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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Apr 12 2015, 1:55pm
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UBCon XXVI: April 17 - 19
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UBCon XXVI: Heart of the Sea is being held at the University of Buffalo North Campus (Buffalo, NY) on the weekend of April 17. Neither my wife nor I are signed to gamemaster anything although Garrett, a fellow member of the Cubicle 7 forums who also plays The One Ring Roleplaying Game (TOR), will be running a game of TOR on Friday. I will bring Hobbit Tales the story-telling card game with me nonetheless.
I wasn't sure for while if Tayna and I would be attending this year, due to the death of my father; but I think that we both need to take the opportunity to decompress.
UBCon website: http://ubcon.org/
Quick reminder: Buffalo also hosts Queen City Conquest (or QCC) taking place Sep 18 - Sep 20, 2015, at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center. I may sign up there to run TOR and/or Hobbit Tales.
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Apr 17 2015, 1:32pm
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Garrett's TOR game session is tonight.
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The con kicks off this evening with Garrett's TOR game scheduled for 10 p.m. to 2 in the morning. He is running a scenario called "The Theft of the Moon."
A Beorning festival is turned upside down when an artifact is stolen by goblins. Can the fellowship recover it? As I stated, I am not signed up to run an event myself, but I am taking the Hobbit Tales card game with me in case I get a chance to start a pick-up game. I won't have much money to spend for the dealer's room, but I will still wander through to see what's available.
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on Apr 17 2015, 1:33pm)
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Apr 18 2015, 12:52pm
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We started off with Garrett as Loremaster and five player-heroes: Lereth (me), a Ranger of the North; Nimrodel the High-Elf; Torino, a River Hobbit; Gand, a Dwarf of Erebor; and Wulferd the Beorning. Shortly after the session begain we acquired two late-comers: Runa, a woman of Lake-town, and Beli, another Dwarf.
The PCs won most of the contests at the Moon festival and came together quickly after the theft of the Beornings' Sickle of the Moon. Pursuit of the thieves was organized and we were off.
We hoped to catch up with the thieves quickly before they rendezvoused with their compatriots, but that was not in the cards (or dice, rather). After overcoming perils along the way, we found the miscreants without being immediately detected ourselves and we quickly formulated a plan.
Things did not go quite as hoped but we were ultimately victorious; I am happy to report that the Fellowship of the Moon did not incur any fatal casualties. I do feel that I was not at my best; I had some trouble getting into my Ranger's head. Still, I think that everyone had fun. Kudos to Garrett.
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
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Brethil
Half-elven
Apr 19 2015, 12:33am
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More fun when it doesn't go according to plan.
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For the DM anyway. 
Glad you had some gaming time to help take your mind off things.
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Apr 19 2015, 1:29pm
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The first casualty of war is the plan.
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Given the mixed nature of our company, I didn't really expect to catch up with the villains early anyway. Indeed, we were unable as a group to maintain a forced march.
I had a handful of unused PC Heroes that I had generated myself that Garrett would have allowed me to use if I chose. Two of them were actually adapted from PCs that I had originally created for Iron Crown Enterprise's old and out-of-print Middle-earth Role Play (MERP) game for Middle-earth. I kinda wish I had brought in Brillamar "Brillo" Stoutfellow, my Hobbit Burglar (coverted to treasure-hunter) from the Shire. My other MERP character, by the way, is a young Ranger of the North named Talathor son of Belegthor.
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
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Brethil
Half-elven
Apr 19 2015, 8:49pm
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I like the sound of your backup PCs
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I keep about a dozen NPCs made up at any given time for my own use or for guest player use, which has worked out spectacularly well for novice players. Its real geek fun to generate the names and stats and a bit of backstory isn't it?
My nieces are away at college right now, so our game is on hold. I hope to get back to it this summer maybe. Its harder to play regularly now that all the teenagers have seventeen thousand commitments a piece.
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Apr 19 2015, 9:05pm
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Its real geek fun to generate the names and stats and a bit of backstory isn't it?
Yeah, my Ranger (originally called Talethar) was meant to be an idealistic youth who was patterning himself after King Elessar as he was intended for a MERP campaign that would have been set early in the Fourth Age. I had to tweak that a bit to make him a character for TOR.
I also altered the name of my Hobbit. Brillamar was originally called Brillomain, but that seemed a bit too on-the-nose when I found his old character sheet!
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
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Brethil
Half-elven
Apr 20 2015, 8:55pm
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I've never used MERP gaming rules.
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I've read about them - they seem more streamlined I suppose but how do you generate stats? Roll-up on two d10s since the max is 100? That can give one crazy wide range of numbers, much wider than the AD&D state setup (if that's how it works).
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Apr 20 2015, 11:02pm
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Yes; MERP was a simplified version of Iron Crown's Rolemaster rules. Stats and skills were based on percentages. The minimum score for stats (Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, Intuition, Presence) was 20 so any percentile roles for stats below 20 were ignored. You would place your lowest score(s) on your 'prime stat(s)', based on your character's profession, to be replaced with 90. Background Options during your character's development allowed for stat increases up to a maximum score of 101 for your first-level character.
A wide range of races and cultures were available to choose from. Half-elves were available; optional races (allowable at the Gamemaster's discretion) included: Orc; Uruk (Great Orc); Half-orc; Half-troll; Wild Troll, and Olog (Black Troll). The basic professions were: Warrior; Scout; Mage; Animist; Ranger; and Bard. There were a number of optional professions available (if the Gamemaster permitted them) including: Barbarian; Burglar; Conjurer; Civilian; Explorer; Monk; Rogue; Scholar; Shape Changer; Warrior Monk; and Wizard.
Combat was not difficult. However, MERP (and Rolemaster) was table-heavy with some very nasty possible outcomes for both critical hits and fumbles.
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on Apr 20 2015, 11:03pm)
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Brethil
Half-elven
Apr 21 2015, 1:33am
Post #10 of 11
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Yes; MERP was a simplified version of Iron Crown's Rolemaster rules. Stats and skills were based on percentages. The minimum score for stats (Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, Intuition, Presence) was 20 so any percentile roles for stats below 20 were ignored. You would place your lowest score(s) on your 'prime stat(s)', based on your character's profession, to be replaced with 90. Background Options during your character's development allowed for stat increases up to a maximum score of 101 for your first-level character. I see - good thing about giving the baseline of 20 for the basement stats; that would still allow for a LOT of variability; more so than the AD&D standard methods; though I have them drop the lowest numbers as well. Its just too darned hard when you start a campaign to keep a 4 strength or dexterity alive! The plus is I suppose you don't end up with a lot of Valhalla-stats and you could really create a lot of functional depth with such a wide range of numbers. A wide range of races and cultures were available to choose from. Half-elves were available; optional races (allowable at the Gamemaster's discretion) included: Orc; Uruk (Great Orc); Half-orc; Half-troll; Wild Troll, and Olog (Black Troll). The basic professions were: Warrior; Scout; Mage; Animist; Ranger; and Bard. There were a number of optional professions available (if the Gamemaster permitted them) including: Barbarian; Burglar; Conjurer; Civilian; Explorer; Monk; Rogue; Scholar; Shape Changer; Warrior Monk; and Wizard. One of the most fun races I decided to allow was an exiled Neutral Minotaur warrior. My guy BFF has had a great time with him over the years; I have always tried to limit his magic items though, to counterbalance his innate strength and the horn attack options that he has. (He *did* once scam a very wicked +5 magical mace from me once: some jello shots were involved, and the specifics elude me. I arranged for him to find a very specific cursed item: a pair of really nice studded leather pants with a magical, vorpal zipper.   Hell hath no fury like a scammed DM. To date, he has dodged that particular curse. heh. One day... )
Combat was not difficult. However, MERP (and Rolemaster) was table-heavy with some very nasty possible outcomes for both critical hits and fumbles.
Got ya. Those can be character-ending if someone is having a bad dice run. I have the standard table as well as a 'special' table to keep it non-lethal, or to make it more interesting. The players have never seen the 'special' table, and thus have no idea that I use it to either push a mistake to a safe limit OR mitigate a bad critical so as not to lose a character too early or randomly: again, a few bad rolls and you could be toast, even under AD&D rules. If MERP is even stricter, that could necessitate backup PCs for everyone.
(This post was edited by Brethil on Apr 21 2015, 1:34am)
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Apr 21 2015, 7:07pm
Post #11 of 11
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I actually liked the character generation system for MERP quite a bit. Not that there is anything wrong with how Heroes are generated under TOR. Rangers and High Elves sis not become officially playable cultures until the appearance of the recently published Rivendell suppliment, but even the Men of Lake-town were not inclluded in the original core set. Powerful magic is far more rare in TOR and is not generally available to the PCs except in the form of the occasional magical artifact or weapon. Player-heroes are not likely to find themselves so much as flinging magically burning pine cones.
I doubt that we will see many creatures in TOR such as Minotaurs, that are derived from the myths and legends of Mediterranean cultures. Tolkien took Northern Europe as his primary inspiration. The TOR supplement The Heart of the Wild did introduce a form of Basilisk in the West Upper Vales of the Anduin River. I suppose that such additions might continue if future supplements explore such regions as Near and Far Harad and the lands of the East.
I don't subscribe to the idea that fumbles should result in serious injury or death (at least not directly). If an enemy scores a hit on me because I stumbled or dropped my weapon then that is just my bad luck, but my mis-aimed arrow should not strike my buddy directly in the eye and penetrate his brain! Something on that order was entirely possible in MERP. TOR takes things down a notch in that regard. Critical hits are also possible in TOR, but the results are not as dramatic as the tables in MERP.
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on Apr 21 2015, 7:09pm)
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