Thu 13 Apr 2023, 13:11
There are no problems whatsoever in terms of balance when playing the AiME adventures with the LotRRPG rules, but there is definitely conversion work to be done in the following areas:
1) Maps and journeys: AiME's maps have 10-miles hexes, while LotRRPG uses 20-miles hexes. So, when using AiME's maps with LotRRPG's journey rules, you have to double the hexes resulting from your pathfinding check (so, an event occurs 4 10-miles hexes away along the journey path if the pathfinding check fails, 2 hexes away if it fails by 5 or more, 6 hexes away if it succeeds, and 8 hexes away if it succeeds by 5 or more). Also, there are only 3 possible types of lands (border lands, wild lands, and dark lands), while in AiME they were 5 (free lands, border lands, wild lands, shadow lands, and dark lands), so you have to incorporate free lands into border lands, and shadow lands into dark lands.
2) Shadow: In AiME, Shadow was only resisted with Wisdom saving throws. In LotRRPG, Shadow is resisted with 3 different saving throws, based on the Shadow's source (Charisma for Dread, Intelligence for Sorcery, and Wisdom for greed, misdeeds, and anything that challenges the Player-hero's morality). So, whenever there is a Shadow gain in an AiME's adventure and you're using LotRRPG's Shadow rules, you have to identify the specific source and call for the appropriate saving throw.
3) Ability checks: Compared to AiME, Shadow-lore and Traditions are gone, while Lore is replaced with Old Lore (which also covers Shadow-lore and Traditions), and Survival is now divided into Explore, Hunting, and Travel. These changes will require you to call for appropriate ability checks whenever Lore, Shadow-lore, Survival, and Traditions checks are mentioned.
4) Other: A comprehensive list of the other changes is not strictly necessary to be able to play AiME adventures using the LotRRPG system, but changes concerning councils, equipment, and magical treasure should at least be mentioned and addressed case-by-case. Adversaries have undergone a rather thorough rework in LotRRPG, but you can certainly continue to use the stat blocks present in AiME if you wish so.
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.