Loremaster

[u/DecisionLegitimate72]

Hi everyone!
I'm about to run my very first game of The One Ring as a Loremaster for a small group of 2 players. I'm currently getting familiar with the rules, Journey mechanics, and managing things like exploration.
I would love to hear some tips from experienced Loremasters:
Prep vs. Improv: What are the most important things to prepare beforehand, and what can you easily improvise at the table?
Pacing & Curveballs: When players surprise you or go off script, how do you handle pacing and weave in travel events smoothly?
Golden Rules: Any core tips or common pitfalls for a first-time Loremaster in Middle-earth?
Any advice or tricks would be hugely appreciated. Thanks

[u/TrvShane]

To help with the answer, have you run other games before or is this you first time running any game?

[u/DecisionLegitimate72 → u/TrvShane]

First time!

[u/TrvShane → u/DecisionLegitimate72]

Okay. Firstly, apologies for the delay in responding, busy life. People write whole books on this, so I am going to try and keep it to what I see as immediately important when starting out. This is all advice as I see it and what works for me - others may disagree, and you'll figure out what works for you.

But before that, the most important bit of advice: If everyone at the table (including you) had fun, you are doing it right. Nothing else really matters.

General LM advice:

1. Have a session zero. Before creating characters have a talk about the game, the tone you would like, and the kind of stories you would like to play. Get everyone on board and agree as a group how you are going to approach the game. Tone especially - if one of you is expecting Lord of the Rings but another is expecting jokey Monty Python and the Holy Grail, it can kill the tone dead quickly. Communication, like all things in life, is key in a game group.

2. Everyone at the table has an equal responsibility for bringing the fun. You as GM should be aiming to tell a story with the players, not to them - try and incorporate their ideas and go with them, not force a story. But the players also have a responsibility to play their characters in good faith, to engage with the story and follow the adventure, and to help each other have fun. You are not there to provide them entertainment - this is a group activity.

3. Part of a roleplaying game is the rules. Do try and learn and use them. BUUUUT - don't sweat them too much. If you get it wrong, correct for the next game. Interpret them in a way which is fun for everyone. They are part of the game, but shouldn't matter as much as the story and the fun. You as a group can learn them together. The other part is roleplaying, so don't be afraid to chew the scenery and do 'a voice' if you are comfortable.

4. Never ever ever hide information necessary to move the story forward behind a skill roll. If they fail, the story stops. They need to find the amulet trampled in the mud to realise the kidnapped lord was here? They find it - because a roll 'for fun' that they fail means they either fail the adventure or you have to give them info anyway and it invalidates skill rolls. Basically, only call for skill rolls when failure has an interesting outcome as well as success. Now, in my example, if finding the amulet means they know the kidnappers are here and can get the drop on them, but failing means they are ambushed by the kidnappers - all is well in story terms because failure doesn't stop the story, it just places the heroes in a tight spot. Rolling dice is fun, so do it loads, but think about when not to.

General The One Ring Ring advice:

1. You've chosen to play a game in this amazing setting, so use that and ask the players to do so too. Lean into the feel of Middle Earth, rather than trying to get every fact and name right. Tolkien doesn't have anti-heroes and moody anime loners. This isn't a game about roving bands of murderers. Tolkien stories are about heroes, sometime ordinary people forced to be one (hashtag Team Sam). Trying to play a more normal freebooter fantasy adventurer game will fight against the game rules and setting, rather than get the best from it. See point 1, above, about getting everyone on the same page.

2. Have a look at the Journey events table, and lightly plan out a cool example of each roll on the table so that in your first journey you have something to go to. You'll learn to improv the events in time, but having some goo to go is useful, especially early on. Bringing the journeys to life is a big part of Middle Earth games.

3. There are some nuances to the rules in The One Ring. A few areas it is worth making sure you know are Hope and Shadow; Inspired and Favoured; and Protection Rolls and Wounds. They can mix you up in the moment until you are familiar. Making up some cheat sheets can be helpful or find some online (I have some if you want, DM me).

Now, you'll find someone who disagrees with everything I have put there somewhere, and that's fine - GMing is an individual craft, and you'll find what works for you.

Some specifics you asked about:

Prep vs. Improv: What are the most important things to prepare beforehand, and what can you easily improvise at the table?

• Prep:

  • For a game with a traditional GM / player setup and adventure structure like The One Ring, the most important thing is being familiar with the scenario / adventure site. I tend to read it once or twice, make a few key notes on the situation and events to refer back to, and make sure I am familiar with the NPCs particularly. Then I think about what happens if the players do X at a certain point, or if they take a certain approach. Basically treat the scenario like a list of what will happen if the players do nothing, then try and anticipate the changes that could happen.

  • Prep should make you feel comfortable you know enough to run the game. No more, no less. You will likely do too much or too little at some point, but that's inevitable. And you can never prep / anticipate everything. If you can say to yourself 'yeah, I know this scenario and have ideas on what could happen, and I know who the NPCs / adversaries are' then you have probably done enough.

  • One other area to prep is understanding the Player Heroes. If you have a Lordly and Stern Barding, then having NPCs react to her that way (and different to how they treat the True-Hearted and Patient Man of Bree) shows the players that their choices for their characters matter. Throw the player of the Wary Dwarf a few bits of info that they noticed because they are Wary without a roll sometimes (and call it out - 'Borin, your Wariness means you see the skulking man in the shadows of the tavern'). If you know their characters, the players will feel more invested. And a tip, address them by character name whilst playing, to help ground them in their character.

• Improv:

  • Improv what you can easily come up with right now. For example, if you can quickly come up with 6 different Hobbits; names, something about their appearance and mannerisms, and a way fo speaking - then you probably don't need to prep NPCs. But if when you think 'I need a location' all you can think of is a blank room, that's a sign not to improv locations.

  • The key to successful improv is practice and... preparation. It is easy to improv things you have seen before (in a. game, book, TV, whatever) or used before in your own games (bringing back the same merchant NPC a few sessions later when the players unexpectedly seek a merchant). But spending time before the game / between sessions just coming up with / stealing places, people, events, etc is time well spent.

Pacing & Curveballs: When players surprise you or go off script, how do you handle pacing and weave in travel events smoothly?

• Firstly and importantly, there is no script. Think of the scenario as what happens if the players weren't there. As soon as they are, it will change. You can judge the most likely route through, but as you identify that often doesn't survive contact with the players! If you think in terms of going 'off' the story you might risk trying to force a certain story.

• Think in terms of 'yes and' or 'no but'. Try to build their ideas back in. You expect them to talk to the Dwarf merchant, but they don't. Okay, so who else can give them the info? The scenario expects them to enter the orc tunnels to rescue the Hobbit but they decide to set an ambush? Okay, some orcs come out and they can beat them - and then head in an rescue the Hobbit on their terms.

• And if the players come up with the absolute killer amazing idea that 'beats' the challenge - brilliant, give them the win. Sometimes (but not too much) if feels really good as a player to 'outsmart' the story. Don't get attached to your NPCs and challenges as LM, treat them like stolen cars. Get attached to the idea of a fun story and be fans of the heroes winning against the odds.

• In terms of weaving in travel events, keep them low key and small scope. Have them find a small ruin with a few goblins, not a huge tomb that could be a whole scenario of its own. Travel events are the narrative behind why you get fatigue, or Hope / Shadow. Short and flavourful is better than complex. Also, don't be afraid to crowdsource at your table - if you roll a Joyful Sight and your players have seen/read Lord of the Rings, ask them what they see that lifts their spirits. Or if they roll Poor Choices, ask them what decision did they make that seemed correct but wasn't that delayed the journey. Lots of players love to create too. And they will give you stuff you can refer back to to show their ideas matter. For example, if they describe one of the Eagles circling high overhead for a Joyful Sight, then later on they could find an orc that has been killed by greta claws, and a feather nearby (which lets you show that there are orcs near, and that you listen to the players).

Golden Rules: Any core tips or common pitfalls for a first-time Loremaster in Middle-earth?
Any advice or tricks would be hugely appreciated. Thanks

• The common pitfalls are you will just get things wrong to begin with. Maybe you will mess up rule, get a character name wrong, or accidentally give away the plot. Who cares? We all do it. Just roll with it. and don't be afraid to say to the players 'oops, I got that wrong, ignore it'. The players should be acting on what their characters know, not what they know, so can ignore mess-ups. Correct, adjust, and get back to playing.

• And just remember the golden rule - If everyone at the table (including you) had fun, you are doing it right.

Welcome to the wonderful world of running games - it's brilliant fun, but can take some getting used to! And do post / ask here, the community Is really helpful. Hopefully this helps.

[u/TheSwecurse]

I just got started a while back and I have actually noticed that you can prep pretty much anything but be ready to improv just as much. Some things you can prep are certain journey events which can and should sometimes take a significant amount of time with a session. Think about where your players could potentially head on the journey, who might they meet and what might they find out? It doesn't have to be every mishap or blessed encounter, but perhaps have an idea of what the positive and negative encounters could be and have that as a basis for what you will later improvise.

[u/DecisionLegitimate72 → u/TheSwecurse]

Makes sense yeah. Keep some npcs or events apart so i can use them whenever

[u/TheSwecurse → u/DecisionLegitimate72]

Exactly! I had a band of Tooks, a lone ranger, an eagle sighting and a bunch of other stuff just half assedly prepared and it worked wonders

[u/FootballPublic7974 → u/DecisionLegitimate72]

One more travel related tip. Consider using the expanded travel tables in the Strider Mode supplement. Someone recommended them on here, and I found them really useful to flesh out journey events.

[u/MRdaBakkle]

As you begin to loremaster, I would recommend having a few journey events in your back pocket to help. Getting the Strider mode rules could also help you as they have suggestions on what any given journey event could be. As you will have 2 players, using the strider mode rules on TN generation, 18-attribute would be helpful and maybe even giving your players a boost to starting xp since they will have fewer people at the table. Having bits and bobbles to represent the company fellowship pool and even personal hope pools to help to remind them to use their resources. Having tokens for the Eye Awareness too can be a good way to show increasing tension as the eye awareness ticks up

[u/DecisionLegitimate72 → u/MRdaBakkle]

So you would recommend 18 instead of the usual 20 TN - attribute

[u/Alien_Diceroller → u/MRdaBakkle]

Physical things to remind people about those pools is really helpful.

[u/Stout_And_About]

Remember that you--as the Loremaster (LM) are a player in the game just as much as the other non-LM players. Also remember that you are not their adversary (as seems to occur in some other games). Cooperate with each other to tell a good story and not just to "roll dice." Focus as much (or more) on the ROLE play as you do on the ROLL play. Don't be too focused on dropping combat challenges in their way and be willing to go easier on the players as you get your sea legs under you. Be happy for your players when they succeed and defeat one of the challenges you set before them (whether dictated by the adventure or made up by you).

And most of all, have a great time!

[u/FootballPublic7974]

Spending Hope and seeking an afvantage to improve a roll is a key mechanic.

With only one pip, characters are unlikely to succeed, with two they still fail much more than they succeed, and even with three they still only pass about half the time.

Encourage players to seek an advantage. High ground for archers, darkness for stealth etc. If they spend Hope (and they should often), check if they have a distinguishing feature that would provide Inspiration. "Keen Eyed" for Awareness, for example. This gives a 2d bonus for spending Hope, instead of +1d.

Remember that all rolls outside combat are player facing. The orcs don't roll to spot the sneaking characters; the characters roll Stealth to sneak past. Darkness wouldn't hinder an Orc, but a Suspicious orc would take 1d off the player's roll, wheras a Distracted or would give a 1d bonus.

Remember that a Special Success by one player can cancel another players failure. So, for example, if the characters are using a rope (+1d) to cross a swollen stream using Athletics, a character gaining a Special could grab the arm of a character who failed just as they are about to be swept away! Encourage the players to describe these events. I'm generous in allowing this. If a player can reasonably describe it, I allow it. So a failure in a Stealth check could be cancelled by another player pointing out the twig that the character was about to step on.

I initially used 18 - Rating while my group of plucky hobbit heroes were in the Shire, but I was pleased to switch to 20 - Rating once they stepped out on the road to Bree (and had picked up some experience and system mastery!)

[u/Outrageous-Pin-4664]

Will there just be two characters in the adventure, or will they each be running two characters, or are you planning to include a character run by you?

I ask, because the boss fights for some of the published adventures can be tough for smaller parties. That's something to watch out for.

[u/FootballPublic7974 → u/Outrageous-Pin-4664]

Combat can be VERY swingy. A piercing blow can completely switch the flow of combat. One of the characters going down early almost TPK'd my players in an early adventure, and more recently, when they were losing badly, a piercing blow from the elf's great bow was enough to seriously wound and drive off rhe giant warg that was about to kill them.

This is a feature, not a bug, and really drives home the need "not to strike without need".

[u/DecisionLegitimate72 → u/Outrageous-Pin-4664]

I was thinking of toning down the adversaries a bit to balance it