Character Creation

• The core setting is Eriador in 2965.

• Available cultures are Bardings, Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits of the Shire, Bree-landers, and Rangers of the North.
• Cultural blessings are not always as they were in 1e, nor are available stat scores, skills, or distinctive traits the same.
• Rangers of the North in particular are not an 'advanced culture' and do not have the resulting advantages and
disadvantages they did in 1e.
• Dwarves are written to encompass the many different places that 1e Dwarf variations came from.
• Elves are primarily written to be from Lindon, though the same rules will probably apply to other types and origins,
possibly with modifications.
• Backgrounds within cultures are eliminated (but will be restored in the lifepath stretch goal); instead, you simply
choose a set of stats.
• Some cultures have both a cultural blessing and a disadvantage.
• Specialties are gone; the only traits are Distinctive Features (and so the word Trait is gone). There are only 24 distinctive
features (though more can be created later), six of which are linked to callings.
• Weapon skills are now called Combat Proficiencies and always apply to whole categories: Swords, Axes (includes clubs),
Spears, and Bows.
• Every culture gets one choice between two Combat Proficiencies, and one "wild card" to choose any other.
• Body has been renamed Strength in line with Gandalf's quote, "But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use
such strength and heart and wits as you have."
• Endurance is based on Strength, Hope on Heart, and Parry on Wits.
• There are no longer Favored Attributes.
• Inspire is renamed Enhearten.
• Search is renamed Scan.
• Hunting is now a Strength skill, while Explore is now a Wits skill.
• Available callings are Captain (formerly Leader), Champion (formerly Slayer), Messenger (formerly Wanderer), Scholar,
Treasure Hunter, and Warden.
• Previous Experience costs are no longer simply linear, and include combat proficiencies at a higher cost.
• Players start with Valour and Wisdom of 1, one Reward, and one Virtue, but from a limited list of starting rewards and
virtues, some of which are different from 1e rewards and virtues.
• There are no more Cultural Rewards; Rewards are always upgrades to gear. (Much of what used to be Cultural Rewards
are still possible using the Useful Items or Magical Treasures rules, though.)

Tests and Rolling

• TN defaults to 20 minus the corresponding attribute (precalculated), rather than TN14.
• The TN for Heart is used for Valour rolls, and the TN for Wits is used for Wisdom rolls.
• τ results can be spent on special results including helping another succeed, earning progress towards prolonged
actions, gaining additional insight, moving quietly, moving more quickly, or widening the influence of your action.
• Favoured skills take the best of two Feat rolls. Other things can make a roll favoured too.
• Ill-favoured rolls use the worst of two Feat rolls. Favoured and Ill-favoured cancel out.
• Most things that would have reduced TN or given bonuses, instead give bonus success dice.
• Distinctive features do not give auto-success; instead, when invoked, the character is Inspired, doubling the value of
spending Hope (see Hope and Shadow).
• Some penalties, and some stances, can reduce bonus dice.
• The number of bonus dice can grow beyond six (but cannot drop below zero).
• Preliminary rolls (Insight before Councils, Battle before Combat, Lore before Journeys) are gone.
• Rolls can have a Risk Level for how hazardous the attempt is, adding appropriate consequences.
• For standard actions, heroes can trade a failure for a success with a negative side effect.
• Prolonged Actions are now called Skill Endeavors, and can use a time limit mechanic similar to Councils. Risk Levels can
cause the endeavor to be delayed or to fail entirely.

Hope
• Spending Hope is done before the roll, and gives one bonus die, or two if Inspired (results from invoking a Distinctive
Feature, from some Cultural Virtues, or from being aided by someone if you're their Fellowship Focus).
• Hope can be spent for a companion's rolls too, if an appropriate skill has at least one pip.
• Hope can be spent to achieve a magical success (set the Feat die to Gandalf) when used with appropriate artifacts or
powers (including the Elf cultural ability). Magical success can include otherwise-impossible effects (and can increase Eye
Awareness).
• Fellowship Pool points (now just called Fellowship) are not spent directly; instead they are only used to replenish spent
Hope at the end of an adventure (not session).
• Fellowship refreshes during Fellowship Phase, not at the end of sessions.
• A Fellowship Focus can be chosen at any point during the game.
• The only benefit of Fellowship Focus is that, if you spend Hope while supporting your focus, they are Inspired (which
only helps them if they also spend Hope).
• During Fellowship Phase, heroes recover Hope points equal to their Heart, and if their adventure was successful, they
also shed 1-3 points of Shadow.
• Heroes at 0 Hope regain one at a Prolonged Rest (e.g., overnight).

Shadow
• Shadow Weakness is now called Shadow Path.
• Corruption tests are now called Shadow Tests.
• Shadow Tests can be Dread (things they see), Misdeed (unethical actions they take), Greed (taking possession of
powerful items), or Sorcery (falling prey to dark magics). [Greed tests may be an artifact of editing that will disappear,
based on a note by Francesco.]
• Dread is opposed by a Valour roll; Greed and Sorcery by a Wisdom roll.
• Misdeeds cannot be opposed by a Shadow Test at all, save if they were done in ignorance, and then when the hero
learned the truth of their action, they attempt to remedy their own actions.
• Passing a Shadow Test may only reduce the number of points gained, depending on how extreme the gain and how
good the roll is.
• When your Shadow reaches your current Hope you become Miserable and fail all rolls with an Eye, regardless of total.
• Heroes can replace all accumulated Shadow (if it does not yet equal or exceed maximum Hope) with a Shadow Scar.
This affects them like a Shadow point, but cannot be removed except with the Yule undertaking Heal Scars.
• When your Shadow reaches your maximum Hope, you are Ill-favoured on all rolls, and must endure a bout of madness.
Players describe their own bouts of madness. Bouts of madness still advance along the Shadow Path.
• Each step along the Shadow Path brings a Flaw that works like an negative Distinctive Trait, which can make rolls
Ill-favored.

Endurance, Load, Fatigue, and Wounds

• Load is the new term for the sum of the weight of your gear (Encumbrance) and any earned Fatigue.
• A Short Rest can be done once an adventuring day, and restores Endurance equal to Strength, if unwounded. This
replaces 1e's "after battle" recovery. This is also when company songs are sung (which makes them have the benefit of a
Prolonged Rest instead).
• A Prolonged Rest can be done even while in the field, during a night's sleep, and recovers all lost Endurance, or up to
Strength points if wounded.
• Rally Comrades no longer restores lost Endurance (see Combat for more).
• Being Weary now clears as soon as your Endurance rises to above your Load.
• When Wounded, a hero also has to roll on the Wound Severity table to determine how long the Wound lasts. On a
Gandalf, the wound clears after the combat; on Eye, it is as if you were wounded twice; any other result is how many
days it will take to recover.
• Healing rolls for treating Wounds now reduce how long the wound will take to recover from.
• Rules for handling dangers like heat, cold, falling, and poison are changed, and their effects are somewhat similar to
recovering from Wounds.

Gear
• Weapons no longer have Edge scores; all weapons invoke protection tests on 10 or Gandalf. (But note that weapons
can still be made Keen, which reduces this by one; see also Combat for spending a τ to get a protection test on lower
Feat rolls.)
• Most weapons have had their damage reduced; stats have been changed across the board.
• There is only one kind of headgear, the Helm, which offers +1d to protection, not a fixed plus.
• Standard of Living provides a player with a number of Useful Items which offer bonus success dice.
• Dropping a helm, weapon, or shield will reduce Load immediately.

Patrons, Safe Havens, Standing, and Treasure

• The company chooses a shared starting patron (Balin, Bilbo, Círdan, Gandalf, Gilraen, or Tom Bombadil).
• Patrons provide a bonus to the fellowship pool, and an additional patron-specific advantage.
• Sanctuaries are replaced by Safe Havens; the company starts with one (typically Bree).
• Heroes of Common or better Standard of Living start with Treasure.
• Gathering Treasure automatically raises Standard of Living at certain thresholds.
• Standing no longer exists.
• The richness of a hoard is determined by a die roll, as well as a general category (lesser, greater, or marvelous).
• Ponies and horses can carry Treasure (in addition to providing bonus dice in Journeys, c.f.).
• Magical Treasure rules from Rivendell are now incorporated into the rules in a slightly simplified form.
• [It is not yet clear whether magical treasure rolls are done by the company or individually; the rules seem inconsistent
and Francesco has noted one piece related to this is a vestige of a discarded rule.]
• The undertaking Visit the Treasury of Your People is no longer present, so you can no longer swap out powers
(effectively) across items.

Combat
• The Dagger skill is gone. Brawling attacks, including with a dagger, are now done with your best combat proficiency,
minus one success die.
• Most combat tasks added in later supplements (e.g., Adventurer's Companion) are gone, as are combat roles and other
combat rules from supplements.
• Stances no longer change TNs; instead, they add or remove bonus dice. Target number is based on Strength, modified
by parry.
• Rearward is now more comparable to Open in how hard it is to hit and be hit, not Defensive.
• One in three combatants, rather than one in four, can be in Rearward stance.
• Battle skill now breaks stance ties, instead of Wits.
• Combatants now get a main and a secondary action.
• Main actions include attacks, combat tasks, recovering from knockback, recovering from disarming, and large
movements.
• Secondary actions include smaller movements, weapon changes, searching the battlefield, or dropping gear to reduce
Load.
• τ results in combat can be used at the attacker's discretion for extra damage (Strength), or a +2 to Parry against the
next attack, or a higher Feat roll that might cause a protection test, or to use a shield to force a knockback.
• If you are made Weary on the same blow that causes a protection test, roll the test as if not yet Weary.
• Battle rolls can be used to remove complications or gain advantages in battle due to situations like terrain, weather,
and cover.
• Intimidate Foes always uses Awe, and strips one Hate or Resolve (see Adversaries) per success.
• Rally Comrades always uses Enhearten, and gives success dice instead of recovering lost endurance.
• Protect Companion uses a Battle roll, and gives its object a parry bonus.
• Prepare Shot uses a Scan roll, and gains dice for their next attack on the designated target.
• Combatants in close combat do not roll Athletics to escape combat; instead, they use an attack roll, foregoing damage
to instead escape the battle.

Councils
• Encounters are renamed Councils.
• Councils are not used as often as Encounters were in 1e, only for formal settings and events of extraordinary
importance, where the stakes are high.
• Instead of having multiple outcomes for different result scores, the company sets a particular goal, and the Loremaster
assigns a Resistance based on how reasonable a request it is.
• The introduction phase is always done by a spokesperson, and its outcome sets a time limit that takes the place that
Tolerance used to take. This result depends on the Resistance, and the result of the skill roll used in the introduction, but
not on player attributes, Standing, etc.
• Players cannot use the same interaction skill more than once, save through spending Hope.
• Loremasters can give additional successes to a successful roll for good roleplaying or persuasive arguments.
• Councils end either when the Resistance is reached, or the time limit is. Thus, the time limit is a limit of overall rolls,
not of failed rolls.

Journeys
• Journey roles are renamed: Look-out and Hunter instead of Look-out Man and Huntsman.
• Journeys are done almost entirely differently, in a style more like AiME than TOR e1.
• Hexes are 20mi instead of 10mi.
• The Guide makes a Marching Test (Travel); this determines how far the company gets before their first event. (Thus, the
better the Travel successes, the fewer events and the swifter and more safely the company reaches their destination.)
• Ponies and horses can add their Vigour rating to these Marching Tests (the Vigour rating amounts to a number of bonus
success dice that the company can use during a journey).
• Marching Tests are repeated until the destination is reached (at which point all steeds regain their Vigour).
• Perilous areas suspend the hex-by-hex counting and instead produce a fixed number of events depending on how
perilous they are.
• For each event, the type of event is determined by a Feat die roll, with both negative and positive outcomes possible;
this may be a favoured or ill-favoured roll depending on the type of terrain. Another die roll determines which journey
role the event challenges.
• Each event results in a die roll by the challenged player(s). Failing the die roll can result in outcomes including wounds,
Shadow, and Fatigue, the extension of the time required to reach the destination, or even the recovery of Hope, as well
as the possibility of a chance meeting.
• Each event always causes Fatigue, which means Fatigue is essentially inevitable on every journey; for instance, a
journey of 10 hexes would on average result in 6 or 9 Fatigue for every party member, depending on season. A Guide
with 4d in Travel might reduce this by about 1/3 or more with some Hope expenditures.
• Fatigue is not gained until the end of the journey.
• During the first Prolonged Rest after reaching the destination, heroes can roll Travel to shed 1-3 Fatigue.
• Heroes shed 1 Fatigue per Prolonged Rest thereafter, but only in sheltered and safe places.
• Terrain is greatly simplified; all terrain is either regular or hard, with hard terrain adding 1 day per hex to the travel
time.
• A Forced March allows for faster travel at the cost of more Fatigue.

Advancement, Rewards, and Virtues

• Experience Points are now called Adventure Points. Heroes gain 3 per session actively participated in (or about one per
hour of play).
• Advancement Points are now called Skill Points. Heroes gain 3 per session actively participated in; in addition, every
Yule Fellowship Phase, they gain a number of Skill Points equal to their Wits. No more tracking the results of roll
successes to earn them.
• Heroes spend Treasure and Adventure Points during the Raise an Heir undertaking to build up the previous experience
level of their Heir, and can do so several times. Heirs inherit the retired character's Standard of Living, a bonus favored
skill, and may inherit one or two items as Heirlooms.
• Non-cultural Virtues can be taken multiple times, but some do not do what they used to do (e.g., Confidence no longer
restores Hope, only increases the maximum).
• Many new and changed cultural virtues.
• Many 1e campaigns were structured around an assumption of one, maybe two, adventures a year, but in 2e, fellowship
phases typically last between a few weeks and a season, and thus there are 3-4 adventures per year.
• The company is generally expected to spend the fellowship phase together in the same location, except for during Yule,
when most heroes are expected to return home.
• Combat Proficiencies can only advance one point during a fellowship phase, and heroes can improve Valour or Wisdom
but not both, so there's little reason to save up Adventure Points.
• The costs to increase skills, combat proficiencies, valour, and wisdom are slightly increased at higher values compared
to 1e, and there is no longer a discount for favored skills.
• During each Fellowship Phase the heroes can swap out Useful Items.
• Most Fellowship Undertakings are not done as individuals: their effects benefit the entire company.
• During regular Fellowship Phases, the entire company chooses one undertaking together, plus one "free" undertaking
limited by which callings the company has amongst them.
• During Yule, each company member can choose an undertaking (all different from one another, save that a few Yule
undertakings can be chosen as often as desired), plus the company still gets the same "free" undertaking.
• The Recount A Story undertaking allows replacing a distinctive trait, even with a newly invented one.
• Writing company songs is simplified somewhat. Elvish songs can only be written during the Yule fellowship phase.
Singing a song does not offer bonus dice; instead, it transforms a Short Rest into a Prolonged Rest.

Adversaries and the Eye of Mordor

• Adversaries have a Might rating which tells how many Wounds are required to kill them, and also how many actions it
can take in a round.
• Adversaries can have either Hate (as in 1e) or Resolve (similar, but for enemies that are not necessarily minions of the
Enemy, e.g., brigands). Killing enemies with Resolve may be a Misdeed.
• Enemies can spend a τ to break shields, knock back, do extra damage, or make a blow piercing if the Feat die was close
but not quite.
• Adversary format is simplified, and integrates weapon/attack stats and summaries of fell abilities into the listing (save
for some fell abilities that entire categories of enemies have).
• Many fell abilities are changed (e.g., Snake-like Speed makes attacks against the adversary ill-favoured).
• Some adversaries that were in the core book in 1e are not present (notably spiders).
• Some creatures that previously could only be harmed by enchanted weapons now have an ability that lets them cancel
out damage by expending Hate (and those enchanted weapons prevent this ability from being used), providing a limit to
how much damage they can ignore.
• Eye Awareness is integrated into the core rules.
• Eye Awareness can be increased by different things, including earning Shadow, but only outside combat.