Hey folks,

I really want to get the Darkening of Mirkwood to the table, and since I have all the TOR 1e books, I was going to use that edition. I haven't really looked at 2e, so I'm not sure what major changes it makes. I was wondering whether you think any changes or improvements in 2e would make it worthwhile to convert Darkening to 2e, or if I should just stick to 1e? (Or is there even any conversion needed!)

A journey along the East Road. A Stone Troll. A Company of Rangers.

This is The Fellowship of the North, Episode 9: Journey to the North Downs. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUUILpAvf68

The second half of the epic battle with Garaf, The Hound of the Witch-King of Angmar.

https://youtu.be/doF7hV0xY1A

Episode 8 is now available wherever you listen to your favorite actual play podcasts.

If you enjoy what we do, please like, rate, review, and share. Thanks for listening!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1gTOLrBOXU

Am I correct in thinking that a Ranger could take and wear an enchanted mail shirt from say a Troll horde, even though Rangers have the frugal standard of living? (And yes ignoring the one Ranger cultural virtue that requires no more than leather armour)

I think I now grasp most parts of the system and am eager to play. I understand broadly how progression works, you gain skill points and adventure points.
The former lets you advance skills and the latter lets you gain valour and wisdom

But how much does that translate in your character capabilities ? In regular f20 there is the idea of « tiers of play » is there something similar here ? I’ve seen people say your character grows more horizontally but is that true ?
If you fought a band of orcs at the start of the game and fought the same band 6 month later, how much of a threat are they ?

Hey guys,

I'm looking for a one-shot (any system) for an introductory session (3–4 hours) for LOTR fans (more the movies than the books, I think). I've already checked out the V2 Starter Set, and I'm looking for something a little more epic.

Do you have any suggestions?

Hello there! Let’s cut to the chase:

DM's Guild Link: https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/535072/the-questforge

The Questforge was written to be compatible with nearly any fantasy-based TTRPG system. It’s designed to spark creativity, provide interesting and useful random tables, and make quest design quick and easy! Use this book to inspire you, rather than determine your every decision. After a few rolls of the dice, you’ll have all the necessary parts to forge your next memorable quest!

Inside, you’ll find:

Rollable tables for a quest's Goals, Subjects, Key Details, and Rewards.

Sections for Creatures, NPCs, Groups, Places, Objects, Information, Events, and Resources, each with prompts to expand their role and key details.

A comprehensive Quest Rewards system, ensuring every adventure feels complete and satisfying.

Use it to build an adventure in minutes, improvise mid-session, or simply mine it for ideas. With The Questforge, you’ll always have the tools you need to craft memorable quests your players will talk about long after the dice stop rolling.

Ayer empezé una nueva aventura en solitario, mi personaje tiene que alcanzar el norte de las montañas azules desde Bree, un viaje larguísimo! El hecho está en que como es Elfo, he considerado oportuno que pare en Puertos Grises para reponer provisiones y buscar información antes de dirigirse al norte. La duda que me surgió es la siguiente. Las reglas preveen por lo visto que restablezcas puntos de fatiga solo en la fase de comunidad, o eso me parece de haber entendido, pero no podría descansar un par de días o tres y resetearlos antes de volver a viajar? Porque desde Bree a Puertos Grises tengo ya 8 puntos de Fatiga acumulados. Si llego a las antiguas minas enanas será con el personaje ya medio roto xD que pensáis ?

Hi all. I've got all the books and just about to start on my second campaign and I was wondering if anyone had gathered all the journey tables in one document or even just tabulated all the page numbers? It would just make Journey phases go a lot quicker if I could just flick straight to the right table.

Photo for attention!

I think these guys would make good Great Orcs! I’m intending on using Oathmark Goblins as regular Orcs and these guys tower over them

Hey fellas, i have been a dm for a couple of years and i need some advice from you fine people.

I have dm'd for dnd, warhammer and fallout campaigns and i find it pretty easy to get a grasp on the essence of those worlds. Dnd: high fantasy. Warhammer: grimdark. Fallout: survival. I always make sure to get those feelings into the game.

A few colleagues and their friends said they are interested to get into roleplaying and are (as they should) massive tolkien fans. So i went ahead and proposed this ruleset and a campaign in middle earth.

But the longer i think about it, the harder it is to properly translate the tolkien feeling into this.

I already told them at session 0 that i can not give them a 100% middle earth experience because it's so much more than bash an orc etc.

But how have you people fixed this? Any advice?

Hey r/oneringrpg!

Its been an extra week but I'm back with another episode of my solo actual play with Iorlas!

This episode effectively wraps up the first half of the AP and Gandalf's quest (may seed another we'll see) along with a short Fellowship Phase at the end to use my accrued points!

Hope you enjoy, next time we're off to Eryn Vorn!

Rene

Puedes seguir nuestras aventuras aquí: https://youtu.be/N5hQy9zrTXA

Is there a complete list of books, cultures, and classes for 1e and 2e? Thank you!

I did a couple of pencil sketches to set the mood of The Star in the Mist, that will serve as a hook to my Kathuphazgan campaign. I also wrote a little poem in spanish and english that will serve as the curse the Witch King casted upon the ruins and its dwellers for whomever who wants to use it in their campaigns.

Hey everyone!

I'm looking to run Hands of the White Wizard for some friends of mine this year, and I was looking at some of the other books published for TOR 2e. I've read that this campaign ramps up in difficulty pretty severely by the end and so I thought it might be good to drop an additional adventure or two in among those listed in the campaign, to give the party some more opportunities to advance and to acquire some treasure before the final showdown in the morgul vale.

My budget for new RPG books is somewhat limited at the moment, so I was looking to get some advice on which of the other books to pick up. Since as-written, the party goes to Moria twice, it would make sense to pick up Doors of Durin. But out of the other published material, which ones have the best "drop in" adventures which can be added between the party's tasks for Saruman?

Hi so i recently got the core rulebook for TOR and realms of the three rings expantion, and since i dont really have no one to play it with i decided to go with strider mode. Then i got to the character creation and created high elf of rivendell since i love elves so obviously (+shes messenger), but i have a problem to make a backstory for her that feels deep tragic and "Tolkienish" and playable at the same time. I think i want her to be age similar to legolas since he was an only elf in the fellowship so it feels accurate (if i remember correctly people say hes around 500-2000yo). I dont know anything i come up with just doesnt feel right, and i just dont know and remember the lore as much so maybe if you have played an elf you can share your characters backstories for inspo or tell how your creating process was? Thank you in advance<:

Hi everyone! Just wondering. Can the virtue Foresight of their Kindred be used to reroll wound severity rolls?

I assumed it cannot, as it says 'reroll any one roll... from an adversary targeting them'. It sounds like it stops enemy attacks that sort of thing. Not a more nebulous wound severity after the blow has already connected.

I am soliciting the group for ideas of Hobbit themed magical items that might have been left behind when they migrated west. My party is traveling around the Misty Mountains, the vales of the Anduin, and Mirkwood right now and would love to have them stumble on some ancient Hobbit hole.

I have been thinking about dwarven or westernesse craftsmanship since the Eotheod and Khazad-dum were in this region around the same time the Hobbits inhabited it.

The Fellowship must escape the restless dead in a flooded burial chamber. Episode 6 is now available wherever you listen to your favorite actual play podcasts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV6-QnLoY5E&t=9s

Mae govannen!

On Sunday, me and my usual troupe of players ran through the starter module for The One Ring 2E, Over Hill and Under Hill, and I thought it might be nice to post up a review. If you want my final notes/ a TL;DR, it'll be at the bottom of this post!

Initial Notes

I've been a GM for ttrpgs for 10+ years, having been running things since High School. I've mostly run D&D 5e and Pathfinder 1e, but have been looking to branch out and try some new systems. I was first drawn to The One Ring after reading about it last year. After finishing a Pathfinder campaign, I spent some time going over other systems and felt this would be a good fit.

On a personal note, I've been a Tolkien fan ever since I saw the films as a kid. I've loved his world, and have spent a lot of time poring over his books and the lore of Middle-Earth over the years. I'd say I have a relatively deep understanding of the setting.

The Players

I offered some pregens to my players, but also let them make their own characters. A couple of them took that opportunity, and found it to be relatively quick and easy, while also giving a lot of choice. For our party, we had a Ranger Champion, an Elf Messenger, a Hobbit Warden, and a Barding Captain. The Captain and the Warden were custom characters, whereas the Messenger and Captain were the pregens (that I had made!). Following the advice of the book, the players' Target Numbers were made by subtracting their Attributes from 18, instead of 20 for a one-shot.

Tabletop Info

We used Roll20 for this one-shot, using their sheets. I would say that the sheets are adequate, with alright automation. I think that Roll20 is a bit behind the times, but at the moment I can't really switch to a better VTT.

Things We Liked

Overall, this module presents a really solid foundation for the systems of The One Ring. It introduced us to the Journey, Combat, and Council mechanics in ways that I found mostly satisfactory. On my end, I also found prep and running the game to be a breeze compared to something like Pathfinder or D&D 5e - building NPC stat blocks took all of five minutes, and they didn't have particularly complicated abilities for combat. Combat was my biggest worry - my players, coming from Dungeon Games, are more used to the tactical combat grid. However, they all seemed to enjoy it greatly - one player even remarked that it had just enough crunch to make enough decisions, while also feeling very lightweight.

The Journey mechanics were also very well received. Most other journey and exploration mechanics in other games they have tried left something to be desired, and so this felt like a breath of fresh air. One player wished that there could have been more encounters while traveling, as they had a relatively easy time succeeding at the Exploration roll. This was, of course, a consequence of their Target Numbers being lower.

When it came to more free-form play, players liked the numbers of skills that they had. They also enjoyed the kind of granularity when it came to character customization. They also enjoyed the setup of the world, and felt that the module was tonally very consistent with Tolkien. I will say, as a Tolkien fan, the game was much more like the books than the films.

Things That Could Have Been Better

The biggest problem my players had was with the Council system. Part of this was user error - I didn't quite know how to run it well, having never done so before - but the other part was the way it was presented in the module. In this module, in order to get information from a child in a ruined village, it suggests running a Council. However, this felt very low-stakes for the system, to the point of it feeling unnecessary. The abstraction of the Council also felt odd for the situation. A couple of my players enjoyed it and understood it, but one player did not like it whatsoever. I believe that it may be better suited to larger and more important situations, rather than the somewhat small situation presented.

TL;DR

I really enjoyed running this. Honestly, this was the most fun I've ever had GMing something. I also did not feel so out of place or pressured, and I felt energized rather than exhausted when it came to running it. I also felt prep was so easy, and involved things I enjoyed doing.

My players also enjoyed this system, and said they would enjoy a longer campaign. I would be very excited to run a campaign - especially because it will necessarily involve mechanical systems not touched upon in the one-shot - and am considering doing so in future.

All in all, I would recommend this system immensely, especially if you're looking for something lighter-weight and are a big fan of Tolkien. I don't think you need to know everything about Middle-Earth, but it's definitely for people who are at least familiar with the setting.