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The One Ring RPG #CB71009
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The new roleplaying game based on The Lord of the Rings the most influential property in fantasy Set after the events of The Hobbit; future core game releases will expand the game to the era of the War of the Ring
Two core books in premium slipcover: Loremaster's Guide for GMs and Adventurer's Handbook for players
Slipcase with 2-book set, poster map, and
7 dice. Books softcover, 8.5" x 11," full color
Two core books in premium slipcover: Loremaster's Guide for GMs and Adventurer's Handbook for players
Slipcase with 2-book set, poster map, and
7 dice. Books softcover, 8.5" x 11," full color
334 pages, Unknown Binding
First published August 31, 2011
9 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 12, 2020
A wonderful core book in which the mechanics evoke the setting. Not typical with all RPGs, I fear.
The hope mechanic speaks volumes of Tolkien's themes and works great.
I would add that I played in this twice but the GMs didn't evoke the setting so it fell flat. The third GM loved Tolkien and knew the setting and then it all began to make wonderful sense.
MY GRADE: A-minus to A.
The hope mechanic speaks volumes of Tolkien's themes and works great.
I would add that I played in this twice but the GMs didn't evoke the setting so it fell flat. The third GM loved Tolkien and knew the setting and then it all began to make wonderful sense.
MY GRADE: A-minus to A.
February 3, 2014
As someone who is only passingly familiar with tabletop RPGs, I can't speak to how The One Ring compares to Dungeons and Dragons or other rulesets. However, as someone who is only passingly familiar with such things, I found The One Ring to be a system complex enough to offer varying experiences and situations, but also simple enough to understand as you're reading it and putting it into practice.
The best thing about it is the fact that the authors and compilers stuck as close as possible to the lore and Tolkien's written works. Where they present creatures and situations that are not accounted for in the lore, it is always settled and based on what can be found in the texts. The authors clearly had a deep understanding of Middle-Earth and the races and characters within it, and I enjoyed that they used excerpts from the Tolkien's works (Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, mostly) to flavour the text.
The best thing about it is the fact that the authors and compilers stuck as close as possible to the lore and Tolkien's written works. Where they present creatures and situations that are not accounted for in the lore, it is always settled and based on what can be found in the texts. The authors clearly had a deep understanding of Middle-Earth and the races and characters within it, and I enjoyed that they used excerpts from the Tolkien's works (Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, mostly) to flavour the text.
January 15, 2016
The artwork is beautiful, very nice drawings. It all stays very true to Tolkien and it uses a lot of great inspiring quotes. The game mechanics are interesting and well explained.
So...
Special dice set: check
Character sheet: check
Preparations and maps: check
Amazing fellowship members: check
Pocket-handkerchief: check
Let's go on an adventure!!
So...
Special dice set: check
Character sheet: check
Preparations and maps: check
Amazing fellowship members: check
Pocket-handkerchief: check
Let's go on an adventure!!
July 21, 2025
Looks to be an interesting system tied closely to the thematic elements of the books. One concern is that it seems to be excessive on dice-rolling, especially in resolving the Journey aspect of the game. The highlights seem to be balancing endurance versus fatigue to prevent weariness and balancing hope vs shadow to prevent being miserable. The permanence of shadow points that could cause you to retire and the ever present threat of heroic death also brings in the theme.
The layout of information could still be improved upon as details going into some things (specifically during character creation) that aren't fully explained until later. Getting a little too detailed with Specialties as opposed to Distinctive Features that have the same basic game mechanic is a bit more cumbersome than it needs to be.
The core focuses just on the Mirkwood area and those specific races. You get the dwarves, elves, hobbits and some of the men to start it off. Perhaps a bit too focused but hopefully the supplemental material keeps the pace going covering the other nations of each race.
The final nitpick is that the introductory scenario in the back isn't as clear as it could be. They leave things open-ended - which is good - but it is a little too open for an intro. So I fear new players may get a little lost with what should be spoken aloud and what is privy to just the loremaster.
The layout of information could still be improved upon as details going into some things (specifically during character creation) that aren't fully explained until later. Getting a little too detailed with Specialties as opposed to Distinctive Features that have the same basic game mechanic is a bit more cumbersome than it needs to be.
The core focuses just on the Mirkwood area and those specific races. You get the dwarves, elves, hobbits and some of the men to start it off. Perhaps a bit too focused but hopefully the supplemental material keeps the pace going covering the other nations of each race.
The final nitpick is that the introductory scenario in the back isn't as clear as it could be. They leave things open-ended - which is good - but it is a little too open for an intro. So I fear new players may get a little lost with what should be spoken aloud and what is privy to just the loremaster.
November 21, 2011
A very good adaption of the Lord of the Rings setting. The mechanics of the game are different enough from the other RPGs out there to not feel like a rehash. Or that the designers were trying to shoehorn the setting into an established game system. It evokes the feeling of the world and lore as laid out my Tolkien.
January 9, 2021
É um sistema muito interessante, que propõe muitos detalhes de gameplay, principalmente na etapa de roleplay. No entanto o sistema de combate poderia ser mais simples. Li duas vezes o capitulo de combates e ainda não entendo 100% como funciona... Ainda mais eu que quero sempre jogo como mestre
January 16, 2015
I finally got around to reading my copy of the first edition of The One Ring. I did so while referring to the Clarifications and Amendments document produced to bring this printing up to date with the second edition, as well as the expanded index. Both of which are available from the publisher's website.
The good part of this game is that the mechanics largely support the setting. A lot of this centers on the Hope mechanic. Hope is a resource that every hero has. It can be spent to turn some failures into successes, and to power some abilities. Characters start out with several points of Hope, but are only usually able to recover a point or two per session, so it likely becomes a tight economy as the game progresses.
Hope also ties into the Corruption rules. Once a character has been touched by the Shadow, if their Hope goes too low it can lead to the character being debilitated or even going mad. This simulates both what happened when Thorin succumbed to "dragon sickness" in the Hobbit, as well as many of the trials undergone by Frodo in serving as the Ringbearer.
There are also a lot of nice touches in combat that help to try to recreate the feel of fights from the stories, but I don't want to get into a lot of detail about them as it would take quite a bit to cover them. The point is that I liked them.
The bad part about this game is that it is geared towards campaign play. There are two problems with this. The first is that lengthy campaigns are very much the exception for most RPG players today. The second is that it doesn't really support the fiction.
One shots to medium length campaigns are the standard now. The book seems to expect campaigns to run at least 60 to 90 sessions based on their rules for retiring characters! That kind of length isn't justified by the fiction either. The game suggests that a year in game should take 4 to 6 sessions. The Hobbit took a year. The Lord of the Rings takes about two years. So the average Middle Earth campaign should take 4 to 12 sessions, not 60 to 90!
Allowing for longer campaigns is nice, but the focus should have been on shorter ones. That would have better supported both the fiction and the way I think most people play today.
Still, the game looks like a good one, although it may not be one I get to the table due to that focus on campaign play.
Edit: I forgot to mention the other bad thing about the game: It doesn't do much better than the source material in it's gender representation.
There are six pre-generated characters, and only one of them is female. In addition, her entire backstory is based on her relationship with a man, in this case being a widow. None of the other characters even mention having a significant other.
This was one area where the game really didn't need to remain true to the source material.
The good part of this game is that the mechanics largely support the setting. A lot of this centers on the Hope mechanic. Hope is a resource that every hero has. It can be spent to turn some failures into successes, and to power some abilities. Characters start out with several points of Hope, but are only usually able to recover a point or two per session, so it likely becomes a tight economy as the game progresses.
Hope also ties into the Corruption rules. Once a character has been touched by the Shadow, if their Hope goes too low it can lead to the character being debilitated or even going mad. This simulates both what happened when Thorin succumbed to "dragon sickness" in the Hobbit, as well as many of the trials undergone by Frodo in serving as the Ringbearer.
There are also a lot of nice touches in combat that help to try to recreate the feel of fights from the stories, but I don't want to get into a lot of detail about them as it would take quite a bit to cover them. The point is that I liked them.
The bad part about this game is that it is geared towards campaign play. There are two problems with this. The first is that lengthy campaigns are very much the exception for most RPG players today. The second is that it doesn't really support the fiction.
One shots to medium length campaigns are the standard now. The book seems to expect campaigns to run at least 60 to 90 sessions based on their rules for retiring characters! That kind of length isn't justified by the fiction either. The game suggests that a year in game should take 4 to 6 sessions. The Hobbit took a year. The Lord of the Rings takes about two years. So the average Middle Earth campaign should take 4 to 12 sessions, not 60 to 90!
Allowing for longer campaigns is nice, but the focus should have been on shorter ones. That would have better supported both the fiction and the way I think most people play today.
Still, the game looks like a good one, although it may not be one I get to the table due to that focus on campaign play.
Edit: I forgot to mention the other bad thing about the game: It doesn't do much better than the source material in it's gender representation.
There are six pre-generated characters, and only one of them is female. In addition, her entire backstory is based on her relationship with a man, in this case being a widow. None of the other characters even mention having a significant other.
This was one area where the game really didn't need to remain true to the source material.
November 24, 2015
I admit to having somewhat mixed feelings on this. It does seem like it has at least the potential to be a good fit for Middle-Earth. After all, rather than being a kludge of another system, this is designed from the ground up for Tolkien. And I feel like it might do a good job of it. Stuff like rules for journeys and the Fellowship phase are pretty cool, and as I reread Lord of the Rings, I see justifications for them in the original text. Also, the choice of Wilderland as default setting is a clever one. After The Hobbit, it doesn't get much detail, so it's easy for players and GMs to explore and flesh out this region without worrying that they're stepping on canonical toes. However, the information on the setting in the core book feels a bit scanty - there isn't a huge amount that I don't already know from the books. Hopefully the supplements go into more new detail, and I do plan to read some of them sooner or later. I do also feel somewhat weird about some of the mechanics. The decision to handwave money, other than the rather poorly done Treasure score, but have a hyper-focus on encumbrance is exactly the opposite of how I like to do things. I'm also not sure how I feel about the combat system, especially stances. It's hard to say whether it simplifies things a bit too much. Of course, part of the problem is that unlike D&D, Tolkien's heroes have no major magical powers (well, there is Gandalf, but you can't play him), so combat is going to be mostly a back and forth series of attacks. Perhaps it plays out better than it reads - and I hope that's true of the game as a whole. I do want to give this a go at some point, and I could see trying to hack it for some other fantasy worlds I'm fond of, but reading the core book doesn't make me rave about it as some people have, and it's not suddenly going to become my go-to RPG.
August 20, 2015
Can't wait to play it!
June 17, 2015
Really looking forward to playing this. I got a little lost in the character creation, but I'm certain it will work itself out.
August 17, 2018
A beautifully illustrated and artfully crafted rendition of Middle Earth as a Role Playing setting.
I really like how the constant taint of the Shadow is implemented in play and I also find the mechanics behind The Fellowship (Fellowship points and the Focus) interesting.
Anyway I fear that the attention put on the overland movement, while consistent with the established canon, is just a little too much. The Loremaster (GM) will probably be doing a lot of bookkeeping work and a lot of rolls over hexcrawls which, in my experience, tend to be quite boring.
I also find the idea of alternating and Adventuring phase with a Fellowship phase fascinating: the heroes settle in and remove some of the wear and tear from constant traveling and adventuring under the Shadow. Still I imagine it could be skipped a lot as the fiction is always dominant in role playing games and enforcing "periods" on the time schedule of adventurers is going to be hard on the GM.
I don't like crunch-heavy systems anymore (not enough time, sorry!), so this will be very hard for me to break onto my players, still I imagine it could be fun for some groups (the combat is quite abstract, anyway).
IMO this is the truest-to-canon RPG rendition of Middle Earth to date, just not my cup of tea.
I really like how the constant taint of the Shadow is implemented in play and I also find the mechanics behind The Fellowship (Fellowship points and the Focus) interesting.
Anyway I fear that the attention put on the overland movement, while consistent with the established canon, is just a little too much. The Loremaster (GM) will probably be doing a lot of bookkeeping work and a lot of rolls over hexcrawls which, in my experience, tend to be quite boring.
I also find the idea of alternating and Adventuring phase with a Fellowship phase fascinating: the heroes settle in and remove some of the wear and tear from constant traveling and adventuring under the Shadow. Still I imagine it could be skipped a lot as the fiction is always dominant in role playing games and enforcing "periods" on the time schedule of adventurers is going to be hard on the GM.
I don't like crunch-heavy systems anymore (not enough time, sorry!), so this will be very hard for me to break onto my players, still I imagine it could be fun for some groups (the combat is quite abstract, anyway).
IMO this is the truest-to-canon RPG rendition of Middle Earth to date, just not my cup of tea.
January 15, 2019
As an italian I'm proud that an italian author is maybe the best one in creating products derivated from LOTR (The War of the ring tabletop game, The one ring rpg). I'm less proud of the fact that accordingly to many reviews I've read, the italian version is, for what concerns materials and editing, far worse than the english original one.
In this case I still haven't played the game, (the "road test", for a rpg, is far more important than the impressions you get reading the handbook) but it seems very beautiful and built with deep thoughts about how to convey the atmospheres and themes of Middle Earth.
Only doubt I have is about the order in which topics are presented. I found it a little bit confusing. And the the index is written in very poor way (lots of voices are indexed as "How to", it doesen't make so much sense).
In this case I still haven't played the game, (the "road test", for a rpg, is far more important than the impressions you get reading the handbook) but it seems very beautiful and built with deep thoughts about how to convey the atmospheres and themes of Middle Earth.
Only doubt I have is about the order in which topics are presented. I found it a little bit confusing. And the the index is written in very poor way (lots of voices are indexed as "How to", it doesen't make so much sense).
April 11, 2020
Wspaniale wydany i ilustrowany podręcznik. Troszeczkę chaotycznie napisany co jest już standardem u tego wydawcy. System kładzie nacisk na interakcje pomiędzy członkami drużyny i używa do tego kilka mechanik. Samo tworzenie postaci daje nam jakieś opcje wyboru klasy postaci czy jaką rolę będzie ona spełniać w drużynie mimo to grając miałem wrażenie że co by się nie wybrało to i tak nie wpływa to w żaden sposób na rozgrywkę. Jeżeli GM będzie swoje przygody skupiać na walce z orkami i sługusami saurona to będzie to męka. To gdzie gra błyszczy to podróżowanie, pieśni przy ognisku, wspinanie się po górskich szczytach i skradanie się po mrocznym lesie.
Warto dodać że książka jest oparta o literaturę Tolkiena a nie filmy co moim zdaniem jest ogromnym plusem.
Warto dodać że książka jest oparta o literaturę Tolkiena a nie filmy co moim zdaniem jest ogromnym plusem.
March 4, 2019
The best thing that can be said about this is that it feels like a Tolkien rpg not just in the flavor, but also in the rules themselves. It's not just D&D reskinned where you're gaining xp from slaying monsters as murderhobos. It's a game where your main stats are Body, Hope and Wits, where Endurance and Hope are two of your main resources, and Riddling is a skill you can take. You are expected to have things to do in between your adventures to further your character growth and story.
This is definitely the rpg for people who want to experience the mood and feel of lotr in game form, but for people not as into or knowledgable about it, it might be harder to get into.
This is definitely the rpg for people who want to experience the mood and feel of lotr in game form, but for people not as into or knowledgable about it, it might be harder to get into.
March 3, 2021
System itself is decent; failure isn't very interesting. Does a much better job than its contemporaries of mimicking Tolkien's style and themes.
Travel is interesting, but not amazing. Not very epic, but sometimes that's what you want.
Travel is interesting, but not amazing. Not very epic, but sometimes that's what you want.
November 22, 2022
Magnificent, flavourful, steeped in atmosphere, the first Middle-Earth RPG to actually feel like it understands Tolkien. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
August 20, 2018
Genial, ja tinc ganes de provar-lo a taula ;) Molt complet!
March 30, 2020
Extraordinary game worthy of the Professor’s amazing works.
April 7, 2022
Good, fun ttrpg.
September 18, 2019
I skipped the parts that where re-used for the Adventures in Middle Earth Rulebook. Also many of the lore was copy-pasted into that other Rulebook.
Still, while I found adventures in Middle Earth not a really good 5e Dungeons and Dragons adaptation, because most of the rules are roleplaying rules and DnD is a more combat-heavy roleplay. So when you got into combat, it was underwhelming in comparison to the original DnD rules. But the adventuring-phase and fellowship-phase system was something very innovative for DnD. Also the shadowrules, audience system and traveling-system are very welcoming ideas for DnD. And apparently, all those things originate from this rulebook!
Here in the original RPG you don't have problems with underwhelming combat. This is a fantastic system that focuses more on roleplay and storytelling with the expectation that you get into a combat situation every 1-2 role-play evenings. So every 4-6 hours of playing the actual game, you will experience 1 combat situation.
The only other RPG I know that gives it's players such good "role-playing" rules is Dungeon World. The system used here is very light, but also complex enough for normal role-players to give them some challenge.
You always roll against a target number (14 for a normal target number) with a 1d12 + xd6, where X is the level of skill used. A 6 has a special symbol, which indicates that the loremaster gives you a greater degree of succes. On the d12, the 11 is a sauron symbol: which counts as zero, 12 is Gandalf's symbol and gives you an instant succes.
To be honest, this already is enough to have a feel of how the system works. The rest is almost self explanatory if you know enough about RPG's.
Still, while I found adventures in Middle Earth not a really good 5e Dungeons and Dragons adaptation, because most of the rules are roleplaying rules and DnD is a more combat-heavy roleplay. So when you got into combat, it was underwhelming in comparison to the original DnD rules. But the adventuring-phase and fellowship-phase system was something very innovative for DnD. Also the shadowrules, audience system and traveling-system are very welcoming ideas for DnD. And apparently, all those things originate from this rulebook!
Here in the original RPG you don't have problems with underwhelming combat. This is a fantastic system that focuses more on roleplay and storytelling with the expectation that you get into a combat situation every 1-2 role-play evenings. So every 4-6 hours of playing the actual game, you will experience 1 combat situation.
The only other RPG I know that gives it's players such good "role-playing" rules is Dungeon World. The system used here is very light, but also complex enough for normal role-players to give them some challenge.
You always roll against a target number (14 for a normal target number) with a 1d12 + xd6, where X is the level of skill used. A 6 has a special symbol, which indicates that the loremaster gives you a greater degree of succes. On the d12, the 11 is a sauron symbol: which counts as zero, 12 is Gandalf's symbol and gives you an instant succes.
To be honest, this already is enough to have a feel of how the system works. The rest is almost self explanatory if you know enough about RPG's.
March 17, 2015
A great take on Tolkien's world. I think this captures the feel of Middle-earth better than any system before it.
There are a few minor things I don't care for, like social introductions, but most of the rules are elegant and interesting.
It's a little difficult to adventure in the time period of the Lord of the Rings books, and that wasn't helped by the long delay in publishing adventures, but I still hope to get a full campaign in one day.
There are a few minor things I don't care for, like social introductions, but most of the rules are elegant and interesting.
It's a little difficult to adventure in the time period of the Lord of the Rings books, and that wasn't helped by the long delay in publishing adventures, but I still hope to get a full campaign in one day.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews