Post-application instructions & discussion

[Vladim]

Ok, for the 3 selected new players, it's time to move towards the next steps. There's a few things to consider:

• Mechanics and statting out the characters (sheets etc).
• Adventure hooks (if needed).
• Backstory tweaking (if needed/wanted).
• Joining Discord.

For the mechanics, let's treat the two rulesets differently, for obvious reasons.

• @Malkavian Grin and @Modest_Proposal: Since the game's been running for a while, you'll find that the 4 other PCs have a bit of XP already. In order for your characters to not feel useless, I suggest starting them out stronger than beginner characters. Namely, please generate characters as follows: (a) Generate beginner characters: this tool (link) makes it easy; (b) start with Valor 3 / Wisdom 3 / A weapon skill of your choice at 3. This is the equivalent of 22 XP. Take Rewards and Virtues of your choice. (c) Spend an additional 22 Advancement points on upgrading Common Skills as you see fit (advancement costs are provided here; see the first linked image); (d) You may, at your discretion, take up to 6 starting (temporary) Shadow Points, to represent hardships, difficulties or trauma. In exchange, you can award yourself experience on a 1-for-1 basis. Said XP can be spent as detailed here (second image) or banked for later.
• Archery in this game requires 2 PCs in melee for each archer. We already have an archery-focused PC (Ingi, played by Yelik), which leaves room for another. Please coordinate between yourselves if either of you is going archer. You can also both go archer, but then it will be mostly useful for opening volleys, and once melee is joined, one of you will have to go melee.
• The system is mostly simple, but I am happy to give advice if you don't want a 'build' that feels useless. For example, there are some crappy Virtues / Rewards that are not super-useful. Just ask for help or opinions, if you want, but ultimately please play what you want.
• @TheObsoleteMan The Ironsworn group has 3 PCs, each with about 7 XP. I don't think that's a huge gap-starting characters should still be effective and not feel useless. However, I am open to awarding some XP, if you want-as long as the other players are ok with it!

For the hooks, we'll be starting in Woodmen-Town, so I would like to have:

• A reason for your PCs being there.
• (Potentially) a connection with Radagast, the Brown Wizard, OR...
• ...a reason to join the party, OR...
• ...an interest in the quest we will undertake.

Looking at your backstories, I'd say Brenior already has some of these, so no adjustments are necessary. Lachiel already has the motivation but I'd like to have a reason for her coming to Woodmen-Town, even if it is partially hand-waved. If this helps, Thranduil recently sent a small force (50 or so) elves to help the Woodmen against the orcs; maybe Lachiel was part of that force, or maybe she was sent afterwards, as an emissary (as this rather sizeable company will not stay with the Woodmen but has to return at some point). Similarly, Cecil has the motivation, and the adventure I'll run will see us travel to the Gladden Fields, where his interests lie... but it would be nice to have a reason for joining the party and being in Woodmen-Town. If he hasn't somehow earned Radagast's interest, we can also RP it in the opening scene as him overhearing everything and volunteering to join.

I don't need much, and if it's difficult to come up with ideas, I am ultimately happy to hand-wave these things.

Backstory tweaking: I don't think any are necessary, except that I would prefer it if Brenior's was (slightly) altered to make her escape from Dol Guldur after the Necromancer was driven out (along with the other prisoners). This is because Dol Guldur is a bleak place, and escaping from the pits and dungeons when the Necromancer was still active there seems impossible and unheard of. Everything else in the backstory still works in the same way, I think.

Discord: I'll send you a link to our server in a moment.

 

Happy to take questions or do discussions here. Welcome aboard, and here's to many years of gaming together! Oh, and feel free to start your characters' threads in the Protagonists section!

[TheObsoleteMan]

Thanks for the invite! Excited to finally give Ironsworn a try.

 

I'm fine without the XP. We can just say Brenior has been convalescing since her ordeal in Dol Guldur. I think you're right with the tweak to the backstory as well, definitely makes more sense.

[Vladim]

17 minutes ago, TheObsoleteMan said:

We can just say Brenior has been convalescing since her ordeal in Dol Guldur. I think you're right with the tweak to the backstory as well, definitely makes more sense.

No worries!

The Necromancer was driven out of Dol Guldur in 2941 T.A., and we are currently in 2950 T.A., so it's almost been a decade. So that's definitely plenty of time for Brenior to have become someone important to Gandalf and Radagast, which not only makes sense, but also would help as a hook for the adventure. Her relationship with the Men of Tyrant's Hill (also former prisoners) will also come into play, and as the adventure will take us to Dol Guldur, all of the backstory elements can become relevant.

If you have any ideas or preferences or questions for the mechanics and statistics (e.g. stats and assets), I am happy to discuss! 

[TheObsoleteMan]

Sounds good!

As for the mechanics, I've currently got the following hashed out:

Stats: Edge 2, Heart 2, Iron 1, Shadow 1, Wits 3

Assets - Herbalist (Path), Long-arm (Combat), Loyalist (Path)

Bonds: Rhosgobel

Still need to decide on two more bonds, as well as her background Vow. I was thinking either someone from Rhosgobel (such as Radagast) or Tyrant's Hill would make sense (I could develop their relationship before or during gameplay), but the third Bond eludes me.

I have a vague idea about her background Vow being to discover the fate of the other Rangers who were taken prisoner (maybe they disappeared, one by one, while imprisoned?), but not sure if that's an "epic" enough quest or not.

Suggestions more than welcome!

Edited April 28, 2023 by TheObsoleteMan (see edit history)

[Vladim]

3 minutes ago, TheObsoleteMan said:

Sounds good!

As for the mechanics, I've currently got the following hashed out:

Stats: Edge 2, Heart 2, Iron 1, Shadow 1, Wits 3

Assets - Herbalist (Path), Long-arm (Combat), Loyalist (Path)

Bonds: Rhosgobel

Still need to decide on two more bonds, as well as her background Vow. I was thinking either someone from Rhosgobel (such as Radagast) or Tyrant's Hill would make sense (I could develop their relationship before or during gameplay), but the third Bond eludes me.

I have a vague idea about her background Vow being to discover the fate of the other Rangers who were taken prisoner (maybe they disappeared, one by one, while imprisoned?), but not sure if that's an "epic" enough quest or not.

Suggestions more than welcome!

That all sounds good! Combat may be a little challenging with that array, but I've run a +1 Iron character before (though not for this game) and I managed. Long-arm may help a bit too, and that +2 edge will make Brenior a passable archer (even without the Archer Combat Talent).  

I don't mind if you want to leave the remaining bonds open and determine them in-game. That's totally fine (and seems to be a common enough practice).

As for the Background Vow, I wouldn't worry about it-I don't think it will necessarily come into play as we are running adventures that are their own, self-contained vows, and I am personally a bit reluctant to go in a direction where we are focusing on a single PC's background vow (it's too much of a spotlight on a specific PC, and more importantly the time investment for an Epic or Extreme vow would be huge!). That being said, finding (or saving) the other prisoners (or a specific prisoner important to Brenior) would certainly qualify for me, and it could definitely be introduced in the story (though, I'd only expect as to complete a milestone or two in the adventure we'll be running, and definitely not the whole thing...). I'll try to work with what you give me as much as I can!

[Malkavian Grin]

I said so in the Discord, but I wanted to say thanks again for the invite :)

I've no thoughts on the mechanics at the moment, aside from the archery rule. Never seen that before, but I'm okay with it. I had planned to focus on archery but could be assuaged to focus on a spear instead.

The more I think on it, the more I like the idea that Lachiel was sent to help with the orcs. It gives her a taste of what combat is/means, and gives her purpose (and connection). I think it'd also be interesting if Thranduil actually denied her initial request, saying that her duty comes first. But he also realizes her desires/needs and kind of uses this as an excuse to give her what she wanted anyways; to explore and experience.

I admit, perhaps ignorantly, I do not know who Radagast is. I've heard the name, but can't place where or why it's important (other than he's a wizard, obvi.).

[Vladim]

1 hour ago, Malkavian Grin said:

I said so in the Discord, but I wanted to say thanks again for the invite 🙂

I've no thoughts on the mechanics at the moment, aside from the archery rule. Never seen that before, but I'm okay with it. I had planned to focus on archery but could be assuaged to focus on a spear instead.

The more I think on it, the more I like the idea that Lachiel was sent to help with the orcs. It gives her a taste of what combat is/means, and gives her purpose (and connection). I think it'd also be interesting if Thranduil actually denied her initial request, saying that her duty comes first. But he also realizes her desires/needs and kind of uses this as an excuse to give her what she wanted anyways; to explore and experience.

I admit, perhaps ignorantly, I do not know who Radagast is. I've heard the name, but can't place where or why it's important (other than he's a wizard, obvi.).

All of that sounds good to me; if it works best for you that Thranduil would have needed some convincing, then let's make it so! 

For lore stuff, Tolkien Gateway is your friend. Here's its entry on Radagast:

https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Radagast

But keep on mind that our PCs may only know a part of the info. Most of the deeper lore (before the 2nd age) is beyond the knowledge of most PCs, for example.

[Malkavian Grin]

As I am wholly unfamiliar with the system, using the character generator is showing me that there's a lot I don't yet know (like what's good to pick for rewards and stuff, and what may be seen as less-than-useful, etc.).

@Vladim How much do I need to be worried about overlapping skills and stuff with other characters?

[Vladim]

3 hours ago, Malkavian Grin said:

As I am wholly unfamiliar with the system, using the character generator is showing me that there's a lot I don't yet know (like what's good to pick for rewards and stuff, and what may be seen as less-than-useful, etc.).

@Vladim How much do I need to be worried about overlapping skills and stuff with other characters?

For skill overlaps, probably not hugely; we'll have a party of 6 so we're bound to have some overlap. What's more important, perhaps, is for every PC to have something to do in all three "pillars" (journeys, social encounters, combat). So:

• For journeys, it's helpful for at least 1 PC to be good at one of Travel, Explore, Hunting and Awareness. These cover the roles of Guide, Scout, Huntsman and Look-out. A party can only have one Guide, but multiple PCs for the other 3 roles.
• Travel is in general very useful for everyone, as it reduces the chance for travel fatigue (which makes you weary, which sucks).
• The social skills are useful for encounters: Awe, Riddle, Courtesy, Persuade, Insight, Song, Inspire etc. You don't need all, but one or two can be useful.
• Some skills give bonus dice to others on a good roll: Insight, Battle and Lore for Social Encounters, Combat and Journeys, respectively. Hardly vital, but nice to have.
• A bunch of skills can be used in combat (instead of an attack roll) as a Combat task. But take note of the Stance requirements: some require you to be in melee. For example, Awe and Battle allow you to Intimidate Foe from Forward stance (an aggressive melee stance), Inspire and Song allow in-combat healing from Open stance, etc. All combat tasks and respective skills are summarized here: https://test.myth-weavers.com/index.php?/topic/4571-the-one-ring-1st-edition-rules-summary/#comment-44273
• Song and Craft are useful for reducing temporary shadow points during fellowship phases (basically between adventure downtime).

Note that a score of 2 dots in a skill is passable (you'll succeed 40-50% of the time) and a score of 3 dots good (success about 70%).

As for Virtues/Rewards... there's plenty and it would take a while to review them all. Do you have particular ones in mind?

[Malkavian Grin]

Okay that's very useful. I'll make sure to have something in each column. As I'll likely be going a melee route with spears, I guess I should ask some combat questions.

Is it useful to intimidate foes? I really like the idea that Lachiel has some battlefield control with taunts and such; that list looks like that exists in the form of Intimidate and Challenge Adversary? Next question, does someone already do that kind of thing?

I'm still looking into Rewards and stuff. Will probs have more questions.

[Vladim]

It's a bit of a trade-off; what Intimidate Foe does is drain the Hate points of the enemy/enemies, and Hate fuels their special abilities. Some foes (like some orcs) have the Craven disadvantage, which makes them flee when reduced to 0 hate... And in general enemies reduced to 0 hate become weary. So it's basically a debuff.

But you're trading that for not attacking so it's not always worth it, especially if you get hit (which is quite likely from Forward stance). So it's a situational thing.

Nevertheless Awe is useful out of combat too (e.g. in Social Encounters) so it's a useful skill, depending on your playstyle. I think Gramtyng has it at 2 dots and that's the current highest in the group, but not sure.

[Vladim]

@Malkavian Grin re-posting this from Discord, since conversations tend to get buried over there, and it may be easier to see this here instead:

I had a quick look, sheet looks good except you're missing the part where you can raise a weapon skill to 3, and you haven't spent the additional 22 Advancement Points. To get the most out of the latter, I suggest spending them on Favored (underlined) skills that haven't been raised too much during char gen, like your Explore or Persuade (or you can readjust char-gen accordingly).

Other general comments (though not necessarily anything you have to change):

_You start at 15 encumbrance; this will be 16 if you take a bow. Your Max Endurance is a 22, so the gap is a little small (6-7 points), which may see you become weary easily. That's in general something Mirkwood Elves may struggle with (and Elvish Dreams may help with that) but thought to let you know. I might drop the cap, personally.

_Your shield is at +2 to parry (reinforced).

_Favored attributes (those +3/+2/+1) generally don't do so much, but because of the cultural virtue of elves (folk of the dusk) and the statistics of the system (more likely to fail by a little than by a lot), a more balanced spread could be more beneficial. Though this depends on your favored skills as well (you have 2 under body so that may be more important).