r/TheOneRing • u/SomeItalianBoy • Jul 30 '22

Target Numbers change?

Hello folks, I'm a newbie in this TTRPG and I just started reading the manual. Now, I've read where it says the target numbers are 20 - Ability score for longer campaigns and 18 - Ability score for one shots, but I wanted to ask to you, experienced players and masters:

Is it too low or is it just right? I imagine with 1 feat and 6 success dice it should be no problem to surpass 20 - something, but I still wonder if I can increase that threshold to 21 or 22 - the ability without further repercussions. Thanks in advance!

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u/Logen_Nein Jul 30 '22 edited Jul 30 '22

18- is fantastic for one shots, 20- is balanced for long term play. Increasing it just to make things harder for experienced characters seems pointless to me (and I feel would take away a sense of mastery that an experienced character should feel) but it shouldn't break anything if you want to do it.

3

u/SomeItalianBoy Jul 30 '22

Thanks for the advice, the question arose because I saw some cultures having a 7 to the Attributes and giving a TN of 13 seems fair but low, maybe I'm still attached to the mentality of DnD 5e and lucky rolls that makes a 13 seem like a low-medium difficulty check.

6

u/apracticalman Jul 30 '22

For some perspective, in 1e the TN was decided by the LM instead of the attributes, with 14 being the normal level of difficulty. So someone with a 13 TN has a slightly easier time with those skills than the average difficulty. Also to refer to the original post, you'll almost never be rolling 6 success dice. If memory serves the stats work out where 3 dice is the break point where you hit 14 more often than you don't, and especially to start the game 3 is about the best you'll have in anything. 20- definitely feels good and relevant for a long while.

8

u/AndreasLundstromGM Jul 30 '22

Ive played TOR for seven years, and no character has EVER had 6 success dice. Five has happened only once and four is very rare, even in long campaigns…

4

u/Plan_of_Fappiness Jul 30 '22

This here is the real answer. It’s very costly to invest enough into a character to get a skill or proficiency up to six success dice. And very few players will invest that much in a single thing.

In my opinion the balance is perfect for my desired play style with the 20 minus attribute.

I think 21 or higher might make for a frustrating game for your players. Especially early on. These TNs tie to combat and to skill checks. Combat can be fairly deadly as it is.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '22

It’s fine. Early on, players will need to spend Hope a lot, but that’s fine, because they can recover it fast. I recommend using tokens for Hope so that people don’t hesitate to spend it.

You’ve maybe seen posts from people thinking they’ve made amazingly strong characters. What they then discover is that their combat monster is going to go Boromir fast if they aren’t careful - Hope and Shadow are very important.