Lotr rpg

HentMas

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Well, hello whoever entered this tread and thank you for taking the time of reading this.

well, here i go, i bought the "Lord Of The Rings RPG: Core Book" a few years back, and never quite got to play anything, i have never played a table top RPG before but i read a lot about it online, well, the thing is, i have sooo many troubles because i don´t understand quite well how it is supposed to work.

for example.

lets say that as a DM i give my first heroes the simple task of "transporting" some beer from bree to the shire, i have everything set up, the guys are eager to begin the traps and monsters are in possition.

how do i begin?? i just plain out start as "oh, my my, we have the need to deliver this barrels of beer to the shire" and ask my playing characters for help??

of course after setting up the obvious essenario i dunno, its just that no body of the guys i´m playing (or trying to play) with are experienced in this kind of game, i know the rules and all that and they know their part, but i kind of "freeze" when i have to begin the quest, becauseof a few things (this is some of the "coda" system rules i dont get) does simply employing someone needs to be done with the "port" and other options our characters chose?? should i, at the begining of the story, have prepared different "payment options" for them if they persuade me to do so... i dunno, its kind of confusing

its just that i´ve never played something like this before, i got the PDF of a lot of beginner quests from the page of the game but it stills baffles me, they seem too great for a bunch of newbies like us

even more because i have to translate everything to spanish so that my friends can understand what the story is about (i am mexican, i understand quite well everything but i dont know if my friends would)

BTW my core book is all i´ve got, and it´s in spanish so my friends understand it too

any help would be great in shading some light over my dumb inquiries

thanks for reading and thanks for everything

PS: sorry for the grammar and spelling, as i said before i am Mexican, and not used to write in english
 

Double Deuce

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Hi HentMas. I've never played any of the LoTR RPG stuff, I've mostly worked with Rolemaster and D&D (1st and 2nd Edition).

As DM, most of the time I would start off a new party as all being friends from the same village/area and in town looking for work. From there they usually get hired on as guards for some "mission" (like your beer delivery) to get things rolling. This allows you to have them ambushed by brigands or encounter others that may add options for them once they finish this delivery.

From there they either stay along for the whole mission or wander off into doing other things. The best thing is to get them out on the road where they can "run into" the situations/adventures you want them involved in. Once you get them moving along you might find they will provide you with ideas on what direction they would like to see the campaign take.
 

Dr Zaius

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I'm not sure if the LOTR rpg is similar to MERP or not.

I used to play MERP a long time ago and it was generally excellent. Some of the most intense, most interesting adventures I've ever been part of.

We had a very small group and spent almost all our time adventuring in southern Mirkwood, around the edges of the Dead Marshes, and near Minis Ithil.

You would think that with MERP's more limited range of monsters it would be somewhat less interesting than D&D, but strangely enough there was always something new and interesting popping up. I also liked the spell and combat system a lot as it allowed for insanely powerful characters of truly epic proportions.
 

Vinnie

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I think you may be looking for a general instruction on how to run a RPG on table top rather than a computer based one
There are some very fundamentla differences.
The Computer RPG is more of a puzzle set by the designer and yuo as the player have to solve it.
The tabler top opne is an interactive story. If you do not engage your players from the start they will wander off and do their own thing. The first session will need to be one where charecvters get developed OR simply tell them how they know each other andf they are doing this job. Less satisfying for the players maybe but if you are just starting down this road easier for you to GM.
 

HentMas

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i read that the "Coda" system was used in other games (one being a Star Treck Themed game) it is "supposedly" made so that you can have "realistic, movie like scenes" but i think it just makes things more complicated because, when i read an example of a begginers adventure it said something like:

the PC can ask all they want to the NPC about the quest but the NPC can only tell them

1.- which villages where attacked
2.- the weapons used by the enemies where stronger than ussual
3.- they are being helped by a powerfull wizard

IF the PC achieve an excelent "persuation" by any means, the NPC will tell them more information as you see fit (or something like that)

IF they ask for help to the NPC he must say "I have no more man available least the enemy attacks (say a location)"

but?? which other information is usefull?? this kind of things are the ones that confuse me about how can i make the game more enjoyable... i dunno, it´s just really weird because the core book says the storyes and games are more focused around the "exprecions" and the interactions with the NPC´s... i guess this is a little bit too complicated for a beginer in table top RPG´s...
 

HentMas

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I think you may be looking for a general instruction on how to run a RPG on table top rather than a computer based one
There are some very fundamentla differences.
The Computer RPG is more of a puzzle set by the designer and yuo as the player have to solve it.
The tabler top opne is an interactive story. If you do not engage your players from the start they will wander off and do their own thing. The first session will need to be one where charecvters get developed OR simply tell them how they know each other andf they are doing this job. Less satisfying for the players maybe but if you are just starting down this road easier for you to GM.
i guess i can start by taking them into an easy experience just following my heart and from then on try new things... perhaps experimenting with the said example of them "getting the beer to the shire" is a good one for starters...
 

Vinnie

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Look not for the rules but for the setting. Ask yourself whether you want to have an interactive story, a wargame (lots of fighting, kill the monster get the treasure), or a puzzle.
All are acceptable forms of RPG.
I don't know the game you're playing myself (I'm still stuck with Runequest, 2nd edition) but if the rules are complex try a simpler one but use the setting you want.
Middle Earth is good since everyone knows it.
 

HentMas

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one more thing... when my friends are creating their characters should i place a backgrownd where they all met before and began journeing together? as a GM i dont know hou much i can get into their "character creation" process...

well, they dont know much about this either so i could probably do it for the sake of story

my main question is how much power as a GM do i have to mingle with their characters past!?
 

Vinnie

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Your power is absolute.
I have often given the players their charecters since I needed part of the back story to get the sceanario going.
You want every one to play hobbits tell them to do so.
If one of them goes "I want to play a troll" say fine but not in this game.

It's like playing chess, your opponent can't suddenly say "airstrike!" They have to play by your rules. Conversely, you have to supply them with a fun game. If either side fails to live uop to their job, nobodies going to have fun.
 

HentMas

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Well, thank you Vinnie and all the others that gave me your oppinions, i think now i have a more clear idea of what i can do with what i´ve got

btw, Vinnie, my family calls me that!! haha, cool to see someone with the name :p
 

jwb3

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Have your friends read The Lord of the Rings? Or seen the movies?


John
 

HentMas

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Have your friends read The Lord of the Rings? Or seen the movies?


John
well, yeah, just the movies, several times, over and over again, in fact wen i mentioned this game we held a marathon of the 3 movies, and we are thinking of doing it again (just in case something is missing) he he, but i have read the simarilion, the hobbit and the LOTR books :p
 
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