Check Out The One Ring 2E’s Cover Art!

I really love the cover, it's doing the job of showing a party of adventurers with the various TOR classes/cultures (note there is a Beorning stood with the dwarf and hobbit) alongside a patron - Gandalf. The awesome Jon Hodgson did this idea across nearly all of his covers for the 1st Edition. You can see the same characters grouped up, with a few exceptions I think. Jon isn't with C7 anymore, having formed his own company this year (https://handiwork.games/) and it was Jon's visual style that heavily influenced the look that we all loved about TOR 1st Edition. I can understand why C7 wanted to move away from this and they are definitely taking a step closer to the AiME style of covers. It'll be interesting to see how they do the interior art as well, decorative borders of pages etc, because that too was Jon's visual expression.

Dwarf women - I think a lot of people are tongue-in-cheek joking (and being misunderstood), but yeah there are dwarf women and we know very little about them. This site is always good for info on all things Tolkien - http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Dwarf-women

So what are we going to see inside? Right now there isn't a lot of info unless they have been saying it quietly at cons. I was at the UK Games Expo and there wasn't anything more revealed than what is in the linked article below.

The One Ring – The Lord of the Rings™ Roleplaying Game:

The 352 page core rules featuring stunning new art, maps, rules for character creation, and everything you will need to adventure in the lands of Middle-earth.​

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I am really excited for the range of products that will be accompanying the new edition, it sounds well thought-out, but don't expect it all at once. C7 take their time with their products.

• The One Ring – The Lord of the Rings™ Starter Set: Explore the Misty Mountains and reclaim the Horn of the Storm in the perfect introduction to The One Ring Roleplaying Game. This box set includes a 64 page adventure, a 48 page guide to the lands of the Misty Mountains, a set of dice, six pre-generated characters, character handouts, tokens, and more.
• Loremaster’s Screen and Legends of Middle-earth: A beautifully illustrated Loremaster’s Screen along with a 32 page collection of mini adventures that Loremaster’s can drop into their games.
• Fell Foes: A dedicated bestiary containing fell foes and dangerous creatures from all across Middle-earth.
• Minas Tirith – The Tower of Guard: A guide to the city of Minas Tirith and its surrounding lands.
• The Errantries of the King: A campaign adventure set in Gondor. Written by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, author of The Darkening of Mirkwood.
• Moria – The Long Dark: Explore Khazad-dûm deep beneath the Misty Mountains in this long awaited adventure for The One Ring – The Lord of the Rings™ Roleplaying Game.

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This info comes from a recent announcement by Cubicle 7 which can be found here - https://www.cubicle7games.com/cubicle-7-announces-the-one-ring-second-edition/

This is such a great time to be a Tolkien fan and also a gamer. I've been slowly (real slowly) working on a blog that looks at, amongst other things, the Lord of the Rings Online, the MMORPG by Standing Stone Games (originally Turbine/Codemasters). I recently posted a list of all the current games that are still in production (so can be easily bought without it becoming a treasure hunt) and are based on the book license - so no Games Workshop or things like LOTR Risk, which use film images in their artwork (GW have done a Scouring of the Shire product recently, so also use the book license too). The license for both does come from the same place - Middle-earth Enterprises - but I prefer gaming based on the book canon.

Anyways, the blog post is here for all those interested - https://greenbookofthewhitedowns.blogspot.com/2019/07/gaming-in-middle-earth-roll-dice.html

And I am sure we'll learn more soon with Gen Con round the corner...

I think the artwork is great, and I've purchased two of the 5e source books. Not sure that I would want to try a different system entirely though.

Zarithar said:

I think the artwork is great, and I've purchased two of the 5e source books. Not sure that I would want to try a different system entirely though.

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If you are picking up the 5e versions (AiME), unless you really wanted the TOR system too, you would be duplicating products - AiME follows TOR in content, sometimes there is a little adaption, but nothing massive.

dregntael said:

So, someone has a link to what's new in this edition apart from the cover?

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it's not due out for a few months, so what exactly has been changed is still not revealed.

BronzeDragon said:

You haven't read Appendix A to the Lord of the Rings, have you?

There are dwarven women, but they are rare and stay underground.

I agree there shouldn't be a dwarven woman adventurer on the cover, since that would constitute a breach of canon to rival the ridiculous elven-dwarven romance in the Hobbit movies.

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This is a role playing game of adventurers in Middle-earth not reliving the footsteps of The Fellowship.

Hence, surely, a dwarf woman may join a group of adventurers to explore the surface world and maybe even retrieve a magic artifact to help her people back home. ;-)

Spent a fortune over the last few years on TOR. How much rule tweaking will there be. Really like the game but it better be amazing to persuade me. Artwork feels to busy, some be more sombre and subdued

John R Davis said:

Spent a fortune over the last few years on TOR. How much rule tweaking will there be. Really like the game but it better be amazing to persuade me. Artwork feels to busy, some be more sombre and subdued

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For those who invested heavily in the first edition, nothing in the second edition invalidates the rules of the first edition if your table wants to continue playing the first edition.

However, businesses need to generate profit through new products and, thus, a second edition offers new sales avenues alongside rules updates that will attract new collectors and hopefully, also older collectors.

Yeah. Plus the timeline has moved on a lot and new areas being developed so all new good stuff

Hurin88 said:

I don't have my LotR books with me, but can anyone remind me what chapter it was when Gimli got his reassignment surgery?

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Ah, I finally figured it out. It must have been in 'A Short Cut to Mushrooms'.

John R Davis said:

Yeah. Plus the timeline has moved on a lot and new areas being developed so all new good stuff

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Well, not really. C7's plan all along was to cover the 60+ years that pass in between the end of The Hobbit and the beginning of LotR. This one is starting about 20 years after where the original core rules started, similar to their original plans of three separate sets of slipcased core rule books, each covering about 20 years of game time.