u/simblanco

Some games derived by FitD, such as Wildsea and Grimwild are using a similar frame of d6 pool & tiered results. However, they add Cuts (for difficulty, precision, and impact) and Thorns (for difficulty, and conditions) respectively, which can decrease the result (in different ways). I wish to add also Freeform Universal 2e/Action Tales/Neon City Overdrive, that has a very similar narrative scope & d6 pool to FitD (indeed, there is a Universal in the Dark hack combining the games). There, Danger dice cuts the dice rolling. Importantly, all those games uses a simplified/less codified Position & Effect.

I think P & E are a great idea, so it feels better that the dice pool does not get affected by difficulty, which can be found strange in PbtA (they even dropped the -1d from harm in Blades '68).

However, how do you personally feel about Cuts, Thorns, and Danger dice from those other systems?

I am FitDing The One Ring 2e for my own solo campaign, where I like to be more generous with the dice pool creation (you know when you hit 3 action rating + push yourself/aid is almost auto success) but also often using negative tags (from disadvantages & conditions). Well, being solo I can do what I want, right, but I'm still interested in the community opinion.

Have fun!

I'm having a blast!! Here is the synopsis so far. Spoilers from Ruins of the Lost Realm are covered if you are a player.

TA 2750

Prologue: A ill-fated story of friendly rivalry, rashed oaths, friendly fire, and misguided accusations ended up with Curunir the elf of Lindon slain by his former friend Thorvar the ranger of the north. Thorvar, now mad, run away, died and became a fell spirit under the lingering power of Angmar. Curunir's friend, Findrethiel, stole the Wall of Doriath (a magical shield) from Lindon and chased Thorvar the Wraith.

Session 0: To get the hang of the game, I played one session where Findrethiel travelled to Tindailin>! and fought alongside Thalion the elf versus roaming orcs!<. My original plan was to play back and forth in time but I found it too convoluted.

TA 2965

Campaign proper: Nynren of Redleaves the messenger is a Dunlending exile, adopted by travelling hunters & sheperds. When singing at the market in Bree, he attracts the attention of Galdor, emissary of Cirdan. Nynren receives a mission: to escort Rosanna Took the hobbit scholar while she investigate the fate of Findrethiel, Thorvar the Wraith, and/or the Wall of Doriath.

How I am playing the investigation: The starting clue is Tindailin. Then I use oracles to see what new clue we should find there and to which other landmark it points. Custom progress tracks indicate when we found out the final fate of the Findrethiel & Thorvar (are they alive?) and the shield (where is it?).

The story so far: We reach Tindailin >!and quarrel with the elves. There is a tense singing council with Herunen the water spirit, which releases Aranwe in exchange of Nynren's oath of bringing Mirwen back to the pond for confrontation (another rash oath?!<). Herunen tells us Finrethiel went towards Tharbad.

In Tharbad we sneak inside >!and learn about Amelia Kern the treasure hunter. We manage to become friends and she helps us.!< We investigate in the Old Library. New clue: a record about Findrethiel's passage and alliance with a Dwarven expedition towards Moria. However, we have attracted Tharnow's attention. He wants us to lead him to Moria and rob another dwarven expedition that just passed through, or Amelia will suffer consequences. We are in a tight spot.

We travel towards Moria with Tharnow, some thugs, >!and a very-much-not-happy Gwileth the scout!<. We met a Dunlending travel party, led by >!Frecana!< the heir of Freca. After a council, Nynren gets safe passage for them >!and also a crush on the princess!<. Then, approaching the West Gate of Moria, we found the dwarven expedition slaughtered by orcs. Eventually, we get in a fight with those orcs too. Tharnow dies but together with Gwileth we kill the Orc Chieftain. We are exhausted, wounded, and with no idea how to enter Moria. We decide to regroup.

Fellowship phase. Gwileth goes back to Tharbad to deal with the fallout of Tharnow's death. >!Nynren stops to pay homages to Frecana again: he hopes she is a force of good, but will she be swayed by this naive, honest young man?!< Then Nynren and Rosanna goes back to Bree/Hobbiton to spend time with their families. Galdor puts Nynren in touch with Daza Redhanded the Dwarf of Nogrod, which will be leading a small expedition to Moria. Onwards they go!

>!More hooks for the future: the heroes have seen the Black Numenoreans roaming Eriador on their dark businesses. Arcinyas has learnt that a fool man is going into Moria: he will leverage his crush on Frecana and manipulate him into researching ring-lore.!<

I'm jumping around game systems, or maybe settings within the same system, as many of you do I believe. So you know the problem of having good oracles all the time.

I recycle generic Action + Theme & Descriptor + Focus tables. However, I like to have also some specific tables (random NPC generator, random settlement, and so on) tied to the setting.

I have an Excel layout (I am not into graphic design) ready to print out. I copy paste new tables (remove "fantasy landmark" and add "solar system generator") or edit old ones (such as change "undead" to "alien" in a specific entries), and then print the document as a small booklet. Still, it is a bit clunky. 

Note: I play only analog, I may check a quick reference on the phone but I avoid checking pdf or online rollable table all the time.

Tl;dr: I'm curious how people store/organize physical oracles to be recycled across games & systems.

My favorite solo system is the Ironsworn (IS) family, but I regularly try other systems. Being a Tolkien fan, and currently on one of my regular re-reading of the legendarium, I thought to try out The One Ring 2e (TOR), using the Strider (solo) Mode developed by the very Shawn "Ironsworn" Tomkin. It does seem the perfect match for me, doesn't it? This review only compares TOR with IS.

TOR is developed by Francesco Nepitello who is also a successful board game designer. Indeed, it contains what I think as mini-games for various aspects of adventuring.

Travelling mini-game:

I liked it. You draw a simple map of the hexes to cover until destination. The distance is a sort of progress track to fill: more successes, more hexes before you get an event. The Strider Mode adds nice details, providing tables for random events (42) and their associated skill roll & mechanical consequences. Most of the times, the event simply affect your metaresources. However, the Strider Mode discuss how to make your journeys come alive. For example, event: "wandering enemies". Roll to avoid them: if you fail, lose time and energy. Extra: imagine how your PC reacts to hiding, think what the enemies are doing here, stop and fight them right now, encounter them later, and so on. In few cases, the event is a noteworthy encounter you are explicitly suggested to roleplay.   

Keep in mind you are exploring a very detailed setting. You may not know every village or cursed woods or crumbling tower in the landscape, but you are not supposed to stumble upon a volcano in Rohan or a Dwarven magical library in Fornost (unless you want of course). Most of the times you will arrive at destination (although wounded or tired, see Bilbo from Hobbiton to Rivendell). If you are inspired or very un/lucky, you will get side-tracked to other quests or destinations (see Bilbo in the Misty Mountains). Comparison to IS: overall journeys are more procedural, less brutal, and you are more in control of the mechanics vs story sliding scale.

Council mini-game:

I liked it. You use it when you discuss in a formal setting with someone important. It is very simple, almost a scene challenge in IS. There is a progress track to complete before a clock runs out. Some details, such as introduction, stakes, and tiered successes, makes it interesting. The Strider Mode does not need to add much here.

Combat mini-game:

I did not like it. Good: There are "HP" that are actually handled well: they are not bloated, and they interact in a nice way with your Fatigue (from travelling) & Load. The main danger is to get a "critical" wound: two (or a very unlucky one) and your PC is out. This is ok, there's light crunch and combat is short and brutal. Bad: it is the only non-player facing part of the game: enemies roll for their attacks. Bad: the system pushes for a board-game approach. PC are paired together with enemies and attack each other. There are some optional combat actions but are very situational and not useful for solo. There is not a good framework on how additional non-combat actions may be used: the usual box in the rulebook "if a player want to do something unexpected, encourage it and think how to resolve it". I LOVE how the Starforged combat lets you resolve any action (swinging your sword, dropping furniture on the enemy, ducking and dodging...) within the same framework. The Strider Mode try to solve some balance issue but it cannot reframe the full combat system.

Free-form adventuring:

In the rest of the time, you use skill rolls to do what adventurers do: climbing walls, translating elven runes, persuading the guards... Good: There is a good fiction-first approach (although not explicit), with suggestion for a FitD position-like system for consequences, attention on how additional circumstances may affect the roll, and so on. Bad: Unfortunately there is only a "yes/no" outcome. I miss the "yes but" so much. I am trying to implement it with a simple fix, but it does not make any sense in any of the above minigames.

Additional thoughts:

The atmosphere of LotR is well incorporated in the game, with additional nice mechanics like Fellowship phase (downtime), Hope vs Shadow, Eye Awareness, low and unexplained magic, magical artefacts tied to the PC's fate. The source books are providing very good material & tips for running a LotR RPG (I've always found that daunting), with many landmarks and ideas perfect for a solo-sandboxish campaign. The dice rolling may get weird. D12+nD6 vs (fixed) TN may get swingy and unexpected. I do not have an opinion on that yet. Is it easier to understand probability in TOR or IS? Is that important?

Final thoughts:

Despite the combat (that my PC is avoiding it anyway as much as possible due to the brutality, and fits a LotR story), I am having fun but I still like more IS. I quickly checked the Ringsworn conversion, no opinion on that yet. But I would love to import Travel rules (easy), Hope (Momentum, Spirit?) VS Shadow (tricky), Eye Awareness (easy, just yet another simple progress track) into IS. Assets for Origins & Callings and extra LotR stuff would be easy but longer work. The source books & world chapters in the core book have great inspiration for a LotR solo campaign.

EDIT: I didn't want to sound too harsh. Overall I'm having fun with TOR 2e, and I'll need to be more creative in combat.

I'm still getting the hang of the game but freaky looking forward to my solo campaign. I'm reading Ruins of the lost realms, and together with the core book there is so much good stuff going on, landmarks and big dark designs.

So I'm just curious. Do you lean toward open sandbox or more scripted story line in your campaigns? I have read tales of the lone lands so i don't have an example of the latter. Playing solo, I'll lean on the open sandbox thanks to all that content.

Happy gaming

I love the idea of a PC with high song skills but it seems to me it can be used for lots of things. Awakening emotions in people (enhearten), make good impressions (courtesy), and with a stretch the right song can awe, persuade, and provide lore.

I played FitD games and there creative use of "skills" is encouraged, maybe you get some penalties for the roll.

I'll play solo, so my games my rules, still I'd like to hear your opinion and stick to the original design as much as I can. The Singing Songs practical application seems too restrictive to me.

Cheers!

EDIT: thanks for all the suggestions, I think the game design is quite flexible

Hey, it seems I can't run a simple campaign where i start in a dungeon or a tavern :)

My idea is to play character A in the past and character B in the present. A investigates about some dangerous villain but they will not defeat it. On the present, B may stumble upon consequences, legacies, and assorted stuff related to A while trying to defeat the same villain.

The simple option is running 2-4 session with A and stop wherever they manage to proceed in the quest against the villain. Then i start my main campaign with B and consider everything that A did.

But... I'm trying to think how i can mix the gameplay. One session with A and then one with B in the same area or dealing with the same stuff? I stop tne session with B before entering a location and i play A in the past there? It may work in a movie but not in solo play...

Long rant, if you have any suggestions it is much appreciated!!!

Btw, the system is The One Ring. B plays at the suggested Third Age 2965(?), A maybe centuries earlier.

I'm almost ready to buy and play The One Ring. I'm having a Tolkien moment and I'm happy to try out a new system.

However.. I'm used to Ironsworm & co with only player facing rolls also for combat. I'm just worried I won't enjoy the combat system there, altough it seems short and brutal so it shouldn't feel like a drag.

What is your opinion about TOR combat? Especially compared to narrative and/or player facing systems?

Happy gaming!

EDIT: I'm sold, i'll get a copy at my LFGS this week

I'm aware at Nuuksio kansallispuisto there's firewood available at the grill areas.

Is ir the same for every park? Even in Siiponkorpi?

Thanks!

Ps I'm aware of all forest fires related safety instructions