“The path to Middle-earth will soon open for new adventurers”, says Free League, but it won’t be through the publisher’s existing Lord of the Rings tabletop RPG. The One Ring 2e will soon be joined by a DnD 5e sibling. The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying was announced near the end of this year’s Gen Con, and it reportedly “contains everything needed to create exciting 5E adventures set in the world’s most popular fantasy setting”.
“First released in 2011, The One Ring was hailed as the best attempt at bringing Middle-earth to the gaming table to date”, Free League says in a press release from Monday, August 8. “Now the time has come for the game to enter a new era and bring new players further into the Twilight of the Third Age with a new 5E conversion.”
The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying is scheduled for a retail release in quarter one of 2023. The game’s core compendium and first scenario module, Shire Adventures, will be available for pre-order this autumn, and Free League says pre-ordering gives you “immediate access to a full PDF of the products”.
Free League says Lord of the Rings 5e includes “six original heroic cultures from the land of Eriador, six new classes, a host of terrifying adversaries, and comprehensive rules for journeys, councils, wondrous artefacts, and the subtle magic of Middle-earth”. Though the press release doesn’t explicitly say so, it seems this content will be new for fans of D&D rather than existing players of the One Ring RPG.
Journey and council rules already exist in the One Ring. Additionally, Lord of the Rings 5e seems to be set in Eriador, in the year 2965 – the same year and setting as The One Ring – which implies (but doesn’t promise) a close adaptation of the existing TTRPG.
For more Free League 5e content, check out our recent Ruins of Symbaroum review. We also have a guide to the best Lord of the Rings board games for more Middle-earth action.