Wealth Levels
So every Culture ('Race' in 5e) has a standard of living...
A culture’s Standard of Living is a rough indication of the resources of any one of its members. The game ranks the average economic status of a folk in five tiers: Poor, Frugal, Martial, Prosperous, and finally Rich. It is used to gauge the approximate economic background of a character, and his ability to make out-of-pocket expenses.
Now, I hate counting out gold pieces. It's pretty much impossible to design and sustain a reasonable RPG economy, things seem to always be too cheap or too expensive in my experiences. And I'm not sure how much it really adds to the game. Sure, if you're a few bucks short of getting that shiny you want it creates incentive for your character to do something stupid (read: adventuring). But is that really such a compelling motivation? And isn't that just a low-level problem? By the time you're level 10 you should have plenty of money and/ or skills to make money.
Sadly while AiME defines these 'wealth levels' it doesn't really do anything with them. It has some descriptions about each level on pages 147 - 149, but it doesn't divide equipment by those levels. I would use this system to do something simple like: each character can choose 1 weapon, 1 armor and any 5 items from their wealth level's list. Which AiME doesn't, so I kind of wonder why they put it in the game in the first place.
Fellowship Phase
The book describes it as this...
Most games of Adventures in Middle-earth presume one or two adventures a year – “The Adventuring Phase”. When the adventuring is done, characters are given time between their travels to recover for a while, spending time with loved ones, looking after a business, or pursing their own interests. This time between adventures is referred to as the Fellowship phase, and characters may perform various undertakings during it – learning new abilities, removing Corruption, or establishing powerful patrons as allies. The Fellowship phase is an addition to the standard rule set, and is designed to evoke the storybook atmosphere of Middle-earth.
It's the AiME "downtime" system. Now, I really like the idea of downtime systems. I think it adds a nice layer to the game to note time passing and that the heroes don't fight evil 24/ 7 for eternity like in a comic book. But downtime systems are very tricky. For one, time itself is not really well defined or use mechanically, there are a few good articles by The Angry GM about that. Second, the downtime choices need to be meaningful, give you something to care about enough to be worth adding yet another mini-game to the rules.
Sadly, I don't think AiME's Fellowship phase really adds much to the game. There are very few actions you can take overall, some are tied to specific cultures at specific places, and not many are terribly meaningful. Not to say that it's a bad system - while you are at Lake-town you can forage for healing herbs (rolling on a table for what you find and how much) or buy an upgraded piece of equipment at the market; neither of which you can do elsewhere, so it makes finding/ being at Lake-town feel special. But there just isn't enough of that. It's an okay system, that's the most I can say for it.
Combat Roles
Okay, so I'm kind of cheating here - this rule isn't from the AiME books, it's from the original "The One Ring" RPG that AiME is adapting. But I think there's a really cool idea for fighting roles in the "Adventurer's Companion" book...
The true test of a company’s mettle comes when a small band of heroes is surrounded by many enemies. It is at that moment that a company of veteran adventurers can demonstrate that fellowship means more to them than just friendship and closeness.
When a company of heroes is attacked, the player-heroes can choose to adopt a number of combat roles, representing their capacity to fight as a tight-knit formation.
Captain
The captain of a company stands out in the confusion of a battle, as they must lead their warriors as they face the enemy. This makes the Captain the favourite target of archers and other creatures able to attack from a distance, wishing to see the leader of their enemies slain.
Champion
By making a display of personal prowess, the companion fighting as the Champion attracts the attention of the most powerful foes among the adversaries, in an attempt to vanquish them singlehandedly.
Ward
If among the companions there is someone whose life the heroes want to safeguard the most, a player may choose this role. At the onset of a fight, the companions look out for their Ward, manoeuvring to let only the weakest opponents engage the protected hero.
I love this system. It follows what a party might do anyways, but it sets how the monsters are going to attack explicitly. Ranged monsters will attack the Captain, the biggest (or the most) monsters are going to attack the Champion and only the weakest monster(s) will attack the Ward. This is cool because it gives direct control in how the fight plays out to the party. And frankly, I think most RPGs out there would benefit from giving more direct tactical control to the party, and more abilities that played off the party as a whole. It's a small thing, and I haven't had a chance to play with it, but I think it's a great addition to the game.
And that's all that really jumped out at me as being different from basic DnD 5e.
So what do I think about AiME?
Not bad, not bad at all.
This is a pretty good system for a "low magic" fantasy setting, and it does a good job adapting The Lord of the Rings to DnD 5e. I've enjoyed running it, and my players have said they've enjoyed playing it. The "Wilderland Adventures" campaign is pretty good overall, one adventure (the 4th) seems a little weak to me, and they like railroading the players a bit too much - but it's better than plenty of other prepackaged adventures I've run in the past. It's also easy to adapt into stand-alone adventures or to tweak the story-line to fit your party better.
My only real complaint is that they kept too much of the core DnD 5e classes/ class abilities - they really needed to make some custom classes. But I just let my players take some archetypes from Xanathar's Guide to Everything and I re-wrote a few abilities to suit my tastes.
I'd say give it a try if you like 5e and Tolkeen, I think you won't regret it.
You can find previous installments of this series here
No comments:
Post a Comment