Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates, Video Games | Tagged: Andrew Kenrick, Andy Hepworth, Cubicle 7, entertainment, Francesco Nepitello, gaming, j. r. r. tolkien, Jan Pospisil, John Howe, Jon Hodgson, Paul Bourne, rpg, Sophisticated Games, The One Ring Roleplaying Game, Tomasz Jedruszek

One Ring To Roleplay All

By Phil Harris

J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth represents one of the largest franchises on the planet and his writings have created a variety of books, films, audio recordings and comics, notwithstanding a few roleplaying games. At present Cubicle 7 and Sophisticated Games' The One Ring Roleplaying Game (TORRPG), written by Francesco Nepitello; with art direction by Jon Hodgson, represents the finest researched of all of them and this was proven by the numerous awards it received at launch. The new Revised Edition resolves a number of  design issues the original release was criticised about.

Let's deal with theses changes first before considering the product as a whole. The biggest criticism levelled at the original slipcase release was that it was too hard to reference the rules during play, due to the fact they were split across two volumes and not indexed well. The revised edition of TORRPG has been completely reformatted and re-edited into one seamless manual by Andrew Kenrick (ex-editor of White Dwarf) bringing all the relevant rules into their own discrete sections and providing an excellent index, whilst other issues, which players had found obscure have been clarified with a whole host of new explanatory tables and examples.

These changes have not affected Francesco's view of Middle Earth and the ongoing battle between shadow and hope. The former representing the mighty forces of Sauron, his power stretching across the world and seeping into all but the strongest bastions of hope. The latter being the stuff that heroes themselves are made of, acting as a guiding light against the darkness emanating from Mordor. Indeed characters in the game have to balance their actions carefully as facing greater evil and desolation created by Sauron's hand will mean having to face the shadow and the more unheroic the deeds they perform the greater the darkness slips over them.

The very nature of this mechanic fits directly with the world Tolkien created, explaining the corruption of others under the force of the One Ring as well as Sauruman's own fall, as the shadow seeped into his pores. It makes the more remote and dangerous regions of Middle Earth a challenge to simply cross and brings a comraderie to the group of players attempting to achieve their goals. When you add the traditional monsters of the world to the mix then the challenge becomes far greater.

As Francesco himself says, "The monsters of Middle-earth are among the things that set this world apart from other fantasy world. The creatures that Tolkien created appear as if they were taken out of an ancient song…" and so orcs, spiders, wargs and trolls become creatures with the mystique of legend wrapped at their core, the Loremaster (Gamemaster or GM) able to add hate points to these creatures to enhance their abilities.

Players are certainly not defenceless though. A well thought out battle and progression system runs throughout the game. One where magic feels rare, unlike other roleplaying games where everyone's second cousin seems to have been a practicing mage, and that fact merely emphasises the challenges the players face. The players engaging in two seperate phases in gameplay: Adventuring, where they engage the monsters, fulfil quests and achieve their goals and a Fellowship phase which Francesco designed, "to make the passage of time a central feature of playing The One Ring. I feel that it is the unfolding of history what really turns the deeds of a character into an epic worthy of song. So, making the passing of the years a mechanic of the game was a must."

In the latter the player retires to a safe haven and chooses an endeavour to undertake in the betterment of their character, such as ridding themselves of the corruption they have been afflicted with, meeting patrons or friends and fleshing out their own histories.

Throughout the TORRPG tome fantastic artwork by John Howe, Andy Hepworth, Jon Hodgson, Tomasz Jedruszek and Jan Pospisil gives a stunning realisation of Francesco's words but also the world Tolkien created. Each image relevantly placed in the text to give the reader a feeling of what is being implied. It is also exciting to see a different and simply stunning vision of this popular world which takes an alternative direction from the ubiquitous imagery from Peter Jackson's films, (which continue to diminish in quality). Indeed Jon Hodgson's art direction and Paul Bourne's layouts should be commended and the whole book brings Middle Earth to life, creating a popular and very playable setting for first time roleplayers as well as the more established ones.

It takes a great publisher to not only acknowledge their mistakes but also make reparations to those who have already bought the game. For anyone who has purchased the original release of the game Cubicle 7 have provided a free update PDF which will bring their versions up to date with this Revised Edition.

When considering the work and craftsmanship that has gone into this product, the beautiful artwork from a number of great established names and the easy to understand rules The One Ring Roleplaying Game represents great value for money.

Roleplaying fans of Tolkien's world shouldn't miss out.

Pre-Orders are now open for the revised edition of The One Ring Roleplaying Game, and the PDF is available now, with the print version coming later this summer.

Phil Harris (@PhilipGHarris) is a games developer who is currently working with One Thumb Mobile on their MMORPG Celtic Heroes. He also writes for Pixels for Breakfast.

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