Dice Quixote
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Joined: Sun 04 Dec 2022, 19:06

One Ring: Large Fellowships

Sun 04 Dec 2022, 19:11

We are about to launch our first campaign of One Ring. My group is pretty big: Seven players (plus me). How will One Ring cope with that?

Some games scale well, others very badly (or at least play is very different with 3-4 than with 6-7), how is One Ring with big fellowships, in peoples' experience? I gather from the travel rules that at least 4 people are needed for journeys, but we'll have almost twice that.

Note: Athough not everyone can make every session, I'll regularly have at least six players.

Thanks in advance.
 
AndrewTBP
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun 18 Sep 2022, 06:53
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: One Ring: Large Fellowships

Sun 04 Dec 2022, 22:29

The game I play in has worked fine with 6 players, though we usually have 5 players.
 
Dice Quixote
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Re: One Ring: Large Fellowships

Wed 07 Dec 2022, 22:38

Thanks.
 
Narsir
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Joined: Tue 11 Oct 2022, 22:25

Re: One Ring: Large Fellowships

Wed 21 Dec 2022, 14:29

How do you manage rp/speaking time for each please?

Is there no one that would like to speak but don't dare to interrupt their comrades, so stay silent most of time?
 
Sebastian
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Joined: Thu 01 Oct 2020, 04:58

Re: One Ring: Large Fellowships

Wed 21 Dec 2022, 21:10

Just make sure, everyone gets at least one spotlight per session. And don’t let everyone roll every time, that takes too long (and isn’t recommended in 2e).

And besides, the Fellowship of the Ring had 9 companions, so you should be fine! ;)

Concerning battles I‘d say, keep an eye on not making things too easy. 7 heroes can deal out a lot of possible piercings blows in one combat round. So either you give some heroes something else to do during fight (rescue the kid) or give them harder to beat adversaries, who use their Hate to power their abilities. Otherwise they walk through orcs like nothing.
 
Dunheved
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Joined: Wed 11 Mar 2020, 02:07
Location: UK

Re: One Ring: Large Fellowships

Thu 22 Dec 2022, 11:04

LM-ing seven PC s is an interesting one. If you have the time and opportunity you might consider internal strife in your Fellowship. The RAW encourage PCs to have a Fellowship Focus. Consider the opposite idea, that in a large group, there can often be personal enmity as well. (Fellowship Feud sounds a bit strong, but maybe a little in that direction!)

You (as the LM) might want to embellish Cultural or Personal DIVERGENCE to encourage role-playing some of the Shadow- related flaws a PC carries: in the same way that Boromir's love of his country and city worked against the idea of destroying the Ring. Or the initial antagonism with Gimli/Legolas might be emulated - try occasionally giving them a Disadvantage for a Common Skill roll unless they actively cooperate.

If some Players are dominating the interactions they may find that the LM hands out Shadow quite easily.

If some Players are more reluctant or a bit quiet, then NPC interactions might be directed towards them to pull them into play. E.g. Beorn being less well disposed towards Dwarves, so chooses Men or Elves to speak to: Eomer being more superstitious with the idea of the Elves of Lothlorien, but respects Aragorn more on first meeting. Quite easy to arrange in Council type situations.

With Travel: you might consider suggesting that each Journey role is taken by two players each (except Guide of course!). Each PC is on duty for half the day. E.g. the Event happens before Noon, so Scout A makes the roll for an Event, and next time Scout B will have it because it occurred after midday. (I am NOT suggesting anything here, other than how the LM might decide how to incorporate more PCs into the action.) Another way to exploit this pairing up of Journey Duties would be that Scout A can provide Inspiration for Scout B on their Explore roll and vice versa: without actually being a Focus.

Thanks for the question: it has made me think about what I might do myself. I have had a Fellowship go from 5 players to 7 recently, and I want to hear the voices of the quieter Players myself.

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