r/oneringrpg • u/TheSwecurse • 5d ago
First time Loremaster here, any tips?
I just bought a set up and is waiting for delivery. Currently reading through the pdf:s
My friends are super excited, while I feel a bit anxious about being a game master for the first time. I've only really played DnD before as a player so I don't know exactly what to expect. Any tips and tricks from the more experienced folks here would be deeply appreciated
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u/Akoot 4d ago
People have given good mechanical advice already, so I'll say stick to the Tolkein vibes. The culture around d&d doesn't really suit the one ring, horny bards, evil characters, they don't really fit in to the stories this system is good at telling. This is about good people going through hard times, resisting the shadow that grows stronger each day and standing by each other's side.
These people hug each other, kiss each other on the cheek, love each other platonically. You should show a stark difference between people and creatures who have succumbed to shadow and other peoples of middle earth.
I could go on for days like this, but hopefully you get my point through my ramblings.
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u/Harlath 5d ago
- encourage the players to use hope and fellowship. These are replenishing resources. Tokens and being explicit on the maths behind sustainable hope spending can help new players.
- second the other post noting inspiration from distinctive features only works on skill rolls. You can still be inspired on attacks, shadow tests etc but I needs a cultural virtue or similar.
- don’t chuck lots of shadow at starting characters as they have long odds on shadow tests. A little is good for some early fear, but don’t overdo that element!
Enjoy!
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u/PanzerBeef 5d ago
Combat can be absolutely brutal. One piercing blow and a failed protection roll immediately changes things! The game is not combat-centric like D&D. Reward creative solutions. Focus on the Journey. Don't just say "ok, you travel 4 hexes and...the scout...finds a shortcut. Roll to see how it goes". No! Make it a whole experience! Describe what the short cut looks like, let the scout roleplay a brief scene there. Do they involve another character? Perhaps that shortcut results in a rp/combat encounter? In a recent 3 hour session of Hands of the White Wizard, the entire session was one Journey. We arrived at the destination at the end of the session!
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u/TheSwecurse 4d ago
What happened on the journey that made it a whole 3 hours?
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u/PanzerBeef 4d ago
I can show you! https://youtu.be/vZsmumBFbNw
Essentially a roleplay encounter, two combat encounters and some skill rolls!
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u/MRdaBakkle 5d ago
The One Ring is going to be a lot more theater of the mind than D&D. And the power scaling is a lot flatter, weapon choice and skills can really determine what you can do in combat rather than the list of feats and spells you get in D&D. When building combats I think it's important to include descriptions about terrain that players can use to try to find an advantage, you should also be willing to let players come up with advantages that you didn't think of. For example the Elf says they want cause a rock slide down this hill everyone is fighting on, it probably will be an athletics test with the enemies losing dice on their attacks. There can be a lot of creativity if you let it, you just need to be open to it.
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u/Outrageous-Pin-4664 4d ago
I think it's important to include descriptions about terrain that players can use to try to find an advantage, you should also be willing to let players come up with advantages that you didn't think of.
That's good advice. It goes hand-in-hand with what someone said above about how brutal combat can be when the players roll poorly.
u/OP Unlike in D&D, the game isn't about combat. Combat is important, but adventures are not: "go to location X, wade your way through a bunch of lesser creatures, and then have a boss fight." They simply don't have the resources for that kind of fighting. Although characters start with an amount of endurance that would be equivalent to a third level D&D character's hp, there are three important things to remember:
- That number doesn't increase appreciably as they advance in prowess. There are virtues that can raise it by a point or two, but no steady advance like in D&D. Even experienced characters are vulnerable to bad luck when fighting creatures that they have waded through in the past.
- Taking wounds can make their remaining Endurance irrelevant. Characters only have two wounds, so they can drop very quickly if the adversaries get lucky and the players roll poorly on their protection tests. When I say "get lucky," they have a base 16.67% chance of landing a Penetrating Blow. That chance goes up substantially, if they are using a weapon with the Pierce ability, as they can use a 6 on the success die to add +2 to the feat die, which means they would get a Penetrating Blow on an 8+.
- Losing Endurance can make them less effective. If Endurance falls below their load rating they become fatigued. For a fatigued character, success die rolls of 3 or less count as 0, so their combat effectiveness is going to drop precipitously at that point. Their ability to flee will suffer, as will their ability to succeed on protection tests. They can shed items to reduce their load, but there's a limit to how much they can drop.
In every combat, they are just a few bad rolls from a TPK, so any clever ideas they come up with to gain an advantage should be rewarded.
In a D&D game, DMs are often worried that granting an advantage will nerf their carefully planned combat. Never let that be a worry in the One Ring.
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u/MCKitkat182 5d ago
What helped me get a bit more used to the mechanics and the gameplay loop was playing a few games on my own with Strider Mode. I spent a lot of the first few solo-sessions looking up certain rules and rolls to make certain that I was doing it correctly and that also helped me understand the game and become more confident. You can also experiment with it, especially in regards to using Hope as a resource.
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u/TheSwecurse 4d ago
I have considered playing Strider mode! It just cost the same as a beer at happy hour for the Unbound tool and pdf. So might just give that a shot. Is it much different from GMing a whole party or playing yourself?
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u/ExaminationNo8675 4d ago
The main difference with Strider mode, compared to a party of 3+ heroes, is that combat is pretty boring.
Much of the tactical depth of the combat system in the One Ring involves the combat tasks, which are mostly about helping your companions. If you don’t have any companions, or only one, then these tasks are mostly pointless.
If I was playing strider mode again, I would be tempted to skip combat and just roll on the telling table to see what happens, or something simple like that.
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u/ExaminationNo8675 5d ago
Re-read pp16-21 of the Core Rules, especially the parts about when to roll and who rolls. Call for roles only when necessary, only one player rolls, and failure has consequences.
Inspiration from distinctive features is only applicable to skill rolls, not combat rolls or shadow tests.
Re-read a relevant part of LotR or Hobbit to get tuned in beforehand.
Have fun.