So, you’ve decided to play The One Ring but you don’t know how to start.
Say you’ve already found a group to play with. What does it take to build a character?
Let’s practice by making a character sheet for Legolas!
If you are using a virtual table top (VTT), your job is going to be a little easier. But you can also make a character sheet with paper and a pencil. I will be using Foundry to create a version of Legolas.
You will need a copy of the One Ring 2e Core Rulebook, either in paper or PDF form. All the page numbers refer to that book.
Choose a Heroic Culture
The first step to building a One Ring 2e character is choosing a heroic culture.
- Bardings: the resilient people of Dale, known for their courage, craftsmanship, and leadership under the line of Bard the Bowman
- Hobbits of the Shire: a peaceful and practical folk who cherish home, hearth, and simple pleasures, yet possess hidden reserves of bravery
- Elves of Lindon: the eldest of the Free Peoples in Middle-earth, these wise and fading Elves guard the Grey Havens and preserve ancient knowledge
- Men of Bree: hardy and independent townsfolk who live at the crossroads of Middle-earth, blending Big Folk and Hobbit traditions
- Dwarves of Durin’s Folk: proud and determined descendants of Durin the Deathless, renowned for their craftsmanship, loyalty, and enduring grudges
- Rangers of the North: the secretive and wandering descendants of Númenor, sworn to protect the Free Peoples from the Shadow’s growing threat
For Legolas, let’s go with Elves of Lindon. Legolas isn’t technically from Lindon, but that will get us close enough for now! (Bonus Content: There are expansion sources that allow you to make Elves from Mirkwood).
Characteristics
Each of these cultures come with a Cultural Blessing, a special trait that everyone from that culture exhibits.
The Cultural Blessing that comes with Elves of Lindon is called “Elven Skill,” which allows you to spend 1 Hope point to achieve a Magical success on a skill roll as long as your character is not Miserable.
There is also a cultural weakness called “The Long Defeat,” which basically means that it takes Elves longer to shake off the effects of the Shadow.
Attributes
“...you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.” - Gandalf to Frodo
Each Culture has a table of Attributes available: Strength, Heart, and Wits. These rows are different for each Culture. You must use all the scores in a row; you can’t mix and match. You can either roll a d6 to choose a row randomly, or you can choose one that best fits the character you want to play. The higher the number here, the more naturally gifted your character is in that Attribute.
When you’re choosing which one to emphasize the most, look at the Skills that fall under each Attribute. Obviously, Athletics falls under Strength, but so do Awareness and Hunting. Some of them may surprise you!
I’m going to give Legolas the following Ratings: 5 in Strength, 3 in Heart, and 6 in Wits.
To get your Target Numbers (TNs), subtract your Attribute scores from 20. These are the numbers you need to reach on your skill rolls to succeed.
For Legolas, those will be 15 for Strength, 17 for Heart, and 14 for Wits.
Derived Stats
Once you have your Attributes and Target Numbers calculated. Finding your Derived Stats is fairly simple. There are formulas for each Heroic Culture to find your Endurance, Hope, and Parry.
For Elves, Endurance is Strength + 20, Hope is Heart + 8, and Parry is Wits + 12.
Derived Stats for Legolas
Endurance: Strength (5) + 20 = 25
Hope: Heart (3) + 8 = 11
Parry: Wits (6) + 12 = 18
What do these mean? In The One Ring 2e, Endurance is like your hit points. Whenever you get hit with an attack, the damage is subtracted from your Current Endurance. If you ever reach 0 Endurance, you become Unconscious. But Endurance also relates to your Load. The more weapons and armor you’re carrying, the more Load you have. If your Load ever meets or exceeds your current Endurance, you become Weary! Any 1s, 2s, or 3s on a d6 becomes a 0 when you’re Weary.
Parry is the number other creatures need to meet on their attack rolls to do any damage to you. The higher your Parry, the harder you are to hit. (There is a separate rule for Armor, so this is not exactly the same as your “Armor Class,” to use a D&D term, but it’s close).
That brings us to Hope! Hope is one of the most wonderful rules in The One Ring 2e. When you want to draw on your deep reservoir of sheer determination, you can spend 1 Hope point to add an extra d6 to your rolls. These get renewed during the Fellowship Phase, once you’re no longer out on an adventure.
Skills
Every One Ring 2e Heroic Culture comes with a set array of starting Skill ranks. Go ahead and add these to your character sheet.
Elves start with a rating of 3 in both Stealth and Lore, with a rating of 2 in Awe, Athletics, Awareness, Song, and Craft, and with a rating of 1 in Enhearten and Healing. These ratings indicate how many d6s (called Success die in One Ring 2e) you will roll in addition to a d12 (called Feat die in One Ring 2e).
For example, when Legolas makes a Stealth check, he would roll 1d12 + 3d6 and try to meet or beat his Wits TN, which is 14. I like those odds!
Each Heroic Culture also starts with an option of a Favored skill. When you are Favored in a skill, that means you will roll two Feat die and use the higher number. Elves can choose either Lore or Song.
For Legolas, let’s go with Lore.
Combat Proficiencies
The next step is choosing your Combat Proficiencies. These indicate how many Success die (d6s) you will add to a weapon attack. The options are Axes, Bows, Spears, and Swords.
For Legolas, I’m definitely going with 2 for Bows, 1 for Swords.
Distinctive Features
You can then choose two Distinctive Features from a pre-set list from the Culture. The way Distinctive Features work mechanically is, you can invoke one of these when you’re about to roll a skill to make yourself Inspired for that roll, meaning you can spend 1 Hope point and add 2d6 instead of 1d6 to the roll!
Elves can choose from Fair, Keen-eyed, Lordly, Merry, Patient, Subtle, Swift, and Wary. You can look up what each of these mean starting on page 67.
For Legolas, I think I will say that he is Keen-eyed and Patient.
Choose a Calling
That completes the Heroic Culture part of creating your One Ring 2e character!
The next part, choosing a Calling, is going to make your character stand out. You’re not just part of a society, you are an adventurer!
There are six options for Callings in The One Ring 2e, which are like heroic archetypes:
- Captain: a leader and strategist who inspires companions and rallies them in times of need
- Champion: a warrior devoted to battling the Shadow and defending those who cannot fight
- Messenger: a swift and resourceful traveler who carries news and secrets across Middle-earth
- Scholar: a seeker of knowledge who studies lore, history, and ancient mysteries
- Treasure Hunter: a cunning explorer who seeks hidden relics and lost wealth.
- Warden: a vigilant protector who guards the Free Peoples against threats, seen and unseen
Each of these comes with a set of Favored Skills, a Distinctive Feature, and a Shadow Path. If you’re not sure just by reading the descriptions of a Calling if it’s right for you, take a look at the features to see if you like the flavor.
Legolas strikes me as a Warden.
Favored Skills
Each Calling gives you a list of three Skills to choose from to mark as Favored.
Wardens can choose two from Awareness, Healing, and Insight. For Legolas, I’ll go with Awareness and Song, because he sings in the books!
Additional Distinctive Feature
These Additional Distinctive Features are set abilities for each Calling. Wardens get a feature called Shadow-Lore, which means they have a special awareness of just how bad things are getting out there in the wide world.
Remember, when you have a Distinctive Feature, that means you are Inspired on relevant Skill checks.
Shadow Path
“But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow.” - Sam Gamgee
Along with Hope, I think the Shadow is one of the coolest mechanics in The One Ring 2e. Every time your character faces a moral quandary, faces a terrifying danger, or is influenced by sorcery, you might be inflicted with Shadow points. This reflects a growing sense of doom and dismay.
The beautiful thing is, the Shadow hits everybody differently. Your character has a unique Shadow Path, meaning the specific way your character gives in to the Shadow. It might be Despair. It might be Dragon Sickness.
As a Warden, I’m giving Legolas the Path of Despair.
Previous Experience
You start the game with more skill than a beginner. You get 10 points to spend on raising your Skills and your Combat Proficiencies. There are two tables on page 46 to see how many points it costs you to increase to a new rating.
Two notes about this
- You need to pay the cost for each level increase. For example, if you’re going from Level 1 to 2 in Healing, that costs 2 points. If you want to increase Healing again from 2 to 3, that costs another 3 points, and you’ve already spent 5 of the 10 points you had to start.
- Combat Proficiencies cost twice as much as Skills to improve! Going from Level 2 to 3 in Bows would cost an incredible 6 points! For now, those may be better spent on Skills.
Starting Gear
You get one weapon for each Combat Proficiency you have any rating in. There is a list of weapons available on page 48.
Legolas has Combat Proficiencies in Bows and Swords, so I’ll give him a Bow and a Sword. Notice, I didn’t give him a Long Sword or Great Bow, because those have a heavier Load. You can choose what you like!
When you’re looking at the weapons, there are a few things to keep in mind.
- Damage: This is how much you subtract from an enemy’s Endurance if you hit them.
- Injury: The higher this number is, the more likely you are to Wound and potentially kill your enemy with one hit.
- Load: Remember, this is measured against your Endurance to see if you are Weary.
You can also choose armor and shields! Armour affects your Protection, while Shields increase your Parry modifier.
- Protection: Whenever an enemy rolls a Piercing Blow against you (either a 10 or an Eye of Sauron on their Feat die), you need to roll a Protection roll, which is a d12 + the Protection value of your armor. The Target Number is the Injury rating of the weapon they attacked you with. Only a Dagger? You only need to beat a 14. Just got hit with a Great Axe? Good luck getting a 20 or higher!
- Parry: This increases your Parry directly while you’re holding your shield, and makes you harder to hit in general.
I’m giving Legolas a Leather Shirt!
Rewards and Virtues
It’s finally time to choose a Reward and a Virtue! There is a whole list of amazing Cultural Virtues, but those are only available when you hit rank 2 in Wisdom. For now, you only have access to the Starting Reward and Starting Virtues found on page 79 and 80.
A Reward is a way to upgrade weapons or armour.
- Close-fitting: +2 to result of Protection roll made with armour or a helm
- Cunning Make: -2 to Load on a piece of armour, helm, or shield
- Fell: +2 to Injury rating of a weapon
- Grievous: +1 to Damage rating of a weapon
- Keen: attacks made with a Keen weapon land a Piercing Blow on a 9, 10, or Gandalf rune (ᚠ)
- Reinforced: +1 to a shield’s Parry bonus
I’m going to make Legolas’s Bow the Keen Reward.
A Virtue is an upgrade to your abilities as a character.
- Confidence: +2 to Hope
- Dour-handed: +1 to damage on a Heavy Blow
- Hardiness: +2 to Endurance
- Mastery: gain 2 extra Favoured Skills
- Nimbleness: +1 to Parry rating
- Prowess: -1 to one Attribute TN
I think Legolas should get the Nimbleness Virtue. He is impossible to hit.
Conclusion
You now have a playable character, ready to use! I hope you have enjoyed this walk-through on how to create a One Ring 2e character. If you want to get playing, the next step is to find a group.
StartPlaying is a great place to find a game master to run a One Ring 2e campaign for you, whether you have a group of friends organized already or not.
An experienced Lore Master (the game masters of The One Ring 2e) can help you get rolling to experience this beautiful roleplaying game.
Isaac is a professional game master who runs weekly, biweekly, and monthly games for The One Ring 2e, Blades in the Dark, Call of Cthulhu, Cyberpunk RED, and D&D 5e on StartplayingGames, with an emphasis on creativity, proactive roleplaying, and character-driven stories. His favorite character voice to use is Gandalf the Grey. You can play with Isaac on StartPlaying.
