Group notes: I and one of my players, TH, have run 1E. TH, SH, myself, EO & GD have all played 1E; GD & EO only twice, the rest multiple campaigns of several months. SA and SB have not played 1E prior.
Many of the group are on the Autism Spectrum; this tends to make us a bit picky about clarity of process. I am GMing.
We have played 2 sessions; the first session was SH, SA and EO. Our typical sessions are 4-6 hours. Char gen for 3 was done in under an hour by sharing tables.
The casting:
EO as Odo Goodbody, Halfling Messenger
SH as Violet Rushlight, Breelander Scholar
SA as Brand, Barding Treasure Hunter
TH as Frerin, Son of Cian, Son of Bror, Dwarf Captain
GD as Ciramdir, aka "Grey", Ranger Warden
SB as Mythrilion, Elf (don't recall calling.)
Everyone is complaining about target numbers feeling too high. Almost universally, we come to the "2 to 3 points too high"... directly comparable to the loss of favored attributes... A skill 3 is not feeling competent
The removal of the 6d6 cap is appreciated, as is the counting of multiple Ꞇ runes beyond 2.
The term Shadow test probably should go away, and replace Shadow Test (Dread) with Dread Test, and Shadow Test (Greed) with Greed Test
I am uncertain whether or not I like the add it then reduce the add with the shadow test phrasing; as it sits, it implies that, when making the test, if the gained amount, for example the three from Strike Fear, should trigger Miserable before rolling to resist it.
The Travel encounter samples are too few to be useful. Ideally, there should be three per combination of target skill and effect; 1 for each skill, and 1 for choice of either. This also is a process issue, in that, as written, until the player picks the skull, a suitable challenge cannot be narrated by the GM, and this both slows play and can result in incoherent results for large parties where 2 can be expected on 1 to all non-Guide roles.
The lack of an edge stat is annoying for me; it's poor modeling of weapons. Especially since Keen effectively is forcing remembering it separately anyway.
The removal of Backgrounds is not happy. All former players were annoyed by its removal.
There was disappointment amongst most of the loss of cultural Rewards.
We're all unhappy with the nerf of Traits. In discussion, the consensus was that traits should add a die and not affect the value of hope.
We're all unhappy with Hope adding a die and being spent before the roll. The consensus is that it's too weak. Most are only applying hope when they get two dice from it.
The suggestions amongst the group generally want to see it after the roll, and would prefer a fixed value, not a roll.
When I let them know that helping requires spending a hope, they were all grumbling. It didn't stop them from spending it, but there was grumbling.
Given the issue of TN's, No one was willing to take an attribute set with a 2. 3 was as low as it got, and then, only one of them.
Monsters with skill 2 are missing most of the time, even with hate, against the combat-focused builds. All but one of the NPC hits was due to a sauron; hitting the ranger is almost impossible
I had a hard time noticing the red text indicating favoured skills on the cultural skills; this is because the not-quite black and the dark red resolve to be almost identical on my eInk table, which is my primary device for rulebooks, especially since some players are remote, and thus a VTT is in used on the laptop
The weapon list is too short, and missing a few important elements...
There's no thrown axe; hatchets as thrown weapons go back to the late bronze age.
We'd prefer a brawling skill to defaulting off best combat for brawling.
There's no provision for common nor frugal to buy/rent horses in the current draft.
The hex size for travel needs to be specified in the rules.
We are, largely, having fun, but... this feels too simplified.
We love that favoured now actually makes a strong difference
We're good with the new rolling mechanic, just not the TN's as currently set.
I miss the 1E spells methods; they were flavorful, and diverted AP from advancing skills, but were worth it.
The Magical Success is not clear about whether it's truly magic, or just skill. It's also unclear if such use triggers an increase in Eye Score.
I used a fail forward when the party blew the get a boat across the anduin persuasion test: the boatman demanded their names. The elf used a magical success. I treated that as a 1 point spell.