The Lord of the Rings RPG Core Book (Hardcover)

This book goes to great pains to convince you of the "tolkien-esque" qualtities within it. Throughout the book there are thousands of quotes culled directly from the primary texts which for the most part are relevant, a splendid array of differing stills from the first movie are here in force as well. However I cant help but feel that this book has been desinged for a novice players, people who have seen the amazing cinematic releases and who could do with an introduction to the game. This saddens me somewhat as, there is genuinely a lot to offer the veteran player within here. It is not as complicated as rolemaster or as sterile as D+D, it has managed to encapuslate very well the essence of the "epic" nature of high fantasy. You will find two chapters worth of guidelines on how to create a classic adventure within the world of lord of the rings, a world which does not have the dubious morality, and strident magic of most other fantasy settings, this I feel is to be welcomed. It offers a welcome departure from the tried and tested hack'n'slash and the dungeon crawl, and imbues the players and the narrator with a sense of purpose, a sense that you are trying to achieve a loftier goal than simply destroying the tomb of a mummy.

The mechanics of the game I will not delve too deeply into as it would be disingenous for me to do so when reviewing the book. However I will say that the rules system based upon Decipher's CODA rules (i.e D6) is simple to use and to understand and is a half way house to blandness of D+D and the complicated and often bizarre rules of Rolemaster.

There are notable differences as well in character generation, the characters you make in this game are hugely more powerful than those of a D+D game, this is to reflect the heroic status of your characters, and also to downplay the role of magic. The rules are excellent for adding depth to your character and helping you go through the process of character creation although a simple chart which goes step by step for beginners would be useful.

Magic is perhaps the greatest attraction to this game, the development and use of it is true to tolkien's style there are no 5th level wizards wielding mighty wands and blasting fireballs every where. Magic is subtle and magicians need to rely on other things than merely their wits to survive. The rules on magic items are also welcome as they strongly disregard the proliferation of magic swords and armour, these items are rare indeed and even the most minor magical item is something to be treasured.
But perhaps the fines thing this book imbues is the role of the character within the game, there are strong and well written guidelines to help the player attain a purpose and goal within the world of middle earth.
But I digress is this book worth buying? Yes Is it a good gaming system? Yes Will it appeal to veterans and novices alike? Yes
If you want to start roleplaying you could do a lot worse than trying this system. However there are no other support materials yet, Decipher seem incredibly slow to produce anything, there is not even an introductory adventure included within the book. You will need to use you imagination, however this is good and will appeal to the more experienced gamer.
Go get it, try and never go back to D+D