Not Just Hobbits
Lord of the Rings Adventure and Lore guide, the low magic answer you have been looking for. Aside from Cubicle Sevens amazing attention to detail and bringing the world of Middle Earth there are other reasons to look over this offering to the great ever evolving beast of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition.
Low Magic High Adventure
It may be hard to believe but through a new set of classes, that granted are largely re-skinned spelless versions of existing ones out of the Players Handbook, and new non magical healing options you can utilise the best parts of 5e with a more Dark Soul esc feel as you try and balance how much further to the next rest point. Bringing in that low magic feeling of no ability to solve things with spell slots but not losing the ability to be a hero with an expanded set of abilities and items.
The strength of this system is how it offers both players and organisers options and tools to put just enough magic into the world and the gameplay without it swinging wildly leaving a bundle with a note asking someone to work it out. It even provides ideas on using the spells available in 5e that fit a more Tolkeinesc or rather magic does not win wars warriors do feel. Finally there are also great suggestions on how items, abilities and locations can influence not only the magic
This is further helped by the division of an adventure into phases. The idea being that the Adventuring phase where you go out, roll dice, kill the bad guys, “save” the treasure but critically how you get from A to B.
Ironically these rules and way of breaking down adventure into travel to place, rest stops on the way and the dangers of the road, though not in a random encounter kind of way but in giving you tools to build both positive and negative encounters to provide a more rounded way of bringing the world to life, these rules would be great if you wanted to port a Game of Thrones esc game to 5e.
Seeking items of long lost power a world where travel is dangerous and information and sides change as your race against the coming darkness sound familiar?
The toolbox includes an audience phase which deals with and again gives organisers tools for when a group of adventures try and get an audience with the local noble or chieftain and also brings in social class and background features that allow for some very interesting mechanical challenges beyond the roll to persuade one dimension that can often befall social encounters. In fact there are even social feats that offer choices between being liked or feared by giving the look “I wondered into the North and it had the sense to stay out of my way.”
These tools also utilise exhaustion and inspiration as core components of the game for both class features and consequences while adventuring. That being said these tools are also balanced so that you can gain what you lose so it is not always an unrelenting slog of the organiser seeing how long till the party can not fight its way out of a wet paper bag full of goblin snot.
The backgrounds, cultural features give each choice both variety and flavour while still allowing your character to be different from another of the same. These are also great examples of changes in flavour do not mean you have to throw out all the hard work of Wizards of the Coast from the main book but in having additional options the player can connect with something both mechanically a flavourful that they chose (Virtues) that makes this Dwarf unlike every other Dwarf they’ve played.
Finally these tools are for Every DM/GM they can easily be lifted into nearly any game and allow for a shift in feel or play that make a campaign feel different to a hardback adventure. They are also supportive of each other so you are not left wondering how are your players meant to manage exhaustion if they can’t rest and they’re only going to get more.
The flavour and art are also excellent and if you are Tolkien fan or not the tools presented have far reaching applications. Whether it is a more low magic game, a game with support for downtime between adventure or a long epic journey where the tales of how the party got there are matched only by the stories of what happened when they arrived.
There is so general consensus in the way people have heard things from people that the ability are easy to “break” however as with any game that is true depending on your organiser equally it is quite easy to see it flip though and see groups dying getting from the shire to bree.
Conclusion
In conclusion as with all great RPG products the tools are there that you can play a number of different ways with the same characters and have unique games.
⅘ Would Simply Walk into Mordor.
Those Game Makers 