Making It Personal (LM Help)

[atgxtg]

Usually the players will give you a blank stare and an "Idunno".

Then you work with the players until they do know. Players in The One Ring have more responsibility for making "story decisions" than in other games, like deciding whether other players' trait invocations are acceptable and what their characters get up to during the fellowship phase. Players aren't passive participants in this game. This kind of participation is built into the rules.

Sure, but I've found that that doesn't always work-at least with D&Ders. A lot of gamers out there are used to playing in pre-generated linear adventures where the PCs stand apart from the setting, and actually don't want or like to make story decisions. A direct approach just drives them running back to the "safety of D&D", where they know how things work. I've found that a lot of the time, they will get into things if the GM uses a indirect approach. That way they are doing it before they realize it.

BTW, this is probably going to be a bigger issue with the AiME crowd, since they are still playing D&D, and will expect the setting to conform to the rules.

[Stormcrow]

Do these players of yours actually want to play The One Ring? I have little sympathy for the xenophobia you're attributing to players; if you want to play a new game, you have to learn new ways of doing things. My advice of asking the players what they want out of the game is not the only way to do what the original poster asked for, but most players, whatever their backgrounds, should be capable of doing it.

And if they really just want to play D&D in Middle-earth, design a dungeon and let them have at it in the usual manner. You don't need to develop backgrounds and goals for that.

[Corvo]

A minor suggestion:

keep ready a piece of paper with a long list names.
As you play, glance at that list and give a name to all NPCs they interact with.
Because there isn't a "generic dalish weaponsmith": there is Gunnar.
"Do I know him?" asks the player.
And you invent something like "You know him since childhood. You used to fancy his sister. She died in that harsh winter of your 15th birthday, and after her funeral he left his home to study with the Dwarves. You trust him. He's a friend"

After a while the world will come alive with names and (in their mind) familiar faces. Some of these persons will marry, some will die. Some will come and ask them for help (quest hook!) and some will help them in time of trouble (deus ex machina!).