The One Ring

[Jeivar]

Has anyone here played this? I'm interested in picking up a game that captures some of that unique Tolkien feel, and what I've read about this one looks good.

I'd love to hear some general opinions.

[thorr-kan]

I have not played it. However, I own all the pdfs for TOR, and a few hard copies. The books are beautiful, and I feel the look captures Tolkien wonderfully.

The maps are amazing.

The rules, settings, and adventures read like Tolkien. I think they capture the feel of a world under siege. They're not as care free as The Hobbit, but more hopeful than The Fellowship of the Ring or The Two Towers.

I'd direct you to the Cubicle 7 forums, but they took them down earlier this year. A replacement hasn't really appeared.

There is also Adventures in Middle Earth (AiME) which adapts TOR to DnD 5E. My opinions on TOR hold for AiME too.

[Fyraltari]

I am planning on GMing a game of it in a week. Since it will be my first try both as a GM and with this game in general I don't have much hindsight to offer yet. (I would have liked a baseline human ennemy though).

As a Tolkien fan, however, I can say that I don't regret spending 50€ on it: the book is beautiful and you can feel that the authors did their utmost to capture the themes and mood of the books inside the game rules.

[Lord Shark]

I've both run and played TOR and it's an awesome game that does a great job of getting players and Loremaster into the Tolkien mindset. I'd say it's well worth picking up.

[JellyPooga]

I've both run and played TOR and it's an awesome game that does a great job of getting players and Loremaster into the Tolkien mindset. I'd say it's well worth picking up.

I've played TOR and nearly ran a game (boring story why that didn't pan out) and I heartily second this opinion. The game itself really does do a fine job of putting you slap-bang in Middle Earth and encourages a very different style of play to the likes of D&D or even any other fantasy game I've played. The rules themselves are...I struggle to find a word other than "elegant". They're streamlined, intuitive and abstract in the best way. Sure, there's some aspects that could maybe have used a little spicing up or explaining better, but a ruleset that lets you pipe-smoke your way to successfully resolving an encounter is a win for me!

[ngilop]

Pretty much what everbody else has said.


The creators really took their time to make the game FEEL at home with middle earth lore and expectations.


If you want to immerse yourself into what is it like adventuring in Tolkein's world then you need to buy and play The One Ring.

[thorr-kan]

Cubicle 7's website update over the weekend.

A lot.

Biggest TOR news: Laughter of Dragons preorders open soon.

[TrinculoLives]

I'm looking forward to that Moria boxed set, when they eventually get around to that. This game has quickly become my favourite Tolkien-based game in any format.

[Bilharzia]

Yes, it's brilliantly written and in my limited experience playing it works very well. What amazes me is that it was written by an Italian (Francesco Nepitello) in English and all of the language of the game evokes the setting, including and I would say especially, the mechanics of the game. If you're used to most other RPGs TOR can feel unforgiving when using skill checks and combat can be terrifying, I don't think this should be toned down but it needs careful GMing.

[Anonymouswizard]

There is also Adventures in Middle Earth (AiME) which adapts TOR to DnD 5E. My opinions on TOR hold for AiME too.

While I don't own TOR (I just don't need another system, it's really hard to convince people to abandon D&D), I do own AiME, and I have to admit I'm annoyed it took me a long time to purchase it. I was suspicious because D&D and Tolkien are about as far apart as you can get in the fantasy genre, and almost every time I've participated in a 'let's try to run Middle Earth' game it's either broken down or shoved things in to make it more like D&D (yes, we certainly need guilds of mages and knockoff clerics, to the point where my idea of a wandering hedge mage with only a couple of 'spells' was vetoed).

But Cubicle 7 have definitely attempted to make the game feel like Tolkien. There's been an effort to keep it low magic, and while it's not quite as high fantasy as LotR itself is it's definitely making an attempt to fit in. It's very noticably taking after Tolkien's books, not any of the media based on it, to the point where things such as Plate Armour don't appear, although at the same time I get the idea that it's trying to walk the line between accuracy and playability. It also liberally poaches and adapts systems from TOR, I believe that the Journeys, Fellowship Phase, Audience, and Corruption mechanics all began there. Plus yes, the books and artwork is beautiful and evocative, and really gets across the whole 'Germanic Saga' idea that I think tends to be fogotten.

So yeah, I'd say that both TOR and AiME are worth picking up. The main difference is that TOR is pure Tolkien, while AiME is a incredibly well done comprimise with D&D.

[NRSASD]

I'm going to run AiME tonight! Will let you know how it turns out.

Granted, I'm not using it strictly as intended. My wife and I are playing out the Fall of Arnor, starting as 2 families of Arnorian peasants.

[JellyPooga]

One of the things I love about TOR is just how flexible it is.

Sure, it's pretty gritty and won't suit every setting, especially those that involve high degrees of magic/psionics use or technology that acts like magic. It also comes with that beautiful Corruption system baked in as one of the primary ways characters are forced into retirement (as opposed to old age or death), which again doesn't suit every setting. That said, it doesn't take much to change a few names, rejig some of the character options and BAM you've got a new setting using a rule set that blends high-octane adventure with narrative storytelling.

I'm working on a Dark Heresy reskin for my next campaign; I'm sure I don't have to spell out the similarities between Tolkeins Middle Earth and the grim darkness of the 41st Millenium! Corruption, intrigue, mysteries and creatures of ancient times resurfacing to threaten the new world, a status quo in which the inhabitants deal with constant privation and danger as part of their day-to-day life, unknown evil in dark places as well as hidden in plain sight, so on and so forth. There's no reason why you couldn't run a Warhammer Fantasy game in similar vein (perhaps even more easily).

TOR can easily be adapted for other "gritty" settings too; Call of Cthulhu, Cyberpunk and Shadowrun all spring immediately to mind. Any game that wants a higher degree of investigation and social interaction than your usual slug-fest combat driven fare would suit as well. Conan-esque adventures, Sword&Sandal mythology, any Orwellian or other dystopian (or indeed utopian) setting, post-apocalyptic or otherwise; anything where magic, forbidden lore and/or hidden cults are mysterious and rare, yet accessible, is an easy shoe-in too.

[Anonymouswizard]

I'm going to run AiME tonight! Will let you know how it turns out.

Granted, I'm not using it strictly as intended. My wife and I are playing out the Fall of Arnor, starting as 2 families of Arnorian peasants.

I'm due to be starting a session 0 of an AiME game soon. There was a cry for D&D but I wanted something without all the spellcasting, and everybody else was happy with the idea of playing in Middle-Earth. The current plan is to have then start in Laketown and venture south towards Rohan, or start in Rohan and be charged to carry a message north to Dale. The likely party is going to be a Treasure Hunter, a Wanderer or Warrior focused on the longbow, and a Warden or Scholar, but nothing's set in stone at this point and I fully expect a Slayer or melee-focused Warrior instead of one of those. Their eventual goal is going to be clearing out a remnant of the Necromancer's forces before potentially heading east to find a people to join the fight against Sauron. Looking forward to seeing how the system works in practice.

I'll note that my version of the book doesn't give the Warden any Tool proficiencies, so I'm planning on allowing Warden players to pick one musical instrument, ideally a horn or other martial one (even though I fully expect them to end up with bagpipes or something ridiculous).

[thorr-kan]

I'm due to be starting a session 0 of an AiME game soon. There was a cry for D&D but I wanted something without all the spellcasting, and everybody else was happy with the idea of playing in Middle-Earth. The current plan is to have then start in Laketown and venture south towards Rohan, or start in Rohan and be charged to carry a message north to Dale. The likely party is going to be a Treasure Hunter, a Wanderer or Warrior focused on the longbow, and a Warden or Scholar, but nothing's set in stone at this point and I fully expect a Slayer or melee-focused Warrior instead of one of those. Their eventual goal is going to be clearing out a remnant of the Necromancer's forces before potentially heading east to find a people to join the fight against Sauron. Looking forward to seeing how the system works in practice.

I'll note that my version of the book doesn't give the Warden any Tool proficiencies, so I'm planning on allowing Warden players to pick one musical instrument, ideally a horn or other martial one (even though I fully expect them to end up with bagpipes or something ridiculous).

I am Officially Jealous (tm) of both of you.

Have fun in hour AiME games!

Maybe campaign journals...?

[Anonymouswizard]

I am Officially Jealous (tm) of both of you.

Have fun in hour AiME games!

Maybe campaign journals...?

With me it depends. I'm hoping to have an NPC travelling with the party at least some of the time, a couple of relatively silent hired swords or the like (2d8hp, +3/1d8+1 for an attack, able to shove, help, and all that other stuff), and if none of my players writes a campaign journal I might provide a 'stiched together narrative from the tales of their companions' as a GM-given campaign journal. There's also the possibility of me making a full blown DMPC and writing a campaign journal from their perspective, but that would have to be okayed by the group (and again, they'd be a relatively silent character, possibly the servant or bodyguard of a proper PC).

I'd possibly be willing to go one further and enquire about recording it, but as two of the players aren't used to playing in English and we're also likely to become highly inappropriate at some point.

[NRSASD]

I'm due to be starting a session 0 of an AiME game soon. There was a cry for D&D but I wanted something without all the spellcasting, and everybody else was happy with the idea of playing in Middle-Earth. The current plan is to have then start in Laketown and venture south towards Rohan, or start in Rohan and be charged to carry a message north to Dale. The likely party is going to be a Treasure Hunter, a Wanderer or Warrior focused on the longbow, and a Warden or Scholar, but nothing's set in stone at this point and I fully expect a Slayer or melee-focused Warrior instead of one of those. Their eventual goal is going to be clearing out a remnant of the Necromancer's forces before potentially heading east to find a people to join the fight against Sauron. Looking forward to seeing how the system works in practice.

I'll note that my version of the book doesn't give the Warden any Tool proficiencies, so I'm planning on allowing Warden players to pick one musical instrument, ideally a horn or other martial one (even though I fully expect them to end up with bagpipes or something ridiculous).

Yeah, I really appreciate the low magic feel of the setting a ton that still maintains a lot of distinction between the classes. I'm not sure how effective the journey rules will play out, but I'm eager to try them.

Our initial band of 12 commoners survived their first goblin attack, and the surviving 4 get to become PCs! The only downside is our best archer, the talented Serilla Rushlight (woman of Bree-culture, to model non-Dunedain Arnorian blood), has a wisdom of 4. In a game where the first combat generated 6 shadow points, this is going to be short lived and spectacular.

[Anonymouswizard]

Yeah, I really appreciate the low magic feel of the setting a ton that still maintains a lot of distinction between the classes. I'm not sure how effective the journey rules will play out, but I'm eager to try them.

Essentially my view, really looking forward to when people can decide on when they're free.

Our initial band of 12 commoners survived their first goblin attack, and the surviving 4 get to become PCs! The only downside is our best archer, the talented Serilla Rushlight (woman of Bree-culture, to model non-Dunedain Arnorian blood), has a wisdom of 4. In a game where the first combat generated 6 shadow points, this is going to be short lived and spectacular.

Having briefly skimmed the Shadow rules, I don't think you're supposed to gain Shadow Points that fast. Also yeah, 4WIS will be a problem, as the game is obviously written with the Standard Array in mind.

[Lapak]

I'll note that my version of the book doesn't give the Warden any Tool proficiencies, so I'm planning on allowing Warden players to pick one musical instrument, ideally a horn or other martial one (even though I fully expect them to end up with bagpipes or something ridiculous).

Hey now. Bagpipes ARE a martial musical instrument!

[NRSASD]

Having briefly skimmed the Shadow rules, I don't think you're supposed to gain Shadow Points that fast. Also yeah, 4WIS will be a problem, as the game is obviously written with the Standard Array in mind.

RAW and RAI, you're definitely right.

We're running a Legacy-style game, where the players control a lineage of heroes instead of just one character. This way, each character gets 4-12 sessions before becoming too old/too corrupted by shadow.We decided to modify the shadow point system a bit because we want to have to weigh the risk of fielding a favorite adventurer vs letting them retire happily.

Besides, our characters just had their farm houses torched and 2/3 of their families massacred by Mt. Gram goblins. That's worth a heap of shadow points I'd think.

In short, I'm doing it wrong but having fun anyways :P

@thorr-kan: I'm running a really intense Curse of Strahd game already and being a barbarian in another campaign, so that puts the Arnorian campaign on burner 3. I'm afraid I can't campaign journal it, but I'll be glad to share highlights and fun stuff from the game in this thread!

[thorr-kan]

In short, I'm doing it wrong but having fun anyways :P

If it's working, it's working. Work with it.

Even if it is HurtingWrongFun (it's not). :)

@thorr-kan: I'm running a really intense Curse of Strahd game already and being a barbarian in another campaign, so that puts the Arnorian campaign on burner 3. I'm afraid I can't campaign journal it, but I'll be glad to share highlights and fun stuff from the game in this thread!

No worries at all. That's be appreciated.

[Anonymouswizard]

Hey now. Bagpipes ARE a martial musical instrument!

Sure, 1d20 damage per song.

In short, I'm doing it wrong but having fun anyways :P

If you're having fun is it possible to do it wrong.


So we've finally managed to agree on a date for Session Zero, a week on Saturday. After that journaling will dependend entirely on of they allow people to tag along with their band.