The Lord of the Rings Adventure Game
Fast Play Rules

Time
The adventure contained in this game box should take a couple of hours for you to play. This time, the time you and your friends experience as you play, is called "real time." During those few hours of real time, your characters could spend several days adventuring. That time, the time your characters experience, is called "game time." Game time falls into one of two types: action time and narrative time.

Action Time
Action time passes in "rounds." A round represents about six seconds of game time. Each character and every bad guy gets to act twice each round. During action time, it's important to keep track of who goes next, what everyone's doing, and how long it takes. Life and death can hang in the balance of how long it takes to cross a bridge, for instance. Since time plays such a critical role during combats, character location and movement become crucial. That's why almost every combat encounter has an accompanying tactical map, to help you keep track of where everyone is during a given point in time.

Narrative Time
Narrative time isn't measured in rounds. It's basically "the time between combats." Narrative time can pass quickly or slowly depending on what you and your fellow players do. It could take you 10 minutes of real time to decide which door to go through, even though your characters move through the door in the span of a few seconds of narrative time. Likewise, if you tell your Narrator that you and the rest of the party are resting for the night, he might determine that nothing happens while you rest. So, in just a few moments of real time, you skip over an entire evening of narrative time to awaken the next morning and continue on your journey.

Action Sequence
During the game, the members of the Fellowship act in the following order: Legolas, Aragorn, Boromir, Gandalf, Gimli, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin. The action sequence is set by the characters' Swiftness reaction scores (found on the various character sheets).

Skill Tests
Most of the things you'll want your characters to do require particular skills, such as knowing something about the history of Moria (Knowledge skill), climbing a wall (Athletics skill), or shooting a bow (Ranged Combat skill). Look at the skills listed on your character sheet. This list represents those things he knows, or those actions he can do well. The numbers behind the title are called "levels" and represent how skilled the character is (higher levels being better). Any time you want to use a skill, do the following;

1. Roll 2d6
2. Add your skill level
3. Tell your Narrator the total.

Your Narrator knows the number you need to beat in order to succeed in your skill test. That number is called the "target number", or "TN". Situations can modify the target number; it's harder to shoot someone in a blizzard than it is on a bright and sunny day. In the Through the Mines of Moria adventure, these modifiers are already accounted for by the predetermined target numbers; you don't have to worry about them unless your Narrator decides to alter the conditions surrounding a particular dice test.

Attribute Tests
Occasionally, you'll want to do something simple, like carrying something heavy or remembering something that happened earlier in the adventure. There are no skills for these basic tasks; instead, you use your attribute modifier in place of your skill level. During attribute tests, your Narrator will tell you which attribute is being tested so you know which modifier to apply to your roll.

1. Roll 2d6
2. Add your attribute modifier
3. Tell your Narrator the total.

Attribute modifiers tend to be lower than skill levels. This is because skill tests happen to include attribute modifiers; you don't see them because we've already factored them into the character skill levels to keep things simple.

Reaction Tests
Skills and attributes play a role when determining the outcome of actions initiated by the character. But some circumstances may force your character to react, and for these situations, you make reaction tests. Your Narrator will tell you whenever you need to make a reaction test. When making the test, do the following:

1. Roll 2d6
2. Add the appropriate reaction modifier
3. Tell your Narrator the result.

You'll know which is the right reaction modifier because your Narrator will tell you. He'll say "make a Swiftness test," meaning roll two dice and add your Swiftness modifier.

Rolling Double Sixes
Anytime you make a skill test, an attribute test, or a reaction test and roll sixes on both dice, you get to roll another die and add it to your total. If you roll another six, you get to add it to your total and roll again. Keep rolling and adding until you roll something other than a six, add the last number rolled, then stop. Through this "open ended" rolling method, you could achieve very high scores indeed!

Melee Combat
Anytime you try and hit someone with a weapon during close combat, you need to make a skill test just like any other. Check your character sheet for skills that let you use weapons; these include 'Melee Weapon (Longsword)' or 'Melee Weapon (Axe).' As with any other skill test, you must roll 2d6, add your skill rating, and tell the Narrator your total. He will then tell you if you hit, based on the established target number.

Ranged Combat
Shooting someone with a bow requires skill just like attacking with a sword. Like all skill tests, you roll two dice and add your skill with a bow (look for Ranged Combat (Longbow) in your listed skills). The target number in ranged combat is your target's defense, just as it is in melee combat, but you add 2 to your roll if your target is within 5 hexes, and subtract two if your target is more than 20 hexes away.

1. Roll 2d6
2. Add your skill in Ranged Combat
3. Add your penalty or bonus for range.
4. Tell your narrator the total.

Inflicting Damage
If you hit with a weapon, you need to roll dice to determine how much damage you inflict. Damage varies by weapon type and user Strength (for melee weapons only). Look on your character sheet to find the damage inflicted by your weapons. There's usually a bonus applied, based on how strong you are or your weapon type. So 2d6+2 means roll two six-sided dice, add the results together and add 2. The double sixes rule you use for other tests doesn't apply to damage rolls.

Wounds
Your character sheet also lists a wound rating representing how much damage your character can suffer before dying. Every time an orc, or something else, does damage to your character, he loses wound points. When he reaches 0, he dies. The same holds true for the bad guys.

Name/Race/Profession
Your character's name appears at the top right of your sheet. His race and profession are listed underneath. For example, Frodo is a Fallohide Hobbit and Warrior. Your character's race confers certain strengths and weaknesses, just as his profession makes him skilled in some areas and unskilled in others.

Attributes
All characters are described using six basic attributes: Strength, Vitality, Nimbleness, Wits, Bearing, and Perception.

• Strength represents how much your character can lift or how much extra damage he does when he hits someone.
• Vitality measures your character's health and stamina.
• Nimbleness represents how fast and agile your character is.
• Wits reflects how smart your character is and how fast he thinks on his feet.
• Bearing describes how regal, noble, or imposing your character seems to others.
• Perception measures your character's ability to notice things in the world around him.

Each of these attributes has an associated number, or "level," and a derived modifier. Some game rules (such as who acts first) use the level, others (such as attribute tests) use the modifier. The following chart shows the modifiers associated with attribute levels.

Reactions
Reactions work like attributes, determining your character's ability to react to situations or cope with certain predicaments. Reactions are usually derived from one of two attributes, then elevated through edges (see below) and through adventuring. There are four reactions: Fortitude, Swiftness, Willpower, and Wisdom.

• Fortitude allows you to resist poison and disease as well as tolerate extreme pain or fatigue.
• Swiftness lets you dodge incoming attacks or falling rocks, in addition to other actions requiring you to move or act quickly.
• Willpower lets you resist temptation, mental control, and social domination, including corruption and spells that affect your mind.
• Wisdom lets you perceive deception and see such things for what they are. It also enables you to realize the folly of actions you or your companions are about to take.

Edges
Edges are special abilities that grant some bonus over the course of the game. For instance, a character may have the 'Allies' edge, allowing him to seek the help of his allies and receive their aid.

Flaws
Flaws are the opposite of edges. They make life harder for your character, and impose some penalty on your character or his actions. If you play The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game you'll design your own character. Then you'd get to take more edges for every flaw you take. A character with the Enemies flaw would be attacked by whichever group or race he designates as his Enemy, while others without this flaw might be allowed to pass unharmed.

Skills
Skills define the areas in which your character excels, including knowledge, socializing, and actions. Each skill comes with a number, or "level." Some characters also possess skill specialties noted by parentheses. Legolas, for instance, has the skill Track (Orcs) 6. This means his skill in tracking is 6. He adds this number to his die roll if he's trying to track anyone. But if he tracks orcs (his area of specialty) he gets to add a +2 specialty bonus, for a total of 8, to his dice roll.

Racial Abilities
Your character's race may grant special powers and test bonuses during the game. For example, Elves can see great distances, as we would through binoculars. This racial ability is called "Farsightedness." Similarly, Dwarves are especially strong-willed and difficult to dominate; they have the "Hardness of Mind" racial ability.

Equipment
Your character owns equipment he takes with him on his adventures. The "Equipment" portion of your character sheet lists all of the equipment he's carrying with him during the Through the Mines of Moria adventure. Most of the characters in the Fellowship of the Ring carry very little with them. They travel light on purpose in order to cover more ground quickly. Had they taken their horses and packs with them into the mines, they'd have a great deal more equipment listed on their character sheets.