Forum

Some elements of the streamlined character creation actually weaken the flavor of the One Ring’s unique setting and create probably unforeseen constraints on character creation.

The removal of Backgrounds is a shame. Without them I think it can be difficult to differentiate how the different cultures live their daily lives in Middle-earth, and instead of imbuing a new character with a past and a history (similar to the good thing about say Burning Wheel where you enrich the character by informing their abilities from life paths), it has now been reduced to a chart with six stat packages and zero context for what those mean within the culture.

It was nice in the old version to understand for example how the mixing of traits and attributes made one fit for a life as a door warden or a river trader, a hunter or a soldier. Now we have a stat block for parsimony but nothing attached to it.

Worse, player’s Trait selection is now sharply limited by Culture. That will tend to make characters from the same culture more similar, but that seems a against the spirit of the books, where we see very different personalities among Dwarves, Elves, and Men even from the same families or kin groups.

Why should a Dwarf character not be able to select Patient or Vengeful? Why should a Barding be prohibited from being Clever? That makes no sense. It is out of step with both being able to better personalize characters and the source material. I don’t think this was the intention of the authors, but merely an organizational tool so that heroic cultures only span two pages each and not four. Understandable, but this seems awfully limiting of the types of characters players can create as a result.

I had the same reaction. On the one hand, streamlining is good. Less administration is good. Not spending a whole day with people humming and hawing over decisions for character creation is good. But the cost is, as you mention, a loss of flavour.

I'll personally keep the mechanics and just add a bit of flavour. Like randomized backgrounds so I can say "you were a blacksmith's daughter and you became a treasure hunter. Figure out how that happened."

I don't mind the change, but I can understand why you would.

It comes to my mind that although in practice players tended to select a Background, they were always meant to be suggestions in the old game. You could always create your own and some of my players did. I think it's a good idea and helpful to have ready made backgrounds associated with the different Attribute values. But I don't think backgrounds are mechanically prohibited by their omission, so far as I can tell.

Francesco said that life paths would be added back in as something unlocked in the Kickstarter, with some different mechanical impacts. I think that’s fine and of course, those narrative backgrounds weren’t meant to be binding, but they were illustrative of the lifestyles of the different cultures and the paths that lead to potentially becoming an adventurer.

That more or less resolves the background issue, but the Traits being racially limited still doesn’t make any sense. I’d almost rather see just a master list and all new characters get to pick two, rather than be constrained from choosing the ones I want for my character based on my heroic culture.

Traits can still be changed each Year's End, and these aren't limited by culture. The rules even say you can propose your own.

I think this is a non issue really. If you want to do it that people select from the master list or make up their own straight off the bat then just do that. The Traits in the cultures have always just been suggestions really.

The original rule (and I assume this is still in effect for 2.0) is that the listed Traits are a suggestion and other Traits can be chosen (at least with Loremaster approval), possible even including home-brewed ones.

I don't mind the absence of backgrounds. While I understand that they were flavorful and fun to read through once, none of my players ever utilized them and preferred to create their own backgrounds. If it's true that the designers intend to reimplement them as a lifepath system then I'd be very interested to see that, but for now I understand they're removal.

The culture-specific trait list is a bit limiting, but as others have said the game provides a mechanism for accessing any traits the characters want (and it's easy to house rule). The cultural trait list seems more interesting to me if viewed as a sort of 'these are the traits, behaviors, and values that are promoted by your society.' After several years of adventuring, a character is likely to have grown into new, or 'non-standard for their society,' traits, which thematically mimics the growth that Bilbo and the other hobbits undergo once they leave their homes and are exposed to new views and experiences.

I do worry that characters are going to end up being a little more "cookie cutter" because of some of the changes, but that one that most bothered me was the attributes options table.

I feel like this could easily have been given a little flavour (even if not to the extent if backgrounds), rather than just being a completely mechanical choice. Mainly I just find this uninteresting.

I feel like this could easily have been given a little flavour (even if not to the extent if backgrounds), rather than just being a completely mechanical choice. Mainly I just find this uninteresting.

You just named the Great Big Tension for RPGs: mechanics vs. being interesting. It's fascinating how different GMs hold that tension. I mean, some don't. Some prefer to be rigid with mechanics and find that most interesting. Or are loose with mechanics because they want infinite flavour. Most people I've encountered, however, share your sentiment: do the mechanics provide enough mechanical framework to enable interesting choices and moments? Do all those rules stir the blood with spice and possibility?

I'm curious: how do you hold the tension, Mattcapiche?

I'm curious: how do you hold the tension, Mattcapiche?

My personal preference is for mechanics to provide a solid and accessible foundation around which my group can tell a story. I believe that mechanics should never get in the way of, and potentially even encourage the creativity of the players. (Which is why I really like how TOR handles combat, as an example).

You?