Cubicle 7 No Longer Producing The One Ring and Adventures in Middle Earth

Cubicle 7 has announced that it will cease publishing Tolkien-related games, including The One Ring and Adventures in Middle Earth, in early 2020. The One Ring 2E is cancelled.

‘I am with you at present,’ said Gandalf, ‘but soon I shall not be. I am not coming to the Shire.’

UNEXPECTED TOR2 UPDATE – Cubicle 7

www.cubicle7games.com

We have some very unfortunate and unexpected news to share. Contractual differences arose recently which we have been unable to resolve, and so we have decided to end our licensing agreement with Sophisticated Games. It is with regret that we have made this very tough decision to withdraw.

This means we will cease publishing The One Ring and Adventures in Middle-earth™ in the first half of 2020. Unfortunately, this doesn’t give us enough time to release the much-anticipated The One Ring – The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game second edition. As many of you know, our first edition of The One Ring is eight years old, and we had high hopes of a full product line to support our second edition. Our team have worked incredibly hard on this new edition; with many of the announced titles already written and edited, so being very close to completion makes this decision even harder.

We fully appreciate how invested so many of you are, both in regards to stock and your love of the game. Especially those who have followed our journey from first edition, or have customers who have pre-ordered the second edition or Rohan Region Guide. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.

We will continue selling our existing stock over the next few months. We will be offering some discounts on our website for consumers as part of our Black Friday sale this week. We will not be reprinting any of these titles, so if you wish to stock up, we would suggest you contact your preferred distributor soon.

 

[Morrus]

I bet the system developed for TOR2 survives and gets used in a more generically branded fantasy RPG.

 

[darjr]

I loved how TOR played. It was very evocative of the stories. The rule books however beautiful they were in prose and art were terrible rule books. The hard back was a necessary clean up.

 

[darjr]

I bet the system developed for TOR2 survives and gets used in a more generically branded fantasy RPG.

I hope so! I LOVED how “Magic” worked in TOR1

 

[Doctor Futurity]

I bet the system developed for TOR2 survives and gets used in a more generically branded fantasy RPG.

I would definitely buy that!

 

[DragonBelow]

This is very unfortunate, their products were so nice.

 

[imagineGod]

Absolutely shocked by this tragedy.

 

[The Hierophant]

A huge shame.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Well in slightly good news this means they can focus more staff and effort on their other games.

 

[Blue]

The way Cubical7 is treating this is quality. Upfront, no mudslings or anything negative, and them being upfront about the refund:

Our immediate priority is to make the refunding process as easy as possible for those who pre-ordered from us. We understand your frustration and we sincerely apologise for this disappointment. If you pre-ordered The One Ring – The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game (standard or collector’s edition) or Rohan Region Guide directly from our webstore, you should have already received an email from us detailing your options and outlining any action required on your part.

We will be refunding you completely, or alternatively we would like to offer you 125% of the value of your order in Cubicle 7 store credit as a gesture of goodwill. This credit can be used across all of our other lines and future products. While those who pre-ordered Rohan Region Guide will have already received the PDF version, we will not be printing this title and you will also receive a full refund.

...

If you wish to receive a full refund, you do not need to respond to the email, we will automatically process your full refund within the next 14 days.

Immediate refunds even though they had to already paid authors, artists, and the like. Full refund or 125% store credit. No need to take any action if you want the full refund - not trying to draw out the process. And those who ordered the Rohan Region Guide will get a full refund even though they already received the PDF of the product.

That's just a class act. On top of putting out good material. Hat's off to them for treating customers right at a time that must truly suck for an RPG publishing company. I'll buy from them again.

 

[vilainn6]

TOR was a good

TOR1 is a great game. Sorry to hear Halfrung didn’t get along with it, but that experience is not universal.

While not universal, that opinion is shared by many. TOR is well written but it system isn't as good as fan like to say.

 

[Eric V]

While not universal, that opinion is shared by many. TOR is well written but it system isn't as good as fan like to say.

Did your opinion change when reading AiME?

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Hope the unpublished-but-finished books are eventually leaked via a playtester or somebody.

 

[Alzrius]

Well this is a shame. I have all of the AiME books except for Erebor Adventures (which, according to Amazon, won't actually come out for another two days); I just pre-ordered it now from the Cubicle7 webstore, and purchased the Rohan Region Guide PDF over on DriveThruRPG since the print version has been cancelled. At least both sites are offering holiday sales at the moment...

 

[Guest 6801328]

Moria boxed set I lament thee!!!!!!

Yeah, this. 1,000 times this.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Judging by ToR 1e, at least, Crucible 7's expertise lies in making beautifully presented games that read great, but fall down at the table in gameplay. We gave it four sessions and gave up in frustration.

But that's a wider problem in the hobby - outside a handful of the biggies, most RPGs have a tiny customer-base. That means boutique games designed to read well and impress critics, but are awkward and cludgey to actually play. Of course, the buyer who reads the glowing reviews won't know this - and may never know it if, like most buyers, he just reads the game, marvels at how impressive it seems, and puts it on the shelf with a dozen other unplayed boutique games.

While not universal, that opinion is shared by many. TOR is well written but it system isn't as good as fan like to say.

Wild! I’ve run and played quite a lot of the system, and rarely had any issue whatsoever with the system. It runs very smoothly, is incredibly good at evoking precisely what it means to evoke, and is just an easy blast to play or run.

When I saw their 5e conversion my first thought was that I wish they’d do a general higher magic fantasy rpg on the same basic system as TOR instead.

Only issue we ever had wasn’t even the system, just the organization, and the pdf index they put out solved that for the most part.

 

[Ravenbrook]

It's certainly one of the great pitfalls of doing licensed products. Game companies are probably better off to use proprietary campaign settings or works that are in the public domain (such as those of H.P. Lovecraft). I often wonder how long FFG can keep it's Star Wars license. You never know with Disney.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I guess Disney notices is better agreements with other companies if Hasbro asks too much in the negotiations about toys & board games merchandising. And deals for some years are a good way to test a company could be bought in the future.

 

[Morrus]

Did your opinion change when reading AiME?

I don’t understand the question. That’s a different system. It has no bearing in my opinion of TOR.

(ah, you were quoting somebody else. Sorry!)

 

[sim-h]

He's quoting the other guy (villain6), the one who didn't enjoy TOR. I guess he means did anybody who didn't like TOR, find AiME better. Delete this post if you want.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

According to this post on rpg.net, there's still some (small) hope for the line.