mrdabakkle
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Posts: 75
Joined: Mon 01 Jun 2020, 18:15

2ed Playtest Report - Of Herbs and Stewed Hobbit

Sat 14 Aug 2021, 19:47

Last night we played through some of Hobbits and Stewed Hobbit for second edition. Our company was 4 players featuring:
  • Gror Dwarf of Durin's Folk, Captain and Lookout, Traits: Leadership, Fierce, Secretive
  • Torwald Barding, Scholar and Hunter, Traits: Rhymes of lore, Eager, Tall
  • Moriel Ranger of the North, Messenger and Guide, Traits: Folk-lore, Swift, Honorable
  • Howard Ranger of the North, Champion and Scout, Traits: Undead-lore, Honorable, Tall
I set Gandalf as a Patron, but the company never got a chance to use his patron ability.

We started off at the Easterly inn in Beorning lands with a hook that Gandalf wanted the company to visit the inn since the owner Dody was a cousin of Bilbo and just do a checkup. We do a bit of roleplay and get into the conversation quite soon. They speak to Dody after Gror orders a large pint of malt beer. Dody reveals that there is one thing he is concerned with, he expected his brother Dindy to arrive a week ago with fresh supplies from Bree, but some Dwarf merchants have been talking about goblins returning to the high pass has gotten him worried. Gror asks that if Dindy isn't alive do they get paid. This shocks Dody a bit who goes white in the face and stammers before fainting and falling over. Gror in an attempt to wake the poor hobbit up takes his old oily weapon cloth (a useful item to help with travel) and wipes it over the hobbit's face. Howard pushes the Dwarf out of the way and gets some water and fine smelling salts to wake the hobbit. After the hobbit comes too, Torwald is able to calm him down and Dody mentions that he does know of a Beorning fishing village Long Point that the company may be able speak with to barter for the use of boats to speed up the journey.

The company heads to the village, and it's a day's walk from the inn. When they arrive they find a small walled village around a point sticking into the river. Several huts and docks and a longhouse sit onto the peninsula. Coming up to the gate they are greeted by Grimmarr the Quick the Doorwarden.

"Who goes here, and what is your business?" Asks Grimmarr.

Here we go into a council, I set it up that the request to use boats would either be a reasonable request or a bold request if there were Dwarves of Elves in the party. So the resistance was set to 6, and Howard makes an introduction roll with Awe for the party. Getting straight to the point telling the doorwarden who the party is and that they are well trained warriors and Rangers of the North who have an important missing person's quest. Howard rolled a success with one tengwar, setting the time limit to 8. Moving into the interaction, I told them of the main skills that could be used but really any skill if they have a good reason to talk about it could be used.

Torwald rolls Enhearten to speak to good friendships and how working together between good folk is important getting a success.
Howard attempted an Explore test to talk about the area of the High Pass that they are trying to get to and bore the doorwarden with a lot of facts so Grimmarr would just eventually let the company through the gates. (with two tengwars) Moriel rolled Travel to talk about how the fishermen here were the best guides for the region, bascially just to flatter him.
To clinche the council Moriel rolled Awe to brag about how great the company was with fishing and that they would provide fish to the village for use of the boats, Howard spent a point of hope to support with the hunting skill giving an extra die to the Awe test.
Torwald at some point also tried a persuade test but failed.

So after the council was over, we started the first leg, Moriel rolled her marching test getting a great success, and had one event for the entire leg. A mishap targeting the hunter I ruled that Torwald who was in the process of fishing as they came to some fast waters caught quite the large fish, but in the process of pulling it in the fish might have caused the boat to slam against some rocks breaking the boat and causing a delay. Torwald rolled his hunting and was assisted by Moriel with her athletics spending a point of hope to get another die. The roll was a success so they avoided breaking the boat. The company made it to the Old Ford, and were able to rest to reduce fatigue gained of 2. Torwald only rolled a success so only reduced his fatigue to 1, everyone else rolled extremely well during the prolonged test and reduced their fatigue to 0.

LM Notes: I was thinking that perhaps if this failed the company could attempt a Craft test to see if they could speed up the fixing of the boat otherwise it just takes a full day and another event occurs because of the delay. Make failures a bit more weighty./i]

For the second leg from the Old Ford to the High Pass the Guide rolled another great March roll, resulting in only one event of the journey. Another Mishap targeting Gror the lookout. So one evening as Gror was on patrol he was trying to look for the proper path to make sure they kept on the same path now that many of the stones had sunk into the earth and it was hard to know where they were going. He rolled scan with Howard's help and succeeded. They avoided getting lost.

It started getting late so the company arrived at the ruined village of Haycombe, as they went through the ruins they knew that it was an old settlement of men, Moriel rolled Lore with two tengwars. She knew that the town was built in the third age and had been active for only a few years a decade at the most. And had fallen to ruin after the Necromancer spread his influence. Spending one tengwar to widen influence she felt a very dark and eerily feeling around the ruins as if something was watching them. She also used gain insight to find the remains of a few camps and a mountain stream a good place to camp. The fires here were a few weeks to a few months old.

The company set up camp and Gror on lookout failed to notice a dark wight kidnap Howard, he rolled Awareness again and this time say a dark shadow lurking forward, the shadow changed and twisted into the shape of a Man with bony hands and a skeletal face holding a evil spear. He screamed out, and Gror woke the company with his Horn. Howard who had been dragged into the stream awoke and gathered himself ran towards the company to aid them. Enter combat.

Combat was actually quite quick, Torwald and Gror took Forward stance and Moriel took rear. The two in Forward were doing quite well and I used the Unliving ability to keep the wight alive. On the wight's turn I spent a hate for strike fear to make everyone roll valor or gain 3 shadow everyone but Torwald who rolled a G rune failed. So everyone gained 3 shadow and Torwald gained 2. In round 2 Howard joined the fray in rear. And the company made quick work Torwald taking the monster down.

We had to cut it short cause it was getting late, but I wanted to see how all three systems worked. I really like journeys the number of rolls is down. And the events are varied enough so that's nice. I actually didn't find TNs that high, people were rolling only when they had a very good chance to succeed low TN and high skill. Hope probably could have been used a bit more. Councils are also good in my opinion. It doesn't lock anyone out of playing and me allowing for the main skills to be used plus any other skill with a good reason really encouraged players to think. That was a suggestion from Jacob on Discord. Character creation was fast Combat also felt fast, undead are pretty brutal, and I thought they would be challenged a bit more but two guys in Forward really made short work of the wight. I still had lots of hate to use to cancel endurance loss, but since it was getting late I just let it get defeated.
Last edited by mrdabakkle on Sun 15 Aug 2021, 14:53, edited 2 times in total.
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mrdabakkle
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Re: 2ed Playtest Report - Of Herbs and Stewed Hobbit

Sat 14 Aug 2021, 21:08

A few more thoughts, my guide had a useful item a sunstone to help with travel during poor weather. Considering this I think having a weather chart to roll either a d12 or a d6 for the kind of weather for the march roll. I just let them use the sunstone for each march roll. But it would be nice to set up a table to roll on for the general weather of a the start of the journey. Maybe something like this:

Eye Result: Terrible Storms the March roll has a -2d penalty
1-3: Inclement weather and muddy ground, the backpacks a weighed down by water spoiling food and poor moods, the March roll gains a -1d penalty
4-7: Normal weather, partially cloudy and easy going
8-10: Clear skies and very easy going, maarch rolls gain aa +1d bonus
G Rune: Clear Skies and abundance of game to hunt, the March roll gains a +2d bonus
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Elenath
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Re: 2ed Playtest Report - Of Herbs and Stewed Hobbit

Sun 15 Aug 2021, 03:00

Thanks for the update
 
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Aiden Harrison
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Re: 2ed Playtest Report - Of Herbs and Stewed Hobbit

Sun 15 Aug 2021, 14:39

Nice report, sounds like a good use of skills from your players.

I like your weather table idea. To add to the idea you could perhaps reroll it after each journey event, or a separate table to see if the weather changes by one step to stop really wacky weather (although anyone who lives in Britain is used to such bizarre weather). You could also have different weather tables based on the season.

Good stuff, thanks for sharing.
 
mrdabakkle
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Re: 2ed Playtest Report - Of Herbs and Stewed Hobbit

Sun 15 Aug 2021, 15:06

Nice report, sounds like a good use of skills from your players.

I like your weather table idea. To add to the idea you could perhaps reroll it after each journey event, or a separate table to see if the weather changes by one step to stop really wacky weather (although anyone who lives in Britain is used to such bizarre weather). You could also have different weather tables based on the season.

Good stuff, thanks for sharing.
Yes I quite like that idea and the idea of rolling a success die to see if the weather shifts. Roll a 1 the weather shifts in a negative direction, roll a tengwar the weather shifts in a positive direction. 2-5 the weather stays the same. And for different seasons Winter could tend to poorer results, spring could tend to harsh results or pleasant results but very little mild results. It's either very rainy in the spring or very clear skies. Summer could tend to more mild results, but perhaps some results where it is just too hot, and instead of the storms. Fall a poor result might bring about a early blizzard.
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Aiden Harrison
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Re: 2ed Playtest Report - Of Herbs and Stewed Hobbit

Sun 15 Aug 2021, 17:59

Or if you want to keep it as a Feat die roll, you could use the ill favoured/favoured mechanic. Something like:

After each Journey event, roll the feat die:
Eye Result: The weather shifts two steps in a negative direction.
1-3: The weather shifts one step in a negative direction.
4-7: The weather stays the same.
8-10: The weather shifts one step in a positive direction.
G Rune: The weather shifts two steps in a positive direction.

If the company is revealed to the Enemy using the Eye of Mordor rules then the weather rolls are made as ill-favoured.
If the company is protected by the blessings of a wizard or other powerful Loremaster Character then the Weather rolls are made as favoured.
 
MDuckworth83
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Joined: Tue 06 Jul 2021, 03:32

Re: 2ed Playtest Report - Of Herbs and Stewed Hobbit

Mon 16 Aug 2021, 20:14

What is this stewed Hobbit business? Is there a 2nd edition adventure released somewhere?
 
mrdabakkle
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Re: 2ed Playtest Report - Of Herbs and Stewed Hobbit

Mon 16 Aug 2021, 20:24

What is this stewed Hobbit business? Is there a 2nd edition adventure released somewhere?
Of Herbs and Stewed Hobbit is the 2nd adventure in the campaign book Tales from Wilderland by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Francesco Nepitello for the 1st edition of The One Ring.
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gull2112
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Re: 2ed Playtest Report - Of Herbs and Stewed Hobbit

Thu 09 Sep 2021, 18:27

Great straight forward report that really gives me a feel for how to run things when my group meets this weekend!
I am thinking I will use weather as a primary hazard when an event is rolled, especially in borderlands and civilized areas. Since we're basically waiting for 2E, I figure we'll start with the company's patron Bilbo, asking them to pick up some Elvish accounts of the Battle of Five Armies for his book. Gandalf will leave them at an Inn in Esgaroth that Bilbo owns. All they have to do is go there and bring it back! ;)

Lots of opportunities for battles and so forth, without getting into a long adventure arc before the meaty bits show up in a few months.
 
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eternalsage
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Re: 2ed Playtest Report - Of Herbs and Stewed Hobbit

Fri 10 Sep 2021, 17:03

Great playtest. These are really bringing out the practical benefits of some of the changes and show that 1e adventures are still quite compatible. I adore it. Thank you.
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