The One Ring, part 1

The One Ring is the latest attempt to bring JRR Tolkien's Middle-Earth to the role-playing tabletops. I believe this makes #3, and even after a single read-through of the basic player's book, it seems far superior to previous attempts. While I'm tempted to try to do some sort of formal review, I think I'll just throw out my thoughts as I give y'all the rundown.
The players for this session were these fools: Hil (my awesome wife), playing Bulbar Groin, a Dwarf of the Lonely Mountain, Dagon, playing Dale of Dale, a (wait for it) Man of Dale, and... I think they're the only ones who named their characters. Ya see what I'm workin' with here? Anyway, we also had ol' Luc, playing a Woodman of the Wilderland, Kiah, playing a Beorning, and Robbie, playing a Hobbit of the Shire.
The characters were all premade, but they got to name them and figure out the details. Luc had decided that his character was quite diminutive, and was delighted that his character had a pet hound who would assist with his alertness rolls and, once per session, throw itself in front of him and take a Wound meant for him. Naturally, he decided his hound was a nervous little chihuahua that he kept in his breast pocket. Thanks, Luc. Way to keep it epic.
I tried to keep the rules rundown brief, and here encountered my first stumbling block (I figure as long as I'm writing these, I may as well do some self-evaluation on my 1337 GM ski11z). The basic rules are pretty simple, which I greatly appreciate. Most rolls use a single d12 (called the Fate Die) and a number of d6's (call Success Dice)equal to the character's skill at the action. The d12 that comes with the game is labeled 1-10, plus an Eye of Sauron and an Elvish G-rune, for Gandalf. If you're using a normal d12, you use 11 as the Eye, and 12 as G. An Eye counts as zero, and something bad often happens when it comes up. A G is an automatic success. So, for example, if Dale of Dale is attempting to make a Courtesy roll, and has a Courtesy of 2, he rolls 2d6 and the Fate Die and adds all the dice together, usually trying to beat 14. Now, if one of the Success Dice shows 6 on a success, it is a Great Success, and if two or more show a 6, it's an Extraordinary Success. The exact results of such successes vary, but that's the basics.
So that part's pretty simple. The trouble comes with the next step: at what rate do I introduce the rest of the rules? I'm pretty lousy at explaining rules anyway, so I like to break it up into manageable chunks. I left it at that at first, figuring I would soon after tackle Hope, Attributes, Traits and whatnot. I suppose I rolled a basic success on my explanation (see what I did there?) as I didn't face a bunch of blank stares. It occurs to me that I need to go ahead and start making people read the damn book ahead of time. It sucks being the only person at the table who knows how to play.
Thus begins the adventure (finally, right?). The group is in Esgaroth (Lake-Town), and learn that a Dwarven envoy has disappeared in Mirkwood on the road to the Misty Mountains. Gloin of the Lonely Mountain has called for adventurers to locate the lost Dwarves and ensure their safe return. Naturally, they seek him out.
And then we encounter our second hiccup. Role-playing game adventures love to use the term "Heroes" to describe the Player-Characters. "Your heroes may wish to do this," or "the heroes are attacked by..." In 20 years of gaming, I have played with two people who play heroes, and I rarely have those folks at my table. Every other person sitting on the other side of that GM screen has played violent, mercenary sons of bitches. Some are more vile than others. Luc's characters should all be brought up on numerous murder charges, as well as various crimes against nature. Playing in a setting with multiple deities means that he's doomed to an eternal rotation from one Hell to the next. The best of them are just cynical, selfish pricks that do the right thing and insist on being handsomely paid for it. Brief glimmers of chivalry are berated, beaten, and tossed in the gutter, most likely to be stabbed by Chuck just before he steals their shoes. This is actually why I named the blog as I did. You know, leading the heroes with the carrot and stick... Hey, I'm clever!
Knowing this, I should have expected that the group's dealings with Gloin would devolve immediately into haggling. Dagon began musing over all the things that might be happening to the lost dwarves, and how it really was a shame that nobody would go looking for them because Gloin was being so stingy with his purse-strings. The One Ring uses an abstract system of treasure (quite possibly to prevent this sort of thing) which makes haggling over imaginary money even more silly. The group eventually got the elderly dwarf to agree to the sum of 7 treasure parcels, up from his previous offer of 5 treasure parcels. These are the things players are willing to bog an adventure down with.
With a direction to go and the promise of riches backing them up, the group obtained a boat and set off across the Long Lake toward adventure.

Up next: Adventure actually starts!