This is the place where we will discuss what characters you guys want to play as, in addition if you guys could decide on an initial meeting place and Patron for the company that would be much appreciated. Welcome to the game.

Hello! The character I wish to play is a High Elf of Rivendell. The broad concept is of one of the Eldar who hasn't yet succumbed to despair and thinks that there is still much worth fighting for in Middle Earth and that the enemy must still be opposed. For that concept I'm thinking of playing either the Warden or the Champion calling. I can go with either reasonably for the background I'm envisioning, and can work with whichever is best for the company. I'm likely going to go with a 4 strength, 4 heart, 7 wits stat block so he'll be very good at protecting himself and allies with a high parry. As far as skills and abilities the High Elves can focus either awareness or healing and starts with 2 ranks in both, so the character could make a good look-out for travel or a healer. The Warden calling would allow me to do both, as they're both possible Warden skills too. As a Champion, I would likely focus on Awe, and then could add either Athletics or Hunting. It's still flexible depending on what best serves the group!

Hi, I’m thinking of playing a Ranger of the North.  A young-ish woman with the Messenger calling, who has been travelling among the Dunedain carrying messages, as well as gathering news from other peoples.  Some of her people frown at her choice of calling, thinking she should be married and having children by now to help preserve the lineage.

Good at all travelling skills, she’ll specialise as a Guide.  In combat she will fight with spear and bow, preferring to use stealth to set ambushes where possible.  She’ll be lightly armoured, so will try to avoid getting stuck in melee.  I’ve not played TOR before, but imagine her moving between Rearward and Forward stances during combat, focusing on enemies who can be quickly eliminated with a piercing blow.

She’ll be quiet and reserved most of the time, but occasionally come out with an inspiring song or reveal the majesty of her ancestors in a Council.

Feedback welcome!

Nice, given it looks like we're a party of 2 having all of those journey skills will be very useful. Actually, with that in mind I think I'll choose the Champion calling and focus Awe and Awareness, and Healing from my culture. I'm going to have a low wits TN so I'll probably choose some of the social skills from that category for councils and such. I could also pick up some explore for covering that journey to but if you're ok with covering 3 journey rolls, guide, Scout, and Hunter, I could focus on filling in other gaps.

So, I've drafted Narieth, using Hunter Green's Google Sheets character sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spread...wpA/edit?usp=sharing

Please take a look and let me know any feedback.  This is my first time making a TOR character so I may have made some mistakes or bad decisions, and there may be things that don't gel with the rest of the Company.

A few points to note:
1.  I've put 2 skills each into Spear and Bow.  But maybe it would be better to specialise in Spear?
2. My Load is already quite high - only 8 endurance available - but I can reduce it by casting off my helm and can sing a song (once we've written one!) to avoid being weary once per adventure.
3. I have put resources into making Favoured all three of Travel, Hunting and Exploration, so my companion only needs to worry about Awareness for the journey phase.
4. I'm very weak on the social side - apart from Song - with no pips in Insight, Persaude, Enhearten, Riddle or Courtesy, and only 1 in Awe.  I can get us to the Council, but not do much once we're there!
5. For a Ranger I have decent Hope, and with 5 Heart I will regain 3 Hope in each Fellowship Phase.
6. In combat, I will try for Piercing Blows, especially with my Keen Great Bow but also wading in with my Spear when necessary.

You asked us to suggest a Patron and a starting Safe Haven.  Gilraen as patron would seem to fit the characters, but Gandalf would also work.  Rivendell could be a suitable starting Safe Haven, but other options could be Sarn Ford (I believe there's a Ranger station there), the Forsaken Inn, or of course Bree.

That's a nice tool, could you post a link to a blank sheet and perhaps I'll use the same format? It will be convenient for reference and on the fly changes I imagine given the forum nature of the game.

I don't think I'd worry about how you've done your weapon skills. I get the impression (well, depending on LM) that combat in TOR is much less important than in DnD. In DnD if your character isn't good at combat you often feel useless but my experience thus far with TOR is that isn't nearly as true.

Load is a tricky (and very interesting) mechanic, but I think that you're probably alright with the possibility of casting off your helm. Your high travel will help you reduce fatigue and then there's that cultural virtue where if you have leather armor and no shield you never take fatigue, which could help too!

I'm going to be focusing on a few of the more social skill, especially with my low Wits TN, so we'll have some coverage there.

I'll try and get the sheet up soon for more accurate discussion. Love that you filled out some character background too!

Here’s the link to the blank character sheet.  Click ‘Use Template’ in the top-right when you first open it, then save your own copy before proceeding.

https://docs.google.com/spread...uNM/template/preview

In reply to Bwyatt (msg # 7):
Thanks for all the feedback, by the way.  A chippy young upstart and a charming, honourable elf should be an interesting pair.

Ok, I've got my character created, here's the link:

https://docs.google.com/spread...giU/edit?usp=sharing

I haven't taken any extra weapon proficiency, instead putting all of the previous experience points into skills. I'm traveling fairly light, not taking a ranged weapon at this point though we'll see if that changes. I've got a few social skills and some favored since I took the Captain calling. It fits well with how the character developed in my conception too. In combat I'll be usually taking a forward or open stance and fending off enemies with a great shield.

Looks good - two young upstarts adventuring together.  Is your Parry score 23 with shield? That will make you very hard to hit!

Do you have any thoughts on Patron and starting safe haven?

Keen to get started now!

For starting Patron I think the one that likely makes the most sense is Gilraen, though I'm also open to starting without a patron and seeing who we run into along the way. It's fun when these things develop out of the adventure too.

For safe-haven Bree would be the classic choice, or any stronghold or hidden place that the Rangers might have.

For both of these things it might make sense to hear what the Lore Master has in mind?

And I'm ready to begin as well if you are!

  I am currently adding two to three more players I will wait until everyone has posted a character sheet before beginning our tale.

Hey all!

I'm one of the new players - I'm thinking about playing a Ranger of the North. Looking forward to joining you all!

Great, glad to have another aboard. Feel free to check out our characters above, though I may alter some things now that we will have more players.

Thanks! I'll get my guy done this week.

In reply to thatripletguy (msg # 14):

Welcome to the group - glad there will be a few more of us.

I’m also planning to play a Ranger (a stealthy one with a bow and heavy on the travelling skills).  No problem at all if we have two or more rangers in the company, but we should perhaps coordinate to make sure they each have a niche.  Take a look at Nurieth, and let me know if you have any questions or suggested changes.

In reply to DanW (msg # 17):

Thanks! If you wanted, maybe the two are siblings or cousins?

In reply to thatripletguy (msg # 18):

Not siblings (too much commitment!), but once you have your character concept more fleshed out we should discuss how they’re connected.  Cousins could work, or just acquaintances.  Not sure Narieth has many friends yet…

In reply to DanW (msg # 19):

All good!

Hey guys can I get a copy of your character sheets in the depository to signal that you are ready to play.

I will get that done today - sorry about that

Welcome to Balthazar and Sardis! What direction are you guys thinking of going with characters?

Now that we have a few more companions I've made Celegnor a Champion and changed some of his skill distribution around. I've focused Awe, Awareness, and Healing, so he'll be able to impress socially, intimidate enemies, and keep his companions in good health! I'll post the sheet in the completed character sheets area now.

I am going to play a Dwarf Warden and Sardis a Hobbit Treasure Hunter.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:07, Thu 07 Apr 2022.

Thattripletguy is one of the things you have left to decide on what what useful item you are taking?

I'll think on it! Hadn't decided yet.

 I am thinking that based on the cultures present at the start that your guys’ patron will be Gandalf the Grey I know that had been proposed as one at one point and it fits a tad better than Gilraen as the groups patron.

In reply to The Lore-Master (msg # 27):

Gandalf sounds good to me - though I’m up for meeting Gilraen at some point in the future!

Looks like a really good mix of characters in the group: 5 callings and 4 cultures.  Really looking forward to it.

https://docs.google.com/spread...5n4/edit?usp=sharing

Only the second TOR character I have made and the first 2e character.

Please look it over and tell me what I missed or did wrong.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:29, Sat 09 Apr 2022.

@Loremaster

Are you going to be updating our character names?  My character is Borin.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:05, Sat 09 Apr 2022.

 I will switch over everyone’s name to their character name later today. Balthazar I sent a request for access to be able to see your character sheet because I currently cannot see it due to not having permission to see it.

Permission granted

Thank you sir.

Balthazar you do get a pony and 3 useful items due to your culture’s wealth level.

Will add those

is there not such thing as a throwing axe?

Useful Items:

A detailed set of Maps (Explore)

Pan Flute (Song)

Pipe and Weed (Insight)

also;

Decent Pony

Does he start with the weapons and armor for free or does it come from his staring treasure?

Your starting weapons and armor are free. Treasure isn't exactly money it's more a generalized standard of living and it's assumed someone from a prosperous culture has the necessary resources to supply themselves with any kind of arms and armor.

Some things I noticed from a glance at your sheet is that you didn't choose two favored skills from your calling. You have travel from culture, battle and scan from your virtue, and then a Warden can also favor two of awareness, insight, and healing.

Also you didn't spend any of your starting experience! If you refer to page 46 of the core book it details how to spend starting experience to increase skills and weapon proficiencies. You'll definitely want to!
This message was last edited by the player at 18:23, Sat 09 Apr 2022.

Thanks Bwyatt, I have added the things you pointed out which I missed.

Do you all have any suggestions for a useful item for Eradan? I'm really not sure what to go with.

In reply to thatripletguy (msg # 39):

Perhaps an item that affects your hunting, such as an animal call or a camouflaged cloak? From what I see of the party this far it seems like you might fill the Hunter roll on journeys and succeeding on those checks is always helpful! You might not be able to use the useful item every time, depending on LM discretion, but every bit helps and it's a roll you'll definitely use a lot as there's almost always journeys to do.

In reply to Bwyatt (msg # 40):

I could see that now, like a knife or something.

I will post the first part of the first adventure later tonight.

In reply to The Lore-Master (msg # 42):

Nice! Is Sardis going to be joining us still?

Would it be helpful to indicate somehow our timezones, so we know when people are likely or unlikely to post?  Mine is GMT+1 (British Summer Time).

Sardis should be chiming in soon... he has had a crazy work week.

We are both in GMT-4 (Atlantic Standard Time)
This message was last edited by the player at 14:48, Tue 12 Apr 2022.

In reply to Balthazar (msg # 45):

I'm also in GMT -4 (Atlantic). I'm in New Brunswick, Saint John. Where do you guys live Balthazar?

We both live in Truro, Nova Scotia

Well Met bwyatt! Nice to meet another Maritimer!

I'm in GMT-5 (in the states)

Hi, I switched Narieth’s proficiency from Spears to Swords, and took a Shortsword, in order to reduce load a little.

With Borin gone from the company some reorganization or travel rolls appears to be in order. It seems the ideal alignment is this?

Guide: Narieth
Lookout: Celegnor
Hunter: Eradan
Scout: Gundolph

Seem good to everyone?

In reply to Celegnor (msg # 51):

Only just spotted this.  Seems sensible, yes.  Fingers crossed!