WOO! I finally finished version 1.0 of my Lord of the Rings setting for Genesys. This is by far my biggest one yet, and as difficulty and time-consuming as it was, I loved every moment of it. Now all I need to do is find a group of people to test it out. I am glad to be able to be the first to bring this wonderful world into Genesys!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17X2LNAt3X6vbOkv-6TZnljVojgzR5Ioa/view

Please give me as much feedback as you can and let me know any ways you think it could be improved. I will likely make some minor changes in upcoming weeks, though the biggest revisions will probably come after Realms of Terrinoth comes out. I am going to be cannibalizing that thing and assimilating it into Adventures in Middle Earth as soon as I get my hands on it.

Edit: Version 2.0 is finished! Now that I have the Terrinoth book I have been able to utilize some of the rules inside it to better flesh out Adventures in Middle Earth, with the new talents, Heroic Abilities, and crafting rules being particularly exciting for me. I have also made various other small edits, adding rules for Treks and Hunger and fixing typos. This thing is now 64 pages, almost three times the size of my second largest setting pdf for Genesys. I think I might have to go back and fix those up at some point...

Anyways, please let me know what you think of my little Lord of the Rings sourcebook! Any and all feedback is appreciated.

(Also, I have it on Google Drive this time so you don't have to deal with the problems with GM Binder.)

I'm not super familiar with lore beyond the films (read through the hobbit and fellowship only, listened to the silmarillion but didn't retain much of anything from it).

That said, I can at least point out typos.

pg 17, section Runestones, first sentence. Says "of" twice in a row.

I'm confused exactly how magic works. It is stated to be a Discipline skill but then your Hope score seems to determine the characteristic. What happened to Willpower? Did you remove the link between Discipline and Willpower?

41 minutes ago, GroggyGolem said:

I'm confused exactly how magic works. It is stated to be a Discipline skill but then your Hope score seems to determine the characteristic. What happened to Willpower? Did you remove the link between Discipline and Willpower?

It’s similar to how Mass Combat uses the Leadership skill, but not the Presence characteristic. In the case of magic in LotR, it isn’t so much about your Willpower as your Hope.

1 hour ago, Johan Marek Phoenix Knight said:

It’s similar to how Mass Combat uses the Leadership skill, but not the Presence characteristic. In the case of magic in LotR, it isn’t so much about your Willpower as your Hope.

Ok. You could probably clarify that in your next revision.

44 minutes ago, GroggyGolem said:

Ok. You could probably clarify that in your next revision.

Got it

Can never get GM binder stuff to work on my iPad

Same.

1 hour ago, HorusArisen said:

Can never get GM binder stuff to work on my iPad

Anyway to save this to Dropbox as a pdf?

1 hour ago, ESP77 said:

Same.

Anyway to save this to Dropbox as a pdf?

It has a print/generate pdf button.

Just click that button, and then change the printer to save as pdf.

1 hour ago, Johan Marek Phoenix Knight said:

It has a print/generate pdf button.

Just click that button, and then change the printer to save as pdf.

That would be awesome if I could get the page to even load. Keeps locking up. ?

4 minutes ago, ESP77 said:

That would be awesome if I could get the page to even load. Keeps locking up. ?

If it keeps doing that you might just have to wait until you can get on a computer and then email the pdf to yourself.

GM Binder doesn't seem to work in Safari, either. Not a problem for you, but for GM Binder itself, I think. That said, a PDF version would be nice.

Two things I noticed about the Nazgul in the bestiary.

1. There is a copy/paste error in the "Abilities" section, where it says: Terrifying (upon first seeing a fell beast, a character Should be "upon first seeing a Ringwraith"

2. I'm not sure if I'm missing it being included elsewhere, but should not "Black Breath" be included in the Nazgul abilities? Perhaps as a poison effect or the like?

Fantastic work, though, JMPK!

2 minutes ago, Daronil said:

Two things I noticed about the Nazgul in the bestiary.

1. There is a copy/paste error in the "Abilities" section, where it says: Terrifying (upon first seeing a fell beast, a character Should be "upon first seeing a Ringwraith"

2. I'm not sure if I'm missing it being included elsewhere, but should not "Black Breath" be included in the Nazgul abilities? Perhaps as a poison effect or the like?

Fantastic work, though, JMPK!

You’re right, I copied and pasted that from the fell beast and forgot to change the name.

Yes, there should be a Black Breath ability for the Nazgûl. I’ll make sure to put that in the next version.

This is great work! I've been thinking along these same lines!

Thanks!

You could include elven cloaks in the magic items. May be they grant a boost or two when using stealth to hide.

Elven rope as well. Boost to athletics for climbing?

Version 1.1 is now up! I fixed various typos and added a "Factions and Threats" section to the beginning to help both players and GMs unfamiliar with Middle Earth.

Looks really good. Lots of hard work here.

Species: I'd make it clear that a subset species gets the entire base package AND the specific one on top. For example, is it possible to be "just an elf" not from any of the factions?

Talents

Feral Strength: "+1 to Brawl and Melee attacks" +1 What?

Intense Focus & Savage Sweep: there's a parenthetical at the end that seems redundant.

1 minute ago, dougansf said:

Looks really good.  Lots of hard work here.

Species
I'd make it clear that a subset species gets the entire base package AND the specific one on top.  For example, is it possible to be "just an elf" not from any of the factions?

Talents
Feral Strength: "+1 to Brawl and Melee attacks"  +1 What?
Intense Focus & Savage Sweep: there's a parenthetical at the end that seems redundant.

Species: No, there is no “just an elf”, all elves fit into one of the three categories. But how would I make it more clear?

Talents: +1 damage. Oh, those parentheticals are leftovers from before I started using the Genesys format. I didn’t catch that I missed those, thanks.

4 minutes ago, Johan Marek Phoenix Knight said:

Species: No, there is no “just an elf”, all elves fit into one of the three categories. But how would I make it more clear?

"In addition, choose one of the factions/categories/etc below and your character gains those abilities as well."

Lots of really great work in there! Maybe I missed it but where does the skill with magic come in?

5 minutes ago, jackissocool said:

Lots of really great work in there! Maybe I missed it but where does the skill with magic come in?

What do you mean?

10 hours ago, Johan Marek Phoenix Knight said:

What do you mean?

I might have missed it because the formatting of GMBinder is messed up on my phone, but the hope/shadow system (which is great) gives skill with magic. How does magic work here?

34 minutes ago, jackissocool said:

I might have missed it because the formatting of GMBinder is messed up on my phone, but the hope/shadow system (which is great) gives skill with magic. How does magic work here?

Instead of using a Characterisitic like Willpower or Intellect, your ability with magic is determined by your Hope rating. Magic checks are upgraded by your ranks in Discipline or Knowledge (Forbidden) (depending on whether your Hope is very high or very low). You can only make a Magic skill check once per encounter. Light magic gives you access to different magic actions than dark sorcery.

Other than that, magic uses all the same rules as in the Core Rulebook.

Lovely! I've been awaiting this with bated breath ever since you mentioned you'd be making it over in your Elf Stats thread.

Some things that stood out to me:

1. Your updated version seems to be a tad broken (the background and images don't load). This might just be something wrong on my end (my internet can be a bit dodgy at times), but I thought I'd just let you know in case something's gone awry. From what I saw of the first version, though, very well done and rather intuitively laid out.

2. Athelas Extract is listed as an item in the Gear table, but doesn't have a description (Athelas is listed at 50 cost and described as adding 1 Success and 1 Advantage to a Medicine check, Athelas Extract is listed at 100 cost but not described). Presumably, this seems like it would just be Stimpacks/Pain Killers (Heal 5 Wounds, then 4, then 3, etc.), but it isn't confirmed in the text.

3. This may just be a preference thing, but the benefits from Hope/Shadow seem a bit steep. I really like the concept of using Hope and Shadow, but I can't help but think of FaD's Morality, where the thresholds are at 30 and 70 rather than 40 and 60 (roughly) and the effects are basically modifying the Destiny/Story Points and affecting Strain and Wounds a bit. Not saying there's anything wrong with how you have it, I'm just curious what your thoughts are on how quickly a PC gains Boost/Setback dice to Fear and bonuses to Magic.

3a. Related to Hope and Shadow, and this is far more preference, but I would think Magic wouldn't have all that much place in a PC group for LotR. Maybe I'm missing something, but as I recall really only the Istari (Wizards, of whom there were five) and other Maiar did any magic (except maybe some elves, but they mostly used it for arts and crafts, like little Feanor with his macaroni Silmarils). So how would you see magic in the game? I could definitely see a GM hand-waving it and allowing trained wizards, maybe akin to some of the magical characters seen in Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings line (they have some shamans and such, mostly for orcs), but I'm not certain how well it would fit into a more strictly canon-based game (but then that might just come down to a GM's choice).

Nothing else off the top of my head right now--when I get down to planning a game with this, I'll be sure to keep notes of any other thoughts, questions, or concerns. Overall, though, this is a great resource, and I'm excited to use it to run some games in Middle Earth.

2 minutes ago, Castlecruncher said:

Lovely! I've been awaiting this with bated breath ever since you mentioned you'd be making it over in your Elf Stats thread.

Some things that stood out to me:

1. Your updated version seems to be a tad broken (the background and images don't load). This might just be something wrong on my end (my internet can be a bit dodgy at times), but I thought I'd just let you know in case something's gone awry. From what I saw of the first version, though, very well done and rather intuitively laid out.

2. Athelas Extract is listed as an item in the Gear table, but doesn't have a description (Athelas is listed at 50 cost and described as adding 1 Success and 1 Advantage to a Medicine check, Athelas Extract is listed at 100 cost but not described). Presumably, this seems like it would just be Stimpacks/Pain Killers (Heal 5 Wounds, then 4, then 3, etc.), but it isn't confirmed in the text.

3. This may just be a preference thing, but the benefits from Hope/Shadow seem a bit steep. I really like the concept of using Hope and Shadow, but I can't help but think of FaD's Morality, where the thresholds are at 30 and 70 rather than 40 and 60 (roughly) and the effects are basically modifying the Destiny/Story Points and affecting Strain and Wounds a bit. Not saying there's anything wrong with how you have it, I'm just curious what your thoughts are on how quickly a PC gains Boost/Setback dice to Fear and bonuses to Magic.

3a. Related to Hope and Shadow, and this is far more preference, but I would think Magic wouldn't have all that much place in a PC group for LotR. Maybe I'm missing something, but as I recall really only the Istari (Wizards, of whom there were five) and other Maiar did any magic (except maybe some elves, but they mostly used it for arts and crafts, like little Feanor with his macaroni Silmarils). So how would you see magic in the game? I could definitely see a GM hand-waving it and allowing trained wizards, maybe akin to some of the magical characters seen in Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings line (they have some shamans and such, mostly for orcs), but I'm not certain how well it would fit into a more strictly canon-based game (but then that might just come down to a GM's choice).

Nothing else off the top of my head right now--when I get down to planning a game with this, I'll be sure to keep notes of any other thoughts, questions, or concerns. Overall, though, this is a great resource, and I'm excited to use it to run some games in Middle Earth.

1. I’ll look to see if I can fix whatever the issue is.

2. Athelas Extract is included in the description for Athelas, with the note to look at the Core Rulebook for more about it.

3. The main difference between this and Morality is that it isn’t as easy to gain Hope as it is to gain Morality. In FaD, all you have to do is not do anything bad and whatever you roll will increase your Morality. I got rid of that, so in Hope/Shadow you have to actively do good things to raise your Hope. It makes it take longer to rise in the ratings.

3a. There are several characters that use magic other than the Maiar, not just elves but also servants of Sauron, but they are few. I stated that Magic was an optional rule, giving GMs the opportunity to use it or not, depending on how close they want to stick to the canon.

Thanks! I’m hoping that Realms of Terrinoth will come out soon so I can cannibalize it for Adventures in Middle Earth.