One Ring 2E - Who's Doing What With It?

[John R Davis]

I know a several who have their physical copies but mine hasn't arrived yet
Very sad face

 

[Lidgar]

I know a several who have their physical copies but mine hasn't arrived yet
Very sad face

You are not alone!

 

[John R Davis]

You are not alone!

To be a ring bearer is to be alone!

 

[Bill Zebub]

You missed a huge thread in FL's forums during the playtest, then. About 15 of us.

One of the most prolific fans of 1E has decided, like me, to walk away. Rich. I know he's on RPGGeek these days.

It has ONE improvement: the travel rules.

Everything else is not as good. At least, not in beta. I've not gotten my books nor my final PDFs, the latter despite complaining to them.

• Difficulty as adjusting number of dice means having to reveal difficulty to players before they roll,
  • and prevents them from having correct dice pool in hand/dice-cup before their turn
  • And the TN being fixed by doesn't speed up things when they can't be ready to roll without GM attention
• Song rules turned from multi-task to monotask
• too easy to regain hope in 2E. Overshoot.
• Weapons lose one stat, "Edge" - which was "What does my natural roll need to be to threaten a wound."
• No cultural weapons. Those added flavor
• Didn't fix the problems with the Rivendell treasure system, and made it standard rather than optional, this...
  • upped the number of magic items in the party
  • upped the treasure gained by the party
• Made the Eye of Sauron core... but didn't fix it. My party, after 3 adventures, was having revelations EVERY TIME THEY LEFT RIVENDELL!
  • It's still per party, no correction for how many members.
  • It's pretty steep due to the much increased amount of magical treasure.
• Monsters have trouble hitting PCs.
• PCs have little difficulty hitting anything short of the toughest monsters.

If you find that better, enjoy. They lost me at the beta. And already have my money. Still, I know the dead tree will appreciate in value.

There are some other complaints, too:

• Hope, which was a signature element of 1e, is now watered-down and generic and roughly equal to Inspiration in D&D 5e. Not that 1e Hope was perfect, but they threw out the baby with the bathwater by making it similar to all the other mechanics that give you bonus dice.
• Fixed TNs, in addition to the things you mentioned, lead unnecessarily to Adversaries using asymmetric rules (and wonky stat blocs)
• Council rules are basically a random generator of roleplaying cues; there's no real decisions to make. (Again, 1e rules were not ideal, either.)

If I continue playing TOR it's going to be with heavily house-ruled mechanics. The adventure sites seem cool, though. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they fill in Eriador.

And Moria.

 

[damiller]

That's very true too, Material gains in organisation continue: the 1e hardcover was an improvement on the initial 1e material, and 2e is a further improvement.

I would agree with this, though I have found 2e to be a VAST improvement in streamlining the rules AND making them more enjoyable to implement. The changes to the Skill Endeavour rules have been fantastic.

 

[Fenris-77]

Maybe I should have started a second thread called Let's kvetch about 2E TOR. Ah well...

 

[Bill Zebub]

Maybe I should have started a second thread called Let's kvetch about 2E TOR. Ah well...

Would make it hard to decide where to post for people who have both praise and criticisms.

 

[Harlath]

Maybe I should have started a second thread called Let's kvetch about 2E TOR. Ah well...

As one of the many big fans of 2e TOR, I'll note that I'm finding having Dunedain and High Elves mixed in with other characters much easier in 2e.

So far this has taken in the below, starting a bit before 1e's time period (I'd like to give PCs the chance to fight in the battle of five armies):

• A scouting mission to Mount Gram that became a rescue mission after some good results on a skill endeavour, with grim news taken back to Elrond. It was determined that the Great Orc (Gorbag the Great) planning the kidnappings was not concerned at the rescues, as part of his plan was to maim and torture elves to break their spirits and put fear in to their friends/allies.
• A long journey to Lindon to discuss the first adventure's results with Cirdan. Journeys are much easier to plan on the fly now, so a long, multi-part journey was fun and interactive with a few combats along the way (more of Gorbag the Great's raiding parties), some Stealth past an occupied Troll-hole and a stop at Bree along the way. The +1d bonus on event resolution for travelling along a round is simple but helps PCs make flavourful choices on routes, or weigh the risks of visiting other locations. Some more Skill Endeavour use at the White Towers to inspect/repair these, plus defending them from some Wolves. Then a Council with Cirdan to convince him
• Final adventure of the year: ranging out to slay the troll from the previous story, as it was a threat to travelers along a common route. Took in some more skirmishing against Gorbag's minions along the way to keep that thread going.

Need to do some more Magical Treasure Index fleshing out/thinking to aid planning/foreshadowing. Plan is to wrap things up in Eriador for a period along with natural ways of getting PCs over the mountains so they're placed for the Battle of Five Armies - marriages, trade, alliances and visiting family should help get people over and in some cases with reason to stay.

 

[aramis erak]

I despised the changes to hope so much I blocked the switch to just adding dice. That alone is a dealbreaker for several of my players.

And the complaints? The basic response was a polite version of "STFU and Go Away"

 

[Harlath]

Linked a little to the Rings of Power trailer from Amazon yesterday, here's a document with some house rules/tweaks I'm kicking around based on my experience with 2e so far. Includes a Council/Skill Endeavour tweak and rules for those that want to play more powerful High Elves (closer to 1e attributes, perhaps to represent 1st/2nd Age Elves or those that are old/of potent lineage in the Third Age. But with an appropriate downside too!).

Thoughout I've tried to stick to 2e principles/mechanisms so that existing virtues still work and not to bog the game down in extra mechanics.

TOR 2E ideas

TOR 2E House Rule ideas Councils/Skill Endeavours In both cases, shift from Resistance and Time Limit being the same to Resistance increasing faster than Time Limit. So 4 successes needed in 4 attempts as standard, and then 5 or 6 (or more!) successes in 4 attempts for harder challenges. You can...

docs.google.com