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Thranduil's Elk
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Popularity of TOR vs. AiME

Mon 15 Feb 2021, 18:49

Just curious as to what the relative popularity of TOR is compared to AiME in Europe? Here in the US, at least places I've been, it seems that AiME is far more popular. Lots of game stores and even regular bookstores stocked AiME books, but can only recall 1 place that had TOR stuff off the top of my head. I'm presuming the situation may be different in Europe. In fact, that's where I first learned about TOR, as I saw it in a game store in Leeds when I was there for a conference. And given the wild success of the KS so far, maybe my assessments are off.
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Otaku-sempai
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Re: Popularity of TOR vs. AiME

Mon 15 Feb 2021, 19:31

Maybe European gamers are more accustomed to learning game mechanics that aren't D&D? I wonder if we look strictly at on-line sales, how the statistics work out.
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Carcharoth
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Re: Popularity of TOR vs. AiME

Mon 15 Feb 2021, 19:45

Here in Austin, TX, I've seen about the same level of representation for both (which is to say, not very much). It's been a few months since I've seen either on any shelves because 1e has been out of production for so long. My group digs TOR though. We've tried D&D 5e, and found it to be underwhelming, so AiMe was never a consideration for us.
"Of all the terrors that came ever into Beleriand ere Angband’s fall the madness of Carcharoth was the most dreadful; for the power of the Silmaril was hidden within him."
- The Silmarillion
 
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Thranduil's Elk
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Re: Popularity of TOR vs. AiME

Mon 15 Feb 2021, 19:59

That was my problem with AiME. I decided to try it because I figured it would be easier to learn coming from a D&D (albeit 1e) background. And I presumed it would be easier to get people to play it. But I hated 5e so much that I ended up getting rid of my AiME books. I was thinking of going back and trying TOR, but then they announced that it was being discontinued so I decided to just wait for 2e.

In the meantime we've mostly been playing Old School Essentials with the advanced options. I even converted a bunch of my old MERP modules to OSE, though I shifted the setting to my homebrew campaign world.

Not sure if I'll be able to convert my regular group to TOR 2e, but it just looks too good not to own. But I am curious as to the overall popularity of the two systems. As I said, I've seen a fair amount of AiME material (my local store still has 5 or 6 AiME books), but very little TOR material.
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Carcharoth
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Re: Popularity of TOR vs. AiME

Mon 15 Feb 2021, 21:04

I'm not sure about raw popularity, but I know for a fact that part of Francesco's design contract is that he designs for TOR first, then it gets ported over. So, you can't go wrong with TOR, as it is the original system designed for the setting, and AiMe is in fact, a derivative adaptation of the system.
"Of all the terrors that came ever into Beleriand ere Angband’s fall the madness of Carcharoth was the most dreadful; for the power of the Silmaril was hidden within him."
- The Silmarillion
 
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Re: Popularity of TOR vs. AiME

Mon 15 Feb 2021, 23:44

I haven't seen anyone play either one, but my game store stocks AiME and never stocked TOR. I've talked about running something at the game store and got a lot of interest in AiME but almost none in TOR. I think it's just that 5E rules all hereabouts.

I know for me I bought TOR at GenCon years ago and liked the way it read, but my group never seemed interested. They like LotR but aren't experts or fanatics about the world. When AiME came out they got really interested, since they play 5E a lot. I backed the TOR 2E KS but would switch to AiME 2E in a heartbeat because I think that's what my group would play.
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Fell in love with Tales from The Loop, Vaesen, 5E LotRR ... Now hooked on Dragonbane, which still should be called Drakar och Demoner IMO. Played OD&D since 1975..
 
Cleggster
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Re: Popularity of TOR vs. AiME

Tue 16 Feb 2021, 00:26

I worked at an FLGS until recently. And, speaking as a big fan of TOR, I can attest that it struggled sales-wise. But so did AiME. The fact of the matter is that 5E was a bomb that hugely disrupted the RPG market. As a fan, I always made sure to stock TOR, and we always had the Aime books on the shelf. But these and all other games were small nitch games compared to D&D. Shelf representation is not a good metric for sales, since we would order stuff we think would move and it would just sit there. But the RPG...I will say "connoisseurs" would pick up TOR copies regularly enough. AiME sales mostly went to 5E players who wanted the new character classes. I knew a few groups that loved the lower spell Rangers (Wonderer) and the Hands-on Cleric (Lore-Master).

Before 5E though, TOR did rather well. Little better than Mongoose Traveller, but not as good as Call of Cthulhu.
 
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Re: Popularity of TOR vs. AiME

Tue 16 Feb 2021, 04:15

As a new comer to TOR and someone who a used to write and run campaigns for other systems (and got published a few times), I have returned after a 20 year hiatus to look at RPGs as my kids are growing up. To me complex systems kill story and create a hurdle to high for anything but time rich gamers (round or old) and people who like to max/min systems.

I see TOR as a simpler system, more focused on story mimicking the novels and JRRTs creations, rather than a reason to dungeon bash. And the system seems like a game within a game with the d12 and hope and shadow (from what I can tell). Plus no real need for a scale board and models is a time and cost saving.

For these reasons and with Amazon's series coming, I see TOR has great potential to relaunch as a rules light/for story, game.

My hope is that we will see a steady flow of supplements I think to keep it energised long term, ideally one shots as well as campaigns that can see decent progress at each session. As with Tolkiens books I feel that these need to avoid dungeon bashes that mimic D&D, which in itself is largely inspired by Tolkien; stories need to be meaningful to the characters and the world of Tolkien. Here's hoping.
 
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AprendizdeBrujo
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Re: Popularity of TOR vs. AiME

Wed 17 Feb 2021, 12:45

In Spain it's easy to find AiME everywhere as they're new books being published at the moment and you can find them in almost any store.
In the other hand The One Ring used to be able in many stores when it was published, but at the moment it's very hard to find, just the core book and the newer supplements are available and the older ones are almost impossible to find anywhere. So it's a game that has many fans but newcomers find it very hard to get in, maybe when the new edition is translated and published it'll have a rebirth.

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