RPG Review: The One Ring

Home is behind, the world ahead,
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadows to the edge of night,
Until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead,
We’ll wander back and home to bed.
Mist and twilight, cloud and shade,
Away shall fade! Away shall fade!

The One Ring is a roleplaying game set within the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Midde Earth. Set in the time between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (specifically 2946 of the Third Age), players will rise up against the darkness growing in the East.

I played Decipher’s LotR RPG back in the day, based on the films, which used their CODA system; It was essentially the D20 system but with 3d6 instead of a d20. I felt like the characters were a little too powerful from the start, with a group of four players laying waste to hundreds of goblins (seriously, I just kept throwing goblins at them without them even breaking a sweat).

This is not that.

The game itself is a fairly straightforward roleplaying game. Each person will choose a Culture, which is a variety of Human cultures, but also Dwarven, Elven and Hobbit. Players also choose a Calling, which is essentially their Class. Characters have three basic Attributes: Body, Heart and Wits, and also a set of Skills as well. They have a Shadow Weakness, which is how The Shadow can creep in and corrupt them, based on the character’s Calling. Characters don’t have hit points, but instead have Conditions (not unlike Torchbearer). These are Weary, Miserable and Wounded.

Characters roll a special d12, with the numbers 1-10 represented, as well as one side with a rune and another with the Eye of Sauron. Rolling the rune is an auto-success, while rolling the Eye counts as rolling a 0, and is bad news. There are also Success dice, which are d6’s you roll multiples of, based on how many points you have in a skill. The 6 is replaced with another rune. Rolling this indicates the degree of success. If you are Weary, 1-3 counts as a 0 as well. You’ll be attempting to hit a Target Number in order to succeed on a roll. Pretty standard stuff, with a few tweaks.

The game is split between the Adventuring Phase and the Fellowship Phase. The bulk of the game takes place in the Adventuring Phase, with adventuring and most roleplaying activities taking place during this part of the game. The characters will steadily be worn down more and more as they push forward in their adventure. The Fellowship Phase is where the characters recuperate some of their injuries and weariness, while spending experience points to advance their characters. Most RPGs have a similar structure, informally, but The One Ring formalizes it.

An example given in the book is from The Hobbit. Leaving Hobbiton and the adventures that take place on the way to Rivendell are all part of the Adventuring Phase, while the Fellowship Phase consists at staying at Rivendell in the house of Elrond. Following that, the new Adventuring phase takes them through the Misty Mountains until they arrive at the house of Beorn.

Travelling in the game is a task of attrition, as your characters become more and more beaten down by their time on the road, all while the call of The Shadow beckons to them. Only by finding a safe haven and entering the Fellowship Phase can the characters recover. Treasure is abstracted, with 1 representing a month of living comfortably and carefree.

The game definitely finds influences from the Burning Wheel family of games, such as Mouse Guard and Torchbearer, but still firmly has its feet planted in the world of traditional RPGs. Because the game is built from the ground up with Middle Earth in mind, I would definitely prefer to play this over Middle Earth Adventures, another game by Cubicle 7 which uses the 5e D&D rules.

I really like The One Ring, and am looking forward to running it at some point soon, perhaps after I wrap up my Star Wars campaign.

You can pick up the PDF of The One Ring here.