Character Creation: The One Ring

Happy Plague! On we go!

The Game: The One Ring
The Publisher: Cubicle 7 
Degree of Familiarity: A little. I played it at Origins some years back
Books Required: Just the one (though many sourcebooks with different chargen options exist)

Michelle gave me a theme song for this character ("Pretty", The Cranberries):

Man, I had no idea what the lyrics to this song were (other than "you're so pretty the way you are," of course). Well, having read them now, I agree with my friend Travis (who actually suggested I do The One Ring today) in that the obvious choice is an elf. So I'm not gonna do that. :)

Let's back up a little. The One Ring is set five years after the Battle of Five Armies. The Free People of the North are doing OK, but fighting against a growing Shadow, which probably has something to do with Sauron but that's not gonna come up for a while. In any case, my first task is to choose a Heroic Culture. Elves are indeed one option (Elves of Mirkwood, specifically), but the one that caught my eye was the Beornings. I love Beorn (the dude who changes into a big ol' bear in The Hobbit) and it always bummed me out that he didn't make it into the animated version back in the day. (I'm sure he made it into the more recent cinematic hootnanny but I never bothered watching the second or third installments after the first one completely underwhelmed me.)

Anyway, the Beornings are folks who came to follow Beorn and live along the river Anduin near the Carrock. They're wild and woodsy and so forth, and such a character would make for an interesting challenge given my chosen theme song. Well, I'll get to that. In the meanwhile, my Standard of Living is Martial, and my Cultural Blessing is Furious (I ignore the effects of being Weary if I'm injured in battle; dunno exactly what that means but it sounds useful).

I copy over my skill scores, which is easier because I have a form-fillable sheet, yay. I'm good in Awe, Insight, and Hunting. Cool. I get to pick between two different weapon spreads. Hmm. Do I want Axes or Great Spear? I think I want Great Spear, I'll take the reach. And then I get to choose two Traits from a list. I'll take Story-telling and Anduin-Lore.

So, my basic concept here is someone who's strangely pretty and well-groomed for a Beorning (who are usually a little on the mountain-man side of things). He's a little haughty and...well, bratty. That's all I'll do for now because I'm still gonna be choosing from a bunch of options and I want to leave myself room to expand my concept. To wit: Background.

This is basically how I grew up. There are six options, let's see which one speaks to me.

Hmm. Errand-rider and Voice of the Past both sound interesting. The latter is perhaps a little more contemplative than I'd envisioned, but it does let me take Proud as a trait. I kinda like that, actually. I'll take that. Oh, curses, I can't take Fair. Well, y'know what, he doesn't have to be pretty compared to an elf, after all, so I'll take Tall as my other distinctive feature.

That also sets my traits as Body 7, Heart 4, and Wits 3. Names are on this page, too, so while I'm here, his name is Beran the Fair. He's 18.

OK, now the customization phase. First thing is a calling, which gives me a favored skill group but also a Shadow weakness. Hmm. I think that Wanderer or Warden make the most sense, and going along with my background, I'll take Wanderer. That means I get the Folk-lore Trait, and my favored skill groups are Survival and Custom, meaning I get two favored skills that I can take from either of those. I think I shall take Riddle and Explore as my favored Skills (along with Song and Athletics from previous choices).

Now for favored attributes. I get to add 3 to one of my attributes, 2 to another, and 1 to a third. I kinda feel like my Heart isn't as high as it should be, so I'll put 3 there, 2 into Body, and 1 into Wits.

Cool, now I get 10 points to buy skills, but I have to buy each dot separately, so buying a rating of 2 (from 0) costs 3 points. Well, I know I want 2 in my favored skills, so I need to spend 6 to raise Song and Explore up, and 2 more to buy up Riddle. That leaves 2. Well, I feel like Lore is appropriate, and I've never been sad to have a little Stealth, so one dot each into those.

Endurance and Hope are derived traits; 28 and 12, respectively.

Gear, ugh. I get a set of armor. I feel like Beran would want something that isn't going to make him look too clunky. Leather corslet, I think. Also a cap, but no shield, as Beran prefers a great spear. I get a weapon for each skill, so a great spear, an ax, and a dagger. My Parry is 3 (ugh).

Valor and Wisdom start at 1 or 2 (that is, one gets 1 and one gets 2). I feel like Beran is better at resisting fear than Shadow, so Valor gets the 2. I get a Reward for that; a Giant-Slaying spear (cool!).

And that's it, actually, because the rest would be building the Company and it's just me.

Beran the Fair is tall, long-limbed, and blond. When he was a boy his mother used to call him "little elf," and he got just a little too proud of that. He grew up and found himself desirous of meeting elves, seeing other parts of the world, and learning more about the history and lore of Middle Earth. I think that having him meet actual elves would be a really fun scene to play, since they are awe-inspiring in a way that he can't fathom.