The One Ring - Guardians of the North (Inactive)

Game Master kamenhero25

A place to... discuss things.

Once everyone has checked in and has an alias, we can help people who aren't done with mechanics wrap things up and make sure that all of the party roles are taken care of so no one starves a week into Mirkwood.

Wooooohooo!!!

It's great to be back Faceless! ^_^

well, hello everyone. Can't wait to hit the road. Well, maybe after elevensies.

Hartgard now looms here.

I'm glad to see this campaign getting closer to the road. :)

Ahhh, can you smell this?
It's the smell of adventure, freedom and long forgotten riches!
Baìn, Son of Daìn will follow this smell, wherever it may lead to!

- Thanks for that, Shadow. I am looking forward for this ! -

Mae govannen, mellyn nin! Excited I am to see this endeavor coming together...

I will get the profile finished up asap.

It seems that with Goddity backing out, we're down to five. Honestly, I think I'm fine to run with that if everyone else is and if one of the guys I was waiting on finishes stuff up and still wants to play, they can fill the extra spot if we need it.

Looking back over what mechanics people have together so far, I believe that Doderic is a strong social character, Bain possesses a good Travel, and Hartgard has a good Hunting. That means that someone with decent Awareness and someone with decent Explore are all that's really missing from the Journey roles. I also believe that we need to get together Wulfgith's mechanics.

I can be if need be, and I can take a few points into something else as well.

I'm more worried about Explore than Awareness at the moment. Celebhend I believe can very easily work as a Lookout, since I think he starts with 2 Awareness and hasn't spent points yet. Or at least he hadn't when he gave his base stat block.

Though I think it will be easier once everyone has their aliases up so it's easier to check everything.

Wulfgith and I have written a couple of PMs back and fourth a while back (discussing background and stuff) and she sent me a intermittent char sheet.
At that point, she had noted down an awareness score of 3, so I guess Look-Out-Man is well covered by at least one person (Wulfgith or Celebhend - or both?).

Does anyone have advice on equipment? I recall something about travelling gear but I'm not sure what else to take. Also, can backpacks and the like be dropped quickly? Hartgard has the virtue "Great Strength" which adds to his parry if he isn't beyond a certain amount of encumbrance.

Afaic, Encumbrance does not work that way, and there are no rules for that in the book.
Encumbrance features in stuff like "the weight is wearing you down over time" and such.
The only thing that will immediately adjust your encumbrance value is taking off a worn helmet. Everything else only readjusts after a rest.
Traveling gear features in all things you probably need. If you want something special, you have to state it and the GM is advised to have a look at your cultural standing (wealth) and traits, then decide whether you have it or not.
Beside that, its really just weapons, protection gear (shield, armor, helmets) and music instrument (if you want one) you have to worry about.

Okay, cheers for the explanation.

Updated my profile, and rearranged my skills a bit. I have Explore 3 favored, and Awareness 3. Would Explore 2 favored be enough to fill that role?

Based on what I've seen of the system, you want a 3 to make the rolls consistently. Favored makes it very easy to make rolls when you spend hope, but you're not going to want to spend hope on every journey roll. Otherwise you'll run out fast and that sucks.

Ah.. Okay, thanks for that clarification.

I think Celebhend is ready, then.

I wanted to ask, during combat, what does everyone see themselves doing? Do I need to focus on shortsword combat, and parrying (I would focus more on the defensive stance, and look to parry/take a hit for the more damage focused guys, I have a really high TN doing this), or I could just shoot a bow.

@Combat: I guess Baìn will be fighting mostly defensive or open(?) due to a mediocre parry rating. With Mattock 4 he will still hit reliably and dish out a lot of damage.
With probably the heaviest armor and a lot of endurance, he can take a couple of hits before getting into trouble.
@All: Anyone having heal skilled?

@Doderic: Hartgard is massively strong, but I'm not certain how the weapon skills interact with each other. He may not be that accurate, but he will swing. He has Hunting and Insight at 3, so he'll be good at finding food and liars.

@Bain: Hartgard has Healing 1.

So, we have:
- Leader (Travel): Baìn
- Scout (Explore): Celebhend
- Hunter (Hunting): Hartgard
- Look-Out-Man (Awareness): Wulfgith
- Social: Doderic

Thoughts:
Solid line-up.
Hows everyones Travel skill doing?
Someone with heal 2+ would be cool. One dies if suffering from an untreated wound for more than a day. TN to treat wound is always 14. Which can be reached quite easily if using Hope (treating a wounded comrade should be both rare and important enough to spent a point of hope on it).

@Hartgard: This means, that whenever you roll a '6' on the attack roll, you add your massive strength to the damage. If you roll two '6' you add it twice - which likely means R.I.P. for most foes.

Correcting myself: Mattock 3 of course, 4 isn't possible with starting points.

Travel 2 here. And cheers for the explanation!

Travel 0
Heal 0

I could drop a point out of Awareness to pick up a 2 in either.

@Celebhend

I'd say keep Awareness up at 3. We need elven eyes for the road!

Wulfgith's eyes are half elven...

Also if I keep her things as they are Now, she has heal 1.

Actually I would rather have our scout drop Awareness to 2 and pick up an average travel score.
You cannot have 2 look-outs anyway, so two people with high Awareness are good (you can never have enough eyes on the route) but not incredible necessary.
Travel 0 will likely mean that you will see yourself start to tumble around like Frodo after the Nazgûl attack after a couple of days off-road...

@Wulfgith: If things are mostly done&decided, can you post your mechanics somewhere so we can all have a look at them together more easily?

@Hartgard: You're welcome :-)

Actually I would rather have our scout drop Awareness to 2 and pick up an average travel score.

You cannot have 2 look-outs anyway, so two people with high Awareness are good (you can never have enough eyes on the route) but not incredible necessary.
Travel 0 will likely mean that you will see yourself start to tumble around like Frodo after the Nazgûl attack after a couple of days off-road...

@Wulfgith: If things are mostly done&decided, can you post your mechanics somewhere so we can all have a look at them together more easily?

@Hartgard: You're welcome :-)

That is exactly what I was thinking, Bain. Also, given his backstory, it seems implausible that Celebhend has 0 in travel...

I have it fixed now.

I am at work right now else I'd just post away. So I can put in what I have before I leave for my RL game tonight.

Ah, that makes sense. Carry on!

So how are things going everyone? Are we almost ready to go? I've mostly been waiting for Wulfgith's character sheet, but anyone else who's still making tweaks too.

I just need to do her horse... Trying to figure that out... but here is everything else!

Also I found this It really helps.

Edit: Okay I believe I have the horse stuff figured out... though I'm also running a fever... Nah I got this!

Yeah, I think we're good, aren't we?

@Wulfgith: Were did you find the stuff for horses? Since dwarves are rich and I am a merchant, I think it just makes sense, that I have at least one pony with me as a matter of custom. If there are rules for ponies & horses, than I'd interested in reading them.

I don't think there's anything else I need to add to Hartgard's sheet, but feel free to correct me!

Not sure if you have something special or if I am calculating this stuff wrong myself, but shouldn't your total encumbrance (=Fatigue) be 14, rather than 6?
6 from Helmet + 6 from worn weapons

Ah, I'll edit that. Oh and travel gear is 2 or 3 right?

Yes, depending on season.
But, I just figured out, traveling gear does not count against your fatigue value, which is just weapons + protective gear.
Which gives me thoughts ... should I take a helmet after all ...
I did not before, to not increase my fatigue too much, but if traveling gear doesn't count ... and you can remove it infight ...
hmmm...
Ah, whatever, I'll get one.
Baìn is a dwarf after all, and they are expected to wear good armor all around!

Cool.

Hartgard will take the helmet, it's the only armour he wears!

@Baín: I found the in the Riders of Rohan book, page 130 I think...

Ah, that makes sense. I don't have that book, so no wonder I didn't find it ^^

Shoot me an email you don't mind people having and I'll add you to my Google drive so you can read it if you'd like.

Are any of you Omega?

That's me.

Huh, normally after I add someone it just allows it. Well now it is fixed and you're good to go!

For those more knowledgeable of the system.

I'm having a hard time deciding here.

I can go for-
Fair shot- which lets me roll 2 fate Die when I attack with a bow (and I'd have 3 in the skill)
And I could go into more "utility" Virtues later

or, I can go for-
Small folk (which gives me +favored wits to parry)
and Kings blade
after which I could pick up other things.

With small folk I have a +11 to my parry.

I'm thinking of staying "melee" but I'm not sure.

If you are planning on being melee, it makes sense that you would take small folk and king's blade.

But I am not one of those who knows the system well.

Both choices are strong.
- Parry 11 is really big, making you really hard to hit
- roll-2 fate die is also really strong since it not only increases your chance to hit but also to score a crit quite remarkably

I think you can go archer if you want. With Celebhend, Hartgard and Baìn we have three melee fighters (Wulfgith is mounted, but I think that counts as melee as well), so you have enough people to hide behind and snipe those pesky spiders in their too many eyes.
Going melee is good as well of course.

I think I'm going to stick with Melee, this way I can hang out in defensive stance And ping a big hit off one of the more damage inclined folks of our group. (with TN of 24 most of the time when doing so, I should be able to block a bit) and with a skill of 3 I should hit about half the time from the defensive stance.

Apologies for not having a chance to chat yesterday. I wasn't feeling very well and I had stuff to do around the house so that took priority when I was up to it. I'm going over character sheets to make sure there are no errors, but I think we should be able to get moving shortly once we wrap up the last couple of details.

I think I just fat fingered it, I'll put Sword back down to 2! XD
And I'll put Encumbrance down.

Oh dear... well, that means I may want to go for archery if I want to provide any real damage in combat. At least early on.

Note, I hope my build is now correct, and I hope I am going to be useful. As I have no idea how this is going to work as a character mechanically.

also, while re-reading the book, I just realized, I have to spend a hope point to take an attack for an ally while using the defensive stance???

Few more questions.

I can't find the small trait (small folk gives it to me) What does it do?

How do piercing blows work? Do they auto-hit, or do they actually have to get hit by the attack (the wording makes it seem like the latter, as it says "any creature hit by a piercing blow")

Is sitting in defensive stance worthwhile? I thought it was a thing I could just do, but having to spend a hope point to do it makes it a bit... ehh?