A lot of people online are saying that it is best LotR fantasy fulfillment game, so I have been considering picking it up for myself. This review seals the deal for me.
I like the addition of the "Strider Mode"- for both its purpose and the name:) Mechanics sound a bit confusing in theory (less than Star Trek Adventures though, which I still don't understand), but I guess that's something you get used to as you play. One thing I can absolutely agree with after a brief look of a few pages is that the rulebook looks absolutely gorgeous!
Yeah, we just don't like the TOR rules, but the books look great and capture the feel of Middle Earth. So I grabbed the 5e versions since they convert easily to Castles & Crusades, which we do play.
My sister and brother-in-law got me Tales from the Lone Lands for Christmas - definitely a very pretty book. Also very tempted to play - now to find a fellowship
Nice review! I've been playing since it was release, and had a number of looong campaigns (40+sessions). Its been brilliant.. Right now our group is essentially running "the hobbit pt2" with a band of dwarves and a hobbit (but from Bree), chasing down a key to a back door into a dwarven mountain.... But the Mountain houses Moria...
I have almost a complete collection of the first edition of TOR. I only missed out on the last couple books, and I regularly kick myself for missing Erebor and Laughter of Dragons especially. I only got to play TOR a couple times though, and there were quirks with the system that always irked me a bit, and kept it from being my go to fantasy game. I loved the game, but there were just a couple niggling issues that kept it from being my favorite. Convoluted book layout and some odd rules asymmetry in mechanics being the biggest ones. TOR 2nd has fixed every issue I had and It may actually be my perfect RPG. The weird asymmetries in mechanics, like how Attributes did almost nothing, have all been tweeked and make so much more sense. Monster stats now list exactly what all their special abilities do, and these have all been rebalanced. The books are laid out so much better and flow so well they are simply a joy to read. And the artwork and layout and graphic design have improved across the board. Make no mistake the 1st edition books were already gorgeous, and Jon Hodgson's art is amazing, but pencil and ink sketches have always been one of my favorite genres of art, and painterly water color style art is what I majored in college, so, for me, Martin Grip and Alvaro Tapia have crafted books so gorgeous to me, and so perfectly fitting of Middle Earth, that reading almost triggers ASMR. I wish I could find players for this game, but everyone that I typically game with is either stuck on other games or don't want to play in Middle Earth.
My group have been having a lot of fun with One Ring, dealing with the weird laws of Tharbad, a doomed expedition in Moria and barely surviving against a band of pirates. Having tried Adventures in Middle Earth, it’s nice having a system that’s actually built to encourage things like travel and quieter moments as well as all the drama.
I grabbed this because I am a massive Tolkien fan. It is a glorious book, a real thing of beauty, even down to the paper quality. I cannot stop thinking about what a great tactile experience this book is. All the systems mesh thematically with the tone of the setting, something I really appreciate, and you truly feel like you are playing in Tolkien's Middle Earth, not someone else's approximation of Middle Earth. Also, this game makes spears good again! We played a short campaign (just 3 Fellowship phases) and had a Rivendell elf, two dwarves, a hobbit messenger, a Ranger of the North and a Man of Dale. They travelled south from Rivendell, dealt with orcs, Dunlendings, and Black Numenoreans trying to undermine the peoples of the Lone Lands. They even met with Saruman, who offered them a job.
Lord of the Rings: beautiful in books, awesome in movies, and just when you think it can’t get better, you learn that there’s an RPG tabletop game for it!!!!! Well, it looks like I’m gonna have to learn more about it!!! I had a friend who we’d play Pathfinder with and he’d play this game as well. Sadly, he passed away in March. And the thing that I regret most is that I never tried to reconnect with him.
My first tabletop game was SPI's "War of the Ring" I got in 1977 I have been playing all sorts of games in Middle-Earth since, and as far as RPGs go, having used Chivalry & Sorcery (1st & 2nd ed could let you make your own Rings of Power and had other non-official Tolkien touches), Middle-Earth Role-playing, Decipher's LoTR RPG and my own GURPS Middle-Earth game, I think "The One Ring" has the best feelings of all of them. The Lufepath character generation is a very pleasant way to create a character I have started running a new campaign using "Tales from the Lone Lands" and the only thing I would say is that while the system is not difficult, the information is spread around a bit I wrote a cheat sheet for Fellowship, Council and Journeys and another for Skill use and Combat. I think that was a good idea to do. If running, you might want to make/find your own
I’ve been running a game for about 7 months (we only meet monthly). We’ve been having a great time. We’re definitely going off canon a good bit, but the fellowship is hot on the trail of a dark dwarf who is forging weapons from the shards of a meteorite (like Gurthang), who seems to be aiding a newly arrived Maiar, servant of Morgoth. Their next stop is Moria, where they believe the dwarf is going.
Thank you for your fantastic review :) i can fullheartedly recommend the strider mode of this system, it is a lot of fun. Even more so because my solo adventures are an inspiration for my upcoming campaign.
I’ve been the Lore-master of our group for over a year now and I have to say that TOR is easily the most fun we’ve ever had in a TTRPG. An absolute must-try
Love this game. I started running the Starter Set a few weeks back as a series of one shots in between our usual game and my group loved playing the hobbits so much they have created a fellowship and are really eager to start exploring the rest of Eriador.
I love this! I think all role players have an unconcious link to Lord of the Rings. And _yes_ the extended editions _are_ the real movies. And...OMG I have to go buy this now! Thank you so much!
I agree wholeheartedly with your comments! I just started playing with my sons in early April and they both loved it and took to the rules system easily by the end of the first session. Playing as a Loremaster, I have to say it's an elegant rule set and the specifics of journey rules and the way combat is handled really make you feel like you're a part of the world and, for the players, quite heroic. The Shadow rules are also pretty great in keeping players from becoming murder hobos or thieving just for the sake of it and the fact that you're actually playing in Middle-earth is too tremendous for words. We're two sessions in (well, three if you count our session 0) aaaaaand loving it!
Thanks for the video. Your enthusiasm for the game equals mine. I absolute love the game. I have everything from 1st Edition, but also 2nd Edition. I agree with every one of your comments. My Number 1 RPG (and it isn't even close)!
1 through 10 are read as that number, one face is the Eye of Sauron and counts as a zero, and the final face is the Gandalf rune which is an automatic success.
Unexpected? Sure, but quite elegant from the design standpoint, given that you you have on overarching forces of good and evil. You're essentially rolling a d10 for your character's actual skill or action with a bonus chance of either "Divine Intervention" or... what's the opposite of that? "Sauron flipping you off"? Either way, quite clever:)
@@SagaciousHamster You're correct - you can still pass a roll when you roll an Eye of Sauron (0). But a minor rules blemish on what is an excellent review and summary.
We haven't started playing yet, but gearing up to play a campaign in this system, and I'm so excited! Just from skimming through the book it really seems to have just the right vibes. (I mean, Song and Riddle as dedicated skills? I'm already sold, that's the most Tolkien-y thing ever) Our game is going to be set in the Second Age, so we had to reflavour some stuff, but that shouldn't break anything, hopefully :P
I'm currently running a campaign for my friends. I absolutely love it and so do they. It's the best LotR based system I've ever played. It feels like Tolkien rather than Tolkien-flavouring.
"extended real version" Question: have you seen any of the Book Edit cuts? What's your opinion on those? don't get me wrong, I'm still not an expert. I'm still trying to get through the Silmarillion and I haven't yet played the TOR set I've bought ... oh but dear mercy no, I'm not touching the MTG set, not ever, ew
I find you need to pick the player with some disearnemnt/ Being in this game wandering around and discovered people, plants, food and weird people is the main core of the experience? with combat being rare? So loats of role playing and little in the war a hackmaster? is a gateway game to full on MERP or even rolemaster?
It has a beautiful book but the strangest dice mechanics I’ve seen in an RPG. You roll a D12 plus a number of D6 equal to your attribute and sum the results to beat a target number. This means there’s quite a range where a lot of stuff is downright impossible.
it's never too late for new people to discover and spread awareness. In fact, it's better this way, because this will enter people's awareness at a later point, increasing the chance to draw in new players. Not a bad thing, huh?
Your description just seems so fake. Like I could give you the benefit of the doubt like you actually enjoy the things you're talking about But it's just so scripted And obviously performed For entertainment purposes And it feels inauthentic. It really just took me out of the Lord of the Rings vibe I was feeling brought me back into this constant struggle for Perfection and defense against criticism everything tries to achieve. I'm writing this to free League by the way it's pretty obvious they are the puppeteer here
Pretty much everybody on reddit agrees its a fantastic game. Guess what: reviews usually are read from a script, which is written beforehand. Stop being such a weirdo.
![Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 | เพื่อจักรพรรดิ ! [ตอนเดียวจบ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4M0ckYMA4-U/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you for the nice words, really appreciated!
Ah of course! I'm such a huge fan 💗
A lot of people online are saying that it is best LotR fantasy fulfillment game, so I have been considering picking it up for myself. This review seals the deal for me.
I like the addition of the "Strider Mode"- for both its purpose and the name:) Mechanics sound a bit confusing in theory (less than Star Trek Adventures though, which I still don't understand), but I guess that's something you get used to as you play. One thing I can absolutely agree with after a brief look of a few pages is that the rulebook looks absolutely gorgeous!
Yeah, we just don't like the TOR rules, but the books look great and capture the feel of Middle Earth. So I grabbed the 5e versions since they convert easily to Castles & Crusades, which we do play.
@@sunsin1592 what do you not like about TOR rules? I find they capture the middle earth feelings better
My sister and brother-in-law got me Tales from the Lone Lands for Christmas - definitely a very pretty book. Also very tempted to play - now to find a fellowship
You can always play it solo with Strider Mode! While you wait to gather together a fellowship!
Nice review!
I've been playing since it was release, and had a number of looong campaigns (40+sessions).
Its been brilliant..
Right now our group is essentially running "the hobbit pt2" with a band of dwarves and a hobbit (but from Bree), chasing down a key to a back door into a dwarven mountain.... But the Mountain houses Moria...
Im pretty sure theres an expansion book about moria coming out soon
I have almost a complete collection of the first edition of TOR. I only missed out on the last couple books, and I regularly kick myself for missing Erebor and Laughter of Dragons especially. I only got to play TOR a couple times though, and there were quirks with the system that always irked me a bit, and kept it from being my go to fantasy game. I loved the game, but there were just a couple niggling issues that kept it from being my favorite. Convoluted book layout and some odd rules asymmetry in mechanics being the biggest ones.
TOR 2nd has fixed every issue I had and It may actually be my perfect RPG. The weird asymmetries in mechanics, like how Attributes did almost nothing, have all been tweeked and make so much more sense. Monster stats now list exactly what all their special abilities do, and these have all been rebalanced. The books are laid out so much better and flow so well they are simply a joy to read. And the artwork and layout and graphic design have improved across the board. Make no mistake the 1st edition books were already gorgeous, and Jon Hodgson's art is amazing, but pencil and ink sketches have always been one of my favorite genres of art, and painterly water color style art is what I majored in college, so, for me, Martin Grip and Alvaro Tapia have crafted books so gorgeous to me, and so perfectly fitting of Middle Earth, that reading almost triggers ASMR. I wish I could find players for this game, but everyone that I typically game with is either stuck on other games or don't want to play in Middle Earth.
My group have been having a lot of fun with One Ring, dealing with the weird laws of Tharbad, a doomed expedition in Moria and barely surviving against a band of pirates. Having tried Adventures in Middle Earth, it’s nice having a system that’s actually built to encourage things like travel and quieter moments as well as all the drama.
I grabbed this because I am a massive Tolkien fan. It is a glorious book, a real thing of beauty, even down to the paper quality. I cannot stop thinking about what a great tactile experience this book is. All the systems mesh thematically with the tone of the setting, something I really appreciate, and you truly feel like you are playing in Tolkien's Middle Earth, not someone else's approximation of Middle Earth. Also, this game makes spears good again!
We played a short campaign (just 3 Fellowship phases) and had a Rivendell elf, two dwarves, a hobbit messenger, a Ranger of the North and a Man of Dale. They travelled south from Rivendell, dealt with orcs, Dunlendings, and Black Numenoreans trying to undermine the peoples of the Lone Lands. They even met with Saruman, who offered them a job.
Lord of the Rings: beautiful in books, awesome in movies, and just when you think it can’t get better, you learn that there’s an RPG tabletop game for it!!!!! Well, it looks like I’m gonna have to learn more about it!!! I had a friend who we’d play Pathfinder with and he’d play this game as well. Sadly, he passed away in March. And the thing that I regret most is that I never tried to reconnect with him.
My first tabletop game was SPI's "War of the Ring" I got in 1977
I have been playing all sorts of games in Middle-Earth since, and as far as RPGs go, having used Chivalry & Sorcery (1st & 2nd ed could let you make your own Rings of Power and had other non-official Tolkien touches), Middle-Earth Role-playing, Decipher's LoTR RPG and my own GURPS Middle-Earth game, I think "The One Ring" has the best feelings of all of them.
The Lufepath character generation is a very pleasant way to create a character
I have started running a new campaign using "Tales from the Lone Lands" and the only thing I would say is that while the system is not difficult, the information is spread around a bit
I wrote a cheat sheet for Fellowship, Council and Journeys and another for Skill use and Combat. I think that was a good idea to do. If running, you might want to make/find your own
I’ve been running a game for about 7 months (we only meet monthly). We’ve been having a great time. We’re definitely going off canon a good bit, but the fellowship is hot on the trail of a dark dwarf who is forging weapons from the shards of a meteorite (like Gurthang), who seems to be aiding a newly arrived Maiar, servant of Morgoth.
Their next stop is Moria, where they believe the dwarf is going.
Thank you for your fantastic review :) i can fullheartedly recommend the strider mode of this system, it is a lot of fun. Even more so because my solo adventures are an inspiration for my upcoming campaign.
I’ve been the Lore-master of our group for over a year now and I have to say that TOR is easily the most fun we’ve ever had in a TTRPG. An absolute must-try
Through the doors of moria is also beautiful. That and the creep white lone lands sits by the core book on my shelf!
Love this game. I started running the Starter Set a few weeks back as a series of one shots in between our usual game and my group loved playing the hobbits so much they have created a fellowship and are really eager to start exploring the rest of Eriador.
This is a fantastic review, of a fantastic TTRPG! I am relaunching a One Ring campaign next Wednesday and super excited about it!
Great video! I just picked up the Starter Box a couple months ago & have been looking forward to trying it. :)
I love this! I think all role players have an unconcious link to Lord of the Rings. And _yes_ the extended editions _are_ the real movies. And...OMG I have to go buy this now! Thank you so much!
I agree wholeheartedly with your comments! I just started playing with my sons in early April and they both loved it and took to the rules system easily by the end of the first session. Playing as a Loremaster, I have to say it's an elegant rule set and the specifics of journey rules and the way combat is handled really make you feel like you're a part of the world and, for the players, quite heroic. The Shadow rules are also pretty great in keeping players from becoming murder hobos or thieving just for the sake of it and the fact that you're actually playing in Middle-earth is too tremendous for words. We're two sessions in (well, three if you count our session 0) aaaaaand loving it!
Just bought all the books and can't wait to play it!
Playing this game with my kids (10 and 12) and we really enjoy it
Thanks for the video. Your enthusiasm for the game equals mine. I absolute love the game. I have everything from 1st Edition, but also 2nd Edition. I agree with every one of your comments. My Number 1 RPG (and it isn't even close)!
The '11' on a d12 represents a fail? That's unexpected. 3:46
1 through 10 are read as that number, one face is the Eye of Sauron and counts as a zero, and the final face is the Gandalf rune which is an automatic success.
Unexpected? Sure, but quite elegant from the design standpoint, given that you you have on overarching forces of good and evil. You're essentially rolling a d10 for your character's actual skill or action with a bonus chance of either "Divine Intervention" or... what's the opposite of that? "Sauron flipping you off"? Either way, quite clever:)
@@sebastianwlodarczyk Quite clever, yes. I like that there's continuity from #'s 1--10
@@SagaciousHamster You're correct - you can still pass a roll when you roll an Eye of Sauron (0). But a minor rules blemish on what is an excellent review and summary.
got introduced by being shared a photo. LOTR lcg being played since it feels like MTG and this RPG one will be bought by me
It’s weird to see Gollum on TH-cam. But glad to see him doing well.🎉
Thank you 🥰
Great video sorry to see the Dicebreaker website disappearing.
We haven't started playing yet, but gearing up to play a campaign in this system, and I'm so excited! Just from skimming through the book it really seems to have just the right vibes. (I mean, Song and Riddle as dedicated skills? I'm already sold, that's the most Tolkien-y thing ever) Our game is going to be set in the Second Age, so we had to reflavour some stuff, but that shouldn't break anything, hopefully :P
Thank you 🙏
I'm currently running a campaign for my friends. I absolutely love it and so do they. It's the best LotR based system I've ever played. It feels like Tolkien rather than Tolkien-flavouring.
I wish I could get drunk with hobbits at least once in my life... that must be an *experience*
Looking forward to trying this
Maddie. You’re so wonderful and adorable, just listening to you makes me want to get this game, and start playing. 😊
I backed this on kickstarter and got the faux leather bound version of the rules. It is one of the most beautiful items in my bookshelf
Is it red like There and back Again or the red book of Westmarch?
@@reallivebluescat I do believe that was the inspiration.
I missed the original, but I got lucky and snagged one of the few they released for the Moria kickstarter. I'm so excited for it to arrive.
"extended real version"
Question: have you seen any of the Book Edit cuts? What's your opinion on those?
don't get me wrong, I'm still not an expert. I'm still trying to get through the Silmarillion and I haven't yet played the TOR set I've bought
... oh but dear mercy no, I'm not touching the MTG set, not ever, ew
This was a great review! I'd be really interested to know what you thought about Modiphius' 2d20 Conan: Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of.
Hear head! This game Is great. More folks need to experience it.
I find you need to pick the player with some disearnemnt/ Being in this game wandering around and discovered people, plants, food and weird people is the main core of the experience? with combat being rare? So loats of role playing and little in the war a hackmaster? is a gateway game to full on MERP or even rolemaster?
You’d make a great elf
"If there's one fantasy film series I could watch over and over again it's Lord of the Rings."
Try reading the book.
It has a beautiful book but the strangest dice mechanics I’ve seen in an RPG. You roll a D12 plus a number of D6 equal to your attribute and sum the results to beat a target number. This means there’s quite a range where a lot of stuff is downright impossible.
You have hope to spend giving you extra dice. I find it pretty decent system.
A Gandalf rune is always a success, so you have roughly an 8% chance of success no matter what.
There are rules as well for lowering the target number by 2 if you find your players are missing a lot
The audio is real low on this one.
Hahha Maddie as Gollum is a far fetcjed as it can be
So no negatives?? Sus
It's not a review, just a recommendation 😊 - Maddie
You all are a little behind on the times huh?
it's never too late for new people to discover and spread awareness. In fact, it's better this way, because this will enter people's awareness at a later point, increasing the chance to draw in new players.
Not a bad thing, huh?
I think I almost love you.
If she was golem then I want to marry golem! Lol 😆
You would definitely not be Gollum 😍
I love her ❤🎉
Your description just seems so fake. Like I could give you the benefit of the doubt like you actually enjoy the things you're talking about But it's just so scripted And obviously performed For entertainment purposes And it feels inauthentic. It really just took me out of the Lord of the Rings vibe I was feeling brought me back into this constant struggle for Perfection and defense against criticism everything tries to achieve. I'm writing this to free League by the way it's pretty obvious they are the puppeteer here
Pretty much everybody on reddit agrees its a fantastic game.
Guess what: reviews usually are read from a script, which is written beforehand.
Stop being such a weirdo.