D&D 5E Cool Ideas from Adventures in Middle-Earth

[I'm A Banana]

Got my loremaster's PDF today, and so I figured it'd be a good opportunity to talk about all the cool ideas from the game - from either of the books!

No Long Rests in the Wilderness
AiME basically says you need three things for a long rest: safety from threat of an attack (so no long rest in an area with monsters where you need to post guards), comfort (so no long rest in a dank dungeon), and tranquility (an air of peace). A fourth requirement is that you can't long rest while on a journey. They point out that places to take a long rest might include an Elf camp in Mirkwood, a Dwarven hall, and, more interestingly, a place in the wilderness like an old Elf ruin or a nice campsite next to a bright river.

I love the focus on morale this provides, and how it explicitly links taking a long rest to being somewhere pleasant.

Rewarding Inspiration for Friendship and Beauty
AiME mentions that in addition to roleplaying, Inspiration can be granted by friendly NPC's with a pep talk and can even be received from witnessing a beautiful sunrise or a breathtaking view. That's a pretty cool use of it!

Roleplaying advice for "generic" NPC's
This is great. The "Expectations" for NPC's are three little bullet-points summarizing triggers for +1/+2/-1/-2 to role-playing roles. Really neat.

Simple Scenery for TotM combats
I've been using an "informal" version of this for a while, so it's nice to have it codified and presented in a useful list like this! Bushes, thickets, low walls, etc. all have a role to play even if they're not on the battlemap.

The Followship Phase & Sanctuaries
The pacing of AiME is one of it's most awesome qualities, and the Fellowship Phase flows directly into that, giving you a game mechanic to evoke that feeling of resting, forging alliances, and training that so often gets pushed to the background in D&D. Sanctuaries are really evocative of making somewhere your home, at least for some time, and can give the sense of real familiarity with the locations in the world.

 

[aco175]

The long rest mechanic is there to keep the pace of 5e moving. The game may suffer by needing to pull back since after the 4-6 encounters per day everyone will be out of big guns. If the adventuring site is 3 days from anything like a town, the DM will need to add a holy site to rest at or spend lots of time with the party traveling. It may end up with groups getting teleport devices or hiring teams of guards to stay in camp while they go into the dungeon.

I do not have a problem with slowing this down and requiring it to take place in more civilized areas. I may also include being able to take more time, say 3 days camping in the wilderness to gain the benefits.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I really liked the Loremaster (AiME version of the DM) section It has great advice for DMs about the basic conversation of the game and other tips on things like Consistency, Creativity, and Fairness.

 

[jayoungr]

The long rest mechanic is there to keep the pace of 5e moving. The game may suffer by needing to pull back since after the 4-6 encounters per day everyone will be out of big guns.

A better way of thinking of it would be 4-6 encounters per long rest. If they can only manage a long rest once a week, then they'll be doing 4-6 encounters per week.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The long rest mechanic is there to keep the pace of 5e moving. The game may suffer by needing to pull back since after the 4-6 encounters per day everyone will be out of big guns. If the adventuring site is 3 days from anything like a town, the DM will need to add a holy site to rest at or spend lots of time with the party traveling. It may end up with groups getting teleport devices or hiring teams of guards to stay in camp while they go into the dungeon.

I do not have a problem with slowing this down and requiring it to take place in more civilized areas. I may also include being able to take more time, say 3 days camping in the wilderness to gain the benefits.

In AiME, you don't often have fights on the way from Point A to Point B. You set out from Point A, some stuff happens, you get to Point B, do a thing (fight some orcs, etc.), then go back to Point A (some more stuff happens on the way).

Stuff happens on journeys, but it's usually not "we meet 10 orcs and fight them." (It might be, "we spot an army of orcs marching in the distance from the crest of a hill"). There's maybe a 1/6 chance, with a lot of caveats, of one encounter on the road. The system encourages you to take short journeys at low levels, and longer ones at higher levels, and to open up places for short rests after each adventure during the Fellowship phase.

The 6-8 encounters (fights that drain hp) would more typically be *at* an adventuring site, not on the way to it or on the way back from it.

In the blurb where they talk about departing from AiME to a more typical D&D wandering monster table, they also talk about adding somewhere for your party to rest. The key for the game's vibe is that, as they put it, "A company of heroes simply cannot live forever on the Road, without engaging the peoples they meet along the way."

I'm really excited about how that exploration rule dovetails with the interaction system of AiME to create a real value for a very warm and welcoming character who is able to make friends, and to dis-incentivize the murderhobo lifestyle.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I may have to pick this up. I have the adventurer's book, in large part to steal from for all my dnd games, but the loremaster's book might be even more useful.

ANd I absolutely love TOR, and would love to see DnD learn more from it, in general. I definately think that 5e took several steps in the direction of running like TOR, as it is, with the downtime rules, travel stuff, how backgrounds work, etc.

 

[LordEntrails]

Hmm, thanks for sharing. Sounds interesting. Maybe put it on my wishlist.

 

[76512390ag12]

Different pace of game, rather like Pendragon's one adventure a year and the Winter phase, but more charming.

Posted by C4-D4RS on the MetroLiberal HoloNet

 

[Sacrosanct]

I ran an adventure out of TOR's Ruins of the North last weekend using AiME. The thing about journeys that really differs from 5e are the random encounters. In AiME, there are fewer of them, and only a small portion would result in actual combat. I suspect this has to do with the vast distances you travel in one adventure--easily hundreds of miles. Also, adventuring is in seasons. Sort of like war during the middle ages. I.e., you planned your war/adventure in between harvesting season, etc. I haven't got the Loremaster's guide yet because I have it on preorder from my FLGS. But I look forward to it.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Well I'm freaking ecstatic. Because I pre ordered it at my FLGS, they just sent me an email with the PDF version. Sure would be great if WoTC did stuff like that... Now on to reading