Hallo everyone,

I´m new to this forum and new to TOR (german version). I´m very impressed by the work of the designers of this game. Thank you for this beautiful game!
I know, this is only the beginning of the story, but is there any official word about the future of The one Ring Rpg AFTER the release of the last core set War of the Ring in 2013.
Is this an RPG line where we already know, that there will be no more official supplements, lets say until 2014, because the timeline has reached the end?

Again, this question may come a bit soon, but I´m not the one writing stories for myself, because of lack of creativity and time. I only buy official books, and when there are no more, there will be no TOR for me.
So it would be a great pleasure for me to hear, that my speculations are wrong

Yes, I think it does. Leaving aside that there will still be three years worth of material for you to use and already years and years worth of MERP and CODA material that is also usable, crystal ball gazing beyond the end of the year in the RPG industry tends be fruitless.

Relax and enjoy the ride. There has been no indication that publication will stop in 2014 if sales justify it. There may be only three core sets planned, but we know that there is going to be all kinds of support for them. To be honest, speculation like yours here will only serve to make the matter worse.

Besides, Tabletop RPG editions tend to have a lifetime of five years or less anyway, before they run out of content and need to do at least a partial reboot. I mean, how many editions of D&D have there been, counting the half editions, like 3.0 vs 3.5 and 2nd edition vs AD&D? How many versions of Star Wars have there been? How many different editions of Shadowrun have gone by? White Wolf had to do a retool of World of Darkness soon after launch, and has rebooted their entire line at least once. For that matter, how many different versions of Middle Earth RPGs have there been?

Keeping all of that in mind, it's also necessary to point out that the vast majority of game systems experience a general drop in quality as they near the end of their life cycle (for various understandable but annoying reasons). I experienced this first-hand during D&D 3.5; I know that people playing 4th have been feeling it for a while; I've heard from old-time LARPers that Old World of Darkness went through a similar implosion.

So really, I think the fact that the game has a fixed publishing life-cycle will help, not hurt. There is an expected stopping point, a generally agreed upon target, rather than a constant, continual pressure to always make just one more great book.

It has never been my intention to make the matter worse!
I´m going to enjoy the ride, as you say, but like everything that´s fine and good, I wish it lasts for a long time.
I was only thinking about the future of this first great product of this Rpg line, which I hold in my hands for a few days now and the end of the war of the ring core set.

The third core set is War of the Ring and is due in 2013. It is not the end of the line and it has never been said to be the end of the line. There is to be a full line of support materials and these can't even begin for the time and places contained in War of the Ring until that core set is released.

If you want to be optimistic, think of it this way. TOR is getting 3 core books spread over 2 years, rather than just 1 core book like most RPGs do. Would you consider an RPG to be dead as soon as the core book is released?

Might I suggest that what you mean is that there will be no new TOR books for you. Nothing's gonna stop anyone from playing it until 2020, when the world comes to an end. Or is 2019?

I´m really happy that there is an middle earth roleplaying game anyway. And that there will be three core sets instead of one is fine.

Perhaps my initial question should only have been: Does anybody know, if the timeline will go on and be supported after the relaese of the third core set, and nothing more.

I don't think we will see official Fourth Age support due to licensing issues. Plus it will cut into the end of the Third Age which is where most of the interest is.

I do think that we will see plenty of support in the timeframes currently proposed to keep you running games for a long time, which seems to answer your expressed concern.

FWIW I also think that the three core sets will give you plenty of support to play outside the timeframes currently proposed too. I plan to run Palantir Quest which is set in the Fourth Age once all three core sets are out.

In addition, we already have some wonderful fan material on here, & let's hope that we can all continue to supplement whatever Francesco & Jon & their staff can devise. It's really up to all of us to keep this going.