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The One Ring™ Roleplaying Game (2nd Edition)
The One Ring™ Starter Set
A strange invitation from Bilbo Baggins, mentioning that he’s in need of help. Most odd! But then again, a great many things about that particular Hobbit have been odd ever since that business with the Dragon. Nothing wrong with taking a stroll and helping old Bilbo out I suppose. After all, it's not like there's any real dangers to worry about here in the Shire...
The One Ring™ Starter Set contains all you need to take your first step into Middle-earth and experience the adventures Hobbits get up to. With streamlined rules and ready made characters, it is easy to quickly sit down and actually play the game. The One Ring is set between the time Bilbo went on his journey and the events in The Lord of the Rings™, allowing you to explore the Shire by taking on the roles of those same Hobbits whose children will go on to do extraordinary things, such as Drogo Baggins, Rory Brandybuck and Esmeralda Took. Besides the Rules and The Adventures, there’s a full compendium covering the four Farthings of the Shire, all the way from Greenholm and the White Downs in the west to Buckland and the Old Forest in the east. This boxed set contains:
A 24-page volume of Rules.
A 52-page volume describing The Shire.
A 31-page volume containing The Adventures.
Eight double-sided pre-generated character sheets.
Two large maps showing the Shire and Eriador.
30 Wargear Cards that can also be used with The One Ring core rules.
Six double-sided Journey Role and Combat Stance Cards that can also be used with The One Ring core rules.
Two D12 Feat Dice.
Six D6 Success Dice.
The One Ring™ Starter Set contains all you need to take your first step into Middle-earth and experience the adventures Hobbits get up to. With streamlined rules and ready made characters, it is easy to quickly sit down and actually play the game. The One Ring is set between the time Bilbo went on his journey and the events in The Lord of the Rings™, allowing you to explore the Shire by taking on the roles of those same Hobbits whose children will go on to do extraordinary things, such as Drogo Baggins, Rory Brandybuck and Esmeralda Took. Besides the Rules and The Adventures, there’s a full compendium covering the four Farthings of the Shire, all the way from Greenholm and the White Downs in the west to Buckland and the Old Forest in the east. This boxed set contains:
A 24-page volume of Rules.
A 52-page volume describing The Shire.
A 31-page volume containing The Adventures.
Eight double-sided pre-generated character sheets.
Two large maps showing the Shire and Eriador.
30 Wargear Cards that can also be used with The One Ring core rules.
Six double-sided Journey Role and Combat Stance Cards that can also be used with The One Ring core rules.
Two D12 Feat Dice.
Six D6 Success Dice.
110 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2020
3 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 16, 2022
Starter sets are an interesting beast. They have to teach you the basics of a system while simultaneously selling you on that system, and providing you with tools to continue further if you decide to buy the full rules.
This does some of that. It does teach you the basics of the core, travel, and combat systems, but leaves out some important parts. Among them are some of the more interesting details of the combat system, and the entirety of the shadow/corruption system that is a big part of the main game.
Thematically, leaving out the corruption system is understandable, as the included adventures all take place in or around the Shire, and pose little risk to the player characters.
These adventures feature pregenerated NPCs that are interesting from a cannon perspective, but are utterly useless as the jumping off point for a larger campaign. Most of the pre-gens are parents of cannon characters from the Lord of the Rings before those characters are born. They can't exactly be going off to adventure in the wider world if the group decides to continue playing past the starter set.
So what is useful in this set if you are planning on running a standard campaign? Well, there are combat tracking cards that use the full rules, not just those presented in the set. The item cards could also be useful. The dice are nice, but misprinted, limiting their attraction (what should be a '1' is an '11'). The sourcebook on the Shire provides some interesting background information, but a regular group isn't going to be adventuring there. At most, they would be visiting Bilbo as a Patron, and wouldn't need most of the information provided.
It's not a terrible product, but it's not very useful either, let alone a necessity. Its core audience should be GMs who plan on running one-shots or short campaigns to introduce people to the system.
This does some of that. It does teach you the basics of the core, travel, and combat systems, but leaves out some important parts. Among them are some of the more interesting details of the combat system, and the entirety of the shadow/corruption system that is a big part of the main game.
Thematically, leaving out the corruption system is understandable, as the included adventures all take place in or around the Shire, and pose little risk to the player characters.
These adventures feature pregenerated NPCs that are interesting from a cannon perspective, but are utterly useless as the jumping off point for a larger campaign. Most of the pre-gens are parents of cannon characters from the Lord of the Rings before those characters are born. They can't exactly be going off to adventure in the wider world if the group decides to continue playing past the starter set.
So what is useful in this set if you are planning on running a standard campaign? Well, there are combat tracking cards that use the full rules, not just those presented in the set. The item cards could also be useful. The dice are nice, but misprinted, limiting their attraction (what should be a '1' is an '11'). The sourcebook on the Shire provides some interesting background information, but a regular group isn't going to be adventuring there. At most, they would be visiting Bilbo as a Patron, and wouldn't need most of the information provided.
It's not a terrible product, but it's not very useful either, let alone a necessity. Its core audience should be GMs who plan on running one-shots or short campaigns to introduce people to the system.
June 18, 2023
Una excelente introducción al mundo de la Tierra Media y al sistema de El Anillo Único. En esta caja encontramos un libreto breve de reglas, una descripción detallada de La Comarca (que será la región inicial) y otro de Rivendell (aunque no se usa en las aventuras), así como un libreto con 5 aventuras que son una delicia. Mapas, dados y otros extras acaban la caja. Las reglas son deliberadamente incompletas, lo cual no es un problema en absoluto, y la lectura te deja con ganas de más, mucho más.
Pinta como que puede ser la adaptación definitiva (hasta ahora) de la Tierra Media a un juego de rol. Desde luego, consigue su meta que es convencerte de probar el juego.
Pinta como que puede ser la adaptación definitiva (hasta ahora) de la Tierra Media a un juego de rol. Desde luego, consigue su meta que es convencerte de probar el juego.
May 25, 2025
Worth most of the pennies. The dice, the maps, the cards. The adventures are what they are - potted and not for everyone. But, overall, truly a wonderful experience for a starter box.
February 3, 2025
Por desgracia, esta caja me ha decepcionado un poco. Y no creo que sea porque es un mal producto, sino porque no está a la altura de lo que podría haber sido. Sobre la versión simplificada de las reglas de El Anillo Único que se incluyen, poco que decir: es un juego que a la vez me gusta mucho en algunos aspectos (tiene partes que me hacen pensar que las podría haber diseñado yo, de lo bien que se ajustan a mis preferencias) y a la vez partes que me chirrían mucho.
Pero ese no es el problema. Lo que hace que esta caja deje un mal sabor de boca es que, tras un excelente libreto que detalla la Comarca y da un montón de ideas de aventuras que pueden desarrollarse en ella, te encuentras con otro libreto con cinco aventuras que van directamente en contra de la filosofía de la descripción de la región.
En lugar de tener aventuras de un carácter "muy hobbit" en las que el conflicto es ver qué posada hace el plato más delicioso o qué ha pasado con el cartero, lo que tenemos es una versión light de los típicos lugares comunes de la fantasía heroica. Los protagonistas (spoiler) acaban luchando contra un trol y lobos fantasmales. Además, en estas aventuras ocurren sucesos muy difíciles de justificar y adolecen de un enorme encarrilamiento. Y la imagen que dan de Bilbo Bolsón no cuadra nada con la que uno se lleva de los libros en los que supuestamente se basa este juego; ¡nada más empezar la mini-campaña pide a los aventureros que roben!. Y además, las aventuras hacen referencia a una regla que no se explica en la versión simplificada del reglamento de esta caja.
En resumen, una caja que vale la pena por el libro de región pero por nada más. Ni siquiera creo que unas aventuras cuya esencia sea "somos aventureros normales, pero más débiles y bajitos" sea atractiva para nadie, independientemente de su nivel de veteranía en los juegos de rol.
Pero ese no es el problema. Lo que hace que esta caja deje un mal sabor de boca es que, tras un excelente libreto que detalla la Comarca y da un montón de ideas de aventuras que pueden desarrollarse en ella, te encuentras con otro libreto con cinco aventuras que van directamente en contra de la filosofía de la descripción de la región.
En lugar de tener aventuras de un carácter "muy hobbit" en las que el conflicto es ver qué posada hace el plato más delicioso o qué ha pasado con el cartero, lo que tenemos es una versión light de los típicos lugares comunes de la fantasía heroica. Los protagonistas (spoiler) acaban luchando contra un trol y lobos fantasmales. Además, en estas aventuras ocurren sucesos muy difíciles de justificar y adolecen de un enorme encarrilamiento. Y la imagen que dan de Bilbo Bolsón no cuadra nada con la que uno se lleva de los libros en los que supuestamente se basa este juego; ¡nada más empezar la mini-campaña pide a los aventureros que roben!. Y además, las aventuras hacen referencia a una regla que no se explica en la versión simplificada del reglamento de esta caja.
En resumen, una caja que vale la pena por el libro de región pero por nada más. Ni siquiera creo que unas aventuras cuya esencia sea "somos aventureros normales, pero más débiles y bajitos" sea atractiva para nadie, independientemente de su nivel de veteranía en los juegos de rol.
July 5, 2025
I had heard that this second edition of Middle-Earth role playing game was very good. So I picked up this Starter Set, that includes a 30 page rulebook, a 30 page adventure, and 60 page sourcebook all about the Shire.
You can accuse me of being a gatekeeper all you want, but for me, Tolkien’s created world belongs to him and we are only visitors to it. The lore and the intent behind it needs to be respected for those who want to creatively explore and interpolate their own stories. The adventure included in this Starter Set is a perfect example of this. The level of detail in the adventure is very impressive. It is clear that it was constructed as a labor of love.
For example, the players find themselves in Brandy Hall and meet the elder Gordaboc Brandybuck. He is a friendly and aged patriarch with personal relationships with several of the pre-generated player characters. The adventure is set in S. R. 1360, which is also the year his wife, Mirabella Took died, according to Appendix C of The Lord of the Rings. Her absence in the story implies he is a widower.
All of these details makes this set a great and entertaining read for any Tolkien fan, even if you never play the game itself. From the Shire sourcebook, I have a better and easier understanding of the layout of the Shire and its various families of hobbits than I could ever glean from Tolkien’s works or the extensive History of Middle Earth books.
The artwork is beautiful and the whole set is put together very nicely. If the starter set has this level of quality, it is safe to assume that the core rulebook and the sourcebooks (three of them published to date) are of equal quality.
In a nutshell, if you are a Tolkien fan, even if you are not an RPG fan, you need to get this!
You can accuse me of being a gatekeeper all you want, but for me, Tolkien’s created world belongs to him and we are only visitors to it. The lore and the intent behind it needs to be respected for those who want to creatively explore and interpolate their own stories. The adventure included in this Starter Set is a perfect example of this. The level of detail in the adventure is very impressive. It is clear that it was constructed as a labor of love.
For example, the players find themselves in Brandy Hall and meet the elder Gordaboc Brandybuck. He is a friendly and aged patriarch with personal relationships with several of the pre-generated player characters. The adventure is set in S. R. 1360, which is also the year his wife, Mirabella Took died, according to Appendix C of The Lord of the Rings. Her absence in the story implies he is a widower.
All of these details makes this set a great and entertaining read for any Tolkien fan, even if you never play the game itself. From the Shire sourcebook, I have a better and easier understanding of the layout of the Shire and its various families of hobbits than I could ever glean from Tolkien’s works or the extensive History of Middle Earth books.
The artwork is beautiful and the whole set is put together very nicely. If the starter set has this level of quality, it is safe to assume that the core rulebook and the sourcebooks (three of them published to date) are of equal quality.
In a nutshell, if you are a Tolkien fan, even if you are not an RPG fan, you need to get this!
October 10, 2022
Règles qui semblent simple.
Des aventures légères digne des aventures de la Comté.
Un détails de la Comté intéressant.
Bref, de quoi bien commencé L'Anneau Unique V2 avec du bon matériel et de bonnes idées.
Des aventures légères digne des aventures de la Comté.
Un détails de la Comté intéressant.
Bref, de quoi bien commencé L'Anneau Unique V2 avec du bon matériel et de bonnes idées.
August 27, 2025
Great starting point for anyone who wants a low stakes advanture that will allow them to properly experience The One Ring 2E for the first time.
March 17, 2022
Great, self-contained, and fun adventures in the Shire that allow players and GMs the ability to learn this game easily. I'm interested in seeing how it translates to the full game with expanded rules.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews