Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Lord of the Rings RPG

Lord of the Rings, like Star Trek, is one of those things you learn about in general if you tend to read blogs about RPGs. Especially after the big movie trilogy, Lord of the Rings was very much at the front of people's minds for RPG purposes, and Decipher, the same company that did the Star Trek RPG, picked up the Lord of the Rings license. They didn't keep it for very long, but it's a decent enough version of the game, and it's what I have. The system is very similar to the Star Trek system - near identical, in fact, excpet for some name-changing. And since anyone reading this probably has a basic knowledge of the Lord of the Rings world, I'll get to character creation.

First, you choose your character's race; you can be a Dwarf, Elf, Hobbit, or Human. Elves and Humans have several versions, and since I'm partial to the Riders of Rohan, I'll go with a Human of the Middle Peoples; as such, I get +1 Strength and +1 Vitality, and speak Westron and Rohirric. As a human, I get Adaptable , which is +2 to one of the derived statistics of Stamina, Swiftness, or Willpower; Dominion of Man, which gives me +1 Courage; and Skilled, which gives me +2 to one skill or +1 to two skills. Then I get to make six skill picks; I'll take +1 to each of Armed Combat, Ranged Combat, Ride, Inspire, Observe, and Survival. I also get an Edge, so I'll take Honour's Insight. Then I choose my Order, which is like a class; my options are Barbarian, Craftsman, Loremaster, Magician, Mariner, Minstrel, Noble, Rogue, and Warrior. Since I'd like to be a Rider of Rohan, I'll take Warrior. I'll take the Horseman package, which gives me Armed Combat +3, Healing +1, Inspire +2, Intimidate +2, Observe +2, Ranged Combat +1, Ride +3, and Siegecraft +1, plus 5 points to distribute to any Warrior Order skills; I'll take Armed Combat, Ranged Combat, Intimidate, Healing, and Survival. This also gives me an Edge, so I'll take Fell-handed. Then I choose a Warrior Ability; I'll take Warrior-born, so I can spend a point of Courage to gain +2 to all Armed Combat and Ranged Combat checks in a single battle. Then I choose my attributes; as with Star Trek, I can take an array of 10, 9, 7, 7, 5, 4, so I will arrange those Nimbleness, Strength, Perception, Vitality, Bearing, and Wits. I then get a third Edge pick, and I'll take Bold. Then I determine secondary statistics; Stamina is derived from Strength or Vitality, Swiftness from Nimbleness or Perception, Willpower from Bearing or Wits, and Wisdom from Bearing or Perception. Then Defense is derived as 10+ my Nimbleness modifier, which makes it 12. Health Is my Vitalyt (8) plus my Strength modifier (+1), so I have 9 Health. As a Human, I start with 4 Courage, and 0 Renown as a starting character - though I'd change that shortly in play. And, as as a Human, my Size is Medium. Equipment is determined by game, but errata indicates a good starting amount of starting money is 1d6 silver pieces, modified by order and background. So, it all comes together like this:

Dirohl, Rider of Rohan
Race: Man (Middle Peoples)
Racial Abilities: Adaptable (+2 Willpower), Dominion of Man, Skilled
Attributes: Bearing 5 (+0), Nimbleness 10 (+2), Perception 7 (+0), Strength 10 (+2), Vitality 8 (+1), Wits 4 (+0)
Reactions: Stamina (+2), Swiftness (+2), Willpower (+2), Wisdom (+0)
Order: Warrior
Order Ability: Warrior-born
Advancements: 0
Skills: Armed Combat (Polearms) +6, Healing (Treat Wounds) +2, Inspire +3, Intimidate (Majesty) +3, Language: Westron (Common) +3, Language: Rohirrin +3, Lore: History (Rohan) +3, Lore: Realm (Rohan) +3, Observe (Spot) +3, Ranged Combat (Bows) +3, Ride (Horse) +5, Siege-craft (Defence) +1, Survival +2 (Plains)
Edges: Honour's Insight, Fell-handed, Bold
Flaws: None
Health: 9
Courage: 4
Renown: 0
Gear: Longsword, spear, longbow, 20 arrows, chainmail, large shield, horse

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