A 64-page booklet contains an introductory scenario, "Dawn Comes Early",[2] in which the adventurers must rescue a companion and deal with a pair of trolls.

[1] LOR is set in Tolkien's Middle-earth in 3017 of the Third Age, between the adventures of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit and the events of The Lord of the Rings.

LOR uses a simple "level-less" system that requires only two 6-sided dice to resolve skill checks and combat, an expansion of the even simpler rules used by I.C.E.

[3] In Issue 184 of Dragon (August 1992), Rick Swan liked the "attractive components", and thought the rules had "a congenial style that rightfully assumes the reader has no previous experience with role-playing."

Although Swan felt the magic system was "smooth and straightforward", he thought the overall rules "lean a little too hard on statistics and modifiers, which could easily scare off players with a phobia for numbers."

[1] In Issue 2 of RPG Review (December 2008), Lev Lafayette blamed LOR as the first of four products that caused the downfall of I.C.E.