$2million Lord of the Rings RPG crowdfunding campaign is so popular it’s had to make new stretch goals

The crowdfunding campaign for a Lord of the Rings RPG has proven to be so popular that it’s needed to create all-new stretch goals to keep up.

Earlier this week, publisher Free League launched a Backerit page for a couple of new books along with a rules update to The One Ring, the popular Lord of the Rings RPG it’s been running since 2022. However, the campaign was so popular that it smashed its crowdfunding goal by 32 times in less than a day, and has now reached $2million in pledges. Because it only provided stretch goals up until the $1.4m mark, the team has had to create a host of new ones – and even those look as though they’ll be surpassed before long.

We’re going on an adventure

The One Ring Starter Set dice in the foreground, with a book and map in the background — (Image credit: Future)

If you wanted to give The One Ring a go before these new rules arrived, the Over Hill and Under Hill starter set (available for under $30 at Amazon) or the D&D equivalent (up for grabs at $31.23 via Amazon) are great places to begin thanks to being thematic yet accessible journeys into the darker corners of Middle-earth.

“As the initial stretch goals were unlocked quicker than we could imagine, we have now added five more goals, trying to strike a good balance between what has been requested and what is doable without jeopardizing the timeline of the entire project,” Free League writes in an email to anyone that’s followed the campaign. These new stretch goals range from bonus maps to an all new location.

The latter is probably the most interesting; it will take us to The Tower of Triumph in Umbar. This is a place we’ve only ever heard about in passing, so being able to go there is tantalizing. That’s because it’s a stronghold of humans that serve Sauron where “seers and sorcerers of the city keep watch upon Gondor, and work many dark designs”.

The most recent stretch goal to be unlocked is optional rules for setting up camp. These are made to complement instead of replace the existing travel mechanics, and “can be used to enliven shorter traveling sequences, or whenever the Company’s choice of campsite and preparations for the night are likely to matter.”

Two more stretch goals remain: a digital art compilation unlocked at $2.2m, and a map of Bree in the new Core Rules book that becomes available at $2.4m. Considering how quickly we hit the previous marks (the pledge number has literally jumped several hundred dollars while I’ve been writing this story), I doubt it’ll take long to reach them.

While we’re on the subject of Middle-earth, these new Warhammer Mordor Orc models are reeling me back into the Lord of the Rings wargame again.