Table-Tested Review of The One Ring’s “Tales From the Lone-Lands”
I finished my “Tales From the Lone-Lands” campaign recently, so a review is in order! It’s a collection of six adventures for The One Ring 2e which can either be played as standalone one-shots or as a campaign in (more or less) order. We played for a total of 18 sessions of around three hours each.
In this review I’ll go over each adventure individually, as well as diving into the campaign aspects. There will be spoilers, so players beware!
But first, some quick facts about the book.
- Lead Writer: Gareth Hanrahan
- Publisher: Free League Publishing
- Publishing Year: 2023
- Page Count: 112
- Best For: Fans of Middle-Earth
A Troll-Hole, If Ever There Was One
Content Warnings: children in distress, drowning, harm to children, humans being eaten
“Tales From the Lone-Lands” starts incredibly strong with “A Troll-Hole, If Ever There Was One”. The heroes get dragged into an adventure by promises of treasure by a (somewhat questionable) fellow while in Bree, meet some other NPCs (which will be recurring in later adventures) and find themselves in a situation with plenty of NPCs to rescue, trolls to fight, moral decisions to be made and creative solutions to be found. The tone can be pretty dark in some places, when they deal with a little girl whose family has been eaten by trolls.
This one is especially suited as a one-shot.
Messing About in Boats
Content Warnings: starvation, dying from exposure
“Messing About in Boats” starts in Lond Daer, and if you’re playing a campaign, you’ll need to come up with a reason why they’re here. Soon they’ll find themselves on a ship to the north, in search of answers to some strange visions and there will be a lot of map-crossing and travel. Once at their destination, they will explore a spooky island, fight ghosts, meet (and/or rescue) some more NPCs and find a long-lost heirloom sword, which is incredibly helpful in any future adventures that include undead enemies (which are many). Overall, there is great focus on exploration and NPC interactions. This adventure also includes the first hints to the greater story arc, as one of the heroes will be a great hero’s heir and will get some special scenes.
While being mostly suited as a one-shot too, this feels more like a campaign kick-off than an individual story.
Kings of Little Kingdoms
Content Warnings: alcoholism, domestic violence, grief, harm to animals
In “Kings of Little Kingdoms” the heroes will search for a missing youngster, supposedly lured into adventure by Gandalf. They follow the trail of the missing youth, find a farm plagued by bandits, uncover a bandit’s ploy and finally the realisation that more sinister forces are at work here, too. In my game the order of events didn’t quite pan out (they solved problems too quickly for the major threat to emerge in time), but with some improvisation it still went well (gotta give them the win for being clever, too!). Overall it’s an open-ended adventure which can end in many different ways, depending on the heroes’ choices.
This can easily be run as a one-shot and has no major connections to the main plot.
Not to Strike Without Need
Content Warnings: imprisonment
“Not to Strike Without Need” starts with the heroes having to escort a criminal back to Tharbad, in hopes of exchanging prisoners. They find themselves embroiled into the politics of Tharbad (which includes a possible council!) and need to find a way to rescue someone from Tharbad’s prison. There is another plot, especially important for the campaign arc, which will give them a lead on some orcs and a servant of the Shadow.
Once again, this is pretty well suited as a one-shot or as a drop-in for campaigns set in or around Tharbad. There is enough content to leave out the side-plot that’s only relevant for the campaign.
Wonder of the Northern World
Content Warnings: death of innocents, mutilation
By helping a dwarven friend, the heroes find a band of orcs and their ploys in “Wonder of the Northern World”. There (potentially) is a lot of travelling involved, as they report back to their friend in the Blue Mountains (council time!) and go back to hunting the orcs in the Lone-Lands and Angmar later (fighting time!), as they rescue the dwarves and storm (or infiltrate) the orc’s fortress. The tone is once again quite grim. For campaign play it also introduces one of the major enemies, which I wished was more fleshed out a bit more than it was.
With some campaign-specific details left out, this makes for a great one-shot involving the dwarves of the Blue Mountains and some orcs.
The Quest of Amon Guruthos
Content Warnings: corpses, fear of death, jumping to your death, madness, self-sacrifice, severe cold
Being plagued by strange nightmares since the second adventure, the heroes set out to face the Hill of Fear in “The Quest of Amon Guruthos”. During their long trek through the snow they (potentially) meet some old friends and make new acquaintances. One NPC in particular was a highlight for me: Aya, a strange elf, living alone in the snow, fascinated by the fear of death the tower instills. In her hut the heroes share stories, even with an orc - if they can sheath their swords for a night. Finally, they march towards Amon Guruthos and face the monster that dwells there. The ending is open and players themselves choose how to defeat the Hill of Fear - which worked incredibly well in my game: they failed to conquer their fear and summon a magical light before the monster could knock them down, but a heroic sacrifice managed to seal it nonetheless.
I don’t think this will work well as a standalone adventure, because it relies a lot on previous information, but it can probably be done with some tinkering.
Playing as a Campaign
The overarching story is one of heroism, but also of failing as a hero. The Hill of Fear is an ancient evil and it’s generally assumed one of the heroes has an ancestor who tried to fight the hill - and lost. Information about the Hill of Fear will slowly emerge during the adventures and it will be up to the heroes to try to fight it once again.
My recommendation for people running this campaign is to consider having Gandalf as a patron. While the other patrons can definitely also be used, he is most easily integrated into the overarching plot.
Conclusion
This defintely made it into my favourite campaigns that I’ve played so far. My wonderful players who never stop being curious about exploring Middle-Earth definitely contributed to this conclusion, but the campaign really is well made.
It’s easy to run a game with the book and my prep usually just consisted of reading the upcoming chapter and maybe making a few notes, if even that. All the stat blocks I needed were provided and maps and NPC artwork are gorgeous. Most of the time there is just the right amount of detail to run great sessions, without bloating the book. Only sometimes I wished for a bit more information or content, or information to be provided earlier in the book. Overall these were minor occurrences, though.
Combat encounter balancing was a bit on the tougher side for my group of three, but should be scaled well for a group of four.
“Tales From the Lone-Lands” is a campaign where the heroes will go against the Shadow that is trying to crush them - hope versus despair was an ongoing theme for us. It has a lot of room for creativity and choices feel valuable. I can heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a The One Ring campaign.
Where will the heroes go next?
Moria awaits.
