Hi all,

I am looking for ideas for region-based resources. I can't seem to find any TOR-specific region maps all in one location. Also region guides for locations, NPCs, etc. For example, I was just looking for a good map of Bree-land (Chetwood, Archet, Combe, etc) and the closest thing I found was a PDF from 5e Adventures in Middle Earth. It's great content, but it'd be nice to have some TOR-specific resources. What's the best source of content you've found to help run your games? I have some TOR 2e supplement books, but again, maps and things are scattered here and there and it's hard to assemble region-by-region content.

Many thanks...

I'm running a campaign largely out of the Doors of Durin book. Any suggestions for STLs to use, especially the more obscure monsters like Red Nails?

I found myself coming to the conclusion that Tales of the Lone Lands is not actually a good campaign. It's got good individual quests, but there's no thoroughline to pull your characters through them - almost none relate to the Hill at all - and the apparent "campaign villain" is introduced in the second last mission as a minor character who has plot armour to run away. It ends being a collection of quests for a loremaster to tie together, and the loremaster really has to do all the work to turn it into a campaign, pulling in additional material, motivating when to go to what quest, why you can't rush to the Hill right away etc. Maybe this is just because I don't run campaign books at all normally (I've been doing more Blades in the Dark style stuff) but it just felt like quite a lot of effort to "fix" it and make it actually make sense as a campaign. The part that shined the most in this campaign was hanging out in Tharbad using Realms content in a more freeform way. I do also have the Moria book which is basically a "sandbox megadungeon" campaign which might be fun to run - like I think Tales was difficult because it gave the loremaster a goal for the players to work towards, but doesn't really help you get there; it might be easier to play without any prescribed goal at all, and let it come out organically from what the players do; I haven't run anything from this yet though.

But all of the books are amazing to read, with excellent art and tone and evocative details - I'm just not sure how much that translates into a nice campaign.

So with the newer books (after Tales and Realms), who has run them, and what have your experiences been? Should they still be generally considered "some resources for you to use" or even "fun to read" rather than "a campaign to run"?

So, in Hands of the White Wizard, it mentions that you can kind of pick your own path for the adventure - including offering an option to keep Saruman from falling to darkness. The Loremaster can decide if we're basically running out the clock and Saruman is already doomed - or if the Company could, through effort and example, turn him back on the side of the Free Peoples.

This definitely intrigued me, and kind of sent my mind spinning to crazy directions. How far can - or should - I go in my own campaign?

The RPG plops you into a kind of middle where The Hobbit has happened, but Lord of the Rings hasn't. This lets you preserve the idea that LotR is going to be allowed to proceed basically as expected, and allows you to weave the Company's doings into the overall "known" past and future for about 50 years - doing important things that would be a backdrop to the eventual War of the Ring. And that's kind of how I viewed my campaign - that we're writing a forgotten, but still important, middle chapter of Late Third Age history.

But that's also kind of limiting, yeah? This is an RPG. Everyone's adventuring around the heartlands of it all, and interacting with the major characters, and ... weird stuff happens.

I'm no stranger to blowing up established settings in other campaigns, but I am rather more sentimentally attached to Tolkien. So normally I would say, "heck yeah - blow it up," like I have freely and merrily done in the past, but here I am hesitating. Because it's Tolkien.

Like.... if I toss in a mention that Frodo died of a childhood illness, or drowned with his parents... is that just a bridge too far? Or what if Bilbo's ring was just - as Gandalf originally thought - one of Ost-in-Edhil's lesser rings, and the One is still out there somewhere? Or something smaller and more incidental, for that matter. While these wouldn't have much of an effect for decades, it'd be a clear sign to the players that this is their sandbox, now. Is that crazy? It sounds kinda crazy.

So yeah - how much do you blow it up? I am well aware this is my game, and I can do what I want - but I'm hoping to hear from others about their own feelings and campaigns.

I’m a little confused about how the adventure books for The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying 5E work.

I know there are already books like Tales From Eriador, Ruins of Eriador, Shire Adventures, etc., but from what I understand these are mostly collections of adventures, locations, or campaign frameworks rather than a traditional prewritten D&D campaign.

I saw the upcoming The White Towers / Halls of the Kings products described as including a campaign. Is this going to be the first actual full-length prewritten campaign for LOTR 5E, similar to how a D&D campaign book works? Or is it expanding/continuing a campaign that already exists in one of the previous books?

Basically, if I wanted to DM LOTR 5E and run one continuous prewritten campaign from beginning to end, what book(s) would I use?

Hey all!

How does poison work, and am I reading too much into it.

There's a Large Spider from pg111 of Ruins of the Lost Realm. It has a fell ability that when it causes a wound, the target is also Poisoned with Grievous endurance loss.

Checking pg 134 of the rulebook - I know how a Grievous endurance loss works, but what I am confused about is *when*.

Does the poisoned hero suffer Grievous endurance loss immediately, or only - as the table has it - at the end of each day? And what if you're super unlucky and get poisoned twice?

My expectation is you'd have to have the immediate effect of that endurance loss, but I just can't find the rules supporting that anywhere in the Injury section or in the monster entry. I'm assuming I'm blind though and just missing it :)

While adventurers explored the Oatbarton area, we noticed a spelling mistake in the Hobbit Tales game book. It had the Bindbole Woods as Bindbale, several times. Curious how/why? Genuine mistake?

Note: Bindbole Wood is a small forest located in the northern region of the Shire in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth.

The game treats getting a rumor as a core mechanic, tying the ability to gain rumors to several Patrons, callings, and heroic cultures. The books seem to present them as a text about particular landmarks.

How do you use them? Do you have a stack of rumors and give one out at random when it is invoked, letting the players follow up on what they want? Are rumors always landmarks, or do you tie in events from the Tale of Years or other happenings? I'm curious how the mechanic is supposed to function, and how it plays at your table. ​​

After running a handful of sessions, there's some finer points of combat that I could use some clarification on.

1. What does the secondary combat action "advancing or retreating" refer to? I had interpreted this as changing stances, but a player wasn't inclined to agree.

2. The rules say that there must be at least two players in Close Combat for every player in Rearward. However, there's also an enhancement limit of 3 players per human-sized enemy. So if the company has 5 members, and the only enemy is one Fell Wraith (like Elwen in the Star of the Mist)...doesn't this mean one player simply must sit back and watch??

3. My players who aren't as physically tough decided to fight Elwen by trying to speak with her. I tried to roll with the punches by having them roll a relevant skill (persuade, riddle, etc), usually with a penalty. Success reduced her Hate score by 1. Is this..bad? I don't exactly want to establish the precedent of talking enemies into defeat, but I want to reward roleplay and Elwen is not exactly a standard adversary.

I was reading through the Adventures in middle earth rules for 5e and saw the feature pasted below and it got me thinking what would DM's allow this to do.
The offered suggestions seem all over the place. From rather pointless (Ordering a single wolf to not fight the party) to potentially over powered. Simply skipping sections of a dungeon by ordering a door to open.
It looks really cool and I wonder what types of things other dm's would allow.
For myself since it is a level 18 feature, pretty much anything within the category.
Order all the worgs of an orc troop to buck their riders and make go home, sunder the weapon of an approaching ring wraith, halt a balrog in its tracks for a few turns and, other things of the same level.

Words of Command

At 18th level, your mastery of lore gives you authority over the world around you. Once per short rest you may speak a word of command. When you do so, choose a target related to one of the secrets you have mastered and make the appropriate skill check against a DC set by the Loremaster (typically at least a DC 20). If successful, you may give a short but irresistible command to your target. For example:

• Ancient Lore: Command a door made by the Elves of Fregion to open.
• Birds and Beasts: Order a fearsome wolf to fly back to its den.
• Dark Knowledge: Command a wraith to return to its tomb.
• Natural World: Order a pile of firewood to burst into flame.
• Runes: Command moon-letters to reveal themselves in the full light of day.
• Works of Elder Days: Wrench control of a palantir from the will of the Dark Lord.

What are your wishes for the new books and revised books?

Mine is really a far more expanded solo system. I would love to see something along the lines of some black oath entertainment level solo play. I love playing this solo, but I feel like the it leaves too much for unstructured play? I know that is an advantage in some cases as it allows for maximum creativity, but i do believe THIS ip and the way the game is structured i want to feel the dread, I want to lose agency and be revealed emerging secrets. I want to feel like i am on a journey and need a bit more in terms of a game system... i don’t know how to do this or how this would be even achieved, but i would love to hear your thoughts.

I know I am probably missing something obvious in the rulebook, but for some reason I can't find the answer on this, so I wanted to confirm I understood it correctly.

In skill checks, a Gandalf Rune means an auto success, while a Eye Sigil counts as a 0. For adversary rolls, this is reversed.

In combat, does this function the same way? A Gandalf rune for a player is a successful hit (and a piercing blow, regardless of parry score, ​while an eye sigil is a 0. The reverse is true for adversaries, meaning a eye rune is an auto hit and piercing blow against a player?

I’ve completed reading most of the book and am making a character.

I’m a little worried about how high wit and parry would be ideal.

My character is a warden from the Rangers of the North and being someone competent (perhaps too cocky) in combat.
He is traveling to collect tales, tactics and tools to defeat the encroaching Shadow.
For now he has a Keen Long Sword.

Group size maybe 3 players.

The extra Wit skill points at Yule are also attractive.

For such a character with Prowess (Strength) would 8-4-3 be ideal or 6-4-5?

Is parry worth investing in from the beginning (nimble and reinforced shield etc.)

Hey everyone! I'm interested in creating some adventure pdfs of my own and I found the Circleofnoms Homebrew Template files which have been pretty helpful, but I've been using Affinity Publisher for years and that collection only had Adobe and MS Publisher files in it.

Does anyone know of or have an Affinity compatible template? Specifically for tables and stat blocks. I could probably work out how to make them but why reinvent the wheel if I can interact with the community, right? Thanks!

Good morning

English is not my main language, so first of all I want to excuse me for my spelling and mistakes.

I have been reading the Tales of the Lone Lands and I'm confused with the Council of the North in the 5th adventure

At first, it seems that the company has to decide wich option they want to defend (Non intervention/small rescue - dwarf raid party - full army) being the last options more difficult to convince the council than others
However, in the next page, in the results section, they give you a different option (Receive treasure - receive weapons - full army) , giving you also the difficulty target to achieve

I don't understand how this two tables/option should be combines or played and how the results must be applied. If you have to do 2 councils or how the results combine. Other masters here, can you tell me hoy you have played it or wanted to?

Thanks a lot!

Howdy all! I’m a new LM to TOR and have loved reading every minute of it so far but I had a question relating to Valour and wisdom. I see this as effectively your level up, and wanted to check if people found this potentially to slow. Before anyone says I haven’t run TOR yet and could be misconstruing this completely but I feel for example if we follow the 3/3 skill and AP rules you effectively have to work for 3 sessions to get your first level in valour or wisdom. I feel like in the case of a barding picking the ability to speak with birds, while I as a dm would cater my campaign to accomodate that ability it doesn’t feel worthy of 8AP again I could be wrong and I’ve seen some other abilities being fairly strong but I just wanted an experienced LM take on this before I run my own campaign! Thanks a bunch gang!

Good morning!

I'm running Tale of the Lone Lands and in my catalan edition, in the page 38 (Messing with boats), I have the stats of the wood-wights, but not of the unhoused wraiths, which are explaines only as an effect (Making the players do Fear tests). However, in an english pdf that I have, the reference to the effects od the wraiths doesn't appear, but a stats blocks of them. I'm not sure if the catalan edition has an errata missing the stats (but however giving info about the wraiths effects as a substitute) or if my pdf belongs to a alpha edition and was changed before release, eliminating the stats blocks of the wraiths and replacing it with and effect

Thanks!

Hey all! We're still a new group at TOR2e and I ran into something this week which kinda rubbed me the wrong way.

Trolls have Hideous Toughness, which turns 0 endurance into a piercing blow instead - so it gets a protection roll, presumably against the injury TN of the weapon that got it there, and then it resets to 50% Endurance.

Our troll this fight rolled a success here at least three or four times. It got to be a lot, at least from my Loremaster perspective, and added extra layers of RNG to concluding the fight. It felt kind of excessive - though admittedly the troll rolled pretty well.

I'm considering giving Might 2 enemies with similar abilities a broad -1 die to all protection rolls every time they hit 0 Endurance, possibly but not necessarily including the first time. This would include any future Piercing Blows from any source.

But I don't want to break anything. Does this sound at all reasonable?

I have a whole host of the first edition rules and books, and really love 1e. I currently have no 2e books, but I'm looking at potentially buying some of the source books such as Tales from the Lone Lands to run using 1e rules. Would it require a ton of work to use those adventures in a 1e game?

Thanks

Hello my fellow Eriador adventurers!

Episode 10 of my One Ring Strider Mode series is out now! Iorlas meets an Ent far removed from Fangorn in Eryn Vorn and convinces them to lead him to the heart of the forests corruption.

Closing in on the end now... hope you all enjoy my shenanigans and, as always, please comment any kudos or criticism!

Rene

In the pdf there is no dex restriction on light armor but in the physical book there is as +3 or +4 limit depending on the leather armor type. Which is correct?

Heya!

I've asked my local ttrpg association what games they'd like to discover and they've landed on TOR, so here I am looking for a 4-hour one shot.

They're either pretty seasoned ttrpg players, or at least familiar enough to skip the first step of what an rpg is, so here I am looking for a scenario to run as a GM.

I've had my hands on the starter set for a whlle, but it says that it's more of a small campaign. I've read it through but it seems that with a good tempo it COULD work, but I wouldn't want to rush it too much.

What's the consensus on this set in terms of length for 4-5 players?

If you have other recommendations after a years of being published, I'd be happy to take a look at other midules. Thanks very much! ​

Hello! I’m getting ready to start a new campaign in TOR as a Loremaster. It will be online, with players I hope to find online. I ran a shorter one (online too, but with people I already knew) a couple of years ago and it was okay, but I’m worried about one thing.

I’m not a native English speaker. I don’t really get enough practice speaking English out loud, and have what I would consider a strong accent. I can’t really do other accents either. Now, it wouldn’t really be a problem in homebrew settings in other systems, since I could always go “in this world, people talk like me, deal with it”, but this is TOR. This is Middle-Earth. This is THE British fantasy world. If the player Company meets a noble Elf-lord and he sounds like Borat, I imagine it would be quite immersion breaking.

The people I played with before assured me it was fine, but we were already friends. They wouldn’t want to hurt my feelings by telling the truth.

So, I come seeking truth from you. Would you mind a Loremaster with an accent? Have you played TOR or a similar setting-specific system with the GM or player whose accent does not really fit the setting? Was it immersion breaking? Should I take some classes / take a few months to practice my spoken word first? Honest opinions please.