What do you guys think of this? I've heard that the mechanics are "boardgamey" but I don't know what that means...

What do you guys think of this? I've heard that the mechanics are "boardgamey" but I don't know what that means. Have any of you ever played it--would you mind sharing your experiences?

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4shared.com/folder/GwWP5dnG/The_One_Ring.html
youtu.be/zYGud45nkwg
cubicle7.co.uk/dd-comes-to-middle-earth/
app.roll20.net/join/1585220/B-oK-g
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>What do you guys think of this?
It's awesome.
It's about the only Tolkien-licensed anything that actually manages to capture the feel of the books instead of generic fantasy using the Tolkien license as a selling point.
>I've heard that the mechanics are "boardgamey" but I don't know what that means.
I know what it means, but it's not a bad thing.
The map and how the characters move across it is extremely important, as is things like planning your journey and trying to avoid or limit the perils on the way, and certain areas are more dangerous or harsher to travel or are "close to the Shadow" meaning they sap your will and strength much as Mordor did to Sam and Frodo in the books.
There's another boardgamey element in that after every adventure your group can choose to "open" new areas on the map you've explored that are basically adventurer safehouses that can re-supply you and help you rest out an entire season there if necessary; think of how Rivendell is used in the books and the gap between the first bit of Hobbit and Fellowship where they run into dangers and then rest and unspecified time in Rivendell and you have an idea; you can use the in-between "Fellowship phase" to open up new "Rivendells" of sorts across the map to provide you with more safehouses and areas of support.
>Have any of you ever played it--would you mind sharing your experiences?
Played and GMed both.
Which would you like to hear about?

Awesome, thank you!

Ideally I'd like to hear about both playing and GMing, but if you have time for only one, GMing please.

I can do both so I'll do GMing first.
Making a character is stupid easy in the system (basically you pick your culture and then Backround and then physical or personality Traits and that's it after a few spend customization points), so all you need to do is teach players the system itself. It's fairly simple and the most complex part is combat, and even THAT is a far cry from anything like D&D.

Characters tend to get hit a lot in this depending on the situation; basically the easier to make for it for you to hit them the easier it is for THEM to hit YOU, emphasizing how the Fellowship and dwarven party weren't invincible supermen and relied heavily on teamwork to succeed; you have the Forward position (all out offense), the Open position (medium), Defensive (focusing on protecting yourself), or Rearward (where archers are), and rather then just use a grid or something it assumes that the Party is taking a stance to protect rearward fighters and make a best use of their skills against superior numbers and minimize their chances of being surrounded, akin to when Aragorn or Gandalf demands they all stand back to back.

The "HP" is actually your Endurance and represents how hard you can keep exerting yourself while taking minor hits and parrying blows, and the heavier armor you wear the less of a margin of error you have for Endurance because if it drops too low you are "Weary" and less effective in battle.
Critical hits are "Edge", which is like when someone lands a dramatic blow. You roll a Protection score based purely on your armor (Frodo taking a "spear thrust that would skewer a wild boar" but his armor stopping it is an example), and if it fails you are Wounded, though for enemies this represents a fatal injury that takes them out.

Continued .
Traits on characters (they usually have three, with one determined by their "Calling" which is basically the reason why they adventure) allow them to automatically succeed at certain skills checks (skills are just a bunch of d6's rolled along with a d12 Feat dice and the numbers totaled); Legolas would have the "Keen-eyed" trait which means at a distance he automatically succeeds at all checks to spot shit because you can ask him what his elf-eyes see, and Gimli would have "Doughty" so when they needed to plow a path through the heavy snow on Caradharas Gimli could just carve a path through it because of his sturdy and steady strength.
One thing to note as a GM is actually a player thing; the GM doesn't need to know about the backround lore of Middle-Earth and Arda, but he needs to keep in mind the FEEL of the stories, or at the very least the first movie trilogy. The more the players yuk it up all the time with the kind of bad jokes players tend to make the more the mood will suffer for it, just as if Gandalf midway through Moria popped a crappy Monty Python reference it would have killed the mood. Humor is appropriate (Gandalf himself employs a lot of it in the books), but it needs to be appropriate humor to the sort of stuff that happens in the books or original films I suppose.

Encounters can be DEADLY for characters, especially when they have overwhelming numbers or big monsters; you know how they kinda freak out when they realize the Moria goblins have a troll on standby?
Well it's reflected in the system; an average starting party PROBABLY could kill a cave troll, but it would be hard as hell and they'd take some nasty hits and probably be wiped from how nasty the fight was.
Some encounters are ones your party is clearly supposed avoid, but speaking both as a player and as a GM it actually increases the excitement when they see how many their foes are and the party has to begin making checks as they flee dramatically

I can now talk about some of what went on with our group as a player if you want?
That's more of a personal experience then rules thing.

Sure. I'd love to rear it.

*Hear

This is my favorite system OP. It just feels so Tolkienesque that it is beatiful. It is a delight to play it with a good group who knows their lore.

Gotcha.
>The Laketown Companions
>Aegir of Dale, Calling: Scholar
A member of the Barding folk (the people who followed Bard the Archer after the Hobbit to repopulate the Dale) and a scion from a noble family there. He adventured not for wealth but because he wished to learn more of the ancient and lost lore of Middle-Earth to brighten Dale's archives and troves of lore. He was the fiercest swordsman of the group (fighting with a long sword in two hands, weapons and armor are basically appropriate to the vaguely 10th or 11th century period the novels represent) and was more or less the leader, being a man of powerful charisma and noble bearing.
>Rathar the Red, Calling: Slayer
Of the Beorning folk. Frequently the head of his family while his father was away, he was of grim countenance and trusty; to friend he was an allay as steadfast as stone, but to foe he was The Red, a furious berserker who spared none. He HATED orcs for their depredations on his people and fought against them with unwavering fury with his spear Grasida (Greyside), and was easily the most ferocious warrior the party had.
>Vidar of the Lonely Mountain, Calling: Treasure Hunter
A member of Durin's Folk and a brave warrior, but he was also a surprisingly skilled orator and performer. He was more of a poet who happened to be an adventurer on the side in some ways, think a Dwarf Bard and you've got it. He fought with a mattock in combat.
>Lily Took, Calling: Wanderer
The group's local Hobbit of the famous Took family. She had a serious irreverent mouth (partially out of ignorance of everything outside the shire) and idolized Bilbo and thus went on adventures to emulate her hero. She was actually the group's ARCHER and had insane luck in combat; frequently she would land the killing shot with her little Hobbit-bow or short blade. Once we played the "how many did you get" game and Lily ended up being the highest score by twice as much.

Hobbits are strangely overpowered in combat I think.

>Beren the Huntsman, Calling: Warden
A Woodman of Wilderland, a culture of men living in the Vale of Anduin on the borders of Mirkwood. He was the groups Scout (parties assign certain tasks while in Travel mode to different member. He was fair of face but actually made it his calling to protect those in Middle-earth from the Shadow, fighting with a long-axe and his trained warhound Huan (props if you get the reference with his names). Outside of his homelands he was often just called "Huntsman" because of the tendency of Woodmen to hide their real names while adventuring. My character, kind of based on the fairy-tale Huntsman archetype with his axe and faithful hound.
>Brand of Laketown, Calling: Treasure-hunter
Aside from Lily the most "normal" guy among us; basically he was a merchant's son who was educated in a lot of things in the hopes that he'd be a good merchant too someday, but he ended up seeing the dwarves and Bilbo arrive to Esgaroth and instead decided being an adventurer sounded like the dopest shit. He did a lot of the talking for the party and was quite clever with lore and knowledge, and though he REALLY liked treasure he clearly had a good heart and was quite generous with it to friends. He fought with a sword and shield, but also was a minstrel and singer and poet-type. Real bros with Vidar, they liked to compose songs together. Technically he was the one that got the group together since he wanted to be part of a group of adventurers and ended up convincing the whole party to join up on the first quest.

We were called the Laketown Companions because we met on Esgaroth originally, though actually we spend more time everywhere else at this point.

Well let's see; to date in the novels Hobbits have a bunch of Spiders of Mirkwood, a dragon (with some help from Bard the Archer), Shelob, an orc or two, the Witch-king of Angmar, and the Dark Lord Sauron to their kill tally.

Hobbits are tiny little death machines with big waistlines and furry feet bro.

, Which were you?

I agree with you there. It's a lot easier to imagine when you realize that most orcs are pretty close to hobbit/dwarf sized.

Beren the Huntsman, says right at the bottom there.

Yeah, it's easy to forget that "orc" is just the word for "goblin" in Westeron, so basically a goblin and an orc are the same they.
They're short, bandy-legged, often hunched over, and physically strong, like a race of short or deformed body-builders you might say I guess rather then the hulking superhumans that Warhammer portrayed them as and WarCraft crystallized into popular imagination.

That's why the Uruk-hai or Black Uruks of Mordor were notable; they were man-high more or less and thus noticeably stronger and meaner.

How important is it to diversify the party in this game? Would a party of all Hobbits (for example) work if they all had different callings, or would they all feel too similar?

I know orcs had really impressive endurance that let them march for days and stuff, but was their strength ever really discussed? It's been a while since I read Tolkien so I probably just don't remember.

It's not SUPER important, but it would be harder since your skills are set by your Heroic Culture at first so basically all Hobbits have the same skills with a few points leftover to customize.
There's actually a hobbit "subrace" representing the River-hobbits of which Gollum belonged to with a different set of skills and different Racial Trait.
That was specifically the Uruk-hai, actually.
Normally you could escape orcs just by going into bright daylight as they hated the stuff; it's how they got out of Moria okay and why they kept moving almost immediately, they had to be well away before night fell.
Tolkien described orcs in general as "bandy-legged but strong", but they weren't superhuman or anything, just dangerous when armed like any regular-sized guy.

Uruk-hai were basically super-orcs created by Saruman; taller, stronger, better endurance, faster on foot, and they didn't fear the day.
Maybe better disciplined too, but we don't really see the results of that one way or another.

How are the supplements to the game? Would you consider any (or all) of them essential? I see that there is a Rivendell and a Rohan book; do these books actually support campaigns set in these areas, or do they just let people play as Rivendell elves or Riders of Rohan who go adventuring in Wilderland?

>How are the supplements to the game? Would you consider any (or all) of them essential?
Not essential but DAMN helpful and all of excellent quality.
Heart of the Wild is the MOST useful supplement (describing Mirkwood and the Vales of Anduin, the "core" area of the game) but Rivendell (which describes Eriador) and Rohan (which describes the entire Gap of Rohan) are excellent for the same reason. Laketown is also good because it gives the Lakemen culture.
The adventure books are awesome too and can even be used as a rough "chronology" if you choose.
>I see that there is a Rivendell and a Rohan book; do these books actually support campaigns set in these areas, or do they just let people play as Rivendell elves or Riders of Rohan who go adventuring in Wilderland?

Both!
In fact, both have TWO; Rivendell has the Dunedain AND the High Elves, and Rohan has the Riders of Rohan and the Dunlendings.
Dunedain and High Elves are a bit odd; they start more powerful (Dunedain are 24/7 heroes compared to most characters and there ARE no elves in Rivendell younger then 500 years, compared to the Mirkwood elves who have suffered repeated tragedies and thus have more young members), but have steep downsides; it's harder for Dunedain to remove the taint of Shadow as they MUST hold themselves apart from other men as they are destined to be rulers, and High Elves have it even harder because they fall into black depression and sadness rather easily due to their long lives and all they have seen lost.
In addition Rivendell has an option rule for travel about attracting "the Eye of Mordor" which basically means your heroes are now in some way catching the direct attention of dark forces that seek to waylay and pursue them.

Here's a link to all the PDF's except the most recent, The Lonely Mountain
4shared.com/folder/GwWP5dnG/The_One_Ring.html

I can tell at least one story that ended up being our favorite moment of play thus far I guess?
I don't know how it'll sound in the re-telling though, hard to say. It was rad at the time though

Thanks.

If you're willing to tell the story, I'd be happy to read it.

How hard is it for High Elves and Dunadain to operate in a "normal" party? Do you have any experience playing with them? Do they take the focus away from other characters?

It's not that hard, yes I do, and not really unless the GM let's them as the power difference isn't THAT great.
We had a High Elf in our party up here , , for awhile, the Elf-lord Lindir.
He was definitely a badass but the downsides were rough on him when he gained Shadow points and the player was excellent at roleplaying what it would be like to be literally a thousand years old, long enough to have seen the rise and fall of nearly every culture in Middle-earth's memory; he was this glorious being who seemed unearthly to the others but it was clear that despite his cheerful attitude he battled deep melancholy and he traveled for awhile with the party because they made him feel young for the first time in eight centuries.

Kay
>So through a series of events we're in Carn Dûm, the abandoned fortress of the Witch-king of Angmar.
>Turns out, not so abandoned. It's not yet fully manned but it's definitely getting filled up with goblins and Evil Men who are basically prepping the place under Mordor's orders, though we didn't know that at the time and still kinda haven't learned it in-character quite yet.
>We're sneaking through a side-entrance to the place because the front door looks WAY too suspicious to us, and just as we set foot upon the frozen bridge we felt a wave of unnatural terror wash over us.
>We actually do a good job (we've all invested in some stealth ability at this point) of being sneaky, moving past guards, but we end up accidentally triggering a trap that alerts them.
>The WHOLE fucking fortress lights up, and we realize how badly outgunned we suddenly are.
>My faithful hound Huan perks his head up in one direction as we hear sounds coming down it...a LOT of sound.
>We haul ass, as the GM starts up this theme song on his laptop.
youtu.be/zYGud45nkwg
>We keep running, occasionally getting caught by a few goblins and forcing our way past.
>Eventually we get cornered in this one hallway on a raised hill, and we realized there's no way out. Brand of Laketown has us gather some old wood and tosses this firework he bought like, four adventures ago "from some old man in a grey pointy hat" up at Laketown. A fire lights up.
>Aegir: "BACKS TO THE FIRE!"
>We make a circle and they are ON us, with at least five orcs or Hillmen to every one of us.
>Forward: Rathar, Open: Beren, Brand, Defense: Vidar, Aegir, Rearward: Lily
>Rathar the Red goes first, and with a lucky edge roll his great spear runs through the first orc, perfectly in time with the music on the laptop. Me and Brand begin out fights, with Huon harrying my foes to keep them weary as I land blows with my axe, Ulfbiter (Wolf-biter), and Brand brings his sword around to cover my flanks.
Continued

Continued
>Aegir and Vidar play defense for Lily, Aegir taking one with his sword while Lily gets her insane luck as per usual and begins using her little hobbit-bow to pick off foes
>We're tougher then when we started so we cut through that first wave, but ANOTHER comes, and this time the orks are bigger, tougher; Black Uruks of Mordor. They press us hard, and we're loosing endurance.
>Rathar uses an Intimidate action to reduce their Hate score and make them cower: "COME THEN! WHICH OF YOU WANTS TO BE A STAIN ON MY SPEAR FIRST?! WHICH OF YOU WILL HELP ME EARN THE NAME RED!?!"
>He impales one with a single thrust, but then takes a Wound from another after.
>One injures Brand before he stabs it and I take it's head off.
>Lily is racking up shots but there's too goddamn many. Vidar takes a hit but his mail shrugs it off, as does Aegir.
>The odds suddenly get even worse; an orc of man-size walks in, and he speaks to some of the others in the Black Tongue. A Great Orc, and behind him a goddamn troll.
>Great Orc moves up and shatters Brand's shield with a lucky strike of his bent sword, speaking in the Black Tongue (which the GM used properly and we translated later): "Little Man. I've slain greater then you in my SLEEP." He's some kind of ANCIENT orc, having lived for centuries.
>Me, Rathar, and Brand pile onto the Great Orc while Vidar, Aegir, and Lily take potshots at the troll.
>I'm wounded by his cruel blade, and fall, and in fury Rather takes ANOTHER wound which brings him down for the fight, leaving me and Brand. We contest with the Great Orc.
>Orc Chief, in Westeron: "WHAT CAN YOU DO AGAINST ME, LITTLE MAN? I'VE LIVED LONGER THEN YOUR ENTIRE KINGDOM!"
>Lily takes THAT as a dare. She switches targets, takes a shot at him. She nails his right eye (Wounding him), just as I swing and cut his leg out from under him, spinning my axe with a flourish and aim for his neck; Me: "Not any more, orc!"

I would run this for my friends but theyd probably all be like "I WANT TO BE A RANGER OF GONDOR"

Would this game work alright for three players who all play essentially the same character

>I hit my Edge and he fails his save; I take his head off.
>Just then Vidar takes a hit from the troll which knocks him aside like a rag doll, and Aegir is Wounded already.
>We move to support, but the troll hits me. Instead of taking the Wound (which would KO me) my faithful hound Huon takes it instead, dodging in front of the blow and making the pained shriek dogs make
>Brand throws himself at the troll and combined with Aegir and Lily they're really whittling it down.
>I'm PISSED now because the troll hurt my faithful hound, I move to full offense and land ANOTHER Edge shot, taking out it's left knee from behind with a cry of "MIRKWOOOOOD!"
>The troll falls to one knee as another shot from Lily buries itself in it's eye. Brand leaps up and drives his long sword, now wielded in both hands with the loss of his shield, into it's left arm. Vidar charges back in and drives the point of his mattock into hit's right knee, shattering it. Aegir swings with both hands and draws the blade across it's belly, spilling it's guts everywhere with a cry of "DALE!" and the thing finally falls.
>We pause, beaten up and bloodied but surrounded by over 44 corpses, twelve of them Black Uruks, one a cave troll over eleven feet tall, and one an orc chieftain who was probably over seven centuries in age by our later estimation.
>The rest of the orcs and evil Men pause. Then they run.
>We gather each other up, tired and beaten but none of us dead, thankfully. My dog lives.
>We limp back to Rivendell to tell our tale

Shit was some of the most fun I've ever had in a single session. The rolls we were getting were all legit and totally insane, hugely heightening the drama.

Well likely given that they've all but exhausted Eriador and Rhovanion in description the lands of Gondor will probably be the next book focus.

I answered kinda up here .
There's also no rules for playing Gondorians yet, though being a Dunedain is better since you're like a Gondorian that's going to live for like two hundred years and are of a noble lineage dating back to the first age.

What exactly do i need to play?

Just that core rulebook? I have battlegrids and character tokens and etc already

Battlegrids aren't necessary because it's not that kinda game, nor are tokens really because of the battlegrid not being necessary, but you CAN use it as the map (which the players are encouraged to explore and fill out themselves). Map looks like pic related. Sorry for not having a bigger picture, but there's one in the PDF's link I provided I believe.

The game is sometimes accused of using "special dice", which is technically true, but you can actually substitute a d12 and d6 for everything and then count 11 on the d12 as the Eye of Sauron (which is a Natural 1 for players but a Natural 20 for Evil Stuff) and the number 12 for the G-rune (which is the inverse).
The "special" d6's are basically regular d6's but have little markings to denote when your dice wouldn't count because you're Weary or whatever so it's kinda nothing special.

This is the Adventuer's Map, which is basically the "this is the stuff you know exists already" map you give to the players.
I used to think that maybe Wilderland was too small, but then it explains that one hex on the narrator's map is ten miles straight or something like that.

Oh my god, this is so rad. Thank you for sharing.

Apologies, I r retard.

I think Varg Vikernes, of 'Burzum' and 'stabbing Euronymous 20+ times' fame, did a review of this game. He seemed to like it.

You're welcome.
We had a hilarious sort of cut-away as an epilogue for the session as we all decided to do our Fellowship phase in Rivendell to open it up as a sanctuary for us and we just chilled.

>In Rivendell in a quiet reading room. Most of us are bandaged up and my dog is happily feasting on a bone at my feet. We're all smoking pipes in silence, enjoying the rest.
>Me: "What's this stuff called again?" *takes a drag on a pipe*
>Lily: "Pipe-weed. This is from Southfarthing, I think. Good brand, that. Excellent flavor." *takes a drag on her pipe*
>There's a pause for a second as we keep smoking together, the first experience our group except for Lily has had with pipeweed.
>Me: "It's awesome."
>Rathar: "Aye."
>Vidar grunts in approval.
>Aegir: "Very soothing."
>Brand: "I wonder how easy it is to grow? I bet we could make lots of money back home with it."

Shit. That gives me a mixed message. On one hand, fuck that guy; on the other, he does have pretty good taste in nerd shit.

, , Goddamn, can anyone tell me how to screencap?
I want to save this shit for the next time there's a Tolkien lore thread.

I'm reading Heart of The Wild now. It's rare that a setting book has plot hooks that good.

They ALL have plots hooks.

*great plot hooks, I meant.

So far the area-specific books that have lots of plot hooks as well as character options are; Heart of the Wild (Rhovanion), Rivendell (Eastern Eriador), the Riders of Rohan (the Gap of Rohan and Dunland), and the most recent one, the Lonely Mountain (detailing eastern Rhovanion, the Lonely Mountain, and Dale).

What WAS pipe weed anyway?

Tobacco, basically.
Tolkien himself frequently smoked a pipe, and thus his vaguely-British-countryside culture of the Shire thus did so as well.

Never played it. I like the planning aspects, the strategizing about journey. Combat, as described, doesn't do it for me, I need a more crunch-heavy simulator. And that is kinda a deal-breaker, I'm afraid. Also, automatically succeeding takes out elements of suspense.

So, yeah, it sounds like excellent material to draw inspiration from but it's probably not everyone's cup of tea.

Heart of the Wild along with the Darkening of Mirkwood have so many plot hooks and ideas I think a group of players can just use these 2 for years

It was implied to be gathered from a flower and to be more intoxicating than tobacco, more like really weak marijuana.

Where was it implied? It's more likely Tolkien didn't use the word tobacco because it was an American work, like he was so irritated by mention of tomatoes he switched it to cold pickles in a later publication.

I DMed one session of it - for half of the people intended, because SCHEDULING, then it died out also because SCHEDULING. shame cause I really, really liked it, and thet one session showed great potential even if it was still bit clunky. Well, I hope I'll find someone to play with when I'll get back on university in october. Though I'd rather be player than forever DM. But I don't see any chance of that happening.

How's the Erebor book?

You're saying that he hated tomatoes because they came from the Americas and would thus break verisimilitude of his psuedo-Iron Age European setting? Do they also not have corn in middle earth?

I'm legit curious, I'm pondering the exact same sort of thing in the campaign I'm building.

They have potatoes for sure, and pipe-weed is quite obviously tobbaco, so I'm not really sure. Maybe "tomato" doesn't just "sound" very English.

I'd love to check out the core book, see if it'd actually be worth getting for by fiance, but says I need permission to access the folder. Anybody else have it handy?

Seconding this, if anyone has a copy.

Can't find the link right now but the archive threaf definately has it

>Want to play this
>Only chance I would have is if I ran it
I don't think I could to a Tolkien tone justice running a game.
Not sure I could do it justice playing in one either.

I love the system. We used it to run a 4th age game, right after the death of Aragorn and the beginning rule of his son. It gave ua some leeway to add more towns as Arnor was being rebuilt.

The main plotline was dealing with the Palantiri, which someone was using to attack the King when he was using it. The main villain turned out to be one of the lost "Blue Wizards" and Maglor (now one-handed) from the Silmarillion, who had been driven mad and wandered eastern Middle Earth for millennia. He had gathered a group of the Avari as his main henchmen / flunkies.

Bumping this thread for more One Ring stories.

It has the best codified system for hexcrawls of any pen and paper rpg I've ever played, hands down.

It isn't simply a roll of percentile dice to determine if you encounter a monster, and if so, what monster. But it is rather a challenge (not necessarily combat oriented) determined by what fieldcraft task is being performed by whoever rolled a 1 in their travel check.

I love it, it's the difference between encountering 1d6 kobolds and "Roast Mutton"

, Sorry, didn't realize.
Fucking around with 4shared is a pain in the ass but it's what my group uses and I never seem to actually find time to switch to anything easier to use or learn to use it.

I wish I knew.

4shared.com/folder/GwWP5dnG/The_One_Ring.html
Okay, re-labeled the folder Public Access so supposedly it should work for everyone now.
If it doesn't I'm going to sacrifice a goat or something to Internet Satan because I fucking hate machines and this shit is a pain in the ass.

It's BEEN 2 years for us and we're still kind of working through shit, and then suddenly Erebor and Rohan comes out....
I don't remember seeing that anywhere.
Fantasy stuff aside, Tolkien was a pretty classic "Good Christian" and it showed through quite a bit in his writing, and recreational drug use is not in the Good Christian handbook.

Not saying that's incorrect, it just kind of runs counter to pretty much everything else he demonstrates in his writing.
It's the word tomato, not the substance itself.
Tolkien, being an Oxford Professor of English Language and Literature, was always intensely aware of the etymology and linguistic roots of EVERYTHING and since constructed fictional languages and the poems and songs sung in them basically form the bedrock of his entire mythology he had probably resistance to using some words.

An interesting example; the written and spoken Orkish sounds really cool (not to mention actually fairly sinister, though no so much as the Black Speech does), but Tolkien constructed it deliberately to be the most offensive-sounding language he possibly good to his sensibilities. That's the key part; to the sensibilities of an Oxford English Professor who also loved constructing languages.

Queyna was inspired by Finnish (Tolkien's favorite language) by the way, and Sindar by Celtic languages. I believe Black Speech was inspired but some weird-ass language from Syria that came down from Armenia, Hurrikan or Hurrian or something like that.

Thank you, user!

Hey One Ring user could you give a rundown of fellowship phases and the downtime between seasons?

Hows does your group handle it?

Since you're in the know, are they planning any more books for TOR?

In not him, but there are rumor of a Moria supplement.
I am hoping for Gondor in general or only Minas Tirith.

Pretty much like how it shows; when they end Fellowship Phases in new locations they want to turn into a sanctuary they almost always all decide to do that since opening up new strong points in the wild is always a good bet, and sometimes they do special actions based on the locations where they do the phase, and twice now they've returned home to improve Standing before re-meeting in a different location after a season.
I'm not really in the know at all.
Not sure why they WOULD do one about Moria; it's really just one single location (albiet a very physically large one) and all the areas around it have already been elaborated upon.
Few of the other major strongholds of The Enemy have been detailed aside from Carn Dum and Dol Goldur, and both places left a lot of blank spots and were relatively small; places like Moria and Gundabad are entire MOUNTAINS, and thus it'd be like mapping out a huge D&D dungeon, something the system isn't too geared to support as it is.
The Erebor suppliment isn't just Dale and the Lonely Mountain, but also all the territory around it for example.
I don't know why they WOULDN'T do Gondor at this point they've detailed like two-thirds of Middle-earth.
Gondor is a much more important region especially if you add in the areas directly south of Eriador, and it makes sense to do it "last" so to speak.

Currently upcoming are
>adventure book set in rohan as companion to already released setting book
>Maps and Journeys, basically set of maps and a booklet with optional journey rules, at example for ship journey
>Adventurer's Companion, with supplementary material for character creation, including five new cultures (actually four as Rohirrim would be doubled from Horselords - besides them men of Gondor, men of Bree, dwarves of the Blue Mountains and elves of Lorien.
I also hope it will have rules for dual wielding, as one of my players asked for this at the very first session (he wanted to make dual-axe Beorning slayer)

I was wondering if the Blue Mountains Dwarves and Lorien would get any attention as Heroic Cultures.
Breefolk sound like they'd be a bit like Laketown folks; really regular and average guys who go out adventuring.

Maps and Journeys is already out.
Man, it would really be disapointing to me if they release men of Gondor outside of a book dedicated to the area. The Knights of Dol Amroth are what i want to play in this game.

I wonder if they would do "evil" books detailing orc culture and what not.

Or at least detail lands like Mordor or the East featuring the Haradrim as a new playable culture.

Who here would like to play a oneshot or possibly more?

I've always wanted to run this shit and it seems there's enough interest in this thread.

Don't know, really. I'm not big fan of online roleplaying, and currently i have no voice capabilities but on the other hand I have little chance of playing just ANYTHING, not even saying about TOR at least until october. And even then I'll most likely be Forever GM.

I might.
Depends on what time it all goes down, I life in the PacNorthwest.

I'm available nearly all hours of the day for the whole weekend coming up, and probably the one after that.

The game will be text based over on r20.

I can do text easily enough.
It's video and voice my laptops has difficulties with atimes.

Amazing now we just need one other person.

Email is: [email protected]

Email me here and I'll hopefully get people in contact to coordinate this.

We might need at least one more if you run book adventures I think, but it might not be as crucial as you'd expect.
A lot of encounters are something like "number of party members+[a number]".

>I don't think I could to a Tolkien tone justice running a game.
sup bro

>forever DM
>Not even that good DM at that, only good at combat-heavy stuff

no way I can DM lord of the rings without it just becoming D&D light

Well damn, when you able to run?

All day erry day, but at the end of the month I'll be stuck to the weekends, but can do all hours Fri-Sun.

Bamp for this

A+ game. A+ supplements. I'd advocate taking that shit from the PDF thread and then buying it if you have some spare cash / like the game.

I'll see how my schedule is looking for this week and hopefully shoot you an email on Saturday/Sunday if you're still looking for players

>and thus it'd be like mapping out a huge D&D dungeon, something the system isn't too geared to support as it is.
Sounds like something they'll save for when they focus more on DnD.
cubicle7.co.uk/dd-comes-to-middle-earth/

I did that myself.
Even the quality of book and editing is pretty damn good.

Bump for TOR game hopefuls.

Is there any consensus on when play would happen currently?

I'm also just trying to bump the thread.

No, but I have gotten two people interested and have linked them the r20. We could even play today. With the online character generator it's piss easy to get ready, I'd say 5 minutes? And Tolkien is my jam so I've got an easy set up of a few ideas.

Ya know what, this might open the floodgates but here: app.roll20.net/join/1585220/B-oK-g

Link to the r20 room. I'll be in it ALL day starting from this post and keeping an eye on it. Even if today doesn't work out, come on by and let's chat.

>I don't think I could to a Tolkien tone justice running a game.

What do you mean by that?

If you've read the books and played the average game of D&D, you're aware of the tonal difference already.

Pretty much the same thing as

welp. I could join but not today. sat/sun would be good tho.

>Even if today doesn't work out, come on by and let's chat.

Am I being stupid or is Adventurer's Book the corebook? I ask because book I can see listed on drivethrough is 300+ pages long and Adventurer's Book, which I can acquire through less legal means, is almost 200 pages long. They're also obviously using different covers.