The One Ring Core Rules

“This is the Master-ring, the One Ring to rule them all.”

It is the year 2965 of the Third Age and the Shadow is returning. Twenty-four years ago, an alliance of Elves, Men, and Dwarves defeated a horde of Orcs and Wild Wolves, under a sky darkened by Giant Bats, inaugurating a new era of prosperity for the Free Peoples. But twenty years is a long time for peace to last, and in many dark corners of the earth a shadow is lengthening once again.
Rumours of strange things happening outside the borders of civilised lands are spreading with increasing regularity and, while they are dismissed by most as fireside-tales and children’s stories, they sometimes reach the ears of individuals who recognise the sinister truth they hide. These are restless warriors, curious scholars and wanderers, always eager to seek what was lost or explore what was forgotten. Ordinary people call them adventurers and, when they prevail, they hail them as heroes. But if they fail, no one will even remember their names...
This is The One Ring, a roleplaying game based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, two extraordinary works of fiction by the beloved author and respected academic, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. With these books, Tolkien introduced readers to his greatest creation, the world of Middle-earth, a mythic land from a remote past. With The One Ring, Middle- earth is yours to explore — you will travel the land searching for clues about the return of the Shadow, and have the chance to play a part in the struggle against the Enemy.
Within the pages of this volume you will find the full rules of the game and rich information on the people, places, and adversaries you can encounter in the course of your adventures.

The Twilight of the Third Age

The One Ring is set in the time period running from the events narrated in The Hobbit to those told in The Lord of the Rings. Encompassing a span of eight decades, this period is ushered in when Bilbo the Hobbit finds the Ruling Ring, and culminates with the war fought by the Free Peoples against the Dark Lord Sauron, and the destruction of the Ring. Players of The One Ring create a Company of heroes — Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, and Men, seeking adventure in the Lone-lands of Eriador. It is a desolate country, a vast region that once saw the glory of the North Kingdom of the Dúnedain, the Men of the West. Here, many wars were fought, and countless ruins dot its landscape. Shadows move along its paths, and not all of them belong to the living.
It is in Eriador that the One Ring lies, dormant, a seed of the past that will one day bring the end of this age of the world.

Adventuring in the Third Age

Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion. Adventurers are often simply common individuals born in exceptional times. They have most likely led an ordinary life until the day something happened and changed the way they looked at their world and the people they knew. For some reason, the place they grew up in didn’t look as interesting and boundless as before, or they started to realise that they weren’t doing enough for the safekeeping of their loved ones by staying at home in idleness, pretending shadows weren’t growing nearer and nearer every year. Adventurers are not soldiers or mercenaries following the commands of a lord, nor are they subtle Wizards trying to weave the threads spun by fate — they are bold souls putting themselves in peril of their own free will, sometimes simply for the love of adventure itself.

The Folk of Eriador

West of Wilderland, between the Misty Mountains and the Sea, is the region of Eriador. Right in its middle is found the Shire of the Hobbits, a quiet land whose folk enjoy a secluded life behind guarded borders. Across the river Brandywine, east of the Shire, lies the Bree-land, a small inhabited region, rising like an island in the midst of the Lone-lands about it.
The Bree-land is traversed by the East-West Road, and in its chief village of Bree is The Prancing Pony, a resort for all weary travellers. These are mainly Dwarves of the Folk of Durin, going east to their far Kingdom Under the Mountain, in Wilderland, or west, on their way to the Blue Mountains. Sometimes, they travel in the company of Northmen from distant Dale, subjects of King Bard the Dragonslayer.
According to ancient stories, the region of Eriador was once the realm of Arnor, a great kingdom of the North, brought to ruin long ago by bitter strife and the machi- nations of the Enemy. Much of it is now forgotten, for the memory of mortals is short, and the days of the king are celebrated only in songs and proverbs devoid of their orig- inal meaning. But some remember — the mysterious Rangers of the North, lonely hunters of the servants of the Enemy who guard all boundaries against Wights and Trolls, as do the long-lived Elves of Lindon, that at times leave their land along the western coasts to wander across Eriador, to witness with their immortal eyes the fading of the glories of the past.

Playing the Game

“The board is set, and the pieces are moving.”

The One Ring is what we call a pen-and-paper roleplaying game. Thanks to video and online games, millions of people are familiar with this form of entertainment, where players cre- ate fictional heroes and explore shared worlds populated by computer-controlled creatures and, in online games, accessed by a multitude of other players.
In The One Ring, players create characters and meet face- to-face around a table or across the world on video, and the computer is replaced by one person taking the mantle of the Loremaster — a director, a referee, and a narrator. The game can be played with as few as two people (one player plus the Loremaster), and with as many as six players or more. All that is needed are dice, paper, pencils, imagina- tion, and a love for Tolkien’s imaginary world.

Structure of the Game

“Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We’re in one, of course; but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards.”

Story-building is a fundamental component of The One Ring. It isn’t about hearing a story being told, but about creating it over the course of the game, as the result of the interac- tion between the Loremaster and the Player-heroes at the gaming table. To facilitate this creative interaction, gameplay in The One Ring is structured into two distinct phases:
An Adventuring Phase, usually taking the largest part of a session, or even multiple sessions, and a closing Fellowship Phase, addressing in detail what in other games is often called ‘downtime’. Following this structure, the gameplay will see the Player-heroes take part in a significant chain of events and follow them through to a conclusive resolution.
An Adventuring Phase session of play is played as a series of scenes, connected sequentially in a wider narrative arc. A scene is a single episode focusing on the Company, or part of it, facing some kind of challenge, preparing for one, or recovering from it. It is up to the Loremaster to initially frame each scene, especially those that are putting the Company in danger. To frame a scene, the Loremaster needs to first describe the location where the action is taking place, and who is there among the Player-heroes and their potential adversaries or allies. Then, the Loremaster defines the challenge that the Company is facing, considering the perspective of each involved Player-hero.
Once the Loremaster is done setting up the scene, the players proceed to describe how their characters react to the situation. In particular, players need to choose what actions their Player- heroes take to investigate and resolve the challenge facing them. Players have full control over what their heroes do and how they do it, but it is the Loremaster that determines how every part of the world — from Loremaster characters to creatures and the environment — reacts to what the Player-heroes do. In general, to play out a scene and determine its conse­ quences, the Loremaster and the players need nothing more than common sense and the rules concerning Action Resolution described on a separate page. A notable exception are those scenes that require the application of the rules for Combat, Council, or Journey— those rules are found on their respective pages.

The Fellowship Phase

When the Adventuring Phase is concluded, a Fellowship Phase starts with the players narrating what their characters do when they finally return from their adventuring to rest for a while. It is now the Loremaster’s turn to act reactively, by listening to their players’ propositions and wishes, and making sure that the rules are correctly applied.
During a Fellowship Phase, the players present to the Loremaster their ideas and intentions — for example, choosing where they are going to rest, and deciding what they will do while they are there. During the Fellowship Phases, the players can choose one or more undertakings that let them perform down­ time activities, directly affecting the gameplay.

Tying it all Together

Usually, an Adventuring Phase will last two or three sessions of play, followed by a Fellowship Phase wrapping up neatly what happened thus far in the adventure. After a few games, what happens in the two distinct phases of the game will become more and more closely interrelated as the events arising during the Adventuring Phase lead the players to make certain choices during the following Fellowship Phase. In turn, the Loremaster will find it easy to tie the next Adventuring Phase into what happened during the previous Fellowship Phase.
The final result is an epic that grows out of the ongoing lives of the Player-heroes and their deeds.

Contents

1. Action Resolution
2. Adventurers
3. Characteristics
4. Valour and Wisdom
5. Adventuring Phase
6. Fellowship Phase
7. The World

The Shadow of the Past

The last twenty years or so have seen the resurgence of hope in the lands of the Free Peoples, and then its slow but steady decline, as the world darkens once again.

YEAR 2941: The Wizard Gandalf, Thorin Oakenshield, and twelve Dwarves visit Bilbo the Hobbit in the Shire: they set upon a quest to recover the treasure of Durin’s Folk and free the North from the threat of the Dragon of Erebor. A series of unlikely events leads to the death of Smaug and to the destruction of Lake-town. Dáin of the Iron Hills becomes King of Erebor, while Dwarves, Men, and Elves collaborate in rebuilding new cities in Dale and upon the Long Lake.
YEAR 2942: Bilbo returns to his peaceful life in the Shire. He carries the One Ring with him, not suspecting its true nature. News of the great events that have come to pass spread across the land as he travels home.
YEAR 2949: Gandalf and Balin journey to the Shire to visit Bilbo Baggins. They arrive at Bag End on one autumn evening. They spend some time together, talking of their adventuring times and about how things are going in Wilderland. Balin doesn’t hide his disquiet from his good friend, and tries to convince Bilbo to join him in a new adventure. Bilbo is reluctant, and in the end declines the invitation.
YEAR 2951: The Dark Lord Sauron unveils his presence in the black land of Mordor. He is ready to spread his power far and wide, and begins to rebuild his Dark Tower. His will is bent on gathering a vast army in the black land, and his summons are answered by all sorts of wicked creatures. Gollum is among them, and his path slowly turns in the direction of Mordor. Sauron sends the Nazgûl to reclaim his stronghold in southern Mirkwood, and the forest darkens. Rumours of a new Shadow in the South start to be whispered by many folks in the North. Orcs and Goblins are found bearing the symbol of a lidless Eye.
YEAR 2953: The White Council, a gathering of the Wise, meets to discuss the fate of the Rings of Power. Saruman the White, the head of the Council, declares that the One Ring, the Ruling Ring that Sauron himself made, is lost forever, having been carried by the River Anduin to the Sea. Saruman claims the impregnable fortress of Isengard as his own abode and begins to restore its defences.
YEAR 2955: Adventurers out of Rivendell signal the presence in Eriador of a new breed of Troll: the Olog-hai. They seem to come from Mordor and directly serve the Dark Lord.
YEAR 2956: Aragorn, son of Arathorn, captain of the Rangers of the North and heir of Isildur, meets Gandalf the Grey, and their friendship begins.
YEARS 2957–65: Rumours of turmoil and strife in Wilderland become more and more common in this decade. Traffic intensifies over the High Pass as more and more trav- ellers from the East cross into the Westlands bringing news of threats to the fragile peace between Men, Elves, and Dwarves.