The most interesting zine project at the moment for me is this solo journaling survival horror in a spaceship game:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoutstoat/one-breath-left
I like the art style too.
I saw that one too! Reminds me of Delve and Umbra. It does look like it has a cool aesthetic.
A lot of indie RPG people are also deeply unhappy with KS over their blockchain bullshit.
Yeah, that was coming out at the same time as the decision to move the zine quest thing, adding to the drama, I just didn’t want to make an already-long post longer, heh.
That said, I did notice that the Fungible KS I mentioned above never mentioned KS doing blockchain/nft stuff at all, but included that rant I quoted. I couldn’t help think that was a not-so-veiled swipe at them.
https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=2dcfb24fb7c8d0fb9c2f52040&id=9fac1d9d53
The Lord of the Rings™ Roleplaying contains everything you need to create exciting 5E adventures set in the world’s most popular fantasy setting: six original heroic cultures from the land of Eriador, six new classes, a host of terrifying adversaries, and comprehensive rules for journeys, councils, wondrous artefacts, and the subtle magic of Middle-earth.
The Lord of the Rings™ Roleplaying core compendium will enter pre-order this fall, alongside a scenario module entitled Shire Adventures . A pre-order will give you immediate access to a full PDF of the products. The retail release of both is planned for Q1 2023.
So they’re taking a new (year old) version of a game and scrapping its originality to cram it into DnD 5e? I guess but I dont think the One Ring plays much at all like 5e. This seems odd and kind of crappy if they’re going to move away from any supplements for the year old version of One Ring.
Unfortunately, like Paizo, I think they’ve come to understand that when it comes to what the general public thinks of as “D&D-esque” TTRPGs, there really is a 900lb gorilla in the room nowadays and it’s D&D. The sales of a 5E version of LotR, especially with the Amazon show coming out, will likely be a lot higher than The One Ring. Lots of 5E groups just won’t try new systems.
(And yes, I understand how ironic the above is when we’re talking about Lord of the Rings.)
Frankly, I’ll probably get it. They really killed my enthusiasm with the custom dice, then screwed me with misprinted official dice.
Is this a reprinting of the 2016 (only six years old!) Adventures in Middle Earth for 5e? I thought it was weird when they went 5e for five years and then jumped ship for The One Ring version. Maybe those 5e supplements are out of print (Amazon is asking for the Arkenstone for a copy of the AIME Player’s Guide), but there were at least three or four books made for that system.
Per Free League’s press release, it’s a conversion of The One Ring.
First released in 2011, The One Ring™ was hailed as the best attempt at bringing Middle-earth to the gaming table to date. Now the time has come for the game to enter a new era and bring new players further into the Twilight of the Third Age with a new 5E conversion.
But they just did a kickstarter for a new version of One Ring back in 2021. I didn’t do the kickstarter but did grab it when it became available earlier this year. I’m sure I’ll get the 5e version it just seems to be pushing the envelope since the new version of TOR just came out.
The One Ring will continue to exist and get support. In fact, I imagine it’ll continue to be the core/most supported version of the game.
But there’s a very large bubble of 5e players that don’t want to play anything but 5e, and it’ll be good to have an option for them. Adventures in Middle Earth was pretty solid.
Did you request your free replacements?
I purchased through a 3rd party store. No refunds.
It’s the same as Ruins of Symbaroum 5e living alongside the Symbaroum line. It’s a complementary implementation under a different system. Not a replacement.
Yeah, I assumed as much. The One Ring has a pretty solid fanbase that prefer that system and feeling.
As for the 5E version, I think studios are right to create spinoffs for D&D. It’s just too large of an audience to ignore.
Yuck,
I really dislike 5e’s systems, but I guess you gotta go where the people are?
Same reason people did (almost universally terrible) d20 conversions back in the 3.x days.
Ahh … hmmm. Yeah, I didn’t consider that those were in distribution. Did you reach out to Free League to ask about replacements? Not sure if they’ve promised anything for third-party purchases, but it’s worth checking. I took a gander at the unofficial Discord but didn’t see it asked or answered.
Yeah. I don’t think we’re hitting that level of glut, but a Kickstarter occasionally pops up in my feed and I’m like “5e? Really?”. The Dark Souls TTRPG caused some Twitter drama when they announced as a 5e game, although I think the final product is hampered not by its 5e roots but by a bunch of development and editing issues.
Ruins of Symbaroum is really well done. I’m sure the Lord of the Rings for 5e will be up to those standards, but I’ll happily stick with The One Ring.
So, after DM’ing multiple adventure paths from Paizo, both Pathfinder 1e and Starfinder, I went with my own new home-brew campaign for the next game I am running.
It has been a lot of work, creating a brand new fantasy world and setting from the ground up, but I think I already, one session in, like it more than running an Adventure Path.
I think the issue with th AP’s is that they feel easily meta-gamed, and feel a lot more like theme park rides than actual deep collaborative storytelling. My favorite game I have ever played was DM’d by one of our group members in his own campaign setting. It just adds so much more depth and flavor to have your own systems.
We are running Pathfinder 2E, and that system seems to be a nice evolution of 1st edition. They have simplified a lot of the combat rules a lot. Removing a lot of reaction actions as well as rules that just slowed combat down. One big change is in attacks of opportunity, and how they are handled, most creatures and players do not have this, and it speeds up a lot of the combat. It is so awesome. No longer do you have players studying the board like a puzzle on how they can get into melee range, or escape to cast a spell.
We have only done introductory campaigns, and at most are at level 4 of a game we are running an AP for (Strength of Thousands), so my knowledge of playing PF2 isn’t huge at the moment.
The tools I have been using for creating my campaign world, as well as maps etc have been World Anvil and Inkarnate. I splurged on these services, because I guess I should spend money on my hobbies, and if it makes my life easier, it is worth the money. I have also been getting way into 3d printing, and for my campaign hope to have most elements of terrain and NPC 3d printed and painted by myself.
Currently, there isn’t a terribly good online system for character sheets for PF2, most of us are using the pathbuilder website, which is free or 5 bucks, which we all have paid. It works fairly well, but it is odd that Paizo hasn’t gotten a system like WOTC has for character sheets.
World Anvil is pretty cool for creating a wiki for your world for players to use, I attempted to use the tool for running a session as well, as they have a live game session system with screens etc. Players can also create world anvil accounts to connect to my game wiki, but I found that to be very meh. The ads on the unpaid version of the site are HORRENDOUS, and the functionality isn’t great.
I was hoping for a more collaborative tool for my players to create a journal or edit/create pages in the wiki for their character and exploits, but that just hasn’t been possible. I don’t know if it is my lack of knowledge or limits of the system itself.
Either way, it has been a lot of fun creating deities, holidays, months of the year, naming days of the week, etc. I am using the basic PF2 character races to populate the world (minus orcs) and will continue to use the bestiary to create monsters.
Inkarnate rules, full stop. Someone like me, with 0 artistic (ok, not 0, but rudimentary) skills can make maps that look damn near professional. It is super slick and easy to use, and pairs really well with world anvil’s google-maps esque map viewer, allowing you to add in pins with links to the wiki etc.
The game, right now, was inspired by my recent historical interest and reading of the lewis and clark journals. The campaign itself is based on the expansion of the world to a newly disovered (100ish years ago) continent. There are trade companies, hunting expeditions, etc. But the idea will be discovering and creating a trade route across the new continent.
The villain will also be capitalism. Fortunately for my players company scrip was outlawed as a currency thanks to some of the logging companies running afoul of the colonial government. There is also a deep conflict between the human race’s worship of the lawful good god and the goddess of greed.
Excited to be creating something all my own though. Any tips/tricks/tools are mightily appreciated.
Inkarnate is pretty, I agree. Based on your other comments, are you planning to do overland travel in any procedural fashion (Rations and transport matter, random encounters built to fit terrain types/regional areas, terrain mattering in terms of time/difficulty)? If so, I’d suggest a more granular map type in terms of terrain definition tied to speed of travel and supplies. If you aren’t planning to do that then I wouldn’t worry about it (bc you are handling that narratively).
Most definitely, part of the campaign will be managing a large expedition of adventurers and support team members. I have already 3d printed horses, and carriages for random encounters. The first region they need to explore/conquer is a vast desert past the mountains. I plan on handling that travel through the PF2 hexploration system. The maps I have created are for the cities as well as large scale direction.
A big part of the campaign for the players will be cost/benefit analysis. For example each “named” NPC they take along with them in the expedition will require a x% cut for joining them. It is a little oregon trails-y. They can bank less treasure and have an easier time. Bringing a blacksmith or medic with them to help, or they can forgo that and have a harder time.
I haven’t gotten to the planning/staging of the systems I will use for that, the first part or “book” will be doing some smaller trade missions, caravan protection etc, as the company they are working for gears up supplies for the expedition to the west.
Currently they are traveling to a small mining town in the mountains to the west, as the mining expedition the company sent did not return word about their finding/claims after 2 weeks, it has been a month since they arrived, and 3 weeks since anyone has heard from the town. The free companies have been trying to get the local legislature to send troops there, but it hasn’t been long enough. The city is also new enough that it hasn’t been issued its own mayorship/guards/outpost. The individual companies are supposed to handle protection there, as the site hasn’t been seen as profitable enough to warrant government assistance.
Again, the villain of my campaign is capitalism.