Cubicle 7 No Longer Producing The One Ring and Adventures in Middle Earth

CapnZapp · Dec 3, 2019

Reynard said:
I personally think D&D should abandon the strategic resource management mini-game altogether and focus the exploration pillar on discovery rather that drain, but that's probably a discussion for a different thread.

Thing is, the dichotomy between always-on classes (such as a fighter being able to wave his sword every round all day long) and burst-classes (such as a Wizard being reduced to a feeble dagger when the spells run out) makes for an interesting game.

After all, D&D is not 100% role-play - it is part pretend, play-a-character but it also part game.

If every class worked - and drained - the same, then such a shift would be trivial. But the game would be poorer for it.

As it is, however, you would have to redesign the game to accommodate it.

That said, 5E comes the closest to functioning even without a blaster and a healer, so it's not impossible. The crude solution would work already today - just have every player play the same sort of character. Either an all short-rest party (fighters, rogues, warlocks etc) or an all long-rest party (bards, wizards, clerics etc)

WotC could also offer two versions of each class for 6E: one short-rest Fighter and one long-rest Warrior, say. One short-rest Mage, say, and the long-rest Wizard. And so on.

Reynard · Dec 3, 2019

BookBarbarian said:
Like this? https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/UA_IntoTheWild.pdf

That subsystem is okay, I guess, but doesn't actually solve any of the issues with overland travel in D&D.

BookBarbarian · Dec 3, 2019

Reynard said:
That subsystem is okay, I guess, but doesn't actually solve any of the issues with overland travel in D&D.

Yup that was my point. That it was, like you said, inferior.

aramis erak · Dec 3, 2019

Hurin88 said:
Ok, thanks for the perspective. Can you summarize how the journey rules work? What makes them good or unique?

Step 1: plot the course
Step 2: break it into legs based upon difficulty
Step 3: pick roles for the leg
Step 4: Travel skill rolls to avoid fatigue. Any sauron's (11's) become events.
Step 5: Determine the events. The GM, if they have a specific one in mind, can use it in place of random determination. Note that random process usually triggers a roll for one role to avoid a penalty to the group.
Step 6: resolve the events, in sequence determined by GM (often the order rolled), one at a time. If they are encounters, use the appropriate social or combat elements.
Step 7: go back to 3.

This all ties into the resource management elements of TOR - Fatigue, Hope/Shadow, and Wounds.
It also allows relatively fast resolution of travel issues, while still interacting with the environment mechanically.

Note that D&D 5E has a weaker version in the DMG... but the same principles. And AIME mangles that a bit...

It's not the "2 rolls per day" of D&D, nor the "one and done" of Burning Wheel, but in-between.

As long as one narrates the fatigue gains, and the specific rolls, it's brilliant. If you have a lazy GM, it's going to be a simple mechanical slog... but so will many other parts of the game.

Reynard · Dec 4, 2019

aramis erak said:
Step 1: plot the course
Step 2: break it into legs based upon difficulty
Step 3: pick roles for the leg
Step 4: Travel skill rolls to avoid fatigue. Any sauron's (11's) become events.
Step 5: Determine the events. The GM, if they have a specific one in mind, can use it in place of random determination. Note that random process usually triggers a roll for one role to avoid a penalty to the group.
Step 6: resolve the events, in sequence determined by GM (often the order rolled), one at a time. If they are encounters, use the appropriate social or combat elements.
Step 7: go back to 3.

This all ties into the resource management elements of TOR - Fatigue, Hope/Shadow, and Wounds.
It also allows relatively fast resolution of travel issues, while still interacting with the environment mechanically.

Note that D&D 5E has a weaker version in the DMG... but the same principles. And AIME mangles that a bit...

It's not the "2 rolls per day" of D&D, nor the "one and done" of Burning Wheel, but in-between.

As long as one narrates the fatigue gains, and the specific rolls, it's brilliant. If you have a lazy GM, it's going to be a simple mechanical slog... but so will many other parts of the game.

Also, just to expand a little bit, each Journey should ideally have a custom set of potential events for the specific adventure or location at hand. So you are still creating a "random encounter table" but doing so from the perspective of what supports the particulars of the adventure rather than just a resource drain.

Also note that good rolls result in events that are informative, helpful or otherwise beneficial to the party. D&D has a problem with only failures mattering in relation to skill checks, and this helps balance that a bit.

Mistwell · Dec 5, 2019

So have we figured out what happened here yet?

From reading between the lines: 1) The license was not up for renewal, 2) there is no known increase in price for the license, 3) there were creative differences of some sort.

Sophisticated Games had this to say:

"Sophisticated Games commissioned The One Ring RPG from Francesco Nepitello back in 2008. The game that he - with Marco Maggi - created, exceeded our best expectations and has gone on to become one of the best - and successful - Role Playing Games of all time. Francesco and Sophisticated Games have had many other collaborations since then.

We were saddened - and indeed surprised- to learn this week from Cubicle 7, our long term distributor and publishing partner, that they had decided against publishing the 2nd edition of TOR. This came in the middle of some discussions on the dynamics of how Francesco, Sophisticated Games and Cubicle 7 should work together in the future. But at no stage had there been any suggestion that TOR2 would not be published.

Fans of the game should be assured that Sophisticated Games, in conjunction with Francesco and Marco, will do their best to rectify the current uncertainties."

So, it sounds like "we have a process dispute on oversight" but again that's me reading between the lines.

Anyone have anything on this?

Paragon Lost · Dec 5, 2019

Mistwell said:
So have we figured out what happened here yet?

From reading between the lines: 1) The license was not up for renewal, 2) there is no known increase in price for the license, 3) there were creative differences of some sort.

Sophisticated Games had this to say:

"Sophisticated Games commissioned The One Ring RPG from Francesco Nepitello back in 2008. The game that he - with Marco Maggi - created, exceeded our best expectations and has gone on to become one of the best - and successful - Role Playing Games of all time. Francesco and Sophisticated Games have had many other collaborations since then.

We were saddened - and indeed surprised- to learn this week from Cubicle 7, our long term distributor and publishing partner, that they had decided against publishing the 2nd edition of TOR. This came in the middle of some discussions on the dynamics of how Francesco, Sophisticated Games and Cubicle 7 should work together in the future. But at no stage had there been any suggestion that TOR2 would not be published.

Fans of the game should be assured that Sophisticated Games, in conjunction with Francesco and Marco, will do their best to rectify the current uncertainties."

So, it sounds like "we have a process dispute on oversight" but again that's me reading between the lines.

Anyone have anything on this?

I tend to wonder if it didn't have something to do with Cubicle Seven taking on Warhammer Fantasy.

macd21 · Dec 5, 2019

Mistwell said:
So have we figured out what happened here yet?

From reading between the lines: 1) The license was not up for renewal, 2) there is no known increase in price for the license, 3) there were creative differences of some sort.

Sophisticated Games had this to say:

"Sophisticated Games commissioned The One Ring RPG from Francesco Nepitello back in 2008. The game that he - with Marco Maggi - created, exceeded our best expectations and has gone on to become one of the best - and successful - Role Playing Games of all time. Francesco and Sophisticated Games have had many other collaborations since then.

We were saddened - and indeed surprised- to learn this week from Cubicle 7, our long term distributor and publishing partner, that they had decided against publishing the 2nd edition of TOR. This came in the middle of some discussions on the dynamics of how Francesco, Sophisticated Games and Cubicle 7 should work together in the future. But at no stage had there been any suggestion that TOR2 would not be published.

Fans of the game should be assured that Sophisticated Games, in conjunction with Francesco and Marco, will do their best to rectify the current uncertainties."

So, it sounds like "we have a process dispute on oversight" but again that's me reading between the lines.

Anyone have anything on this?

I wonder if it had something to do with the approvals process - that C7 wanted either less oversight, or a faster turnaround. I get the impression the 2nd edition should have been out by now, in time for the Christmas market. If that delay was due to them waiting on an approval, they’d be pretty irate, especially if it’s a common occurrence.

ShadowAssassin · Dec 5, 2019

All TOR material had to go for approval to Me-E and was therefore subject to a certain amount of delay. As the AiME material was little more than a slight reworking of the TOR material I presume that approval was quicker for that.

jayoungr · Dec 5, 2019

Celebrim said:
I'm a massive Tolkien fan, and have heard good things about both of these systems. Of the two, which would you recommend me picking up, "The One Ring" or "Adventures in Middle Earth"?

I'm also a Tolkien fan and have played both systems. I'd say go with TOR if you want to play regularly. However, AiME will do fine for an occasional game, especially if you have players who are already familiar with D&D 5E.