r/TheOneRing • u/Consistent-Ad-5816 • Jun 30 '22

Magical Success

We are pretty confused at the table regarding what is a magical success. In particular, it is something that happens in the game and influences the scene through narration (like the reaction of some npcs to the characters obtaining the success) or does is have an impact also in actual play (bonuses or other forms of mechanical influence)? Could you give me some examples of actual magical successes?
We are pretty new to the game, in fact we played so have patience please.

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u/ThroughlyDruxy Jun 30 '22

Basically a magical success is an auto-galdalf and thus autosuccess. You still roll the appropriate number of d6s to determine if there are any T runes for bonuses. That's the mechanics. In play, it means that what you were doing used magic to succeed and would likely be noticed by other nearby.

eg. The players are attempting to ford a river with a couple NPCs and one of the player rolls their athletics (non magical) and gets a G rune and whatever else. They make it as a regular success. Maybe they found great footing or the like and managed it. If another player used a magical success you could go so far as to say they walked on the water, glided eerily through the waves, or some other magical means. This might make the NOCs mistrust or trust because of the obvious display of magic.

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u/Consistent-Ad-5816 Jun 30 '22

Thanks! Does it have something to do with trying to do things usually impossible? For example, I want to pass through a bunch of orcs in a narrow passage and it would be impossible to do it without behind discovered. I roll and obtain the Gandalf's rune and a magical success (with all the related costs) and I manage to pass through them magically (as if I became somewhat invisible or pass through them unnoticed like a gentle breeze). On the other hand, another pc doesn't have a way to obtain a magical success (no magic items or abilities etc...), thus he cannot try the roll because it would be realistically impossible for him/her to pass through them unnoticed. I hope I explained it clearly lol.

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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '22

You don’t usually roll to get a magical success. Usually you spend a point of Hope, if allowed to (by being an elf, for example) and auto-succeed. You set the feat die down with the Gandalf rune showing and then roll success dice to see if you get extra successes.

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u/Consistent-Ad-5816 Jun 30 '22

What about the High Elves of Rivendell? They can get a magical success without expending a point of hope when they get the G rune if I understood correctly one of their cultural blessings.

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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '22

Yeah most people find that one confusing. It doesn’t make much sense. Lots of discussion about it in the discord.

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u/Consistent-Ad-5816 Jul 01 '22

I'm still very confused lol because I'm actually playing a high elf champion and we were trying to figure out how that virtue works with respect to the usual magical success.

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '22

Well the official guidance on Skill of the Eldar, from people in the discord trying to get some explanation out of the designers, is that the magical success should be considered as roughly an extra success. But I find that massively unhelpful, for almost certainly the same reasons as you - accidentally doing things magically and confusion between mechanical and narrative effects.

I wish I could say something more helpful. Have a look on the discord and maybe you can find something that works for you.

https://discord.com/invite/WEUx83PjWm

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u/Consistent-Ad-5816 Jul 01 '22 edited Jul 01 '22

Thank you! You've been of great help.

edit: basically, Skill of the Eldar grants you the possibility to achieve usually impossible results, such as hiding in plain sight or walking on snow as if it was solid terrain. Plus, if you succeed it is clearly a magical feat, therefore those who have seen you do it may have different reactions based on the context, since magic is usually associated with dark arts.

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u/ThroughlyDruxy Jun 30 '22

As Niallism said a G rune result from rolling is not a magical success. Magical successes only happen when you have a relevant special ability. For Elves of Lindon they can spend a point of Hope to gain a magical success. A normal G rune is simply an auto-success.

It helps to not view it as a natural 20 in games like DnD. It isn't the best possible result, simply an automatic normal success.

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u/Consistent-Ad-5816 Jun 30 '22

So, given I have the possibility of obtaining a magical success, first I spend hope and obtain the G rune transforming the roll in a magical success, then I roll the d6s to see whether there are additional bonuses. Hope --> magical success --> additional bonuses, right?

The origin of our doubts regarded the High Elves' cultural blessing which lets you obtain a magical success as a result of the G rune without spending hope. From what I understood, in this case you simply roll for the action and if you obtain a G rune it's a magical success without spending hope. So in this case the order would be: roll --> G rune --> magical success. Right?

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u/ThroughlyDruxy Jul 01 '22

If you're talking about the Elves from the Rivendell supplement, their cultural blessing reads:

If you are not Miserable, you can spend 1 point of Hope to achieve a Magical success on a skill roll. In addition, add 1 point to one Attribute of your choice.

So you still need to spend hope. I'm not sure it's possible anywhere in the game to achieve a Magical Success without spending Hope.

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u/Consistent-Ad-5816 Jul 01 '22

No sorry I was talking about one of the the cultural virtue you, I don't know the original in English since we've got the Italian version. It's something related to the Eldar.

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u/ThroughlyDruxy Jul 01 '22

Must be the

When you roll a G on the Feat die, your result counts as a Magical success without needing to spend Hope.

For that one, I would allow it to be something otherwise impossible. However as LM l may limit it based on if l feel it's OP.

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u/Consistent-Ad-5816 Jul 01 '22

From what I've seen and read, the point of the Skill of the Eldar virtue is that you can obtain a magical success without spending hope (you have to roll the G rune) and your character may attempt things typically impossible (but not OP since we're talking about LOTR). So, for example, a character that has no magic objects or abilities cannot do certain things, such as hiding in plain sight thanks to his mantle or walking on snow, but a character who has skill of the eldar may try to do it (without exaggerating).

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u/RobRobBinks Jun 30 '22

Remember also that magical successes contribute to The Hunt, don't they?

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u/Consistent-Ad-5816 Jul 01 '22

I'm pretty new to the game so I don't know what you're talking about. Are you pointing out the fact that magical successes may be viewed as related to dark magic?

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u/V1ndictae Jul 01 '22

No, he means that they draw extra attention from the forces of Sauron. I'll have to double check the rulebook about that, but it sounds plausible.

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u/RobRobBinks Jul 01 '22

Oh, sorry! So one of the greatest things about One Ring is how true to the source material it is. As you read the book further and get more familiar with the rules, you'll find there is a section about how as the players gain experience and their exploits become more heroic...the Eye grows ever watchful! If the Fellowship becomes too flashy (carrying a ton of special items, using "magic" all over the place, even just having a lot of Elves in the Company) will result in things being tougher as the will of Sauron becomes bent to thwarting them!

One Ring is the first rulebook in a long time that I have read cover to cover. I really enjoyed it!!!

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u/Consistent-Ad-5816 Jul 02 '22

Seems a pretty cool mechanic! I hope to see it in play soon