The setting for both The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying and The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings is the year 2965, over twenty years since the Battle of the Five Armies and the death of Smaug in the east of Middle-earth. This places it between the events chronicled in the pages of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, in the region to the west of the Misty Mountains, between the Last Homely House and the sea. This encompasses all of Eriador, from Rivendell in the east to the Lindon and the coast in the west, from the Ettin Moors in the north to Dunland in the south. At the heart of the region, astride the Great Eastern Road stand The Shire and Breeland, and these are likely starting point for any campaign of The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying. Unlike the landscape of Rhovanion to the east of the Misty Mountains, with its great forest of Mirkwood infested with goblins and spiders, its lengthy rivers and dreary swamps, Eriador feels more open and windswept. This does not mean that it is empty of dangers. Evil men can be found everywhere, and Orcs, Trolls, the Undead, Wolves of the Wild, and even Nameless Things lurk and hide throughout the region, often where secrets of the past ages may be found. Worse, the free peoples of the region may fall victim to their own weaknesses or Shadow Paths, such as the lure of power or the lure of secrets. The lingering effect of the Shadow can also be found in certain blighted, blasted locations, and then there is the reach of Mordor, when Sauron’s baleful gaze falls upon Eriador.
Thus The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying and The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings do not differ in terms of background—including an adventure site or landmark detailed in the style of Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World. Located in the foothills of southern Ered Luin, ‘The Star of the Mist’ is not a full scenario in itself, but somewhere to be explored, full of dark secrets and factions that the Player-heroes can interact with. It should provide two or three session’s worth of play, but the Loremaster will need to develop a reason for the Player-heroes to be in the area and interact with it. Instead, where The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying and The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings do differ is in terms of their mechanics, since the play of the roleplaying game remains the same with alternating Adventuring and Fellowship Phases, extensive rules for Journeys and for great social interactions called Councils, and the effects of the Shadow upon the hearts and minds of all. It should be made clear that although the The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying core rulebook contains everything that the Loremaster and her players need to roleplay in the setting of Middle-earth for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, they will still a copy of The Player’s Handbook for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition for the core rules.
The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying like Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, is a Class and Level roleplaying game. Or rather, a Culture and Calling roleplaying game. Six Heroic Cultures are detailed—Bardings of Dale, Dwarves of Durin’s Folk, Elves of Lindon, Hobbits of the Shire, Men of Bree, and Rangers of the North. The inclusion of Bardings of Dale and Dwarves of Durin’s Folk shows how times have changed since the Battle of the Five Armies and the easing of the road east has opened up opportunities for travel and trade. Each Heroic Culture provides Ability score increases and details of cultural abilities, languages, skill and tool proficiencies, and so on, whilst associated Backgrounds add Ability score increases, skill and tool proficiencies, and Distinctive Features. Each Heroic Culture includes six Backgrounds, for example, the Hobbits of the Shire Heroic Culture has Bucklander, On Patrol, Restless Farmer, Too Many paths to tread, Tookish Blood, and Witty Gentlehobbit. Above all, a Background suggests why a Player-hero—as the Player Characters are called in The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying—might want to run off and do something as peculiar as go adventuring.
The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying has six Callings—Captain, Champion, Messenger, Scholar, Treasure Hunter, and Warden. Each Calling has a maximum of Tenth Level, but options allow a Player-hero to progress beyond that, though one aspect of The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying is that peoples of the Heroic Cultures only adventure during their youth, so age is also a limiting factor. The Captain and the Champion are both warrior types, the Captain a leader, the Champion a fierce soldier. The Messenger is a traveller and advisor, the Scholar a learned person who also knows healing and crafts, a Treasure Hunter someone who delves into dark places and secrets, and a Warden, a protector who uses knowledge of the land to help keep communities safe. There is some variation within the Callings, for example, the Scholar can specialise in Healing or Lore, and the Treasure Hunter in Burglary or Spying. All Callings include a Shadow Path, a narrative which a Player-hero might fall into should he fail to resist the influence of the Shadow. For example, the Champion has Curse of Vengeance and the Treasure Hunter has Dragon-Sickness.
Mechanically, if the changes between The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings and The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying are major, those between The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition are relatively minor. The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying adds several new skills—Explore, Hunting, Old Lore, Riddle, and Travel. Explore and Travel are similar, but Explore covers movement through unknown territory whereas Travel covers movement along familiar, though sometimes no less difficult routes. Together as a party—or Company—the Player-heroes have access to Fellowship, a group resource that can be spent to gain Advantage on all rolls and to trigger various benefits granted from the Company’s Patron. For example, Gandalf the Grey grants ‘Wisdom of the Grey Pilgrim’ which adds a bonus twenty-sided die to be rolled like Advantage for Saving Throws. The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying also allows for a Player-hero to achieve an automatic ‘Magical Success’, the equivalent of rolling a natural twenty on a skill check if he has a particular talent or an artefact. For example, the One Ring would provide a ‘Magical Success’ for a Stealth check. However, the rules for this focus more on the effect than the cause, so it is not immediately clear what talents enable this. As with The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings, there are no spellcasting Callings in The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying, so the Medicine skill and herbalism kit is very useful, as might the Healing option for Scholar Traditions. In addition, resting also takes longer—a Long Rest can only be conducted in a safe haven, or a settlement or city, whilst a Short Rest takes a whole eight hours whilst out on a journey. In addition, The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying suggests ways in which the dice used in The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings to enhance play and to give more of a hybrid feel between Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings. The result is a halfway house, neither one nor the other.
In comparison to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, there is a distinct structure to the play of The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying. It consists of two phases—the Adventuring Phase and the Fellowship Phase. During the Adventuring Phase, the Player-heroes will form a Company and engage in Councils and Journeys. Councils are great social events when the Player-heroes might go before leaders or other notables, perhaps to deliver a message, ask for advice, or seek help. These are played out as a combination of roleplaying and social skill rolls to achieve successes and the Player-heroes can be rewarded Experience Points for the outcome. Whilst the Council mechanics model the Council of Elrond as depicted in The Fellowship of the Ring, the Journey mechanics model the great trips undertaken by Bilbo Baggins and his company in The Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Nine in The Lord of Rings. A Journey requires four Player-heroes—which really is the minimum required in The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying—to undertake one of four duties: Guide, Hunter, Look-Out, and Scout. Events on a Journey, such as a mishap, a chance-meeting, or joyful sight, can lead to a skill test being made by a Player-hero undertaking one of the four duties. Depending on the outcome of the skill test, the Company may end up with penalties or bonuses to the Fatigue Saving Throws made at the end of the Journey. Fail this Saving Throw and this can leave the Player-heroes suffering from Exhaustion. Again, much like the rules for Councils, the rules for Journeys consist of a mix of skill roles and in places roleplaying, although where Councils make use of skills based on the Player-heroes’ Charisma, Intelligence, and Wisdom Abilities, those for Journeys are all derived from the Wisdom Ability—Explore, Hunting, Perception, and Travel. The other activity during the Adventuring Phase is Combat, but this does not differ from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.
The Fellowship Phase typically takes place in a safe haven for the Player-heroes. Depending upon the outcome of the Adventuring Phase, the Player-heroes can lose Shadow points gained during the Adventuring Phase, but in the main, individual Player-heroes will pursue a variety of undertakings during these periods of downtime. This can be to ‘Gather Rumours’, ‘Meet Patron’, ‘Strengthen Fellowship’, ‘Study Magical Items’, and ‘Write Song’. These can have effects on subsequent Adventuring Phases, for example, gathering rumours might garner the Company word of where its quarry might be, whilst a song can be sung during an Adventuring Phase to gain a benefit.
Throughout both the Adventuring Phase and Fellowship Phase, a Player-hero is expected to behave and act like their namesake to the best of their ability. That is, a hero. Player-heroes are not always perfect and they are susceptible to the effects of the Shadow, hence the Shadow Paths for each of the six Callings. Shadow points can be gained through the Dread of meeting some foul beast, Greed from discovering a great treasure hoard which turns out to be tainted, the Sorcery of the Dark Lord Sauron and his minions, and worse, Misdeeds by the Player-hero himself! Misdeeds, especially, if an act is intentional. The acquisition of Shadow points can be resisted with Saving Throws, but if a Player-hero’s equal half of the value for his Wisdom, he gains the condition of Miserable. He has an increased chance of failure on all rolls and the Fellowship rating is reduced. If a Player-hero’s Shadow points equal his Wisdom, he is instead Anguished, and he has Disadvantage on all rolls and can recover through a bout of madness. This also pushes the Player-hero along the Shadow Path for his Calling. Once the effects of Shadow do come into play, they can be devastating, but there is scope to overcome them through rest and good roleplaying.
The last part of The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying explores aspects of the setting that it shares with The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings, including a decent guide to Eriador, the Landmark location, ‘The Star of the Mist’, and also more details on each of the possible Patrons for the Company, enabling the Loremaster to portray them and bring into play as characters in their own right. There is the bestiary too, which by the standards of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and the Monster Manual, will feel woefully short. However, Middle-earth is not a setting with a wide array of monsters, rather lots of similar creatures. Thus, there are Evil Men, there are Orcs, there are Wolves of the Wild, all relatively common. Plus, there variations within each monster type, so Goblin Archers alongside Orc-Chieftains, Orc Guards, and Orc Soldiers. There is also solid advice for the Loremaster too and rules for treasure and treasure hoards, as well as precious objects and artefacts, including their creation. There is even a sidebar on what happens if the Player-heroes discover the One Ring!
If there was one single issue with The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings, it was simply the lack of examples—play, combat, or sample Player-heroes. This is less of an issue with The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying, primarily because its rules are derived from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, and not more familiar, but mechanically more straightforward.
Physically, The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying is also an of The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings. So, it is very cleanly presented in a clear, open style, and the content itself is engaging to read. In particular, the maps are excellent, done in a style reminiscent of Tolkien and will satisfy any Tolkien fan. There are numerous quotes taken from his fiction throughout the book and these add to its feel and flavour. The artwork is also very good, a pen and ink style that captures the old-world rustic charm of the Shire and the region surrounding it. The style and look echoes that of the classic editions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy published by Allen & Unwin, and has a more scholarly feel as if Bilbo himself sat down to write it.
The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying sets out to provide a means for The Lord of the Rings fans who play Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition to play in Middle-earth. It succeeds with a straightforward and attractive adaptation of The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings that manages to bring the higher fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons into the grimmer, earthier world of Middle-earth. For the Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition Dungeon Master and player who are fans of Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying everything that will need to set forth from Bree and explore the lands of Eriador.
No comments:
Post a Comment