Gaming news: Free League’s The One Ring: Roleplaying in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth comes to Kickstarter on 11 February 2021

 

Ten years ago, the fantastic One Ring RPG by Cubicle 7 was released to critical acclaim. Just over one year ago Cubicle 7 dropped the One Ring RPG license. Today has been a great day for fans waiting news of the new One Ring RPG coming from Free League. Early this morning Francesco Nepitello posted the following hint at what was coming:

(Source)

The Wizard was most definitely not late and Polygon article was the opening reveal that the One Ring RPG 2nd Edition, now named The One Ring: Roleplaying in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, was coming to Kickstarter on 11 February 2021.

Following this Free League began their marketing drive with a video teaser.

Then came official posts on both the Free League Facebook and Twitter accounts.

“We are proud to reveal that the new edition of the acclaimed roleplaying game THE ONE RING™, set in the world of The Lord of the Rings™ by J.R.R. Tolkien, is coming to KICKSTARTER at 3 pm CET (9 am US Eastern) on February 11! Sign up at the pre-launch page if you wish to be notified the moment it goes live:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1192053011/the-one-ring-roleplaying-game-second-edition”

A short while after that, a new Mailchimp newsletter started appearing in people’s inboxes showing off the gorgeous cover for the core book.

And finally, the One Ring RPG made a newsworthy appearance on the Free League website, again linking to the Mailchimp newsletter. 

The cover reveal

Free League cover for the named The One Ring: Roleplaying

 in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth core book (Source).

In a bold move away from the visual style of the previous edition, the Free League core book cover harkens back to one of Tolkien’s own cover visual motifs, a bright red ring with other elements against a dark background. Each of the Lord of the Rings books had their own colour for the ring, yellow for the Fellowship of the Ring and green for the Return of the King. it was the Two Towers that sported the red ring. Personally, I love this nod to Tolkien and look forward to seeing the internal art.

Two Towers cover design (Source).

Kickstarter campaign page
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1192053011/the-one-ring-roleplaying-game-second-edition

Newsletters
Newsletter #1: https://mailchi.mp/f9532265c0f0/the-one-ring-newsletter-1 
Newsletter #2: https://mailchi.mp/9c0643282818/the-one-ring-newsletter-2  
Newsletter #3: https://mailchi.mp/3a74279ca132/the-one-ring-newsletter-3 
Newsletter KS announcement: https://mailchi.mp/frialigan/the-one-ring-ks-announce

Interviews
YouTube Fria Ligan Showcase for The One Ring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaRwhmAw95o&t=26s 
New interview (23/01/21): https://www.effektpodcast.org/149

Some expected products

• Core book – setting in central Eriador – Bree and old Arnor (starting date of T.A.  2960)
• Starter set – Shire guide and adventures (Writer: James Michael Spahn)
• Loremasters Screen – Rivendell and Grey Havens booklet
• Tharbad book
• Moria (Writer: Gareth Ryder Hanrahan)