Big Lord of the Rings fan, I feel like I grew up through Tolkien's words. Of course, with the books when I was younger: the Lord of the Rings first, then The Hobbit, before continuing with all the other books available. My library is well supplied in this department.
But also through the video game, I played a lot of LOTRO, or even LEGO games. Movies shaped my teenage years, and now I'm eagerly awaiting Amazon's Rings of Power series. On the other hand, even if I had a great role-playing period, I never played in Middle-earth, I see myself well as a little Hobbit from the Shire! Admittedly, Dungeons & Dragons comes close, but it would be criminal to confuse the two licenses.
Free League allows me today to catch up thanks to the game "The One Ring", the role-playing game publishing company having sent me the digital version, but also to my delight the paper version.
Starter Kit
The Starter Kit offers everything you need to get started, starting with the rules summarized in a booklet of only 24 pages. The goal is simple: allow all players, even beginners, to have fun without delay. Everything is clear, without unnecessary chatter.
A five-part adventure is then covered in a second 32-page book, titled "The Red Book Conspiracy". All the steps are summarized, with the descriptions of the places, the information to give to the players, the characteristics of the encounters, the rolls to be made to the players...
A third 52-page booklet reveals all the secrets of the Hobbits' paradise, this adventure taking place in the Shire. Places, people, and possible encounters are described, organized by region. As it would be difficult to navigate without, a map is also included, with two sides: the Shire on one side, and Eriador on the other. The Shire map is also printed small inside the Starter Kit box.
The characters are pre-drawn, six Hobbits ready to use:
- Esmeralda Took: Merry's future mother,
- Lobelia Bracegirdle (Lobelia Sacquet de Besace): the one who tried to "steal" Cul-de-Sac from Bilbo when he leaves for his Hobbit adventures,
- Primula Brandybuck (Primula Brandybuck): the future mother of Frodo,
- Rorimac Brandybuck (Rorimac Brandybuck): Primula's brother, Frodo's future uncle,
- Paladin Took II: Pippin's future father,
- Drogo Baggins (Drogon Baggins): Frodo's future father.
Finally, the Starter Kit also contains 30 loot cards, six D6s, two D12s, and six cards detailing combat stance and role during the journey.
This whole family is invited by Bilbo to his house in Cul-de-Sac, in order to embark on a little adventure, the first stage of which consists in finding a map of the Shire which would have been made by old Took himself! Very good child, the story is for everyone. As you know if you know the universe, the Shire is not full of terrible threats and the heroes will spend long hours exploring the gardens and inns! It would be terrible to miss one of the six meal times! The game is aimed, according to the logo printed on the box, at children of at least 14 years old, but it is more to ensure understanding of the rules than anything else.
Rivendell & game screen
Sold separately, this twelve-page booklet includes a map of the Last Simple House, as well as the valley leading to it. A few inhabitants of the place are described, including of course the master of the place, Elrond, who can be used as a Patron (specific point of the rules, the leader of a community, who offers advantages between adventures). Finally, three pages are dedicated to detailing the creation of a High Elf character. The Rivendell booklet comes with a great game master screen with, on the player side, great artwork which I think depicts Arwen with Frodo and Aragorn, facing off against the armies of Mordor. The game master has a sticky note inside with most of the rules summarized. Everything is printed on hard cardboard, which ensures an excellent hold on the table.
Full rules
Players who like to read can tackle the 240-page Players Book, which details all the rules, organized into nine chapters:
- prologue: quick presentation of the game, the universe of Middle-earth and the continent of Eriador,
- action/resolution: dice rolls and conditions (miserable, fit, injured...),
- adventurers: the creation of player characters (cultures, races, career, past experience, starting equipment, skills and virtues) and their community,
- characteristics: skills, life level, combat capacity, stamina and hope,
- value and wisdom: virtues, cultural virtues and rewards,
- adventure phases: separated into three phases (combat, advice and travel),
- community stage,
- game master: tips for managing a game and generating enemies,
- world,
- appendices: seven patterns, and different tables to help generate useful elements for adventures (rumours, a character's past, places, problems...)
Like the smaller booklets, the inside of the rulebook is written in black, on parchment-like printed paper, with illuminations on the side. But that's not sad either. Dark red highlights titles and important words, and a red border surrounds the inserts. In addition, high quality illustrations enhance the reading, sometimes on more than half a page. Finally, the chapters are illustrated with a full color double page.
Conclusion
Any Lord of the Rings fan will want to own these books, if only to enhance their collection. The quality is excellent, and the books are jam-packed with detail about the world Tolkien created. I had a great time going through them, much like I would with an encyclopedia.
Role-players hold the key to thousands of stories and characters waiting to come to life under the guidance of a motivated game master. And the most beginners will be satisfied with the Starter Kit, which has everything you need for several successful role-playing evenings.
The only flaw of course: everything is in English 🙁
You can find all of these products on the publisher's website, FreeLeague :
- Bundle (including the Starter Kit and the rulebook): 73.60€
- Rulebook: 44.09€
- Rivendell & Gamemaster Screen: €25.64
You will also get the PDF version of the books.
