[The One Ring] The Marsh Bell: Character Creation

[garyh]

Envoys of the Lonely Mountain to Laketown sounds good to me.

 

[fireinthedust]

Authiel: I'm good with Vardola knowing you. A fellowship focus could also be good. Keep in mind they're both anti-orc wood elves, so they could easily have met over the past 100+ years.

 

[Iron Sky]

Authiel: I'm good with Vardola knowing you. A fellowship focus could also be good. Keep in mind they're both anti-orc wood elves, so they could easily have met over the past 100+ years.

Sure, maybe we were together helping Gandalf drive the Necromancer out of Dol Goldur and been friends since?

I'm good with each other as a fellowship focus.

 

[Walking Dad]

I feel that my world knowledge is to limited to keep up with the rest of you. Something similar happened again and I started to post less and less to avoid saying something "wrong".

I will respectfully bow out of this game and make room for someone else with a completer knowledge of Lord of the Rings.

Good gaming!

 

[JoeNotCharles]

I feel that my world knowledge is to limited to keep up with the rest of you. Something similar happened again and I started to post less and less to avoid saying something "wrong".

That's too bad! I hope you'll reconsider. There's not really much world knowledge needed here - we're only covering a very small part of the area from Lord of the Rings. I've covered pretty much all you need to know in the first post in this thread and the one on Lake-town above. You could always play an unsociable Dwarf who's been head-down in the forge and never paid any attention to news from outside, which would give you an in-character excuse to make all kinds of mistakes.

(Also, I'm probably making all kinds of mistakes myself, as this area is from The Hobbit and it's been ages since I read it. So I'm not worried about accuracy.)

 

[Walking Dad]

Ok, as you are all so nice

Please excuse any dumb questions and erratic (character) behavior in advance. I feel sometimes lost between all the knowledge about the knowledge of Middle Earth history between you.

 

[Voda Vosa]

Just act like a normal dwarf WD. You'll be fine =)

 

[fireinthedust]

yeah, though less piratey and more craftsmanshipey than D&D dwarves.

Also: Yay!

Also: Frankly, there isn't a lot of information to go on unless you're an elf. I have no idea the structure of erebor, or that the humans did what they end up doing in the game here. Ditto the beornings and woodsmen. Really, they're mentioned and hinted at, but not really described directly by Tolkien. imho, most of what we're seeing in the game so far is conjecture on the part of the game designers, as well-informed as it may be.

Unless you're talking elves, but I have a sense that most of that info has to do with Valinor and the West rather than middle earth (I dunno), and stuff that's ancient history and won't come into play in the game, in theory.

Woo! Game on! Now I just have to figure out how to add equipment!

 

[Walking Dad]

Can someone explain traits to me? Is 'Dwarf' a trait?

Are they chosen or automatic? What are Borin's traits?

(Got stuck in the IC thread as I realized I need a Gandalf to succeed.)

 

[JoeNotCharles]

Can someone explain traits to me? Is 'Dwarf' a trait?

Are they chosen or automatic? What are Borin's traits?

You can see your traits in the on-line character sheet at The One Ring - Online Character Sheet - choose "Load Character From Code" and paste your character code, which I have saved as:

{"name":"Borin","culture":"dwarf","standard":"rich","culturalBlessing":"redoubtable","calling":"slayer","shadowWeakness":"curseOfVengeance","specialties":"smithCraft,trading,orcLore","features":"bold,wrathful","favoured":"athletics,travel,craft,battle","awe":"1","inspire":"2","athletics":"1","travel":"3","awareness":"2","search":"3","explore":"2","healing":"1","hunting":"1","song":"1","riddle":"2","craft":"3","battle":"2","lore":"1","undefined":"2","body":"6","heart":"3","wits":"5","favouredbody":"9","favouredheart":"5","favouredwits":"6","endurance":"31","startingEndurance":"31","fatigue":"26","hope":"9","startingHope":"9","shadow":"0","armour":"5d","headgear":"+4","parry":"5","shield":"0","damage":"6","ranged":"6","wisdom":"1","valour":"2","experience":"","total":"","weary":"false","miserable":"false","wounded":"false","virtues":"","rewards":"dwarfWroughtHauberk","weaponSkills":"mattock,true,8,10,18,3,2;shortSword,false,5,10,14,1,1;dagger,false,3,G,12,0,1;,false,,,,,0","gear":"mailHauberk,20;helm,6;,;,1;,","comments":{"":"Summer Travelling Gear"}}

Under Traits, you have "smith-craft", "trading", "orc-lore", "bold", and "wrathful". (The first three are "specialties", meaning they're things you know how to do, and the last two are "distinctive features", meaning they're personality traits. But the distinction between the two types isn't important - they all work the same.) You chose those during character creation: the background and calling you took each gave you a short list that you picked from.

You can see exactly what each trait means by mousing over it - there should be a popup. If it's not working for you let me know and I'll paste the descriptions here.

In this case, you're trying for insight into what Glóin, Dwarven master trader, is thinking. So you could say that you are used to reading people's manner because you are good at negotiating, so your "Trading" trait would apply. I don't really see any way any of your other traits would apply here. (It's up to you to argue for why a trait would apply in a given situation. I might say that "Trading" doesn't apply here because you're not actually involved in a negotiation, for instance. But I'll allow it this time. Whether it applies or not is a matter of consensus.)

Since "Trading" could apply to this situation, it can have one of three effects:

1. You can use it to get an automatic success (but not an extraordinary success!) instead of rolling.
2. You can use it to get a roll in a situation that most people would find impossible. (For example, if you're being shaken down by bandits, maybe you could say that you're such a deft hand at Trading you can demand they give you something in return - it sounds crazy, so I wouldn't even let most people roll for that, but since you have the "Trading" trait I'd give it a small chance of success.)
3. If you're rolling normally (ie. not using one of the above two effects), and you succeed, you can ask for an Attribute Point (spent to improve skills after the adventure) as a reward for your roll. (I might give you one anyway, but you get them more often if you can invoke a Trait with your roll. You never get AP if you don't roll.)

In this case, since Hob already divined Glóin's secret, it's not critical that you make your roll. So you could decide to roll anyway and hope for a Gandalf rune, and ask for an AP because of your Trading trait if you succeed (note that with 0 dice of Insight, you can't get an extraordinary success even if you roll). Or you could just invoke Trading for an automatic success, but definitely not get an AP.