To Review: Updated Game Rules - Skill and Trait Clarifications

[Fieranor of Imladris]

(LAST MODIFIED: February 2017)

Skills Clarifications ~ The following Skills have received clarification or expansion: Athletics, Awe, Battle, Healing, Riddle, and Stealth.

• Athletics and Battle are now used to help determine your Player-heroes’ Initiative and Action Points, along with Valor and the Weapon you use.
• Awe now also helps establish your character’s Charisma.
• Healing now works like Healing in other RPGs. You HAVE to Treat any Wounds, first, but you can also help restore Endurance.
• Riddle is now used to help figure things out, such as locks or machines.
• Stealth may also now be used by those who possess the Burglary Trait to scale buildings (a la cat burglar), pick pockets, and other similar burglary things.

Weapon Skills ~ When calculating your Initiative and Action Points for the new CADA System, you use your primary Weapon Skill for your character to determine those numbers. However, if you switch weapons, your Initiative and Action Points may also change.

Trait Clarifications ~ I have outlined the Uses of Traits on the CADA System page you will find as an attachment, below, but those are available for all play times and, mainly, I put them out there to help remind you all of their availability and uses within the game.

The following Traits have received clarification or expansion, and all but two gain a High-low Success Die for use with the skill listed in parenthesis... (be mindful these skill uses may be limited, such as using Song for your Minstrelsy Trait, but only for playing instruments, singing, or writing songs) while using Song for your Rhymes of Lore Trait is good only for writing poetry (not sung, but read) and prose.

• Boating (Athletics)
• Burglary* (Riddle and Stealth)
• Minstrelsy (Song)
• Mountaineer (Athletics)
• Rhymes of Lore* (Song)
• Swimming (Athletics)
• Cautious (Awareness)
• Elusive (Stealth)
• Fair-spoken (all Skills in Encounters)
• Hardy (Travel for Journey Phases)
• Keen-eyed (Awareness)
• Quick of Hearing (Awareness)
• Robust (vs Poison or Fatigue)
• Small (Stealth)
• Wrathful (Weapon Skill; this does NOT add to your Action Points)

The Swift and Vengeful Traits work a bit differently, as below…
Swift: +2 Action Points
Vengeful: you do not become Weary if your Current Endurance is reduced equal to or below your Fatigue Threshold until you’ve taken your first Wound.

(NOTE: For my present VTT group members, as of 27 Jan. '17, your Traits have been updated for the new rules.)

[Fieranor of Imladris]

(LAST MODIFIED: February 2017)

Updates to Certain Virtues and Rewards
Unless otherwise noted, Virtues/Masteries and Rewards/Qualities work as RAW. Some, however, are modified due to the elimination of the Fellowship Pool, providing High-low Success Dice and/or for the sake of fitting into the new CADA System.

Virtues/Masteries

• Shadow Bane (Elves of Mirkwood): Because Combat Stances have been eliminated, you gain an additional Success Die when making Aggressive Attacks against servants of the Shadow; this is a full Success Die, NOT a High-low Success Die.
• Swordmaster (Barding): Because Combat Stances have been eliminated, add your Weapon's Encumbrance value to your Parry Score when using that weapon.
• Twice-baked Honey Cakes (Beorning): Because the Fellowship Rating/Pool is eliminated in my game, an additional rule applies; roll Craft vs. a median Target Number of 10. With a failure or a basic success, you are allowed to track one additional Hope point per our new holding rules for Hope Points, which may be requested for use by one in your Company. You are NOT required to expend this point to help your companion, though circumstances may force a Shadow Point on you, per the Company Creation || Fellowship house rule, above if something untoward happens to them as a result of not sharing. If you roll one or 16+, including a , you gain two additional Hope Points to be held. If you roll or 16+, including a and a , each member of the Company gains an additional Hope Point to be tended as described immediately above.
  
  Rolling above these limitations gains no further benefit.
  
  Once expended, the point is gone until you roll to create Twice-baked Honey Cakes, again. Any unused points at the end of the present Adventure Phase are dismissed, not carrying over to the next Adventure Phase, and unable to be used to recover any lost Hope Point.

Rewards/Qualities

• Noble Armor (Beornings): High-low Success Die added for skills used during Encounters.

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Standards of Living Upkeeps ~ This just makes official what we've already been doing in the game. Your character starts off with enough money to pay for the Standard of Living Upkeep for one year, which is...

• Poor = 1 Gold
• Frugal = 3 Gold
• Martial = 6 Gold
• Prosperous = 12 Gold
• Rich = 24 Gold

Unofficially, while your character lives at that Standard of Living, as they are able to change during the course of game-play, they accrue this much as the beginning of each year. What this means is, if you have a Prosperous hero, but they have spent 3 of their Gold during the course of adventuring through the year, they are set back at 12 for the beginning of the new year. However, for those who've accrued more than they had, that is what they keep, they do not gain an additional amount based on their Standard of Living. Holdings and events throughout the course of a year can force ill or good fortune on a Player-hero, adjusting -whether temporarily or permanently- their Standard of Living to match that fortune.

Endurance, Hope ~ At the end of a combat, the Player-hero regains one-half of each Hope and Endurance, rather than just RAW Endurance. For Hope, moments of inspiration, which may be developed by the Player for their Hero, causing an Inspiration test to see if Hope is regained, may be done. It is up to the Player to bring these up, unless the LM has designed something into the adventure!

Finally, if your PH suffers from a Weary condition, your Success Die act abnormally for you. The RAW explains the rule as 1-3 count as 0 and 4-6 count as normal, the idea being for ease of use but in fact making the dice lopsided, so instead the dice will act as follows: 1-3 on the dice will count as normal, but the 4-6 will be reduced by 3 each, so when you roll a 4, it's as though you're rolling a 1, instead, meaning a 5 acts as a 2 and a 6 as a 3, instead. If you roll a , however, it still counts as a higher degree of success. For my VTT group, I have constructed a new Tengwar Rune, and the tables set up, there, can only roll 1-3 and 1-3 with the new

Treating Wounds ~ Healing skill can now be used to help treat Wounds and Endurance loss in and immediately after combat. Remember, you regain one-half your Endurance from the most recent combat because, while you're taking time to rest, you're regaining the Endurance points lost to shock and strain, leaving your hero, at the end of that time, with only the damage suffered. Using Healing skill may now allow you to treat more. The sequence used for healing is as follows:

1. Wound(s) MUST be treated, per LMBr pg. 131, before OTHER healing may be done. Said other healing must wait one 24-hour period after treatment of Wound(s) before it can be used,
2. One with Healing skill may roll vs. TN 14; a BASIC Success allows the recipient to heal a number of DAMAGE -not Fatigue- points equal to their own Valor rating. Each rolled allows another 1D6/2 (1-3) damage to be healed, up to the recipient’s total damage taken during the present fight.
3. Normal Endurance Recovery, IAW LMBr 131, takes place from that point forward.

Preliminary Rolls ~ The rolls that used to be made for Combat, Encounter, and Journey Advantage Dice are ELIMINATED! They weren't really a help at all, they were a nuisance to keep track of, and a better system has been provided in Mastery Dice, aka High-low Success Dice, that will do a far better job than Ad Dice did.

[Fieranor of Imladris]

(LAST MODIFIED: February 2017)

The New Experience Points System ~ In the RAW, Advancement Points exist for the improvement of Common Skills, while Experience Points exist for the improvement of your Wisdom and Valor characteristics, Weapon Skills, and my addition of Attributes. Normally, the number of Experience Points one gains from a single session of gaming is half the number of Advancement Points, though improvement points can be added to individual skills or characteristics, and then more points earned through session play as general experience. However, having two systems of experience is unnecessary to the game, adding an unnecessary mechanical element and making accounting difficult on the Players. Thus, I've developed an updated system that will allow the important of Experience Points to be added in with the Advancement Points, at a rate of 1.5 per XP and 1 for 1 for AP, to make the system viable and remove the confusion wrought in the game.

Thus, the average number of Experience Points, in the new system, will be 7 per session, not including specific points earned. So, the experience chart will now be as follows...

	Attribute Cost	Valor/Wisdom Cost	Weapon Skills Cost	Common Skills Cost
Rank or Value	(Max +5 any Att. Cumul.)	(Normal/Rangers & High Elves)	(Normal/Rangers & High Elves)	(Normal/Favored)
1	**********	**********	3/4	4/3
2	**********	6/9	5/7	8/6
3	15	9/13	8/11	12/9
4	20	15/21	12/17	16/12
5	25	24/31	20/26	20/15
6	30	39/48	32/40	24/18
7	35	**********	**********	**********
8	40	**********	**********	**********
9	45	**********	**********	**********
10	50	**********	**********	**********
11	55	**********	**********	**********
12	60	**********	**********	**********

Updated Fellowship Phase Undertakings
Gain New Distinctive Feature or Specialty ~ A clarification of the RAW is that you do not lose your old Trait, it simply is not one you practice on a normal basis, anymore. It can still be used to allow you to make die rolls in situations you wouldn't normally be able to, as if it were still a normal Trait Invocation.

Open New Sanctuary ~ The RAW says ALL MEMBERS of a Company have to perform this FPU together, which I thoroughly disagree with. It is a false wall, bad geography, and thoroughly unnecessary. One Player-hero may take this FPU on their own, but only they will reap the benefits of it being a Sanctuary. Later, however, they may vouch for a fellow hero so that hero can also acquire the Sanctuary, though the new hero must take it as a normal FPU.

Tend to Holding ~ This one is very long, but it loosens restrictions and adds clarifying points concerning taking care of one's holding during a Year's End Fellowship Phase. I will say I am tempted to remove this from the listing of Fellowship Phase Undertakings and make it a mandatory annual issue, or allow it as a secondary undertaking at the end of the year.

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New Calling: Leader ~ Though it is not a requirement to have someone in the Company become that Company's leader, it is an optional thing that can improve the party's chances, especially when it comes to the new rule concerning Taking Courage. If anyone thinks they would like to change their calling to Leader, strike up a conversation in this thread.

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(NOTE: For my present VTT group members, as of 11 Feb. '17, your old Experience and Advancement Points have been updated for the new Experience Points system.)

(NOTE: That's it for the rules updates, for now.)

If any of you have any questions, anything you would like further clarification on, please make sure you post it in this thread, and I will respond to it as soon as I am able.)