GM Tarondor's The Queen of Shadows - The One Ring

Game Master Tarondor

Bain: Can you please add your distinctive features to your header?

Action complete.

Just a courtesy heads-up: The Easter long weekend in Oz will be a busy one with me hosting extended family, My posts will be sporadic at best until my Monday/your Sunday when things should calm down enough that I have time to get on the boards and post. This will start from tomorrow (Good Friday in the southern hemisphere). Thanks for your understanding. :)

My Easter was supposed to be super busy with hosting the extended family as well, but then my daughter got sick and we had to cancel. So now I have more time to put off doing homework :P

Hope your daughter feels better soon, Waylon.

Dude! I had no idea you had procreated! Congratulations! :-)

Dude! I had no idea you had procreated! Congratulations! :-)

Umm, yes, congrats!

Okay, bit of explanation. A close friend of mine plays in another game with me. His character uses the same icon as Waylon. I got confused. So, um, congratulations anyway, but I was thinking of someone else. :-)

I hope your daughter is well.

She is closing in on 6, so its been a while. And she is doing better, but it is taking a while to fully clear out. She had a pretty bad rash.

Glad to hear your daughter is doing better, Waylon.

That came off better then I thought it would. I should probably figure out how to expend my Experience. :P

GM Tarondor, would Waylon's 'Honourable' distinctive feature give him a bonus to Persuade, like True-hearted can aid in Courtesy?

With folk who value honor, possibly. Jack doesn't fall into that category.

Anyone else can try, of course.

Just a courtesy heads-up: Another long weekend in Oz due to ANZAC Day on Monday. Plus, it's the Orthodox Easter, so will be celebrating with my extended family on Sunday. And, tomorrow (my Saturday) is my birthday! My presence on the boards will be minimal at best. I will be able to post normally on my Monday/your Sunday. Thanks for your understanding and patience. :)

That's a huge weekend!

Happy Easter, Happy Birthday, and I'm unsure of how to say it, but have a blessed ANZAC day as well.

Happy Birthday, Tilly! Happy Easter and happy ANZAC day, too!

Thanks, Báin and GM Tarondor! :)

Lots to celebrate Tilly! Hope you have a great weekend with family and friends!

Thanks, Jotun! :)

Happy (Orthodox) Easter, Tilly! And (belated) birthday! Aaaaaand (early) ANZAC!

Thanks, Belle! :)

We dwarves are natural diggers!

I read somewhere that dwarves bury the dead in stone tombs, burn the dead or leave the bodies out in the open rather than bury them in the dirt.

Tolkien's funerary rites (especially for nobles) consisted of boat-pyres, boat barges, pyres set alight with wood, oil and torch - "Better to burn sooner than late, for burn we must..." Graves and cremations were marked round in shapes of stones. I think Hobbits were buried in coffins in the side of the hill?

For the sake of expediency, perhaps we should just build a small pyre and place the Ranger's body atop and light it with oil and torch - letting him burn as we leave to catch up with the caravan. What do you guys think? Probably the cleanest/safest way of dealing with the body. Tilly would find it hard just leaving the body like that or in Jack's hands ... she doesn't trust him to do right by the Ranger, even if we paid him coin.

Yeah, I’m fine with our party taking care of the body.

Works for me!

Which role will each of you take in the journey? Look-Out, Hunter, Guide, Scout? There can be only one Guide, but you can divide the other roles as you see fit.

Possible roles: (People can chime in if they have other ideas for their character. This is just my suggestion.)

Look-out (In charge of keeping watch. Can have multiple Look-outs.) : Tilly (Scan & Stealth at 2d6) and possibly Belle (who's stealthy at 3d6)?
Hunter (In charge of finding food in the wild, Can have multiple hunters.) : Jotun and Waylon (both have Hunting and Stealth at 2d6. Jotun has Scan at 2d6)
Guide (In charge of all decisions concerning route, rest, and supplies. Can only have one Guide.) : Waylon (Travel and Explore at 2d6, Scan 1d6 and Stealth 2d6)
Scout (In charge of setting up camp, opening new trails.) : Bain (Scan and Travel at 3d6, Stealth at 2d6, Explore at 2d6)

Belle might make a better scout. Not just 3d6 stealth. Favored, Art of Disappearing. I guess that means I remain in Stealth Mode as long as the roll succeeds.

Well… I guess a lookout that can’t be seen is also good.

I think a Scout might need more than Stealth, Belle. Your character hasn’t got the other complementary skills. Shrugs. Bain is better suited for the role. But, if you want Belle to be a Scout, too, then that’s fine.

Okay, I found this in the TOR pdf, which shows the the ability that will be challenged by the journey event.

Scouts : EXPLORE
Look-outs : AWARENESS
Hunters : HUNTING
Guide : TRAVEL

===

Scouts: Bain (2d6 Explore) and Waylon (2d6 Explore)

Look-outs: Tilly (2d6:favoured Awareness) and Belle (2d6 Awareness)

Hunters: Jotun (2d6 Hunting) and Waylon (2d6:favoured Hunting)

Guide: Bain (3d6 Travel)

Sounds good.

Waylon can't be a hunter and a scout. I'll assume that he's scouting.

Yes, he’s taking the role of Scout per his ooc on main gameplay. Jotun is Hunter. Bain is Guide and Tilly and Belle (?) are Look-outs.

Yes, I rolled Stealth for Art of Disappearing so Belle would be unseen at the start of her lookout duty.

I thought we were all supposed to roll up-front, not just the guide, to expedite the travel posting. So GM call if the roll counts (effective on lookout duty) or is disregarded.

Just waiting on GM's reaction on Bain's Travel roll before I have Tilly roll anything re Look-out.

I'm looking for Traveller RPG players!

Oooh! I LOVED Traveller back in the day! Was just discussing this game in my Roll20 Cthulhu game a few weeks back. One of the only games out there where the PC can die during character generation! :)

How much system learning is there? I've always heard great things about Traveler.

Somewhere between "not much" and "a fair amount", depending on how much system mastery you desire. It's a very old game and the mechanics are exceedingly simple.

As for dying during character generation, that -was- a feature of "Classic Traveller", but those days are long gone (for about 40 years now!)

LOL, is that right? Haven't played in a very long time, obviously! :)

Tell me more of this "dying during character creation!" Sounds hilarious, and something that should have been discovered during play testing!

Traveller was one of the first RPGs. It had (and still has) a character creation system that charts the PC's career prior to play starts (most Traveller characters are 34 to 42 years old). During each "term", you could be promoted, have adventures, learn skills, get injured or... die. It was a system of risk vs. reward - more terms meant more skills, but also more chances to have a laser fired through your skull.

Nowadays when the fail the "Survival" roll, you simply wash out of that career, albeit possibly with injuries. Still, there still exists the "Ironman" optional rule that lets you play the old way.

For what it is worth, Traveler is still super deadly still. Getting shot or having your space ship struck in space combat is super dangerous.

Oh yes. Hell, a ran my players through what I thought was an easy space combat and the Travellers barely made it to a crash landing after it was over. Brutal!

Not being in a fight is your primary survival skill in Traveller.

Alright. The player in me has no issue with Jotun's plan. However, Tilly would. She isn't the lying type and plus Eoin would know her family from town and probably know she hasn't got a beau, especially an outsider for a beau. Not sure how successful that gambit would be.

Doesn't have to be a boyfriend at all! Perhaps a distant cousin from Laketown looking to explore the world? I sent word ahead and you met me in whatever town lies back along this road aways to escort me into Bree? That'd be mostly the truth! :)

Belle doesn’t want to personally lie or steal, and she takes pride in her Art of Disappearing. (Gandalfed 2 of 3… that kinda boosted her ego maybe more than it should have?)

That said, she won’t object to how others use their skills. She is aware she has limits outside of sneakiness, and others are strong where she is not.

Hey guys, I have an urgent family emergency and I’ll be out of town tomorrow handling it. I won’t be able to post again until my Friday/your Thursday.

Thanks for your understanding.

I hope everything works out Tilly.

God bless, Tilly. I hope your family member is okay.

Hope all is well Tilly, will keep you and your family in my thoughts!

Take care Tilly!

Thanks, guys. I’ll be back posting tomorrow. Sorry, things went to crap and I lost my voice and I’ve been trying to regroup and get going again.

Thanks, guys. I’ll be back posting tomorrow. Sorry, things went to crap and I lost my voice and I’ve been trying to regroup and get going again.

Nothing to apologize for. Glad your back and I hope things are much, much better!

Friends. I'm laid up with COVID. Sick as a dog. I'll check in as and when I can.