http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnl_dv6b0ow

This is a great video, but it is not overly informative in terms of release date. Personally, I love The One Ring. In fact, it now ranks alongside West End Games' Star Wars as my favourite game products. It's not just that I love the system, which I do. It's that the system captures the feeling of Tolkien's Middle-Earth brilliantly, just as WEG captured the feeling of the Star Wars universe (back before that universe was ruined by the prequels).

But...

I am getting a little bit frustrated by what seems like a lack of support for the game. It's not just that there is next to no official material out there beyond the core rulebooks, but that it is not clear to me when I can expect official material to start appearing.

I understand that there are difficulties inherent in publishing any game system, especially when licensing is involved. I just really love this product, and want to see (and buy!) more, soon.

Jon, you are flat-out the best artist in the RPG industry. I wish I could afford to hire you for my game!

Hello Brooke! I have been playing The One Ring since August, right after I received my pre-release, pre-order PDF and copy of the books. It is frustrating to wait so long for supplemental material, but we have to believe Cubicle7 when they say, "More is coming soon!" I choose to focus, not so much on the 'soon' as much as the 'more is coming.' So, cheer up friend! More is coming! Not only are we going to get the products that Cubicle7 has already announced, but we are going to get even more things that they cannot announce yet. The One Ring has been nominated for the Origins Award: Best Roleplaying Game (winner to be announced in June). I think they'll win it hands down!

So, expect great things in the future! This is not an unsupported, dying game. It has only just begun

Fair enough, James.

Let me be clear: my frustration should really be taken as a compliment to Cubicle 7. This feelslike Tolkien, in a way that MERP and Decipher's LoTR RPG never did. What is happening is that I read the core books, and just want more. The game is just that awesome. Plus, as a Tolkien fangirl, I want to see how the game will treat other parts of Middle-Earth, and, ohmygod, how much do I want to play a Shieldmaiden of Rohan? I'm just chomping at the bit for more of this great game.

I don't mind repeating myself, and I hope it doesn't become too boring to read: We're as keen to get you this material as you are to have it! There is a lot in the works, and all I can do is urge you to keep an eye out for the next C7 newsletter:
http://www.cubicle7.co.uk/get-the-cubicle-7-newsletter/


Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated. And hey, we understand the passion because we share it.

Ooh! I should add, credit where credit is due: The image in the video was pencilled by the mighty John Howe, and humbly painted by myself.

The seven adventures in Tales are by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, with help from Francesco Nepitello.

Thanks, Jon, for the link to your newsletter. Just signed up!

Brooke: Don't forget the recently released FREE adventure, Words of the Wise available in PDF:

http://www.cubicle7.co.uk/our-games/the-on...ring-downloads/

Thanks, Beckett. I am familiar with the Words of the Wise, but as I prefer to be a player rather than a Loremaster, I have studiously avoided downloading it.

Ah.. Well, I tried.

Wonderful! My wallet is yours to the next two years, guys!

I really am looking forward to seeing products which treat further aspects of Middle-Earth. The Lake-town book sounds awesome. I love that Cubicle 7 is focusing upon Mirkwood for the time being. There is a tendency for Tolkien fans to focus upon LoTR, to the detriment of The Hobbit. But The Hobbit was the book that started it all, and it's great to see the initial focus upon the lands covered in that book. Still, I want to play me a Shieldmaiden!

Brooke,
You could always play an unofficial Shield Maiden - at least until the real thing comes out. There should be a Riders of Rhovanion thread about... 4-7ish pages back in the Forum Index started by Halbarad (I believe). It's a WIP but nothing jumped out at anyone.

Search using this link (the Google search field at the bottom of the page is broken.)
http://cubicle7.clicdev.com/f/index.php?tr...&showtopic=2866
Once you get to Trotter's post on searching, click to go to a Google page and in the search field there, change "search" to whatever you're looking for.

Oh, and mark Trotter's post as a Favorite Bookmark - you might have trouble finding it again.

Thanks, Garn!

The unofficial Riders would be a great place to start.

I share the enthusiasm for the Hobbit. It was my first actual, real, grown up book of my very own, not a hand me down on the family bookshelf. You never forget your first, eh?

So much is hinted at in the Hobbit that I think I could run a campaign for years just based on that one book.

Hi Brooke,
The Riders of Rhovanion thread is a few pages back. It's hopefully destined for a future issue of OM, in it's finished form, along with an accompanying set of ideas about mounted combat and a short adventure to introduce the Horsefolk.
In the process of penning the adventure at present and the basic Horsefolk heroic culture rules are 'pretty much' as shown in the earlier threads. There is also a nice PDF some pages earlier as well that was created by Telcontar. Between these sources you should be able to put together a Proto Rohirrim from Rhovanion or a pseudo Rohirrim, pending the release of something official.

I didn't go with a 'Shieldmaiden' as a background as i didn't want to limit any background to a specific gender but the 'Born to the Battlefield' background might work.

I would also look at the thread about mounted combat, the Cultural Blessing for the riders is in there.

Oh and there is a rather fabulous Rangers of the North PDF lurking back there somewhere.

I'm the opposite. Part of what makes LoTR, and Middle-Earth, mean so much to me is precisely that I have my mother's copies, handed down to me. It was those copies that I first read. They have my mother's maiden name penned lovingly at the front of each. The last time I read LoTR it was on Kindle, but, still, I love those old copies handed down from my mother, and in time I will hand them on to my daughter. I love that, if she ever chooses to read LoTR, it'll be from those copies.

Halbarad,
Just in case you decide to re-work things, you could always name such a calling 'Shieldmate', keeping it gender neutral.

Actually, it might work well either as two players acting together as a single fighting team or as a Character with a side-kick NPC.

Yes, I noticed the "Born to the Battlefield," and figured that would be best for a Shieldmaiden.

I just checked out the Rangers of the North thread, too. This is really good stuff. Thanks, all, for the work you've put into this.

Just to get back on topic, when we say "Coming soon", are we speaking on geologic terms, or something more mercurial? Is it as thematic as the game itself, and thus "as soon as the next Age of this World comes upon us."

The next newsletter is supposed to provide some answers. I have no idea when to expect it either, though.

The newsletter this week is meant to have TOR updates and I would bet good money it was delayed from last week to allow for preorders to open around the same time. So, my guess is we will see preorders this week, and hopefully some other updates.

If not, I think its time to start throwing out toys at C7.

Hi Jon:

Say, isn't Francesco the author of TOR? I ask because, as you say, it seems to me that the extra adventure(s) and this new sourcebook are not by him. Why is this so?
All good to you!
VACO

Francesco is the developer but as the line grows, he will need to involve other writers under his supervision. For example, Dom wrote Words of the Wise and other people are noted as making contributions in the Core Set.

I suspect that Francesco has been focussing on Darkening of Mirkwood, whilst Gareth (who is an amazing RPG writer in his own right) did most of the grunt work in getting Tales From Wilderland together.

Gareth is the author of The Darkening of Mirkwood too. Both Darkening and TfW have me as developer/additional writer/editor. The next thing written by me directly will be the Lake-town sourcebook to come out together with the LM screen.

Francesco

As close to super human as Francesco is, it strikes me that no single human could write all the material that's in production right now.

I tip my hat to you all. Writing in the incredibly documented world of Middle-earth and having to stay within the confines of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, while satisfying Loremasters of various Tolkien scholarship, and adding your own creativity can be very nasty, nasty, tricksy, my preciouss (a daunting TN 20 test, at the least).

And Errantries of the King?

Just try to get one of you guys to let slip on Errantries

Did you get C7's news release? There might not be an Errantries of the King, at least not in the form we had been anticipating...

Just got it.

Good to see Darkening of Mirkwood not far off.

You may want to check the C7 blog and then the shop - Tales from Wilderland and also dice sets (packs of one or three sets) are up for pre-order as well as info on other upcoming TOR products.

http://www.cubicle7.co.uk/2012/03/the-one-ring-news/

http://shop.cubicle7store.com/epages/es113...es/The_One_Ring

I've just pre-ordered Tales and also one dice set. Don't forget if you were someone who pre-ordered TOR for last August you may have received a discount code when you received the game itself, as a thank you from C7

Edit: Lol, how could I have missed the above posts, I only just checked and was replying to a previous post...

This is the best news I've heard all year so far! Will be ordering mine today! Cannot wait for releases - even though were still a couple/few months from receiving the new goodness.


So with all that in mind - what is the status of Errantries of the King release - or is that now superfluous and being annexed into other releases???

So when is Tales available as a separate PDF order?

The wording of the newsletter seemed to imply that it was available for those who pre-order the print edition. Will it be available at the same time as a standalone product?

Errantries of the King as a book seems to have gone. I imagine that it is going to be split between Rivendell sourcebook, Eriador sourcebook and a Errantries of the King campaign book (like Darkening of Mirkwood).

Alternatively, Errantries can just be one book rather than 2 in a slipcase. I hope that they keep the regional stuff collected in single books rather than spread across many.

The organization of the Adventurer's and Loremaster's books does not encourage that hope.

But bear in mind the organisation of the first core set was done a long time before they made the decision not to do more core sets - so the format is now changable.

I agree but Rivendell does carve both regional and PC options out of that region already.

I hope that the rest of Eriador is covered in one book though, with a campaign book covers the time period.