I think a little clarity may be needed for the previous answers, so here's my attempt at answering your questions.
Steelwind wrote:(going as far back as the 80's animated Hobbit movie when I was a kid).
1977!
I've heard most of your characters stats are derived straight from your race at the start and while you pick something of a "class", it actually has very little impact. How exactly does that work?
"Stats," in the sense of the most basic attributes of your character (Body, Heart, Wits), are determined by a combination of your culture ("race") and your background. Each culture presents six backgrounds to choose from, including a set of basic attributes. So, for instance, if I want to play a dwarf of the Lonely Mountain, and I choose the Far Trader background, my basic attributes will be Body 7, Heart 2, Wits 5.
But
The One Ring also has what are called favored attributes, which are improved attributes for skills you're especially good at. To determine your favored attributes, you get to add 3 to one attribute, 2 to another, and 1 to another.
Then there are other "stats" like Wisdom and Valour, which are kinda-sorta like saving throws, and are also NPC reaction modifiers, and which you get by spending experience points. There are Hope and Endurance, both of which are based entirely on your culture.
If we do pick up this game, and I know my friends well enough, we are probably looking at a Knight of Gondor, a Ranger, an Elf from Rivendell (with magic?), a Shieldmaiden of Rohan, an Elf Archer (Legolas style), and either a Dwarf or Hobbit (dude likes to play shorties) as characters in our party. Are all of those options available to play?
The cultures available in the core rules are Bardings, Beornings, Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain, Elves of Mirkwood, Hobbits of the Shire, and Woodmen of Wilderland.
Lake-town includes the culture Men of Lake-town.
Rivendell contains the cultures Rangers of the North and High Elves of Rivendell.
Other cultures are likely to be published soon in new supplements.
How does health and healing work in this game? I obviously imagine that there arent holy symbol wielding clerics running around casting cure serious wounds.
There are two main forms of injury: Endurance and Wounds. Endurance points are much like hit points. They represent non-fatal injuries and general fatigue. When your endurance points drop to a certain level, you become Weary, and you roll less well. If your endurance drops to 0, you pass out. Wounds are life-threatening. They slow your rate of healing. If you are Wounded and have 0 endurance points, you are dying.
Healing is mostly natural. At the end of a fight, you can rest and regain some endurance. You can regain endurance even while traveling. Your Wounds heal at a rate depending on your endurance. There are some ways to accelerate healing, but they're relatively rare.
And that leads me into...how does magic work in general? I know that it is much more toned down in Middle Earth, and magic is both rare and more subtle, but it still does exist. Do PCs have any options to utilize it, or is it reserved for the super NPCs like Gandalf? I know the above mentioned player who will likely play the Elf from Rivendell will be particularly interested, as he usually likes to play fighter/mage types (his all time favorite character is a 2E AD&D Elven Bladesinger)
Magic is handled in an ad hoc fashion and as special abilities. Dwarves, for instance, may spend experience points to learn Broken Spells, which include Spells of Opening and Shutting, Spells of Prohibition and Exclusion, and Spells of Secrecy.
Wizards are non-player characters only.
How do magical items work? While Im sure they are much rarer here than the typical D&D game, they are still pretty iconic for the setting, from Narsil and Glamdring to elven cloaks and Sams magic rope.
Magic items are introduced in the
Rivendell supplement. In the core rules, you only have certain special items, but the artifacts in the
Rivendell book are ancient or obviously magical. Magic items are more complicated than a +1 bonus to something. They have qualities that can be activated as they are used, and they may be cursed due to corruption. The referee doesn't necessarily place the magic items; he creates them ahead of time and when you find a treasure hoard you have a chance of finding one that is specially tailored for your character.
