Frodo Baggins actor Elijah Wood appears unexpectedly in an advert to reveal the release date for Lord of the Rings Roleplaying, Free League Publishing’s upcoming Lord of the Rings RPG for DnD 5e. In the trailer, Wood explains that because Lord of the Rings was so robustly written, with tons of extra material, it’s much easier to “imagine that world and imagine playing in that world.”
Lord of the Rings Roleplaying is Free League’s latest Lord of the Rings tabletop RPG, which uses the 5e ruleset. It was announced in August 2022, and expected for the first quarter of this year. We now know it’s coming out next month, with both the core rulebook and first book of scenarios, Shire Adventures, up for grabs from May 9.
Lord of the Rings Roleplaying features six new DnD classes, and “comprehensive rules for journeys, councils, wondrous artefacts, and the subtle magic of Middle-earth.”
It’s actually the second recent Lord of the Rings RPG to come out of Free League in the last two years, with The One Ring 2e launched in March 2022 and receiving its first expansion in October. In fact, while it’s not billed as such, Lord of the Rings Roleplaying should probably be considered a DnD 5e version of Free League’s The One Ring. It’s set in the same Eriador setting, in the same year, and The One Ring already has explicit rules for journeys and councils.
Another thing that points to this is that Free League partner and original Symbaroum writer Mattias Lilja told Wargamer back in 2021 that the firm would likely “have to” make a 5e version of The One Ring, because there’s a market expectation for 5e rules for certain games.
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