Category: My Writing

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Ally and Player Burdens for The One Ring

I really enjoy using Ally Bands from the Moria: Through the Doors of Durin supplement for The One Ring RPG.

This expands the Ally Gifts and Quirks with an optional third distinguishing trait: a burden.

  • A Gift says what an Ally can do.
  • A Quirk says how you recognize them.
  • A burden hints at what they want… or might be running away from.

What we want is good stories, and what helps that is having more hooks. Of course, though we all have our burdens, we don’t always know about the burdens of others. Adding a Burden is most useful when you want to give someone more narrative weight – the party’s favorite NPC, an ally surviving three expeditions, or someone who seems to be driving the Band apart. It isn’t necessary to give every ally a Burden (unless you want to play a soap opera); just having one or two can drive a story in unexpected directions.

While I conceived of this in the context of Ally Bands, the table is also a useful source of inspiration when creating new player-heroes.

These Burdens are the kind of details that are great to explore in a Fellowship Phase: debt gets paid, confession gets made, letters get sent. They also make some of the losses land harder…

Burdens Table

The entries on this table are deliberately culture-neutral. I suggest filling in details in a culturally specific way. A dwarf and a Breelander might both be in debt, but their stories are likely to be quite different.

Many entries have (notes in parentheses). This serves as an optional, additional twist on the burden.

Feat Die Success Die: 1–2 Success Die: 3–4 Success Die: 5–6
25 Owes a ruinous debt to a hard creditor (and is ashamed of it) Blames themselves for a death they could not have prevented Has seen the Enemy’s true strength (and no longer argues when others speak of victory)
1 Sends every coin home to family (who do not write back) Carries a weapon/armor/token of a dead friend (have sworn to return it to that friend’s kin) Tells one story often (and leaves out the part that matters)
2 Took this work under a name that is not theirs (and flinches when surprised by its use) Wants desperately to go home (and will not admit it) Believes they saw their own death (and is settling accounts)
3 Serving out a sentence, an exile, or a penance Nurses a grudge (older than anyone else in the Band) Was refused by someone they loved (and took this work to be gone)
4 Promised someone they would not take this job/errand Carries an old head-wound, and the Band has learned which days to leave them be Suspects another Ally of something, rightly or wrongly
5 Following a rumor of a lost kinsman into the dark Their family name once meant something Keeps a secret (that would break the Band’s trust if told)
6 Wants the quick answer, the easy road, the shortest way Duty-bound to a post (they would abandon if anyone would take it) Has a child, or one coming (and has not told the Band)
7 Trying to buy back a thing their family sold or lost Swore an oath (they now regret) Signed for a share they have already promised away
8 Certain the expedition is cursed (and saying so) Someone they wronged is also in the group Younger than they claimed to be when they signed on
9 Wants to be reckoned worthy (by one particular person) Grieving (and works twice as hard so no one asks about it) Left a craft or calling they were good at (and misses it daily)
10 Has a rival in the group (and competes beyond all sense) Cannot go home (there is nothing left to go home to) Made a promise to a dying comrade (and has not kept it)
15 Believes they are destined for something (and it makes them reckless) Owes their life to another Ally (and cannot repay it) Serving someone else’s purpose (and does not know it)

Giving Burdens More Heft

I mostly use Burdens narratively, but they can be incorporated into play mechanically. Consider:

  • Unresolved Burdens can trigger shadow tests, especially if postponing or working against the direction a Burden would drive a character toward.
  • Connecting an action to a Burden is a source of inspiration, similar to a Distinctive Feature.
  • Acting against a Burden makes a roll ill-favored (similar to a Shadow Flaw).
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Ally Bands in The One Ring

I really enjoy using the rules for Ally Bands in The One Ring from the Moria: Through the Doors of Durin supplement – which, by the way, is one of the best RPG supplements I’ve come across, and a total joy for any fan of Middle-earth.

Bands have featured heavily in our campaign Twilight of the Western Shores. There are two player-heroes in this game, and we have adapted the Band rules to represent the groups of NPCs they recruit.

This page collects my notes on using Bands during play, along with the extensions I’ve created.

Overview

Bands are introduced in the context of doing a solo campaign in Moria, set during Balin’s ill-fated expedition to retake those hallowed halls. You craft a player-hero, but you also create a Band of Ally dwarves that accompany you.

Bands as a whole have one Target Number to roll against (“Readiness”), a “Burden” level, and five skills – Expertise, Manoeuvre, Rally, Vigilance, and War – that roughly map onto the skills of the player-heroes. Readiness can be improved by succeeding at missions and “Hardening” allies. Band skills can be adjusted by changing the size of the Band, deciding how heavily kitted it is, and selecting a specialization.

Individual members of a Band are distinguished by a gift – a unique characteristic that can be invoked for +1d on a roll – and a quirk – a narrative detail about personality or appearance that sets members apart from one another. Members also have their own injury and fatigue tracks.

The Band rules also cover Clashes, which expand the standard combat rules in The One Ring to model the effect of having larger groups in play. You can resolve things at the level of the Clash, or your player-hero can focus on dueling an “arch-foe” while the Band dukes it out.

Expanding Bands

  1. Supporting Other Cultures
  2. Ally Burdens

Supporting Other Cultures

In the context of Moria, Bands are composed of dwarves on a mission to reclaim their ancestral halls, and many of the tables are themed around that premise. Because of this, questions often come up about how to adapt Moria Bands for other cultures or for use outside of Moria.

In Twilight of the Western Shores, this was never really a problem: we picked culturally appropriate Gifts and Quirks to model the NPCs that were recruited. Most of the Gifts and Quirks are also relatively generic, or easily adjusted to be so.

While our group is fine with narrative selection, other players want more structure. I took it as a fun exercise to create alternative tables for other cultures. Some entries are unique to each culture, some are reskinned variations of the same idea, and some are a direct port of a “stock” entry.

  • Alternative Gifts and Quirks for Ally Bands

Once I organize the materials, I will also add name tables for different cultures.

Ally Burdens

Ally Bands help organize supporting NPCs in a way that makes them distinct and usable through Gifts and Quirks. I’ve expanded on this with Ally Burdens, which flesh out key Band members with additional details about what they might be seeking… or running from.

This is most useful when you want to give someone more narrative weight – the party’s favorite NPC, an ally who has survived three expeditions, or perhaps someone who seems to be driving the Band apart. Restraint helps here: not every Ally needs one (some of us do well to keep our burdens hidden, after all). Though if what you’re after is more of a soap opera feel, then the more burdens the merrier.

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TOR Micropost: The Bucklebury Inn

The Bucklebury Inn

A low, cheerful building tucked across from Buck Hill, near the ferry, the Bucklebury Inn is well-loved by ferry-workers, fishermen, and the sprawling Brandybuck relations who desire a break from Brandy Hall. The common room smells of pipeweed and roasting meat, the ale is pulled from deep cool cellars, and the sound of merry chatter fills the air.

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Meditation on the Different Bodies

This is a meditation I wrote that was inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Art of Living, where he discusses eight different bodies we all posses. I abridged that for us, in order to fit in the allotted time. May we all practice connecting with our different bodies.

  1. Breath
    1. Breathing in, I am aware that I am breathing in
    2. Breathing out, I am aware that I am breathing out
  2. Expand awareness to our whole body
    • Breathing in, I become aware of my whole body.
    • Bring the mind home to the body
    • Realize that you are alive, still alive, and this is a wonder.
    • To be alive is the greatest of all miracles.
    • In, Aware of Body
    • Out, Smiling to Body
  3. Spiritual Practice Body, dharma body
    • Breathing in, I become aware of my dharma body, my spiritual practice body
    • This is the part of us with the capacity to be awake and fully present, to be understanding, compassionate, and loving.
    • Every time you take one peaceful step or one mindful breath, every time you embrace a strong emotion with mindfulness and restore your clarity and calm, your spiritual practice grows.
    • People can steal your phone, computer, or money, but they can never steal your spiritual practice. It is always there to protect and nourish you.
    • In, Aware of my dharma body
    • Out, resolved in my spiritual practice
  4. Sangha body
    • Breathing in, I become aware of my sangha body
    • I am a cell in the body of a sangha, of many sanghas, offering my gifts and nourishment, contributing to the well being of the sangha, and being nourished in turn
    • I am aware that we friends are all practicing together, right now.
    • I am aware that right now, many other members of Plum Village and the greater Buddhist sangha practice around the world.
    • I am aware that this sangha has been practicing for many generations, going back all the way to the buddha and the monks and nuns who practiced with him, and even beyond into the sangha of practitioners that proceeded the Buddha.
    • In, aware of my sangha body
    • Out, rejoicing for sangha
  5. Continuation Body
    • Throughout our life we produce energy. Every thought, every word, every act, every product we create continues to influence the world, and that is our continuation body.
    • We are like stars whose light energy continues to radiate across the cosmos millions of years after they become extinct.
    • Thay says that the true art of living is to see our continuation body while we’re still alive and to cultivate it to ensure a beautiful continuation.
    • In, aware of my continuation body
    • Out, ending out love to all my dear ones

Continuing to Walking Meditation

As we walk, I invite you to continue this practice by focusing on connecting to a greater body – whether that is the small ecosystem of our home, the land we live on, the entirety of the earth.

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Clipping my Nails Gatha

Gathas are short practice poems that we can use to bring mindfulness into daily activity. I wrote this for clipping my nails, but really, this could be used for any form of body care. Including trimming my nose hairs and ear hairs, two new activities I find myself having to undertake in middle age.

Clipping my nails,
I am aware that this body
is always changing
Impermanence is the way of the world

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My Waking Up Gatha

For many years, I recited several poems immediately upon waking:

  1. Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Waking Up” gatha
  2. The Dalai Lama’s “Today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life…”
  3. Haim Ginott’s “It’s my personal approach that creates the climate, it’s my daily mood that makes the weather…”

I tried to combine the essence of these three into a single practice poem.

Gatha

Waking up this morning,
I smile.
I am alive,
I have a precious human life,
and I am not going to waste it.

I will use my energies
to heal myself,
deepen my connection with others,
and build a beautiful continuation.

I will offer peace to others.
I will not lash out or attack others.
I will benefit other life as much as I can.

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Flossing my Teeth Gatha

Flossing is a difficult habit for me. My parents didn’t model good tooth care (my father died with no teeth), and it’s always been a slog for me. Which is why I have developed several different practice poems!

Flossing My Teeth I

This is the first one I came up with and taught to my young children.

Flossing my teeth 
and strengthening my gums
I improve my overall health
I know that even the smallest detail matters

Flossing My Teeth II

Between each tooth,
space for patience.
By caring for this body,
I care for the Earth.

I deeply want to care for the Earth, and my body is not separate from the Earth, and so it deserves my patient care too.

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Gatha Practice

Gathas are short practice poems. They can help us bring mindfulness, concentration, and insight to daily activities.

Practicing with Gathas

The basic form of practice is to: pause before you undertake some action, come back to your breathing, recite the gatha in your mind or out loud, and then initiate the action with mindfulness. Another method is to keep the gatha flowing through your mind while you perform the action, tying one line to an in breath and the next to an out breath.

I find that gathas, especially when practiced regularly, can wake you up to things you take for granted, expose habit energy, and steadily retrain your inner voice. I also find that my days are more beautiful when filled with poetic reminders of the practice and the wonders of life.

My Gathas

Writing your own gathas is a longstanding Zen tradition. I take great inspiration from my teacher in this, using gatha-crafting as a way to personalize and deepen my practice. Writing gathas makes the practices meaningful to me, and it helps me to reclaim areas of my life that I am less present to (for me, flossing is a great example of a rich area of practice.)

Here are some of mine:

References

Articles about gatha practice:

Sources of gathas from Thich Nhat Hanh:

  • Present Moment, Wonderful Moment
    • A gatha-focused book, containing 49 gathas and Thay’s commentary
  • The Energy of Prayer – How to Deepen Your Spiritual Practice: See Appendix 2, “Buddhist Prayers and Gathas,” pp.145-155.
  • Stepping into Freedom – An Introduction to Buddhist Monastic Training: This book is not just for monastics but is for everyone. It begins in Part One with 68 gathas.

Other sources of gathas: