The One Ring - roleplaying game

In this blog I will be talking about a role-playing game called the One Ring which is set in J.R.Tolkien's Middle Earth. If you have no idea of what a role-playing game is go to this previous post to find out all about it. However, if you do, come right back this way.

One Ring is set in the famous Middle Earth. A fantasy land full of dwarves, elves, humans, orcs and

countless more. In One Ring you are a intrepid hero, fighting back the encroaching darkness. One Ring is set after the battle of Five Armies but before Frodo and Fellowship of the Ring have departed on their epic quest to save the land.

In the One Ring you can choose to play one of the many cultures that occupy Middle Earth. For example, you could be a stout dwarf from the Lonely Mountains, a crazy old women from the woods, a travel hardened merchant human or, if you want to, a courteous hobbit bowman.

In the One Ring, when you want to do something (like if you wanted to wrestle an orc to the ground) then you have to roll some specially made dice to try and beat a target number - and there is a reasonable chance you will fail. Take a deep breath, I'm going to explain the special dice now. First there is the Feat die (a twelve sided die) which has the numbers one to ten and two other special runes: the Gandalf and Eye of Sauron runes. The Gandalf rune allows you an immediate success, which means that no matter how incompetent you are, you always have a chance. However, an Eye of Sauron rune is definitely not good!  The Eye of Sauron is worth zero when rolled and, to add insult to injury, then something bad can happen in the story, so not something you want to roll if you are already nearly unnconsious and about to be eaten by the spiders of Kirkwood. However, in addition to the Feat die, you might get to roll some six sided Success dice. How many Success dice you get depends on whether your character has any skill in the particular activity you are partaking in. When you roll, the score from your Feat and Success dice are added together to determine if you reach your target and succeed in what you were trying to do. So far so normal, but the Success die also has special Tengwar rune alongside the number six. This Tengwar rune lets you do special things if you succeed, whether that be dealing extra damage or convincing that goblin that it should really run away now.

Another special mechanic, which I really like, is hope. You can spend hope from your personal supply to boost rolls which could be life-saving in tricky situations. So, what's there to stop you from blowing all your hope in the first few seconds of the adventure you ask? Well, if you have less hope than shadow (a really hard thing to get rid of) and you roll an Eye of Sauron you lose control of your character and the game master gets to take control of it, you gain a permant shadow point (normal ones can be worn off) and a flaw (a personality trait your adventurer gains, like greedy).

One of the last rule I want to talk about is fellowship phases. Fellowship phases are the sections between adventures that allow you to develop your character's story while the winter months are upon you.

The first thing I have to say is that I absolutely love this game. One of the first things that I adore about it is the Feat die. It is really fun how there is always a chance to succeed by getting a Gandalf rune, no matter the odds.

One of the things that this system does well is making it feel like you are in Middle Earth. This is partly

due to the emphasis on travel in the rules (think about it, both the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit are stories about journeys, one going from the  Shire to the Lonely Mountain and the other from the Shire to Mordor). Another way that the system makes this great feeling is with shadow and hope. You are always wary of spending hope, because if you use too much of it things will start to go wrong very quickly. The fact that it takes a really long time to get rid of shadow to makes it feels significant when you get one, not just a minor setback.

The other special thing about the One Ring that I love is the Fellowship phases. These really let you delve into all that backstory of your character which you never get a chance to look at in other systems. For example in Dungeons and Dragons you never really know your character, they are just numbers on a sheet instead of actual people that have a life. In one fellowship phase, my hobbit bowman put on a big archery festival and was awarded the title of Alderman.

The setting is also an extremely good one to play in, as everyone knows (or should know) what Middle the fantasy setting which everyone knows and loves.

Earth is like and so it is a lot easier to imagine the world you are in and care about it.  It is not just some random fantasy setting the no one cares about and knows nothing about, it is

Overall, I think this game is absolutely amazing. I would defiantely say this was one of my favourite, or maybe even my absolute favourite role-playing game.

Next time I will be going back to board games with All Wound Up : Escape from the Cemetery.