The One Ring Part 1: My Introduction to the Game

My first RPG was MERP. Middle Earth Role-Playing. Well, actually it wasn't it was Road Hogs, a supplement for TMNT. But lets just skip that for a moment and say that the first game I bought and ran was MERP.
We played that game for years, running at least 1 set of characters all the way up to level 10. That may not sound like much, but in MERP, that was pretty huge.

I still have all the books, though my original MERP book is now in a well thumbed ring-binder, as the glue on the binding game up the ghost a long time ago. If there is an RPG that will be buried with me, it'll be a copy of MERP (as well as Call of Cthulhu).

Add on top of that Tolkien's books, and the films, which I am now passing on to my kids, one could say I have a lot of fondness for gaming in Middle Earth.

However, there was a bit of a lull in my TTRPG gaming for a few years as I moved into minis gaming, as they could be played with no prep, and the painting side of the hobby could be done solo, in own time (i.e. to fit in with the lifestyle of parents of young children). Which was why I was a latecomer to The One Ring RPG. It was around the time of the re-release of the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign, which was being mooted (and rightly so) as one of the best TTRPG campaigns of all time. This accolade got me to thinking, what are the great all time campaigns?

Of course, I had my list of the ones I had been exposed to. Masks, of course, the Warhammer Campaign too, Horror on the Orient Express? I wasn't sure how well that one had been received critically, but I knew it was famous. I have never been into D&D, so I didn't know which campaigns esisted for the game, but there must be one or two that people go on about. I had also heard mentioned that there was a Campaign for Pendragon that people adored for various reasons.

The Darkening of Mirkwood - Cubicle 7

And then I heard "The Darkening of Mirkwood".

Mirkwood? Okay, now you have my attention, so I dig a little further. Gareth Ryder-Hanranan? Ok, now I really have to know more!

So I did some digging on what this campaign was all about, and what this game was. At this point, I managed to find the campaign in a local store on sale, so I bought it, and it,s companion book, Heart of the Wild, eventually picking up the rule book, and Adventurer's Companion, and well, you know how this collecting thing goes. I'm at the stage right now where I have all but one of the books, and the set of maps. I would have got them too, but, and those who've been following along at home will know, the game went out of print.

The is of course a Second Edition coming, but the current run of the game is not for sale any more, so none of my FLGSs will be able to restock for that one book that is missing. I mean I guess I'll get it eventually, afterall, that's what collectors do. But I will have to be patient.
So, that in a nutshell was my introduction to the One Ring RPG. 

The next thing to do is to find players and try it out. And that's when the lockdown hit. Which was both a bane and a blessing. I was unable to find players in my local gaming area (although 3 of my CoC players will try if I ask them), but online, things are different, and I have been able to play the game a few times. Happy ending yes?

Well tune in next time as I explain my thoughts on the game from what I have seen so far.





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