The LORD OF THE RINGS ROLEPLAYING GAME brings this epic adventure to players and fans the world over. Now you and your friends can enter Middle-earth and take on the roles of any character or hero you can imagine, from a reluctant hobbit like Frodo to a powerful wizard like Gandalf. This full-color book is packed with images from one of the most visually amazing films ever made.

This game is easy to learn, packed with information and most importantly, fun to play! Experienced gamers can leap right in and novices will love it. Everything you need to know for this game is in this book.

This is an all new "core" roleplaying game book. 304-pages, hardcover, full-color

The system has the good points of others while throwing out the bad ones. Your characters primary attributes and skills are simple to test using a similar system to that of the d20 system. However, using weapons are now skills like they should be instead of some sort of a feat or special ability determined by your class. A player has many options in combat while still keeping it simple, which lead to battles flowing very smoothly. The game also uses a unique advancement system which level up your characters quickly and steadily. This makes it so that the players enjoy the fun of leveling up with out drawing attention from the Roleplaying part of the game.

The Orders, or classes, have a lot of depth, making it sort of hard to figure out with only one read, but by reading it a second time I was able to not only figure out how to use them, but how much flavor they add to the roleplaying aspect of the game. Also, the races that a player can choose are very realistic. Some may seem more powerful than others, but I have found this does not effect player's choices when choosing a race. In fact, I have found more diversity among PCs because each race is so unique.

Because this is the first printing, it is not totally perfect, but it comes close. I found a contradiction in the money system over the ratio from Silver pices to Gold Pennies, but the Game Master can easily fix this problem with choosing one of the two ratios mentioned. Also I wish that they had put a larger choice of weapons and monsters in the book for players to use. For example, there are only three types of blades to choose from: longsword, scimitar, and shortsword. For monsters, they don't have some of my favorites that I like to use such as a Dragon; now that I was shocked about. Hopefully, future realeses will remeady this. I am looking forward to a Weapons & Equipment Handbook along with some sort of a Monster's Manual.

All in all, this book is a giant step in the development of RPGs. A true epic of a book!


You Aren't Missing Anything....   April 6, 2004
 19 out of 25 found this review helpful

While the rulebook is very nicely presented, the game they are presenting lacks a great deal of substance. They have pledged to use only information available from the books and/or the movies in fleshing out their system, and this is where the true weakness of the system lies. This means that no material will ever cover any location not visited in the books or movie. No inns beyond the Prancing Pony or Green Dragon will be described, which means that it is entirely up to the gamemaster to invent things that happen beyond the path that the Fellowship themselves traveled. The book provides no real help in developing your own campaign settings and adventures. It is also assumed that the only magical spells available are ones actually used in the books, which is an unfortunate assumption that Gandalf never had anything else in his repertiore. While I assume the limitations on the game are the result of licensing restrictions, it causes the world to completely lack depth or any sense of wonder; everyone who read the books or saw the movie know what everyone else is capable of. My advice is to use the rule setting you prefer, find some old ICE/MERP campaign materials, and run your own Middle-Earth campaign. This book may have some value as an occasional inspiration or sourcebook, but I wouldn't count on it being very much.


Excellent source material, minimal mechanics   February 4, 2003
 16 out of 16 found this review helpful

The design of roleplaying games has improved drastically over the last twenty years, and "The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game" is a good example of this shift in trends. While the early roleplaying systems were not much more than wargames with a few modifications for character development, current systems are being designed with greater care and interest in the storytelling element of the game.

Even if you're not interested in roleplaying games, you might still find this book interesting if you enjoy Tolkein. In fact, with stills from the film(s), Decipher's book would make an excellent coffee table book. Glossy pages with full color photographs adorn nearly every page, and the binding on this book is one of the best I've seen in the last ten years (this [book]will stand up to use).

Decipher's CODA rule system is simple, flexible, and easy-to-use. It relies on a skill based system where each skill modifies a roll designed to test a PCs success accomplishing a particular task. While there's nothing revolutionary about the CODA system, it does provide a simple method for resolving tasks without slowing down the game with a ton of "chart digging." This was a wise choice on Decipher's part. It keeps the mechanics simple enough to allow for the storytelling atmosphere that's needed for a game in Middle Earth.

That being said, one has to wonder exactly what GMs (Narrators) will do with this sleek looking book. Even though Decipher does an excellent job of presenting the "world" of Middle Earth, as well as, meshing their CODA rules to provide a simple, structured backbone for the game's mechanics, there's almost nothing in the way of aid for narrating a new chronicle. The list of monsters/evil humanoids is barely a dozen pages at best, with few opponents suitable for newly created characters and some notable exclusions (goblin and dragon being the two biggest). Granted, there's always the orc but -- show of hands for anyone interested in fighting another orc in a fantasy RPG?

Even if you're like my group and prefer a storytelling (plot driven) adventure over a combat oriented adventure, one has to wonder exactly what kind of adventures fit well in a Middle Earth game. Unfortunately, unlike most RPGs, Decipher doesn't offer an example adventure either. Aside from a chapter on creating Middle Earth style chronicles, there's little in the way of primary source material geared for aiding a new LOTR Narrator. This, and Decipher's extremely slow (often late) production schedule, seem to be the two biggest sources of contention on their official message board.

The only other problem with this product is the same that plagues all publishing these days - inconsistent editing. The number of errors isn't overwhelming but there is an errata sheet as long as your leg for the first printing. This will no doubt be cleared up for future printings, but as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, they're not moving at a dangerous pace with releases.

Having said all that, I've given this book a "four star" rating. The source material, history, layout, design, mechanics, binding, and character system are all top notch (five star). Unfortunately, material for the Narrator (particularly the first time Narrators out there) is rather sparse, which to me brings the rating down, warranting only three stars.


disappointing   March 25, 2004
 15 out of 20 found this review helpful

At first I was really excited about this book. For one thing, the art and production values are excellent, even if they lean too heavily on snapshots from the movie. Also, compared to ICE's Middle-earth Roleplaying, these rules capture some of the flavor of gaming in Tolkien's world. Wizards do not blast away with fireballs, and characters are supposed to be heroic and aligned against the powers of the shadow. These are the strengths of the game.

The weaknesses, which appear to reflect poor game balance and insufficient playtesting, became obvious after a couple of gaming sessions. For one thing, beginning characters are way too powerful. A party of hobbits was able to chase down and destroy a hill troll on their first night out of the Shire! Another problem was that many of the combat manoeuvers are underpowered and not worth expending actions on. Why give up a parry and very likely receive say 2d6+5 in order to perform a "power attack" and gain a pawltry +3 damage modifier?

As I developed my chronicle, I found that it was somewhat difficult to creatively roleplay in Tolkien's world. I believe that this is because the plot of the books is relatively structured and oriented toward a single supreme goal. Obviously, this is not a fault of the game, but simply an observation or opinion of my own.

It is probably possible to make these rules work, if you really want to try gaming in this setting. There are also a variety of alternative and optional rules online to compensate for the problems I mentioned earlier. Personally, I would recommend waiting for the second edition, or simply sticking with d20.