Dev-Talk 005: I Love The One Ring (The RPG I Swear)
While everyone else was ringing in the new year, I studied the blade. Okay I actually watched Die Hard and fell asleep way before midnight, but I also started reading the One Ring TTRPG by Free League Publishing and I’m just going to talk about the parts I love, and what I think this new system means for my future work. I’ve had a few friends and people I know say that the Year Zero Engine that the game uses is really great, and I can tentatively say they weren’t wrong. I’m only about halfway through the book (I’ve yet to get to the GM/Loremaster section) but I’ve already fell in love with the idea of an Adventuring and Fellowship Phases, as well as the Patron system for getting the company together at the game’s start.
I won’t pretend to be an expert on the setting or Tolkien’s works beyond reading the books when I was younger, binging the movies too much, and the occasional YouTube lore deep-dive (shout out to Nerd of the Rings) but I’ve always loved Tolkien’s attention to detail and passion for worldbuilding. This book does an amazing job not only capturing the spirit of Tolkien’s world, but also has a ton of quotes and lore tidbits that sent me back into a Lord of the Rings-driven rabbit hole.
Me in the tub learning about Spiders in Lord of the Rings on a Saturday.
The Adventuring & Fellowship Phase - I’ve tested (and still use) a number of homebrewed downtime systems but this structure definitely takes the cake because it’s so damn elegant. My biggest critique of D&D when it comes to running games in Cealla is the lack of structure around downtime/outside the dungeon time. As someone who runs a lot more roleplay heavy games, I’ve noticed how this lack of structure keeps most games moving at a rather unrelenting pace with only the occasional flashes of downtime or relaxation that the players are often forced to carve out or create when I ask “So what are you all doing?”
Now I know it’s not like this is some groundbreaking concept, a number of games have introduced the idea of phases of gameplay, but I feel like where they give the party control over actions, the Fellowship Phase gives players control over actions AND time while also providing structure to the Undertakings they select. There’s a lot players can do, but this also organically creates so many cool roleplay scenes and opportunities. The idea of taking a few weeks to travel together back to someone’s home, to spend a winter by a fireplace just opened my eyes to the kind of pacing I want players to have access to at my table instead of worrying that if they ‘split the party’ they will end up being punished for it, which is a fear D&D I think unintentionally bakes into us.
The Patron System - One of my table rules is that the players need to come up with a reason they all know each other, and will work together before we get to Session One. I’ve found this helps weed out the awkward ‘we met at a tavern’ type intros, but also serves as a great lever to turn when you get the occasional player who prefers to brood alone in a corner or is eager to argue ‘it’s what they’re character’ would do instead of working with the party versus against it. The Patron system in The One Ring is another elegant solution for this problem, giving a unifying element for every player to tie their backstory to, but also an in-built justification to work together towards a common goal.
The book outlines a number of potential patrons, but is pretty easy to fiddle with in order to make your own patron, which again is a BRILLIANT worldbuilding tool to introduce to your players if you were to make your own world’s version of potential patrons. Whether it’s demigods, shrewd businessmen, or anything else, I feel like giving your players a list of patrons for them to select from as a group is so interesting, and could also be an awesome way to sneak in some potential campaign secrets or clues. I love me some ludonarrative harmony and this is something I definitely intend to incorporate into my next game, in fact…
Other than our coming Kickstarter cough (Ardenfell: Complete Setting Guide & 3-Part Adventure Path) cough I’ve been fiddling with a few different systems and ideas for Cealla, from making our own game to a hack of another. I’ve always been more partial to hacks myself, and had looked at things like Blades in the Dark and Mork Borg because I love both of those games immensely, but I didn’t feel like they really ‘fit’ my gameplay loop/vision for Cealla, but I can safely say that the Year Zero Engine checks almost every box so far. So what does that mean? Well, it means that in conjunction with our normal releases of Micro-Setting Guides and Complete Setting Guide Kickstarters, I have officially started work on a Year Zero hack for Cealla. So prepare for a lot of these Dev-Talks to focus on that development as much as the other stuff, and for me to butcher the rules as I finish learning them :D
