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Posted by Hawke at September 17. 2014 This thread will be posting the adventure information for the TOR RPG gaming group 3 with Brian and his family. We will be adventuring across the years of the Darkening of Mirkwood (second), and progressing over many years. Initially meeting just once per month, hopefully will work up to every other week.

Posted by Hawke at September 24. 2014 Brian's The One Ring TOR RPG Group (Fridays, every-other, 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm) - Running in Third Age 1947 (a few years after the Battle of Five Armies, using Cubicle 7's / Sophisticated Games The One Ring Role-Playing Game. Hosted at Brian's house in North Spokane. The group currently consists of 8 players ages from 12 through 46, with 4 female and 4 male participants. The first session was Friday, September 19th. They are not currently looking for additional participants at this time.

Meeting every-other Sunday, evenings at Merlyn's Posted by Hawke at July 25. 2014 Steve, one of the employees at Merlyn's in Spokane, has been running for some time, a semi-weekly group every-other Tuesday with youth gamers from about 11 to 15 years old. He is using his the Savage Worlds rules. This group meets from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm every other Tuesday. He also has been running other groups on other days, Saturday and such. More information would be appreciated.

Posted by Hawke at September 24. 2014 Steve's Youth RPG Group at Merlyn's - Savage Worlds - every other Sunday 6:00 pm to close. Steve (employee there) has been running a couple of youth groups there for quite some time on Tuesdays and Saturdays, he recently shifted the Tuesday group to Sundays. They are open to other youth participants joining (ages 10 to 17).

Posted by Hawke at February 13. 2013 This is the group arranged through meetup.com D&D group arrangement. Planning to meet on Tuesdays 6/7 pm to 10/11 pm. Game system still to be determined. Location still to be determined. Setting still to be determined. Time period still to be determined.

Posted by Hawke at February 13. 2013 Pros and Cons of various Tolkien-based RPG systems.   Since this is a little too lengthy for the typical meetup.com posting, I'm explaining the pros and cons of the different Tolkien-based RPG's (from my perspective of course).   The Short Version   ICE MERP The first official licensed Tolkien RPG. Was a stripped down, simplified version of ICE's Rolemaster. Many of us that played this system in the 80's and 90's still have a great fondness for this system despite some flaws as a Tolkien-focused RPG. It uses primarily percentile dice - d100 (d10 x2). The greatest issue is the magic system does not fit. The second edition began making suggestions to somewhat improve, but it really needs a complete overhaul. the only other real "issue" is very subjective based on individual player and GM tastes, rather than a Tolkien setting issue. That is the core system using a lot of (in my view easy percentile, but to others these days they consider daunting) math and charts. Folks either love it or hate it. Whatever you feel about it though, it is a slower system than simpler systems, so combat can take quite a bit longer, unless everyone in the group is highly skilled with the system. MERP does not really encourage ROLE-play over ROLL-play, nor really nudge players into playing more Tolkien-like heroes (the way TOR RPG does), but it is flexible enough that any GM can do this through the narrative of the campaign rather than the system.   Decipher Lord of the Rings RPG The second officially license Tolkien RPG. Most of the content is fluff and movie-centric. The system is incomplete, unbalanced, and requires a lot of tweaking from the community to make it workable. The books lack any usable Table of Contents or Index (unless you get online resources from the community thankfully), so character generation is an unpleasant experience. The system is much more simplistic, using the Decipher generic CODA system. It is light on details, math, and charts. It uses six sided dice (usually 2d6).   TOR RPG This is a modern system, very light on math and charts. It has very abstract rules systems. These rules inherently encourage more Tolkienesque Role-play (a good thing). The combat system is very abstract, so details are left up to the GM and players (not necessarily a bad thing, depending on the group). One wonderful feature is the encouragement for players to have more say in the narrative describing what their characters actually do when they make an attempt at an action or combat. The gradient levels of success allow for creative and fun approaches to otherwise mundane task resolution. This is not necessarily the system for everyone. If you like gritty, detailed, brutal, hack and slash, this is not the system for you. If you like broader "role-play" then it is well worth considering. The more I play this system, the more I enjoy it. They only have a few supplements available currently, and with it being such a small company, there is concern about the long term support of the system. It is easy to use resources from MERP and elsewhere to expand the setting. Since it is currently published you can easily buy the rules at local game stores like Merlyn's (please support your local businesses), or online. This makes it easy for people to pick up the rules and have their own copy, and be prepared for the games.   Eä d20 An adaptation of D&D 3.5 to fit Middle-earth. It is basically the core rules, but with the Races/Cultures replaced, and an overhaul of the magic classes and magic rules (using existing 3.5 published options). This is an unofficial system (created by me, with the help of dozens of play testers), that is always progressing. http://www.earpg.com The advantage of this system is especially for newer players, or older players, that are only really familiar with d20 rules, and not really interested in learning a completely new system, but want to play in a Tolkien setting. The core mechanics are all the same, so it is easy for any D&D player to jump in and get playing. There are versions of this also adapted for 1st & 2nd editions of AD&D as well.   Eä RPG A system built from the ground up specifically for Tolkien role-playing gaming. Also created by me, and offered in three levels of complexity. Eä RPG Basic Rules The bare essentials of a role-playing game, using only a single d6. It is a great introduction to RPG for anyone that has never role-played, or if you want to quickly throw a game together, it only takes less than 15 minutes to make a character. Of course it is not meant for long term use over a long campaign, but it is a great starting point for beginners.   Eä RPG Standard Rules Also a system created from scratch for role-playing in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth and beyond. Also created by me. This is a percentage-based system. It is meant to be a complete RPG system. It is intended to be a balance between more detail than the current popular trend of abstract systems, while still trying to keep the pace play going better than Rolemaster for example. This is in an Alpha stage of development. I now need an adventurous group of players willing to help get this system into actual use, and help shape the final product (as players did with the d20 version over the years).   Eä RPG Advanced Rules   This is basically a bunch of options that can be added to the Standard Rules, or all used together for the complete advanced experience... This is for those players that LOVE lots of detail, charts, calculations, etc. in their game play, and do not mind slowing down game play a little bit to crunch some extra calculations to get improved "realism". Basically this is developing as a repository of the rules that were considered in the standard rules, but were decided were too technical or detailed, and slowed down game play enough, that they were removed from the standard rules, but saved in the advanced rules if they were still to be found of value.  

Posted by Hawke at February 20. 2013 Many thanks to everyone that made it to the first meeting. Sorry Sarah was unable to make it. Unknown if she will be able to make it in the future. Sorry that Josh had to leave. Hopefully he will attend nest week to finish his character. We are scheduled to meet again next week to finish the character generation process. Merlyn's Feb 26th, 6:00 pm (Tuesday) to 9:00 pm. The group agreed to Josh's suggestion to set the campaign sometime around Second Age 1050. I will research and select an exact time based around that time period. Everyone selected the Race/Culture and Class their character would be, and everyone (except Josh) rolled their initial stats. The process we used was: 4d6, remove the lowest die. Roll those dice six times for six stats that can be assigned in any order to any attributes except COM. Roll a seventh time just for COM. Repeat the above process 3 times. Then select which one of the three sets to use for the character. It is a first level adventurer group (though some have level adjustments). The first level of hit points everyone gets maximum hit points. Folks chose the following: Chris = Dwarf, Fighter (which tribe?) Gary = Woord Elf, "Archer" Jacina = Druedain (Wose), Mystic (from Dragonlance) Josh = Dwarf (Firebeard), Barbarian. Rob = Ryan = High Elf, Beguiler Wolfie = Hobbit Ancestor, Rogue   Everyone will hopefully email me during the intervening week to continue the character development and background stories. With 6 players, this just crosses in my threshold of a "large" group. I will be implementing my large group GM rules (I will post them before our first full game session), which helps keep the pace of game play up to speed, but tends to be more strict than with smaller groups. We will use a small timer/minute-glass for each person's turn. Each person will have 60 seconds to decide, declare, and resolve an action before the next person's turn, and we will have be fairly strict about speaking out of turn, so hand raising will be required for folks requesting to speak out of character when it is not their turn. We will finalize character development February 26th. If we have time that night we'll get some beginning adventure hooks started. That following week in March, we will have the first complete session of role-playing. Namarie!

Posted by Hawke at March 01. 2013 Level Adjustments We had a lengthy discussion about how level adjustments impact character creation and advancement. We followed most of the rules listed in the DMG and Monster Manual (and additional input from Josh from Races of Faerun), but I made a number of house rulings to enhance the desired effect related especially to Elves (and their higher corresponding level adjustment ratings), while also trying to not make it impossible to play an elf with an advancing group of non-elves.   ECL = Race/Culture Level Adjustment + Hit Dice + Class Level.   Example: Noldor Elf with 1st Level Beguiler Class has an ECL of 7 Race = +5 Level Adjustment HD = 1 (d8) (this is in ADDITION to their class hit die, they are going to need it, because it is going to take a long time to get to their next level to earn more HD). 1st Level Beguiler = 1   While the Races of Faerun book would start the character (LA +5) at 15,000 XP, and require 21,000 XP for 2nd level, the DMG (page 172) states to use the total ECL (rather than just the level adjustment in RoF) and refer to the PH's Table 3-2, which would actually make the base XP for 1st level (ECL 7) at 21,000, and 28,000 needed for second level. Following the DMG over the RoF, the example PC would thus begin with 21,000 XP, and needs 28,000 XP to make level.   Also note that the level adjusted PC will initially get fewer experience points compared to other PC's because the XP for the level adjusted PC is from a higher ECL. However, as the other PC's level up, this difference will change. As a house rule however, the Character Level for XP determination is not going to be equal to the ECL, this would make the Level Adjusted PC just simply take far too long to catch up with the party at higher levels. Instead it will just be their Level Adjustment (+1 for those with only +1 LA), rather than full ECL. So class level 1 with LA of +1 would still be Character Level for XP of Level 2, but all the other LA's would be: LA +2 = 2 LA +3 = 3 LA +4 = 4 LA +5 = 5 The reason for this modification is because the PC is not equal in every way to a full 7th level character, noted differences include far fewer hit points, much lower base attack bonuses and base saves, and it will take far, far too long to catch up to the rest of the party, and possibly the party would be very old people by the time the elf caught up. While I like this from an overall story perspective, for the sake of the party balance, this will hopefully have a little more equilibrium down the road. It's not a huge boost, should help a little.   As per DMG pg 172: Creatures with 1 or fewer Racial HD can get bonus class feat, and skill points. NOTE: Any race/culture skills in the race/culture description are treated as class skills. As per DMG pg 172. As a house rule, they will NOT get the skill points for their race (per se, this is actually already somewhat factored into the racial description), but instead will be allowed to get the full skill points for their class instead (x4 at first level). As a house rule, they are allowed to receive the bonus feat for the first level of their class, but do not get any of the ECL feats for their race (per se, this is actually somewhat factored into the racial description).   They use ECL to determine Character Wealth Level from DMG Table 5-1 (pg 135). However, see notes about money in Middle-earth in the next posting...   The PC gets the following from the PH 3-1 Base Save and Base Attack Bonuses are same as CLASS level, not ECL, though keep in mind most of the level adjusted races have exceptional bonuses for saves and/or other bonuses, so it isn't necessary to count it by ECL or HD, the class will be added to the racial bonuses listed in the cultural description.   As per the D&D Wiki http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Effective_Character_Level_%28terminology%29 I agree with this statement, so quote it here: "Certain races are [initially] intrinsically more powerful than others, either because they possess racial hit dice or because they have powerful abilities. ECL exists to balance this out by sacrificing hit points , base attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, and class abilities for higher ability scores and special abilities"   From the PH 3-2 chart: The PC uses the full ECL on this chart for XP,  and skill points, however a house rule applies for Feats and ability score increases, see below.   Example PC: ECL = 7 Class skill max ranks = 10 Cross-class skill max ranks = 5 Additional Feats = 0 (DM ruling, see below) Ability Score Increases = 0 (DM ruling, see below)   House Rule Because the race/culture already has such significant ability score bonuses, special abilities, and other bonuses, initial additional feats and ability score increases are not chosen for the race. They are treated as the feats and score increases that the PC would otherwise allocate, and instead they are predetermined by the race/culture, rather than the player assigning them.   Level Adjustment "Buyoff" Allowing the Level Adjustment Buyoff option. Originally I was unsure about the overall consequences, but with the existing house rules this will keep the PC from being too far behind the rest of the party forever, while still making it take a long time to get those initial first levels while the rest of the party "catches up" to the level adjusted PC. For lower level adjustment races this can happen fairly soon (3rd level for +1, 6th level for +2), but for high level adjustment races, this can be a very long time (the Noldor with +5 will have to be 15th level for the first buyoff), but it is better than never, and still reflects the Elves longevity, so that they will "get there eventually", while Mannish races might not otherwise live long enough to achieve it.

Posted by Hawke at March 01. 2013 Money in Middle-earth Coins from one realm do not automatically equal the value of coin from another realm in Middle-earth. When first creating characters, just use the standard D&D gp coinage for starting wealth at first level, and for purchasing equipment from the PH equipment list. For level adjusted characters, this can be quite a sum! In this case, allow them to spend up to 1/10th of the money as above (still a handsome sum), and then convert all remaining gp to Middle-earth "standard" bronze pieces (if this is too many coins, allow them to convert 10:1 bronze to silver to make it more manageable to carry). All future coinage once play begins, will use the Middle-earth coin system, instead of the D&D coin system If the DM is not using different monies for different realms, then a "Middle-earth Standard Coin System" can be chosen for ease of use. Tin, copper, and bronze are the most common coins for day-to-day purchases (food, lodging, etc.). Silver is less common, but not rare. Gold coins are fairly uncommon in the countryside and small towns, and generally only in the wealthier quarters of larger cities. Mithril pieces are extraordinarily rare. Originally minted by the Dwarves, some have slowly trickled out to the general populace over the centuries, these are incredibly valuable. mp mithril piece 100 gp No D&D Equivalent (~10,000 gp) gp gold piece 10 sp D&D = 100 gp sp silver piece 10 bp D&D = 10 gp bp bronze piece 10 cp D&D = 1 gp cp copper piece 10 tp D&D = 1 sp tp tin piece 1/10th cp D&D = 1 cp  

Posted by Hawke at March 01. 2013 Spells and Shadow / Sanity Risks Additional notes that are not yet in the Magic in Middle-earth (but will be soon): Question: Will all damage-related spells cause taint? Short Answer: No. Longer answer: A fireball or lightning bolt in and of itself would be Neutral, neither evil nor good (though the use of it could be evil depending on the circumstances). It might have "V" (varies) for Taint depending on how it is used however. So using a lightning bolt on a bunch of orcs is just part of the war of good versus evil. But using it on a bunch of defenseless villagers would be evil. Using flame strike to burn down a forest would be evil (unless it was 100% evil everything within (not likely), a tough call), using flame strike against a Troll would not be evil. So, where spells may have inherently destructive capacity, but not automatically always evil in their destruction, they will be marked as Neutral, but they might have a "V" (varies" for shadow/taint and sanity, depending on how they are used. The screams of the dying helpless villagers being burned alive by that fireball might trigger a sanity check. Anything that sucks life force away would be evil, and thus a Shadow / Sanity check. Inflicting plague and pestilence would be evil and thus a shadow / sanity check. Anything that takes away a free person's free will is Evil. What happens if you try to bend the will of someone not free (like an orc that is under the control of Morgoth or Sauron)? This would depend on what the PC was doing. If they were trying to torture the orc, that would be evil, if they were trying to free the orc from its subjugation by Sauron/Morgoth (good luck with that!), then that might not be considered an evil act, it would definitely depending on the circumstances and motivation, but generally taking away anyone's free will in any way would fall on the side of the Shadow. Deception is Neutral (depending on use), but actual mind control is Evil (following Tolkien's guidance), in the context of The Free Peoples of Middle-earth. Inflicting mental pain/damage/anguish is also evil along the same lines. Using a spell that destroys the land, or existing life (blight), would be evil, while using a spell like entangle would be Neutral (using nature, but not really harming it directly). Summoning demons would be evil and have high sanity risks (and risk of possession too!). Raising the dead is a little problematic. If they were at rest, it is evil, if they were already cursed to be undead (like the Halls of the Dead and Erech), then just calling upon them (as Aragorn did) would not be evil (though not wise unless you are Aragorn). "Turning" undead would not be evil. Resurrecting to life (not raising to become undead) would not be evil, (unless done to keep torturing to death, and then resurrecting to do so again in a hideous cycle).