Okay here's my pitch: I can run this once a week. I currently have a Traveller game I will be playing on Saturday nights 9:30 on. So no late night saturday. Preference for Saturday afternoon. call it start Saturday 2 PM EST East coast US. 3 or maybe 4 hours of play. Or if the whole group can come up with an alternative like late night Friday, 6 PM EST on, I could do. What I do is at the half way mark, of about an hour and a half, we all take a 15 min coffee/ sandwich / bathroom break. Or if you need to take a break at other times just notify me, we'll keep playing, especially if it's a conversation scene. Then at the three hour mark, I ask everyone if they want to continue. Let me explain what worked before: I let people generate any character they wanted with the online tool that is out from a fan of Cubicle 7. But for the character you play, play that character, with their strengths and weaknesses. If you are an Elven warrior, act like one. If you are a dirty river hobbit, act like one. Playing the role is key, as is the narrative, and the narrative-style actions of the players. This is explained in the rules that the ways to gain skills etc is to narrate, you don't get XP from combat. You get it for narration, and using your skills etc. You narrate what and how you are trying to do something, and then attempt the roll. Based on the roll, I will narrate the results taking everything into account. There is a big element of luck in the game. Both good luck and bad luck. If you are a player that can't take a bad luck roll affecting your character, like a crit from an orc blade and you are now bleeding out, possibly dying, leave now, as this is how this game goes. it's life and death. I have only had two characters die in the campaign with 11 players, One dwarven hero chose to die holding off an orc army with 50 of his comrades, to buy time for the fwllowship, and another fell while scaling a wall in a fortress in Angmar. But many were at the point of death and were saved by healing, or Kingsfoil (we had a Ranger from Arthedain). Because combat is so deadly, there is not a lot of combat, but when it is on, it is on. Usually for those not familiar with the character generation system, I walked each person through it, or we did pairs or trios of people, all via skype. Please if you are using something not in the books from online let me know the files you are using first because a lot of those things are barely proofread. Those character sheets were saved via a save feature using a giant text block, that when put into the online tool allowed me to print the sheets out for my reference, then I put those into a binder. I also had players using the VTT character sheet functions of roll 20. We had a guy that did a pile of work doing macros, but I am no longer in touch with that guy, but I might be able to rig up the custom dice. I did it before so we could use the custom dice with a little work. I ran this game One Ring for 11 players at a time. It only worked because the players took thier turns, did not hog things and we played it narrative style. I.e. I set the scene, then the players talk about what they want to do, then do it with die rolls as they go. We played 17 sessions then the fellowship died because of player arguments over treasure, and the heroes started doing evil, like abusing prisoners, and lack of leadership. We had a leader but he let things slide until it got to be all about falling into shadow. I gave the group warnings about The breakup of the fellowship but it became players arguing and trying to get the others to quit. I am looking to actively avoid that. If a player becomes a problem for the group, i.e not getting along, being an ass, I will counsel them privately. If it continues, i will fire them. The group is a fellowship and must get along as much as they can. I am not saying players and characters cannot disagree, but when it comes down to "No you suck, you should quit." I'm done as a GM for that group. I use music and sound effects and narration. There is not a lot of battle maps if you are used to 4th edition. There is a sort of range chart that shows if you are close, middle or far back in the battle. I have all of the hardback books, the three book set and the screen. Whatever you guys want to do about getting your books, do that, but leave me out of any conversations of .pdf sharing and whatever. I'm a playtester and author so I'm against getting someone's work for free, filesharing or hacking. If that's a problem, take off now, thanks. I do not control the story, the group does. But I demand an approach that ultimately leads to harmony. Among whoevver joins, there needs to be a leader who really knows how to lead and counsel people and get the most out of the group, and their skills and weaknesses. The plan: The campaign will be about the fall of shadow over Mirkwood, starting after the battle of the five armies. You all will write your own tale of the growth of the shadow, leading to the War of the Ring, 50 years hence. Characters will be tempted by the lure of power, greed, and all of that. You all will pave the way for the RING FELLOWSHIP to be born and take root. Each character will have within them the seeds of greatness, and self destruction. The travels of the group will roam around, not just Mirkwood. I have the old Iron Crown Modules and sometimes use material from them. I will sometimes have NPCs from the Game, Gandalf, Young Aragorn, Arwen, Legolas, etc. When they appear they will not be taking over, instead they are NPCs who will help you, or you help them, but the player characters will be the center of the story. It is just a part of a side story, i/.e you might meet them on the road. In the past campaign one of the heroes helped Aragorn to learn how to fight, another guarded Arwen on a journey for her father. The group met Gandalf in a burned village that had been torched by Orcs, and helped him to burn the bodies of the slain. They went on a few missions with Radagast. But mostly it will be the heroes, travelling around, making things happen, beating down the evils of Mirkwood, and learning about the Nazgul, and all of the characters in the overall story. I can teach rules as we go for those that are unsure. But. ALL THE PLAYERS must actively work to get along. Running one of these is a hell of a lot of work, and I don't want to get to the point where I dread firing up the PC and working on it, because of player on player friction. It's not worth the time. Finally this Late May- Early June, around there, I am moving and will be offline for about 2 or three weeks, as I am moving from the US to Thailand for age 50 retirement. I have been running RPGs since 1977. I will resume after I get online after I get my new place set up. You will need skype. You don't need a cam. If you got one, right on. The game will mostly be narration by myself, and the players though. I'll use maps, maybe a picture here and there. I am not looking for people who want to be a special snowflake star of the action, at the expense of everyone else. It's a fellowship, ultimately becoming something like a medieval SeAL team, fighting the growth of Shadow, using bows and crossbows, saving their buddies from death, making it out alive. A TEAM, working together, to get stuff done. That's when this game is at it's best, with close calls, urgent pleas to authority for aid, and living their lives, achieving their goals. If you can be that, and deal on that basis, play your character, and narrate your characters actions, we got no problems. If not, good luck. I have just seen that there are new sheet templates for roll20 that did not exist last year, so i will investigate those and let the group know my findings. Welcome.
