Check Out The One Ring 2E's Pre-Kickstarter Video!

YAY!!!!!

Also, that art is really gorgeous.

I really really, very strongly dislike this art. I know that art is subjective, but this ruins it for me. I might make up my mind and still back it, but I won't back it because of the art, that's for sure. This one would have been a completely other level: RPG: The One Ring - More Cultures And Art Revealed - Bell of Lost Souls

To each there own for sure. I like the new art more.

That's a very good use of 2D art to create a 3D effect. Obviously that's been done plenty before, but I feel like it's done very nicely here. I don't know that my group will want to play this, but I will be keeping an eye on this.

I have quite a few of the first edition books. The system is definitely very well done and thematically a great adaptation of Tolkien. However, I don't find it much fun to play. The old Iron Crown MERP is much more fun for me, and is not really as inappropriate as people make out, once the totally out of place Mage class is removed. I also much prefer the mid third age setting of the old Iron Crown game to the inter-book The One Ring setting. Won't be backing this one.

I think I’ll wait for their 5e compatible adventure, books mentioned in an earlier article, especially the Moria one, I picked up the 5e books that were released and enjoyed them. I have the ICE Moria book from back in the day and although i “could” convert it, I’d rather pay and let someone else take that time I don’t have right now.

Green Onceler said:

I have quite a few of the first edition books. The system is definitely very well done and thematically a great adaptation of Tolkien. However, I don't find it much fun to play. The old Iron Crown MERP is much more fun for me, and is not really as inappropriate as people make out, once the totally out of place Mage class is removed. I also much prefer the mid third age setting of the old Iron Crown game to the inter-book The One Ring setting. Won't be backing this one.

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I have gotten a number of the 1e books and have never been able to play. Would that I could. In what way is it less fun than MERP, which I have also never played. I would very much like to know. I have no aversion to using an old system if it is more enjoyable. I do feel sometimes these gorgeous books are better sometimes as a collectors object than an actual game.

I've been eyeing the 1st edition of The One Ring for years, but I never bought nor played it. This looks like a good place to start
The artwork looks "fresh" and very nice IMO.
With the latest trends in rpgs, however, I'm a bit worried if they going to make this an rpg in a political correct version of Tolkien's amazing world.

univoxs said:

In what way is it less fun than MERP, which I have also never played. I would very much like to know.

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Well, keep in mind, this is just my personal opinion. I suspect it is quite an unpopular one too, as ICE games seem to be very much out of favour and The One Ring was very well received.

For me, I found the barrage of Travel rolls in TOR somewhat tiresome. Especially as the results of these rolls are only interesting occasionally when one rolls an Eye to spark a hazard. The rest of the time, they just grind down characters' endurance which, while "thematic", I found pretty uninteresting.

Also, the mid-third age setting is more fun to me, being largely unexplored in the books everyone's read, you have more freedom to tell your own stories. 1600 Arnor is more appealing to me than the default Mirkwood interbook setting of TOR. The Witch King is this unknowable threat in Angmar, the Kingdom is shattered, and the plague has recently ravaged the region. Great stuff.

That said, the setting needs work. Mainly the removal of a lot of the magic items that are scattered throughout the setting books. This is one area, TOR does a lot better. Magic in general. MERP spells I find not too bad. The bard and animist spell lists seem fine to me. The mage definitely does not fit.

MERP also has a really fun Rolemaster-lite combat system, including a more light hearted iteration of the infamous critical tables. The critical tables keep combat deadly, as it should be in a Tolkien game, but I find them much more fun to use than TOR's combat, which never really grabbed me.

Again, my opinion only, and almost certainly a minority view. I'd play TOR again with a good LM for sure, but am not interested enough to run it. I'd either run or play MERP.