New Loremaster questions

[Quill]

Good evening forum, you're looking well.

I just received The One Ring for my birthday and immediately purchased Tales from Wilderland and the screen/Lake-Town supplement, in anticipation of running the game for a few friends.

I'm an experienced GM of many systems but The One Ring is unlike anything I've run before. My tentative plan is to start the group with The Marsh Bell from the LM's book, then segue right over to TfW. But I do have a few questions first.

1. Is there anything I should advise my players to do/not do regarding creating their characters? I was going to leave it completely open (saying "pick what sounds good for you"), but I'm wondering if I should mention the journeying jobs & skills so that they'll be at least a little prepared. Any advice?

2. It's probable my group will be me + 4 PCs regularly (with the potential for another one or two depending on work schedule). Is four enough PCs to tackle the challenges presented? (I don't have a "feel" yet for the system as to difficulty.)

3. Interacting with notable NPCs seems pretty harsh (if the group includes both a dwarf and an elf they're boned both ways on Tolerance) and easily screw-uppable. Any tips or advice on how to run these interactions without the players getting in trouble all the time? Or does the game expect at this level for them to spend a lot of Hope trying to overcome low skills, or just fail at things regularly?

4. I've noticed in my perusal of the forums that there are alternate rules for Journeys available, one set by the game author himself. Is there a problem with the Journey rules? Are they too harsh or lenient in the RAW?

5. Lastly (for the moment, until I have more questions!), are there any commonly accepted rulings or house rules used by folks?

Thanks for the assist!
- Quill

[BobusX]

Just real quick on the Journey rules, the alternate ones are much easier (as in less fatigue for the characters), but I prefer the ones in the book. I believe the author has stated that he prefers the original rules in the book to his alternative ones, unless you find the originals to involve too much rolling.

[Beleg]

Regarding skills starting out, there was a discussion a while ago on the old forums, and I know that the consensus was that every party member should have at least one skill rank in Travel, and that it might be worth having at least one member with a third skill rank in one of their weapons.
The great thing about TOR is how easy it is to tailor to a group size. While journeying may be slightly more difficult with less than four members, as not every role is fulfilled, in combat it should be fairly easy for you to work out what to throw at the party fairly quickly.
Regarding encounters, since I assume you're referring specificly to the ones in TfW, the likelihood that the party will get the best reward out of every encounter is very very low. But it's fairly easy for them to get the 1 or 2 successes needed to get some semblance of help from the NPC, even with a Tolerance of 1 or 2. Though I agree that having dwarves and elves present makes things a whole lot more difficult.
Personally, I don't like the revised journey rules, mostly because I found them more confusing Some people like them, some don't. I think the TOR resources thread has a link to Francesco's blog about it.
House rules have been graciously collated by Rich H, and there's a thread full of his stuff as well.

Hope I helped

[Fictionaut]

Hi Quill

To add my thoughts on your questions, based on experiences with my group:

1. We went through character creation cold (i.e. "pick what sounds good to you") and I think the only thing we have subsequently revised is what armour and equipment the PCs are carrying. Basically everyone down-graded to lighter armour after the first couple of fights because they'd gone for the best armour and weapons they could carry and found in TOR this meant they kept getting Weary. Exactly what gap you have between Encumbrance and Endurance is entirely personal preference but I'd say the PC's in my group have now settled on a gap of around 10 (i.e. End=29, Enc=19). I've got no idea how this compares to other groups.

2. Yes four is fine. Obviously it depends what you throw against them but I'd say 4 was an ideal number. My group has been me + 3 or 4 PCs and that's worked well.

3. Running Encounters has been one of the trickiest bits for me. Advice I'd give off the top of my head:
- Take a look at the interpretation of the Encounter rules used in Tales From Wilderland, it totals successes of the course of the Encounter to gauge overall success.
- Use the Encounter rules as a loose framework rather than sticking to them come what may.
- Remember that the Encounter rules are only relevant to persuading or influencing a notable NPC. If the NPC is already pre-disposed to give you what you want or the adventure will go south if they don't, then either don't roll for it or make the encounter generally favourable but the influencing about how far they will go to help the Fellowship.
- Fall back on roleplay or a single die-roll to determine Encounters that aren't key to the story.

Also, there are some pretty helpful threads on running Encounters in the old forums but I don't have the links to hand right now.

4. Like Beleg and BobusX, I'd suggested sticking with the original Journey Rules. I have and have had no issues with them. The reason for introducing the Revised Journey Rules was that some people felt that journeys involved too much dice rolling but as Loremaster you can easily avoid that with a bit of description or roleplay to break up rolls.

5. Again I'd advocate going with the rules as written. There are numerous add-ons and house rulings for different things (as Beleg says Rich H has collected a bunch of these together, I believe his resources are linked to from the sticky TOR Resources thread) but I'd say the RAW are cleverly designed and nicely balanced, so try them out first.

[MordorsB1tch]

For character generation we chose (for the most part) cold. I have since reworked a couple of characters who chose...unwisely. I also added that should additional cultures become available with new supplements, my players would be able to retcon their characters completely.

For example...should Heart of the Wild give us a new kind of dwarf...i'd let my dwarf PC stay with what he's got or rework his character into the new race. same goes with new rewards/virtues etc.

I'd say go cold...but remain flexible.

[SirKicley]

I agree with going cold about creating characters; but with your overview to give caution when you see something being done (or not done) that is bound to cause issues.

For instance: If you have 4 players and two want to make archer specialists, then it's up to you to warn them that the
rules of the game only allow for one to archer to operate at a time.

If no one has EXPLORE skill, it could seriously hamper their journeys when they break into their fellowship roles.


We similarly went cold; but we learned early that some things didn't work well and so we had to rework a few things - nothing major. But regardless of it being a "roleplaying game" there is always a certain level of game-mechanics that have to be observed to make the game playable (and successful), and so I just caution you to make sure this does happen.


Also - I am a firm believer that 5 players is ideal. 6 allows for two archers. 4 is the lowest I would want to play with. We have had as many as 8 players at a time. Unlike D20 games, even 8 players doesn't make combat too convoluted, due to no need of strategical movement during combat. In D20 games, combat is hell with anything over 6 players.

[Robin Smallburrow]

The best advice I can give a newbie in regards to this game:

the key central concepts of this game is Hope and Fellowship - the party are expected to work together to accomplish goals and to support one another through the various trials etc. The party that does not or cannot work together as a fellowship will soon be a dead one! With this in mind, what characters players choose during character creation is not as important a consideration as 'Will these guys be able to work together as a team'? 'Will they be able to assist and help one another?'

Secondly: 'Are the characters balanced as a party - ie one 'combat wombat', one 'archer type', one scout/thief type etc. A well-balanced fellowship will have less problems (just like the one in The Lord of the Rings!) Look how much trouble the dwarves had in The Hobbit because they did not have a hunter! (one who could find food)

Robin S.

[Quill]

Thanks to everyone who posted - I'm starting to get my head around things a little better now.

Another question: the rules for Experience are pretty easy, but the ones for gaining Advancement Points are a little more nebulous. Is there an average amount of AP that players should get each session? I realize that it's driven by what skills the PC uses and what traits are invoked, but is there a commonly accepted number that they should expect with good, active participation?

Also, are APs flushed from the skills section to the Advancement pool at the end of every session, or only at the end of an adventure?

[Aiwendil]

Thanks to everyone who posted - I'm starting to get my head around things a little better now.

Another question: the rules for Experience are pretty easy, but the ones for gaining Advancement Points are a little more nebulous. Is there an average amount of AP that players should get each session? I realize that it's driven by what skills the PC uses and what traits are invoked, but is there a commonly accepted number that they should expect with good, active participation?

Also, are APs flushed from the skills section to the Advancement pool at the end of every session, or only at the end of an adventure?

I would also welcome clarity on those rules.

With respect to 'experience', my understanding is that they are given at a rate of either 1 or 2 (for solid roleplaying), at the end of each gaming session, not per adventure.

With respect to 'advancement', my understanding is that they are more a result of smart use of traits (when using a common skill) and when a character succeeds at an action in an extraordinary or unusual way (again, when using a common skill). I assume those advancements are cleared every game session, and not at the end of a full adventure. But again, would welcome clarity on that point as the rule book essentially states a maximum of three point per adventuring phase (I assume this means game session).

Aiwendil

[Beleg]

Regarding Advancement Points, in general the first AP can be given simply for achieving a great success on a roll. The second AP requires something a bit more impressive, and I think the third AP has to come from invoking a trait on a roll, whether the roll succeeds or not. In fact, I think it's almost better if it's on a roll that failed, as it builds on the idea of learning from one's mistakes. Equally, a fellowship phase is when the fellowship is at the end of a journey or adventure, long enough to relax and recupperate. So unless you have really long game sessions or really short adventures, you won't have a fellowship phase each session. Advancement Points only get tallied up together on the second page of the character sheet during a fellowship phase.
On a slightly related note, Fellowship Points do refresh every session