So! What's going on with TOR?

[Jon Hodgson]

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

So it isn't lost on us that every time we mention the 5e conversion of TOR we get a raft of concerned replies, some polite and measured, some downright rude, about why there aren't more announcements for TOR.

Here's the thing. While it's extremely skilled work converting TOR to AME, it's a different task to creating those supplements in the first place. I don't think anyone can have missed that TOR takes a long time to make. Getting the tone and feel right, and the writing and art up to par, isn't easy or fast work. So sure, you'll see short pieces like Eaves of MIrkwood and The Road Goes Ever on coming out for AME quite quickly. And due to the sheer quality of the team working on conversions, we can convert something like Heart of the Wild really fast.

But writing an epic campaign for Rohan? And one for Erebor? That takes time. But it is happening.

So, what are we working on for The One Ring, direct from the horse's mouth?

Oaths of the Riddermark is a sequence of linked adventures covering the trials of Thengel King. These adventures accompany the Horse-lords of Rohan supplement. There's a huge range of things to do in this one, as your company strives to preserve the kingdom of Rohan from it's enemies, inside and out.

Laughter of Dragons is a collection of linked adventures that accompany Erebor, and concern themselves with the Dalelands and the Lonely Mountain. It's coming together very nicely indeed, and we'll have more to say when we've locked off more. But it's not too far off that point.

We've also working on a new hefty region guide. More on that in the fullness of time. But we think you'll be happy and excited.

Further down the pipe we have some AMAZING stuff planned for next year, which I just can't say anymore about yet: Due to the nature of our work we can't really say a lot about The One Ring supplements prior to release. We can't promise you dates or tell you much about the contents until everyone involved has signed off on everything. And once they have, we make the goodies available to you right away. Which I realise leaves you in the awkward position of trusting us, right up to the moment of release, but there it is.

We have no intention whatsoever of ditching TOR, nor slowing down its releases. We're always trying to speed things up, and we've made great progress on that behind the scenes, but the quality demands remain very rigorous. If something isn't right, we rework it. Sometimes we even start again.

So when you see slow progress on TOR, please don't mistake it for giving up, or deprioritising. That isn't what's happening.

Thanks as ever for all your enthusiasm and support for TOR. We really do appreciate it. And we do understand why you care about it so much. So do we.

OK, back to chatting about Balrog wings!

[Lorimez]

Thanks Jon.

Glad to see that TOR remains at the core of Cubicle 7. Guess some people get too passionate from time to time but the majority of us, sit here hitting F5 often in the hope of the next piece of excitement about ToR.

Now if we could just talk about Moria . . .

Thanks for the post on behalf of the community.

[Curulon]

Thank you for the post! We all appreciate everything you do, and not many developers take the time to be engaged with the fans, and that you do is awesome!

I know the best days of TOR are still yet to come and if you're excited about what's coming, so are we!

[Otaku-sempai]

A "new hefty region guide"? That almost has to be for Gondor, though I wouldn't mind at all if it covered Western Eriador (including the Shire?), Ered Luin, Lindon and the Gulf of Lune. Besides the Heroic Culture of the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains, I could see the Elves of the Grey Havens as an Advanced Culture. Mordor might be a distant third possibility, although it doesn't seem to offer much potential for Heroic Cultures.

[Earendil]

Thank you, Jon. I'm sorry to hear that people are rude sometimes, but sadly, some people are rude and I just hope you know that most of us really appreciate what you guys do.

I'm always hoping to hear more news, because I love TOR and am excited at the prospect of having more of it, and sometimes it's hard to wait. Especially when a project is announced and then takes years to appear, as Oaths has done.

But I will say that although I know you are all working hard behind the scenes, from this side the lack of information can be frustrating; when months go by without an update it can feel like the game we love is being ignored - or even that we are. Of course I don't really believe that, but I can understand why some might.

Sometimes even just a quick note to say you're still working on this project, and even the roughest of ideas how far it's progressed, or a statement that there have been issues and it's going to take a bit longer than expected, would be a big help.

OK, back to chatting about Balrog wings!

Bloody Jackson! *shakes fist*

[Otaku-sempai]

Balrog wings was a thing when Peter Jackson was still in high school. You might as well say, "Bloody Bakshi!"

[Earendil]

Balrog wings was a thing when Peter Jackson was still in high school. You might as well say, "Bloody Bakshi!"

Oh, I'm well aware Jackson didn't start it, and for that matter nor did Bakshi. But let's be honest, the image most people have in their heads of a Balrog (and indeed, most of the creatures and characters from LOTR) is the image from Peter Jackson's movies. So when they then read that bit in book and it mentions the Balrog's wings, it never even occurs to them to consider that those might be metaphorical wings -- because their mental image of a Balrog already includes wings.

Thread derailment successful!

[Stormcrow]

Jackson and Bakshi got their balrog images from artists. Jackson didn't say "I want a scaly, horned demon-beast" (well, he MIGHT have, knowing him); Bakshi didn't say "I want a lion-headed, mammoth-footed bat-man"; they both worked with artists who had already depicted balrogs, and Jackson and Bakshi said, "Like that!"

I can't think of any artist who has ever depicted the Balrog of Moria the way Tolkien describes: as a huge, vaguely man-shaped shadow wreathed in flames. The Balrog of Moria was also silent, not roaring like a Jurassic Park tyrannosaur.

Getting the tone and feel right, and the writing and art up to par, isn't easy or fast work.

This is the most important part. I see no need for urgency. Once done, it's part of the complete line; it's not like it disappears after a while. Get it right and make it good, and it will continue to be right and good long after you've gone on to other supplements.

[Glorelendil]

I find it endlessly amusing that Jon made a funny about Balrog wings and it effectively derailed the thread.

But anyway, I'm going to get a red trucker's cap that says "Make Balrogs Great Again".

The hat will have wings, of course.

[Falenthal]

OK, back to chatting about Balrog wings!

I was wondering if Jon refered to us chatting about Balrog wings, or him and the C7 team?

Moria is the hidden ace...