The One Ring - roleplaying game

In this blog I will be talking about a role-playing game called the One Ring which is set in J.R.Tolkien's Middle Earth. If you have no idea of what a role-playing game is go to this previous post to find out all about it. However, if you do, come right back this way.

One Ring is set in the famous Middle Earth. A fantasy land full of dwarves, elves, humans, orcs and

countless more. In One Ring you are a intrepid hero, fighting back the encroaching darkness. One Ring is set after the battle of Five Armies but before Frodo and Fellowship of the Ring have departed on their epic quest to save the land.

In the One Ring you can choose to play one of the many cultures that occupy Middle Earth. For example, you could be a stout dwarf from the Lonely Mountains, a crazy old women from the woods, a travel hardened merchant human or, if you want to, a courteous hobbit bowman.

In the One Ring, when you want to do something (like if you wanted to wrestle an orc to the ground) then you have to roll some specially made dice to try and beat a target number - and there is a reasonable chance you will fail. Take a deep breath, I'm going to explain the special dice now. First there is the Feat die (a twelve sided die) which has the numbers one to ten and two other special runes: the Gandalf and Eye of Sauron runes. The Gandalf rune allows you an immediate success, which means that no matter how incompetent you are, you always have a chance. However, an Eye of Sauron rune is definitely not good!  The Eye of Sauron is worth zero when rolled and, to add insult to injury, then something bad can happen in the story, so not something you want to roll if you are already nearly unnconsious and about to be eaten by the spiders of Kirkwood. However, in addition to the Feat die, you might get to roll some six sided Success dice. How many Success dice you get depends on whether your character has any skill in the particular activity you are partaking in. When you roll, the score from your Feat and Success dice are added together to determine if you reach your target and succeed in what you were trying to do. So far so normal, but the Success die also has special Tengwar rune alongside the number six. This Tengwar rune lets you do special things if you succeed, whether that be dealing extra damage or convincing that goblin that it should really run away now.

Another special mechanic, which I really like, is hope. You can spend hope from your personal supply to boost rolls which could be life-saving in tricky situations. So, what's there to stop you from blowing all your hope in the first few seconds of the adventure you ask? Well, if you have less hope than shadow (a really hard thing to get rid of) and you roll an Eye of Sauron you lose control of your character and the game master gets to take control of it, you gain a permant shadow point (normal ones can be worn off) and a flaw (a personality trait your adventurer gains, like greedy).

One of the last rule I want to talk about is fellowship phases. Fellowship phases are the sections between adventures that allow you to develop your character's story while the winter months are upon you.

The first thing I have to say is that I absolutely love this game. One of the first things that I adore about it is the Feat die. It is really fun how there is always a chance to succeed by getting a Gandalf rune, no matter the odds.

One of the things that this system does well is making it feel like you are in Middle Earth. This is partly

due to the emphasis on travel in the rules (think about it, both the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit are stories about journeys, one going from the  Shire to the Lonely Mountain and the other from the Shire to Mordor). Another way that the system makes this great feeling is with shadow and hope. You are always wary of spending hope, because if you use too much of it things will start to go wrong very quickly. The fact that it takes a really long time to get rid of shadow to makes it feels significant when you get one, not just a minor setback.

The other special thing about the One Ring that I love is the Fellowship phases. These really let you delve into all that backstory of your character which you never get a chance to look at in other systems. For example in Dungeons and Dragons you never really know your character, they are just numbers on a sheet instead of actual people that have a life. In one fellowship phase, my hobbit bowman put on a big archery festival and was awarded the title of Alderman.

The setting is also an extremely good one to play in, as everyone knows (or should know) what Middle the fantasy setting which everyone knows and loves.

Earth is like and so it is a lot easier to imagine the world you are in and care about it.  It is not just some random fantasy setting the no one cares about and knows nothing about, it is

Overall, I think this game is absolutely amazing. I would defiantely say this was one of my favourite, or maybe even my absolute favourite role-playing game.

Next time I will be going back to board games with All Wound Up : Escape from the Cemetery.

What is role-playing?

Although over the history of this blog I have only reviewed and talked about board games, I have decided to talk about a different but just as fun type of game called role-playing. This article will explain what role-playing is and why you should do it. If you are already familiar with role-playing then I will be reviewing some in the blog posts that follow.

What is role-playing?

Role-playing is a collaborative storytelling game where you are the heroes. In roleplaying you get to choose what you want to do and how you want to do it, while working in a team with your friends. In gaming you each play a different character that has their own individual strengths and weaknesses, meaning that everyone will have a chance to save the day with their expertise. 

There are many different styles of role-playing and basically all of them use a dice to help figure out

whether you succeeded or failed at a task that has some skill in it (so you don't have to roll for walking down the stairs). Normally this is done by rolling some dice to try and beat a target number set by the Games Master (more on this person latter) and the target will get bigger the harder the task is. There are lots of systems that that use this mechanic like: Dungeons and Dragons (one of the best known role-playing system out there), Little Wizards (a children's role-playing game where you take the role of child wizards) and the Dr
Who role-playing system, so all you Dr Who fanatics can play your favourite Time Lord if you wish to. However each has it's own individual take on this concept, as well as letting you play in different world.

The Game Master (GM) is like the narrator of the story that the players are in, who sets the challenges that the players will have to face along their journey. On top of that the game master is in control of all the other people in the world that aren't player characters (also known as Non Player Characters) whether that be the most dastardly of villains to the helpful village shop owner from down the road.

Why should you do it?

Well, firstly, because it is really fun. You will enjoy at least one part of it, wether that may be talking to barmen to get information or cleaving orcs heads off (which I personally find a highly satisfactory and enjoyable past time).

It can also let you have some good quality time with your friends as you make memories of great

defeats and triumphs that will never fade.  One last thing that is amazing about roleplaying is that in most systems your character gradually get better throughout the time you play and it is tremendously fun to see your character turn from a weak and feeble 1st level character to a kick-butt hero that can charm their way out of anything and defeat an army of orcs blind folded. 

If you have children, I would encourage you to get them involved in role-playing as it really helps their story telling and problem solving skills as they explain how they managed to cast the magic spell to save the besieged town or figuring out how to sneak past the guards with only a bit of string and a candle stick.

Another thing that is really cool in gaming is that there is a vast number of different systems set in different worlds which makes you feel different things. For example at one moment you could be in a firefight on Tatooine in Star Wars Edge of the Empire and at the other you could be tracking down cultists in Call of Cthulhu (a investigative horror roleplaying game that is set in H.P Love craft's world). 

There are many different types of roleplaying and so next time I will be reviewing the One Ring system where you play brave and gallant heroes in Middle Earth after the Battle of Five Armies but before Frodo sets out on his quest to destroy the One Ring.

The Beetle Game

The beetle game is an old classic game where players are trying to collect a complete beetle before anyone else does. You do this by rolling a dice and then seeing what corresponding body part you get for that dice roll. Ones get a body, twos get a head, threes get an antennae, fours get an eye, fives get a mouth and finally sixes get a leg. If you get a body part that you can add to your beetle, you get to role the dice again to see if you can get another piece. At the start of the game you have to first get a body and then get a head before you are allowed to collect pieces of any other type.

The beetle game is a game you can play with basically anyone who can role a dice, meaning it is good with small children as long as they can be trusted to not put everything in their mouth. Also you can play it when you are shattered as you don't have to think much at all. The game can get quite tense near the end when two people only have one bit to go. However it can get really boring at other times when you roll the dice but find out that you already have the piece which you rolled. Similarly, the start of the game is really boring as you have to get a body first and if you roll anything else you don't get anything. And to make matters worse once you've got the body you've got go through the same process again with the head! This rule means that if you are unlucky you will be left in the dust as other people are busily building their beetles when you are still trying to get your body. Having this game in 3D is really quite fun as if you are bored you can play with the parts (or put them in a Halloween display) but you can play this game on pen and paper. Personally I would give this game a 3/10 and only recommend it to people who have young kids.

Smallworld

In small world you are the leader of a race of fantasy creatures, trying to conquer as much territory before your race goes into decline and eventually dies out. However their are more than one race about and this world isn't big enough for all of them.

In Small World the aim of the game is to collect the money by conquering and holding regions on the board. You do this by placing special cardboard counters that represent your fantastical race on the board to conquer your chosen region. However some regions cost more troops to get into, your normally need at least two plus however many cardboard pieces there are in the region(these could be other peoples troops or mountains for example). In Small World one of the main tactical decisions you will have to make is when to go into decline. As you get further on into the game you will soon find that your pieces are spread very thinly and you can't do much at all. However all hope is not lost as you can plunge your race into decline and take a new at the start of the next turn. Races that are in decline can't take over new territory and can have the maximum of one counter on each region (making them easy to take over). Each different race has their own unique power and a random other power which can make or break a game.

Small World is a really fun game and I really enjoy the simplicity of the rules makes it easy to play and learn. One of the things I love about this game is when you take over a really heavily fortified section controlled by one of the other players on the table, and watch their face slowly crumple as they realise that their unconquerable fortress has indeed been conquered. Another thing I enjoy is the special powers and how they can really dramatically change the way you play. However the  game is not without its faults, for example when you go into decline you basically lose an entire turn which is really boring as although turns aren't really long, it might be awhile till your next turn in a five player game. Also if you are playing this game with younger children they may get upset when they get attacked so it is probably best to stick to the age guidelines of eight and above (although every child is different). Overall I would give this game a 7/10.

Cortex Challenge

Cortex Challenge is a fun party game for up to 6 players that challenges your brain in a variety of different ways.

In Cortex the aim of the game is to finish your cardboard brain (made up of four pieces) before any of your competitors. To claim a brain piece you need to collect two cards of a similar type by completing the challenge that is on it. Each turn your draw one of the square cards. An example of one challenge you might have to complete is spotting the animal that appears twice on the card before any of your fellow players find the match or a challenge where you have to figure out which object appears the most times. If you are the first to complete a card you can collect it and hopefully cash two similar cards in for a brain piece.

Cortex is a really quite fun party game where everyone gets stuck in, trying to out-compete each other to collect those precious brain pieces. It gets particularly exciting near the end of the game when everyone is desperately trying to claim those cards and win their fourth bit of brain. It is also not like a general knowledge quiz as their is no pre-required knowledge. However, one bad point about this game is that there are some special touch cards. I didn't like these, as when you draw one, only the person who won the last round gets to guess, by touch alone, what the textured picture underneath is.  So if you are not very good at Cortex you never get a go at the touch challenge. However apart from that, Cortex is a very good party game which would work perfectly for a games club at school. I would give Cortex a 7/10 overall.