman with Hound.

The Beorning took Great Spear (the ultimate TOR weapon*) and the Woodmen did both Great Bow (shepherd's bow) and long-hafted axe. Advantage for Woodmen in close combat is that yes he stopped the Beorning from getting swamped with adversaries. Disadvantage is that he typically took down opponents way faster with the Great Bow.

*Joint-highest damage, joint-lowest edge rating, decent injury rating and pierce on a called shot

[bluejay]

A couple of things I have noticed from this campaign ...

I'm trying not to give out extra experience points. I did give the guys a couple of easy early adventures to get them started but I'm typically only giving out 1-2xp per session. On the other hand they typically end up getting a stack of Advancement Points because they have to make so many skill rolls between the two of them.

In terms of effectiveness it's really noticeable how using AP to buy up ranks in Battle and Stealth has a serious impact on combats. Also the Beorning took Noble Armour which has a massive impact on Encounters.