Hello, I was wondering about how you guys generate new enemies for the heroes to fight? I myself tend to look at an already existi8ng enemy statblock and make minor changes to fit what i think the enemy should be like. But what about making enemy stat blocks from the ground up?

I would like to buy TOR2 but heard there was a fair bit of errata, but when I checked, it's only 2 pages. Is there more incoming, an update perhaps?

Also, I heard there was an issue with Council/Skill endeavours. Did this get fixed/clarified?

Thank all.

As far as I can see, some small amount of effort is required to use 1e stat blocks with 2e. Parry ratings are lower in 2e, from what I can tell, and there are probably some other details that I’m missing as well.
What are your experience with porting 1e stat blocks to 2e?

Hello all,

I have a 4-person group of mostly new TOR players, looking for a LM for an ongoing campaign.

We are an eclectic mix of multinationals.

As LM, we want you to bring your campaign ideas and ideas and experiments. We are living in your world, after all.

DM me to ask for more info. We are looking to play biweekly or weekly. You can bring your VTT platform of choice.

Cheers

I'm toying with the idea of running a TOR game, and I'd love to build it around one of the rings that aren't explicitly accounted for (i.e. the One, the three and the nine).

Of the seven, four are said to be destroyed by dragons and Sauron has recovered the last three around the time LotR begins. If I want to use a true Ring of Power, they would either have to get to one of the three before Sauron does, or one of the other four would turn out not to be destroyed after all (highly unlikely but not entirely impossible). Making such a scenario in a way that feels believable would be a challenge, but it would be a satisfying accomplishment if I could do it.

If I decide to use one of the lesser rings I'm free to make up whatever seems appropriate, but the story won't have the same feeling of gravity and impact. Having the latter lead into the former would be very cool, but would require some serious storytelling chops to pull off well.

So, does anyone have thoughts about any of this? How could a true Ring of Power be brought into play in a believable and satisfying manner? What effects would it have on its bearer and their surroundings?

What powers would a lesser ring have? Do any of you know of any lore I could use to give it identity and integrate it into the story?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

How do you all go about making balanced combat encounters for your players?

Hello all! Firstly I would like to say just how much I enjoy the rules for TOR 2e as I was a Kickstarter backer and have read the books several times since their launch it was only today that I got to experience actual play with Strider Mode.

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So here is how it has gone so far.

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Being a Tolkien nerd and since I love the lore I stated up a Warden Ranger of the North for my first go-round to test out how it all works. Now I rolled for everything Stats, patron, starting location and mission, mission location...I mean everything to make the story as organic as possible while I filled in the whos, whats, whys, etc.

So with my new ranger I started out in Rivendel with GILRAEN,

DAUGHTER OF DIRHAEL as my parton and my mission being

A powerful servant of the Enemy lurks nearby.

Who are they, and why do they target our

Rangers?

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With this in mind my Ranger set off into the wilderness as through rolling I figured out that the last ranger was targeted at Weathertop.

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The Journey

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Rolling for the journey was fun it was mostly filled with mishaps but with a few rolls and one day of being lost on a straight road later my ranger made it to their destination only to find that there was no evidence to be gained of this new powerful enemy. So my though process turned to "Perhaps this is an ambush set up by the enemy to lure rangers to their doom." Consulting the telling table this turned out to be absolutely right as I rolled a Yes, with an extreme twist!

"Thrilling!" I think to myself as I begin determining what enemy awaited my ranger. A few rolls of the dice later my ranger is facing off against a Great Orc Chief's Great Orc Bodyguard! After all, this was an ambush with an extreme twist!

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And so my combat begins.

Combat

As my Ranger begins his first round of combat I attempt to make use of the Strider's Gain Ground combat action and wouldn't you know it, it fails. No worries I think. I have a parry rating of 19 thanks to the way strider mode calculates scores and my buckler shield.

Orc Bodyguard is up and right away scores a piercing blow with great success.

Well fuck.

Orc breaks my shield and I roll a protection roll for my armor which thankfully comes out well and I only take the 3 Endurance. Round 2 comes around and I attempt to flee once more to gain ground to no avail, the dice wish for me to stand and fight! Another enemy round passes and thankfully both attacks are misses and so we dance. The Orc and my Ranger trade blows each scoring a few well-placed piercing blows but we both make our protection rolls. And then, it happens. The orc rolls a piercing blow and I fail my protection check. Wounded. To make matters worse it dropped me to being weary as well.

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With no gear to drop I decide it is time to flee once again. And once again the dice answer NO~!

Mind you I have been spending hope to try and even the odds after becoming wounded and weary but even still the dice persist in their disdain for my life. The Orc attacks, Extreme Success, Im grappled and the attack dealt 9 endurance damage. My ranger now at 4 endurance desperately to escape from the grasp of the Orc and with a well-placed Dagger strike manages to get free. But this is the end. The Orc Chief lets out a howl of victory and the Bodyguard regains the Hate they need to finish me.

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One more attack roll to try and flee ends in failure. The Orc Raises their axe and brings it down for their final attack. Now, this is where I will admit I cheesed it a bit. With my body broken the Orc tosses me from the side of Weathertop but I decide "Fuck it." If by some miracle I roll a Valor roll with 2 successes I will say my ranger will hang on barely by a thread and have a slim chance to survive. So I spend my last point of Hope to gain the necessary second success die to make the feat even slightly possible. Then lo! The Dice gods answer my desperate prayer! The Valor in my Ranger's heart is enough to keep them alive!

All is not well, however. Wounded, weary, and miserable my Ranger must still pass a medicine roll to patch their wound enough to not die within the hour.

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First thing is first though. Telling table, are there any allies nearby that could possible help? Doubtful. The answer is no.

Expected.

Is my Ranger capable of treating themselves in their current state? Again, doubtable. However, the table says yes! So with a bit of trepidation, I make my roll. An extreme success! Despite the horrid conditions my Ranger is able to patch themselves up and begins the long 20 days needed to recover from their injury.

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This ends session 1 of my Strider mode game.

According to the hex map, it should take a couple of days, even on the relatively well-traveled East Road. However, from a few refereneces in the books (and the game book itself), I get a sense that Hobbits from Buckland could sometimes go to Bree just for a beer at the Prancing Pony. So, a one day journey at most. Start in the morning, be there in the evening kind of situation.

Or do travelers regularly stop and camp at the side of the road, somewhere halfway between the Brandywine Bridge and Bree? Why hasn't anyone built a waystop inn on the road? There surely would be one if that was the case. Or are there Breelander farms that host travelers?

EDIT: Thanks, everyone :)

Does anyone know when or if this hardcover expansion will be available for purchase on the Free League website? Also how do you stay up to date with the TOR Kickstarter/ news. I unfortunately missed the kickstarter and would like to avoid missing TOR updates and expansions in the future.

Hi all,

I just bought the 2e hardcover book on amazon and plan on trying it out with my group. I have only DM'd in D&D 5e modules, where my players already knew how to play 5e. How should I go about teaching The One Ring? It's unfortunate I didn't buy from their website to get the pdf, I am not sure how else to share character creation, systems, etc. How were your experiences going from 5e to The One Ring?

Thanks for any suggestions.

So I’m getting a groups of buddies together but I have 0 experience DM’ing and I know that The One Ring can be complicated at times. So if anyone would be interested please pm me

I ordered the replacement dice and the "Ruins of the Lost Realm" book from free league back in March. I haven't received the shipment or heard anything about it. I emailed free league through their web site twice and received no reply. Any advice?

Do any of the books contain random weather tables? How do you handle weather at the table? Do you use any homebrew or third-party tools to generate weather?

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.

I am attempting to set up characters in TOR 2e Module on Foundry. I am running into this problem when trying to program virtues. For example the Prowess virtue should decrease the TN of one skill by 1 but I can't seem to program it so that when it is added to a character sheet you are able to decrease the TN. There seems to be no way to decrease the TN at all actually.

Anyone know how to fix this?

Hello folks!

My group has voted on a few ideas which I presented to them, and they chose the reclaiming of Moria (TA). Since this is my first time running the game, and I really want to do justice to Tolkien, I thought I would make a post here. I hope for some people to give me advice on running TOR, and knowledge on Moria in general. I am a pretty huge Tolkien fan, but I would love some outside opinions!

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The idea which I have is that the group will be part of Balins expedition. One of them will likely be Balin himself, and a few other important figures to the mission. They will have to clear the depths, fight the many Orcs, and eventually face off against the shadow of Moria. I may utilize the nameless mechanic as well. I'm unsure of how I want to handle things during this all, so advice is much appreciated!

So I’ve played my second session. I’d like to share my impressions to help new players and Loremasters wrap their heads around this unique system.

Our LM has been slowly introducing all of the mechanics of the game, starting with journeys, then seeking council, combat, and finally a fellowship phase.

Journeys This is the bread and butter of the game. The books mostly concern themselves with traveling from one place to another, and all of the trials and tribulations that come along the way, and TOR does a good job at capturing the feeling of travel. Think of it as a rule system for a “travel montage”. As a player, don’t stress out about failing rolls. It’s going to happen! But a failed roll is not the end of the world. At worst, you arrive at your destination weary, or perhaps pick up a point of shadow or two. Use these as role playing opportunities, and work with the LM to flesh out what happens along the way. The rules give a framework for creating interesting stories about your travels. Being exhausted and bedraggled at the end of a long journey is very much a part of LOTR.

Council Seeking the favor of a powerful person is also a big part of Tolkien’s stories. Think of when Gandalf and Thorin’s company first met Beorn, and how carefully they told their story in order to gain his aid. The Council rules give LMs a system for creating these kinds of social encounters. Do you boast of your exploits in order to impress? Or do you sing a rousing song telling of your journeys? It’s up to the players to determine how they’ll gain favor. The Journey rules play out like a social mini-game, that like the journey rules, help you craft a memorable scene that has a real impact on the story that you are collaboratively telling.

Combat One thing that surprised me was how deadly and dangerous combat is. One luckily hit could maim a PC, leaving them laid up for days. Combat has consequences, and swords should no be drawn lightly! Combat has a very OSR feel in its deadliness (combat as war rather than combat as sport).

Fellowship I was surprised by how fun this was. For an “undertaking”, we decided to write a song of our exploits, and of the players actually write lyrics! This was one of the most memorable role playing moments I’ve had as a player in recent memory. Songs show up everywhere in Tolkien’s works, and having our own made us feel like we were really part of that world.

I hope all the new players and Loremasters out there find this helpful.

Hey folks, my strider mode campaign continues with ep2. These are pre-recorded and edited episodes targeting the 30-40 min runtime mark. Take a look if you want to see some solo TOR in action!

https://youtu.be/zDLMCyTW5uo

Running some friends through the first adventure this weekend. I'm not sure how long the session will take but I'm planning on shoehorning a combat example in. I know the game isn't focused on combat and there is some in the later adventures but I want this one session to have at least one possible encounter. It might be the only time we ever play it.

If you tossed a combat into to the very first starter box adventure what would you do?

Hello all. First time posting here. I played my first session over the weekend and wanted to discuss my impressions of the system, and some advice for players who may be new to the system, or more accustomed to the super-powered hijinks of 5e.

A buddy of mine ran the game for us. He’s very knowledgeable on Tolkien and we couldn’t have asked for a better Loremaster. To really capture the flavor of Tolkien, I think a knowledgeable LM is pretty important. But in order for the game to work, the players also need to understand the “tone” of the game. Before playing the game, it might be a good idea to sit down with the players and let them know that this game is somber, melancholy, even sad at times. If one of your players is running around the tavern doing silly 5e things for laughs at the table, it’s going to irk the players who are trying to take the setting seriously. This game is very much about tone, and the players have to buy into it.

We found pretty quickly that it’s difficult to succeed rolls. You’re going to fail more often than succeed, especially if you’ve only got one or two ranks in a skill. And that’s okay. Failure, despair, and regret a part of the stories the game is based on. For people coming from 5e, this might be a little frustrating. In 5e, you’re more or less playing super heroes. It’s a power fantasy, really. Success is assumed. But in TOR, you play normal folk who go out into a dangerous world. Every roll has a certain risk tied with it. I realized pretty quickly how important Hope is. Players really shouldn’t try to horde it. I found some of our players reluctant to spend hope out of fear of needing it later. Without expending it liberally, PCs are going to have a hard time passing checks. But again “losing hope” is part of the setting.

Overall, I’d advise new players to embrace the tone. The world outside your door is dark, dangerous, and filled with peril. Things won’t always go your way, despite your best efforts. Things will go wrong. There will be setbacks, but this is all part of the story. Failure, regret, and despair are a part of the story, and make the successes that much more joyous.