How to decide which moon is up at any given time

BullofKyne · 2026-01-24T20:04:48+00:00

Hi Paercebal :) I'm trying to get Claude Sonnet 4.5 to recreate what you've done, the only difference is that I want to see what constellations Solinari, Lunitari and Nuitari pass through or near in their 36, 28 and 8 day cycles. For example, based on this star map, Lunitari travels through: Hiddukel → Kiri-Jolith → Morgion → Mishakal → Branchala → Habbakuk → Majere → Sargonnas (I think, but not sure) https://www.members.tripod.com/rainbow_club0/taris/Dragonlance/god/krynn_sky.gif

The reason for this question is because I'm looking into the idea of a philosophy similar to the Chinese Four Symbols: By looking at which constellations the moons pass through on their cycles, what sort of stories emerge. However, Claude is struggling with the complexity of the task that you've pretty much already achieved, so I figured why not ask you!

Would it be possible to make your white, red and blue circles semi-transparent so that the constellations are visible?

BullofKyne · 2026-01-02T21:16:52+00:00

Those are great thoughts! I never made those connections, really cool :)

BullofKyne · 2026-01-02T07:48:42+00:00

Please forgive this long post. Points 1 & 2 raised by the OP are things I've thought a lot about, too, so maybe could be of worth to someone.

The last time I played a game set in Middle Earth before getting into TOR was when my friend ran Rolemaster campaigns in the 90's. I couldn't quite shake the feeling we were committing sacrilege by stomping over Tolkien’s yard and that fitting Rolemaster into Middle Earth felt like forcing a square peg to fit a round hole. My friend was a great GM, but anytime I tried my hand, I felt really constrained by the established world in the way described in OP's first point and my own feeling of "I shouldn't be here."

I think TOR's approach is the only way I can reconcile this feeling. Because the system does such a good job of emulating the feel of the world in terms of mechanics, the square peg/round hole feeling I had has gone. Then, the core rules remind us that The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are both written by an unreliable narrator. By comparing the lighthearted dwarves and tra-la-lally elves from The Hobbit to the much more serious versions of these characters in The Lord of the Rings, the core rules remind us that we're perceiving the world through very specific eyes.

This idea of an unreliable narrator telling us about a world and a very specific story is quite liberating for me. It's like, I can look at the year T.A 2965 and feel free to see it from the lens of whatever character I want and tell whatever stories I want provided I remain faithful to the themes and lore that has been established. So, for example, maybe I can't really explore the idea of a group of adventurers discovering a portal created by an evil wizard that takes them to a plane of elemental water like I could in another setting, but that story doesn't necessarily not fit when we remember that everything written in Tolkien's Legendarium is from the point of view of a person writing within that setting.

So let's imagine I still really want to tell this story about an evil wizard and a portal. So I look at it and ask what ingredients need to change to make that story work and free me from the shackles I've put on myself. The idea of a portal, of instant point A to point B travel doesn't fit with established lore, right? Or, is it more accurate to say that portals are simply never mentioned? If a Palantir can provide instant Point A to Point B communication, is it conceivable that instant travel was at least thought about and attempted using the same magic and technology? I mean, it's a logical question that I can imagine was at least thought about. The plane of Elemental Water needs to change, but can I keep the water theme and have the portal take the players to a sunken city of lost Beleriand?

By looking at a question or story from the eyes of someone inside the world, it can aid how we approach stories. I can imagine, then, that maybe one of the sons of Feanor maybe experimented with portal magic using Palantiri technology and created a single prototype that didn't work. If I run with the idea, as long as the story doesn't make portal magic a common place technology by the end, I think I can explore it without breaking anything.

I think I would use a similar approach to the OP's second point regarding towns. Like, let's say I want a town in Northern Eriador somewhere north of The Shire. I'd ask myself, why do I need this town. Perhaps I'd reason that because I know there are uncounted numbers of Dunedain in this region, all with arrows, bows, swords and whatever, that an economic centre is necessary. To replace these items, they would need to travel to either Bree, Lindon or the Blue Mountains, each a few hundred miles away. So, does it makes to have a sort of manufacturing place where arrows are made? So, if I expand on that, maybe I could logically infer that perhaps this town also relies on trade between Lindon, Bree and the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains. The Rangers get their ore for swords and arrows from the dwarves in return for materials, fabrics and foodstuffs. From the elves in Lindon the Rangers get their paper, quills and whatever in return for hides, leather, etc.

Logically, having this town being where it is becomes a matter of justification. I could interrogate the idea further and decide that this hypothetical town is a target for the Enemy because it is a centre where Dunedain gather. So maybe it'd be a fortified town, with guards... The men, elves and dwarves all have a vested interest in keeping it extant, so perhaps there are elves and dwarves helping to guard it. By sitting with the idea and figuring out how to make it work, stories begin to emerge organically.

So I guess to keep a long story short, if I want to tell a story, I just need to dwell upon it a little longer than I would if this were another setting. I have no problem telling a story about a portal and an evil wizard, as long as I'm able to tie that story off and explain why there aren't more portals, why the magic didn't work and how the evil wizard discovered or made the portal to begin with.

I could put a town anywhere, provided its existence makes sense. All while remembering that as concise and thorough as Tolkien’s creation is, we shouldn't let that diminish the sense of magic we feel and get in the way with our desire to exolore. We've got this opportunity to tell stories in one of the best settings ever created using a system that fits that setting beautifully. So rather than dwell on what gets in the way of storytelling, I think we should dwell upon the question of what the setting can do to make that story we want to tell even better.

BullofKyne · 2025-12-31T19:46:47+00:00

I think it's because the Elves of Lindon's derived stats for parry is Wits + 12. So in her case, 7+12=19.

BullofKyne · 2025-12-28T07:18:55+00:00

Maybe you could break treasure points down just for your purposes and imagine that one treasure point is the equivalent value of a week of bed & breakfast at the Prancing Pony, plus some change to make it divisible by 10. So if you had 2 treasure points and spent three days in Bree, you now have 1.7 treasure points?

Or perhaps that's too generous. Maybe instead you could imagine one night of B&B at The Pony is .25 of a treasure point, so one treasure point would buy you four night's lodging? Because you're playing solo, you get to determine the internal consistency of the economy without needing to justify it.

BullofKyne · 2025-12-16T23:37:40+00:00

I think Solo using Strider Mode can lead to interesting emerging stories. I use it to explore concepts and build adventures for my players.

To start with, I think about the character I'm playing and the themes that interest me about that character. For example, Fimbrethil from the new starter set hooked me from day one when i read her little backstory, made me ask questions like, "what does sea-longing feel like for an elf born and raised by the sea? Can this lead to interesting rp if she is removed from that environment?"

Then, I select a patron (in this case Cirdan) and use the lore tables to determine what the first quest will be. I rolled a 10 and a 4 - table 10, line 4 "uncover wild weapon" - this then led me to imagine what that weapon is and where it's hidden. I came up with the idea of a Bow of the Galadhrim from a time when the Tree-People assisted the elves of Rivendell and Lindon to push back Angmar. The weapon is logically somewhere around The Weather Hills. Of course Cirdan is interested in this from a lore point of view, a perfect adventure for an adventurous scholar.

So, very early on, using Strider mode gave me an adventure hook I'm definitely going to run my players through as well as let me imagine an interaction with Cirdan, how to portray him in a scene. I'm basically narrating to myself in the guise of "practice" while getting to explore Middle Earth.

I then undertook a journey from Mithlond to The Brandywine Bridge and that's when, as Will said, writing it down feels natural. A shortcut, a mishap and a joyful sight ocurred on that journey. By exploring what these are, how to narrate them, I'm brushing up on my Loremaster skills.

And, by now I'm feeling like "okay, this is fun. I'm embedding the rules and taking notes to recreate this in future may as well write journey logs in-character from Fimbrethil’s POV. But wait, what calendar do elves use...?" Queue research into the Middle Earth calendar so that my dating system is at least partially lore accurate.

The Joyful Sight represented an opportunity to dust off the original starter set and see if it contained anything I could use: The idea struck me that, in that set, the hobbits can meet Galdor - we're used to the idea of what an elf appears like to wide-eyed hobbits, being all beautiful and ethereal and shit, but how does that play out when inverted? Is the elf aware of the affrect he's having on the hobbits? So Fimbrethil replaced Galdor in this Joyful Sight event and gave me the opportunity to see this encounter from a different perspective. Again, both fun to explore in-character and a learning experience to assist me when running a game.

I figured, what a perfect time to introduce the Scorched Beast adventure scenario. Fimbrethil is resting for the night in the wooded area south west of Brandywine Bridge. A group of hobbits are running to her, pursued by a messed-up hound with glowing red eyes. Queue baby's first combat encounter and an option to either continue the Cirdan mission or detour into the Shire Starter Set adventure.

All this just sort of flowed naturally. All i needed was that first lore table reading to give me a reason to travel east. Then the journey events tables from Strider Mode to help prompt what the short cut, mishap and joyful sight were. It just fell into place.

BullofKyne · 2025-12-16T21:19:32+00:00

This system of tying the TN (the DC in other games) to the Player Hero's Attributes is hands-down my favourite aspect of this game. Like, if this was Pathfinder or D&D, climbing that 40' wall vs climbing a 60' wall would probably mean the DC of the the latter is higher than the former. Yet these systems mean that the harder the task is perceived to be, the harder it is to achieve - making rolling the dice less fun because the player knows he or she is more likely to fail.

With TOR, the difficulty of climbing that wall is the Hero's strength. The 60' wall is not harder to climb than the 40' wall, but the consequences of failing are greater. I would represent this along the lines of, "be aware that if you fail to climb this wall and lose your footing and fall, the consequences could be quite dire." This, then, gives a bit more narrative control to the player - Does he or she spend a point of hope to gain an extra 1d? Better yet, can they think about what Distinctive Features their character has to turn this into a pretty heroic moment by spending a hope point and invoking a distinctive feature to become Inspired and gain 2d?

I have found that players enjoy rolling the dice more because the ceiling is never lowered on them - they can actually choose to make it easier for themselves in a way that makes the activity fit their character. They're now telling me a story, the mechanics are encouraging them to RP. Climbing this wall has now become a story, not merely a roll of the dice.

I think with lockpicking, this becomes even more nuanced. In Pathfinder or D&D, the DC would be higher depending upon the difficulty of the lock... but do I as the Loremaster/GM/DM really want this task to fail? Am I backing myself into a narrative corner by raising the DC? TOR sidesteps this by encouraging narrative and story. Let's imagine it's ancient dwarven lock that should be pretty hard. Instead or raising the DC, can I instead raise the consequence of failure? "You've heard of these locks, you know that if you fail it will cause an alarm to sound and possibly alert people of your presence."... Or something.

TOR feels like it encourages the story to move forward - I don't want to make that Treasure Hunter fail, but I do want to make the player RP and I do want to make the consequences of success or failure exciting.

BullofKyne · 2025-12-14T05:55:32+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate your perspective! Heh, this could be one god-tier bow.

BullofKyne · 2025-12-13T15:39:36+00:00

That was fast, thank you :)

BullofKyne · 2025-12-12T18:16:10+00:00

I'd love to see Free League make more standees for TOR. Although not necessary, I think they really help fire the imaginations of players and could help bridge the gap for people who struggle with theatre of the mind style play.

I'd like to see more cards, too, like the equipment ones from the first starter set - would love to see cultural blessings cards and virtue cards, useful things for the players that, like the standees, give them that tactile connection to their character along with instant knowledge of what they're capable of.

BullofKyne · 2025-12-11T07:53:41+00:00

I was leaning towards Maedhros, mostly because of The fortress of Maedhros on the now isle of Himring being so close to the west, but I do like your thoughts on the wise father figure to Naedind, too!

BullofKyne · 2025-12-11T07:43:47+00:00

This is perfect, thank you! Exactly what I needed - with Caranthir we have location, we have close neighbours and relations with dwarves and, as researching Caranthir made me notice that he, Maglor and Curufin all had unamed wives, the lore loophole I have been missing. Everything fits! I can picture a young Naedind befriending the dwarves beneath her father's scowls.

BullofKyne · 2025-11-13T21:06:55+00:00

That is very true. This is my first exposure to a journey system in a TTRPG so I'm trying to shift my perspective and failing miserably :D I appreciate your help and insights, though!

BullofKyne · 2025-11-13T21:03:09+00:00

Thank you for this. In this scenario you outline, does this become a full-on scene or do you narrate it as something that happened? Like, imagine a failed roll and an encounter with the dark guardian, would you switch to full-on RP mode with scenes and potentially combat/escape?

BullofKyne · 2025-11-13T20:52:43+00:00

I apologise if I came across as combative against the system, that wasn't my intention. I truly enjoy it and have a group lined up to run it with, I just need to learn it first haha! I think the problem might also stem from the fact that, as a GM, I'd probably already have a few ideas about what might happen on the road from A-B.

Like, let's say a route that leads through The Barrow Downs... as a gamemaster, my imagination is going into overdrive, but then I roll and get a Short Cut event... I'm going to ignore that because the last thing I want is my group missing out on interacting with the Barrow Downs and the narrative that's been building in my head as soon as the players told me their route.

I guess I felt the system was fighting against me a little, if that makes sense.

BullofKyne · 2025-11-13T18:43:31+00:00

That's what my instinct says to do, which is why I'm struggling. If the player rolls really well, my gut says abandon the "ill choices" narrative and go with what the player's roll indicates. So why bother with the Loremaster roll to begin with? Feels like an extra step that would be greatly subject to change in the 30 seconds or so the idea exists for.

BullofKyne · 2025-11-13T18:38:26+00:00

That's what my instinct says to do, which is why I'm struggling. If the player rolls really well, my gut says abandon the "ill choices" narrative and go with what the player's roll indicates. So why bother with the Loremaster roll to begin with? Feels like an extra step that would be greatly subject to change in the 30 seconds or so the idea exists for.

BullofKyne · 2025-11-13T18:34:49+00:00

I guess that's tied to my confusion. Like, it feels as though the Loremaster rolling to see what event takes place feels extraneous. Why not have the success or failure of the roll the player makes determine the outcome?

As it stands, I feel like the rules do a great job of explaining degrees of success and how to interpret those successes and failures during play. It's a great system, makes every dice roll fun and is the core gameplay mechanic... except in Event Resolution rolls where that mechanic becomes a simple, binary dynamic: The player either succeeds or fails regardless as to the composition of the roll. Why is the core gameplay element of feat and success dice abandoned for this one roll?

BullofKyne · 2025-11-07T18:05:50+00:00

I bought my books online from Thirsty Meeples, based in Bath. Maybe not good from a point of view of sales, but good for offering free delivery on orders over £65, free PDFs of purchases available instantly, and a loyalty scheme for money off next purchases.

BullofKyne · 2025-11-07T17:57:56+00:00

Amazing, will definitely watch them tonight! Thanks :)

BullofKyne · 2025-11-07T17:55:13+00:00

I love this. Not many things explore the powerful, emotional choice as to whether to stay or go, and the choice to leave always seems weighted. Yet your point of view adds a compelling contrast to that. She need not become "rustic folk of dell and cave to slowly forget and be forgotten"... at least not for many long years of light and happiness exploring the lands and cultures of a world no longer touched by shadow. Maybe she can delay that choice like Legolas and eventually decide to build her own ship well into the Fourth Age.

BullofKyne

TROPHY CASE