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

The Kickstarter for The One Ring 2E launches this coming Thursday, February 11th. Free League has released a short teaser showing off some of the atmospheric artwork.

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 PRESS RELEASE

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“This is the Master-ring, the One Ring to rule them all.” The time has come to enter a new era. We at Free League are proud to reveal that the new edition of the acclaimed roleplaying game The One Ring™, set in the world of The Lord of the Rings™ by J.R.R. Tolkien, is coming to Kickstarter at 3 pm CET (9 am US Eastern) on February 11! Sign up at the pre-launch page if you wish to be notified the moment it goes live! The One Ring RPG is created by game designer Francesco Nepitello in collaboration with Free League. The game will soon bring you all further into the Twilight of the Third Age. More shall soon be revealed, once the Kickstarter goes live. The first edition of The One Ring, released in 2011, was hailed as the best attempt at bringing Middle-earth to the gaming table to date, thanks to its thematic rules and painstaking attention to detail. For 10 years, players of the game have traveled far and wide across Middle-earth, adventuring for multiple decades of game time. Today, it is time for the game to enter a new era – the new edition of The One Ring brings players further into the Twilight of the Third Age with a new hardbound volume, presenting a set of updated and streamlined rules, developed thanks to years of players’ feedback and raising the game to the standards of quality that have made Free League so popular. The look of the game itself has been completely redesigned, offering a view of Middle-earth that is fresh and familiar at the same time. We hope you join us on this grand journey!

 

[Bilharzia]

I'm not a huge fan of the vague smeary/splatter see my strokes style FL use in Symbaroum, Coriolis, et. al. and now it looks like the same artist or that style will define the new TOR game. Ho hum.

 

[IndigoTraveler]

I have no interest in playing or running games set in Middle-Earth, but I'd snap up a 5E compatible Moria sourcebook to rename and put into my games.

Exactly the same.

 

[Ethawyn]

My first reaction to the cover was "that really, really doesn't say 'Lord of the Rings' to me." After watching the video, I think I understand what they're going for: the art style is overly reminiscent of WotC D&D 5e art (this is most unmistakeably true in the Lake-town image), so they want the cover to look as different from the D&D 5e books as possible, hence the graphic-design-forward approach.

It actually evokes Tolkien's own drawing for the cover of The Two Towers, which I think is pretty cool.

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.

Some good news for you regarding TOR 2E then is that Francesco has said the travel rules are getting a big revision and simplification iirc.

 

[imagineGod]

But why change the cover and branding ftom the Cubicle7 cover? After the end of the Cubicle7 license what will they do with the old second edition cover art of this? Why did they not offer it to Free League.

 

[Ethawyn]

But why change the cover and branding ftom the Cubicle7 cover? After the end of the Cubicle7 license what will they do with the old second edition cover art of this? Why did they not offer it to Free League.

All we know (and likely all we'll ever know) is that the art and text of the Cubicle 7 TOR 2E belonged to Cubicle 7, while the rules belonged to Sophisticated Games. SG partnered with Free League after the C7 deal broke down. It's possible FL tried to buy the art from C7 and a deal couldn't be reached, or they may have decided to go their own way from the start.

I for one am grateful as I personally strongly disliked the direction C7 went with the art (Blando map excluded... Would love to get that), but I know to each his own.

 

[Ibrandul]

(Blando map excluded... Would love to get that)

Then you're in luck—sort of. It ain't cheap, but you can get it if you want it.

 

[Ethawyn]

Then you're in luck—sort of. It ain't cheap, but you can get it if you want it.

Alas it seems to be a different one than what he created for Cubicle 7.

 

[Ibrandul]

Alas it seems to be a different one than what he created for Cubicle 7.

Wow, you're right. I noticed the one on his website last week while I was looking for some Forgotten Realms stuff. I don't think I ever saw the Cubicle 7 one, and I assumed they were the same. They're very different indeed.

 

[Reynard]

I for one am grateful as I personally strongly disliked the direction C7 went with the art

Me too. It suddenly looked like "Fantasy heartbreaker Art" instead of evoking Tolkien. The new art direction is grittier than TOR1, but it is still beautiful and evocative.

 

[Ethawyn]

Me too. It suddenly looked like "Fantasy heartbreaker Art" instead of evoking Tolkien. The new art direction is grittier than TOR1, but it is still beautiful and evocative.

There's also going to be black and white art by Alvaro Tapia that kind of evoke the best of Agnus McBride's MERP art to me (from the little we've seen).