The One Ring - Cubicle 7

[IronWolf]

Has anyone had a chance to check out The One Ring from Cubicle 7? They did a bit of a pre-release at GenCon this year and have been releasing the PDF versions during August while waiting for the actual books to start shipping later this month/next month.

I am very close to purchasing it I think, but was curious if anyone here had been reading the rules and other thoughts on it?

 

[MerricB]

Has anyone had a chance to check out The One Ring from Cubicle 7? They did a bit of a pre-release at GenCon this year and have been releasing the PDF versions during August while waiting for the actual books to start shipping later this month/next month.

I am very close to purchasing it I think, but was curious if anyone here had been reading the rules and other thoughts on it?

I posted a bit on rpggeek about it - I have the PDF - and I'll repeat those posts here:

Well, I've bought and downloaded the PDF for The One Ring: Adventures over the Edge of the Wild, based on the sterling work that Cubicle 7 did on the Doctor Who rpg.

I'm just looking through it now, and it really looks nice. (I really want to get my hands on the printed version, though).

Interesting notes:

Dice and Skill Checks
TOR uses Custom dice. The d6s have outlined 1-3, solid 4-6, and a "tengel" t rune next to the 6s. The d12s are 1-10, with a Sauron and Gandalf symbol. The character sheet looks a lot like one from Storyteller (Vampire), but Attributes work quite differently. A skill check is the d12 + a number of d6s equal to your skill, and you can spend a Hope point to add your attribute to the roll. Skill checks need to hit a target number, but the number of 6s you roll on the d6s give you the margin of success. (0=marginal, 1=normal, 2+=exceptional). Traits can give automatic successes for linked skill checks.

Damage, Hope, Wounded, Weary, Miserable
Damage is tracked on Endurance and by the "Wound" condition - the latter being inflicted in a similar manner to a critical hit. Losing Endurance will eventually make the character first "Weary" and then unconscious. Meanwhile Hope can be spent for skill checks, but as you lose it, you may become "Miserable" (once it hits your Shadow rating, which is how much you've been emotionally scarred by your experiences), and at 0 Hope you just give up - fleeing battle or storming out of a debate.

When you are "Weary" all of your 1-3 rolls on the dice (the outlined numbers) are treated as 0s! When you are "Miserable", you are in danger of suffering a bout of madness (when the Sauron result comes up on the Feat die you roll as part of a check) and losing control of your character to the DM for a short time.

Game Scale and Scope
The game is set up to be generational. A year in the game typically takes 4-6 sessions. When a character retires or is killed, the player gets a bonus to their next character based on the old one's experience: more of a bonus for retiring or a heroic death rather than dying hopelessly. The scope of this initial game is in the "Wilderlands" - between the Misty Mountains and the Running River, including Mirkwood and the Lonely Mountain - and in the 20-30 years after The Hobbit, so before Bilbo has his 111th birthday party.

Characters can be Bardings, Beornings, Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain, Elves of Mirkwood, Hobbits of the Shire or Woodmen of Wilderland in this initial release. The "Calling" (classes) are Scholar, Slayer, Treasure Hunter, Wanderer and Warden.

The game is structured for 2-3 sessions of adventure alternated with a Fellowship phase where the characters rest, spend skill points and otherwise describe what they do whilst not adventuring.

The Books as Sessions
The Hobbit is described in this fashion as:

1. The first Adventuring phase sees the characters leave Hobbiton to journey into the Wild and reach Rivendell; the conclusive Fellowship phase is spent as guests of Elrond Half-elven.

2. The following Adventuring phase sees the company reach the Misty Mountains, travel across them, and eventually spend the Fellowship phase in the house of Beorn.

3. The third Adventuring phase follows the Hobbit and his Dwarf companions as they travel across Mirkwood and are made prisoners of the Elvenking, to finally spend a Fellowship phase in Lake Town.

4. The final Adventuring phase witnesses the exploration of the Lonely Mountain, the killing of Smaug, and the final battle of Five Armies. The last Fellowship phase is resolved with all companions having returned to their respective homes.

I'm quite impressed so far. If you've any questions, feel free to ask them.

 

[MerricB]

One of the interesting things about the game is the amount of space it gives to travelling in the wilderness - which is surely one of the biggest parts of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. It doesn't go down to minute details which take hours to play (thankfully), but it does require Fatigue checks depending on the length of the journey, plus checks for navigation and other things to see how long the journey lasts.

Certain badly failed checks require an Hazardous Encounter before the players get to their destination safely. (e.g. crossing a swollen stream, escaping from a ravenous bunch of Wargs...)

The Fatigue checks show how tired you are when you get to your destination - which, as it's generally an adventure site, can put you at a disadvantage.

Roles in travelling: The Guide (1 of), Huntsmen, Look-out men, Scouts. Each member chooses one of the roles, and that affects how things fall out in the journey.

Combat... oh, boy.

ONSET
Initiative: This actually depends on whether you're the attacker or the defender. The defender has the initiative - most of the time the players will be defending, the game notes.

Opening Volleys: Assuming there's a short distance between the combatants, missile fire may now occur. Normally only one volley per character is allowed (and shields are great for defense), but greater distance between the two forces might allow more per DM judgement.

Combat Advantages: All players make a Battle roll to see how much advantage they gain from the terrain: this can give 1-3 bonus Success dice during the combat to use.

There are also rules for Ambushes I'm not dealing with here.

CLOSE QUARTERS
Now melee starts...

Stances: Each player chooses a stance - Forward, Open and Defensive (for melee) or Rearward (for ranged). You can only choose Rearward if at least two characters are in melee. The stance determines when you act (Forward before Rearward), and how hard you are to hit (easier to hit Forward), and how hard it is to hit (again, easier to hit when Forward).

Engagement: The GM chooses one character for each monster to attack - only those in melee stances are available. Monsters above the number of characters can gang up or stand back and shoot missiles. (There is a maximum number of monsters that can engage each individual hero). If there are more characters than monsters, the players get to assign attacker/defender relationships.

COMBAT ROUND SEQUENCE
Everyone with the initiative acts first, then the non-initiative group.

Attacks use skill checks.
* Melee - Target Number (TN) is Parry of defender + Stance of hero.
* Ranged - TN is Parry of defender + shield + 12.

Damage is generally in Endurance points - you lose points equal to the rating of the weapon on a normal success, on a great success its the weapon + Damage rating of the attacker.

A character can choose to be Knocked Back - taking half damage, but can't attack on his next turn.

You can Remove your Helm (lowering protection) to regain 3 fatigue.

Piercing Blows occur when the d12 rolls pretty high (depending on the weapon). The defender must make a Protection Test or be wounded.

Called Shots may be made by heroes: they must be declared in advance and only succeed if one more sixes are rolled on the d6s (they also need to beat the TN). Bad rolls might cause fumbles. A called shot is a normal attack plus a special effect depending on your weapon. So, Axes & Mattocks smash shields, Bows & Spears provide Piercing Blows regardless of the Feat die, Swords disarm.

OTHER COMBAT ACTIONS
- Intimidate Foe (monsters lose Hate points)
- Rally Comrades (heroes regain endurance)
- Protect Companion (spend Hope to take attack instead of comrade)
- Prepare Shot (give up attack to do Called Shot next turn)
- Escape Combat

It's not an insane amount of detail, but it's quite a bit more than just "I swing my sword." The way it actually works looks very interesting indeed - I like the idea that you can open yourself up to hit more, but that another character can protect you. There are a lot of elements that make me think that, despite the attention to mechanical detail, the combats created will be evocative of the Middle Earth experience.

What I don't know yet is how it works in play. As noted, the maths is unusual: Hope Points really swing things around, but they're a limited supply.

Note that you can spend Fellowship Points to get back Hope Points (1:1). The group starts each session with a Fellowship Point pool equal to the number of players in the group.

Another very interesting point: Each character has one "Fellowship Focus", which is another character they feel particularly close to.

At the end of each session, if the Fellowship Focus wasn't wounded during play, the character gains one Hope point. If they were wounded, they gain 1 Shadow point, or 3 if Killed. The character also immediately regains Hope Points spent to successfully protect or favour his Fellowship Focus.

 

[IronWolf]

Thanks Merric! Very useful posts!

I went ahead and placed my order. It seems like an interesting game to add to my collection.

 

[Crothian]

I bought it at Gen Con. I can bring it to the next game session if you want to look at it.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Woah.

That sounds cool based just on the mechanics. I've been holding off on ordering this--it's a lot of money for a game I'm unlikely to play any time soon, if ever--but you've really got me wavering...

 

[Wightbred]

I was wavering, but I got it and I'm very impressed. Great art, interesting mechanics and emulates the feel of the books perfectly (the Hobbit particularly with this first product). Its hard to quantify, but to me it feels like a cross between Mouse Guard and an older version of D&D, but with funkier dice than WFRP 3e.

My advice is if you love the books this is worth the price as a PDF just for the read. However, if you think the books are lame or are going to say "why can't I play a Mage" this is not the game for you.

 

[IronWolf]

I bought it at Gen Con. I can bring it to the next game session if you want to look at it.

Sweet! That means two people in our group will have it! We might actually wrangle some people in playing it for a short series of something!

Hoping my PDF arrives soon so I can start perusing.

My advice is if you love the books this is worth the price as a PDF just for the read. However, if you think the books are lame or are going to say "why can't I play a Mage" this is not the game for you.

Excellent! No worries on being distraught on not being able to play a mage, so I should be good there.

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

How lethal is combat, and how more "powerful" are high-level / experienced characters compared with low-level / experienced characters?

 

[MerricB]

How lethal is combat, and how more "powerful" are high-level / experienced characters compared with low-level / experienced characters?

To *die* in combat you need to be reduced to 0 Endurance at the same time as you are Wounded, so that's moderately unlikely. It's likely that one character stands in a forward stance (hitting a lot) whilst another character protects them. (Shield maidens!)

However, hope points are likely to be spent at a rapid rate. I'll really need to see the system in action to get a good grip on it, though.

Beginning characters have skill levels of 2 (generally). I guess really experienced character might get to 4, which does make a difference.

Cheers!