Durin's Folk: Forge Talk 12 Recap & More

2025/10/17

Written by Clare Byrne

Note: All images are taken from an in development version of the Durin’s Folk Expansion and may include placeholder art, characters or text. Therefore they may not reflect the final look of expansion.

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Nakbûr baglûr bî!
Hammer and tongs!‍

On Friday the 26th of September, RtM Dev Team members Jon-Paul Dumont (Game Director) and Bradley Fulton (Art Director) joined Community Manager Clare Byrne on the Forge-side stage in the Official Return to Moria Discord to chat about all the latest info shared about the upcoming expansion for The Lord of the Rings: Return to Mora™ - Durin’s Folk with a few extra details thrown in too!

We’ve summarised key elements in a recap and included some new in development screenshots below, but you can also listen back to the recording of this Forge Talk on our YouTube channel for extra insights into gameplay design decisions and planning as well as answers to FAQs from our Community.

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The previous blogs referenced in this Forge Talk which contain details about Durin’s Folk and may be of interest to you are…

‍Exclusive News from SDCC‍

Durin’s Folk: What’s Next…‍

Durin’s Folk: Expeditions and Economy‍

You can also check out some of the previously answered FAQ questions in the #faq-durinsfolk channel over on our Discord

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Forge Talk Recap:

Please note: In the interest of clarity and legibility, the info below is not in the same order it came up in the Forge Talk itself. This blog is designed as a supplement to the Forge Talk itself, as opposed to a read-along transcript. ‍

It had been a while since our last Forge Talk and with lots of new info shared via previous blogs, and the new FAQ channel in our Discord (Links above), the team started back at the beginning, addressing NPCs and Traders before moving onto Expeditions. Though they were covering previously revealed elements of the Durin’s Folk Expansion, there was also new information for each peppered throughout.

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NPCs:

Some of the first NPCs players will come across are survivors of the blast that landed you in Moria. They’ll be more than happy to see a familiar face in the dark and whether you’ve started a new save, have a save in progress, or have finished the campaign in anticipation of Durin’s Folk, these survivors can be found throughout Moria and added to your company.

Once you find these survivors, they’ll need to know where to go and where is safe. You can designate a base / hearth area as a Delving, our in-game term for where NPCs will gather, by building a Delvestone. After the campaign, the timeline moves forward and you’ll find the Emissary of Erebor (from the game’s opening cinematics) appearing just inside the Dimrill Gate. He will  speak with you on behalf of the King under the Mountain and give you the go-ahead to bring Dwarves into Moria.

New Dwarves can be found outside in the recruitment camp once it’s unlocked following the campaign and will cycle over time. If you like the look of them, you can invite them into your company… and pay their wages in advance, of course. “Dwarves of your Company” / “Company of Dwarves” is the in-game name for the NPCs. You can have a maximum of 21 NPCs in the mountain with you (allowing for 29 totally Dwarves in Moria if you have a full multiplayer party). But it’ll take time to build up to the max number, you won’t light Durin’s Beacon and instantly have the max NPCs in one day.

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NPCs and the order they show up vary from seed to seed, but they’re all pulled from the same pool and have unique names, so if you and a friend both have Róri in your games, that NPC will have the same look and skills. The team is very interested to see if any NPC favourites develop amongst the community..

Over time you can level up your Delving to increase capacity for new NPCs from the recruitment camp. You can unlock these Delving advancements by building Monuments. These large grand works are built by the NPCs and take multiple in-game days to build. NPCs will also require additional resources over the duration of the build so they can progress. Each monument is designed to reflect something of the Dwarven Spirit and inspire those who wish to return to Moria.

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As NPCs are the “support Dwarves” of your company as opposed to the main adventurers (that’s a job for you and your friends). NPCs will stay within the area of the Delving and get to work on tasks you’ve assigned to them, be it mining, guarding, smithing, salvaging, etc. You can assign NPCs a task by speaking to them directly and what they work on is dependent on what you put in their hand. NPCs won't work at a task 24/7 however, on monuments or otherwise. They need rest, food and down time too. If their needs are not met, they may become displeased about the situation. It’s important to make sure they have a bed to sleep in (they can pick their own or you can assign one to them) and food to eat. By giving an NPC a frying pan and some ingredients, they can cook something up and ensure everyone is well fed during the day. In the evening they’ll enjoy relaxing by the hearth and grabbing a brew too if one is available!

The team hope that the Durin’s Folk Expansion will be transformative in how the game is played, where NPCs will take on a lot of tasks for the player in an automated way. Once you give them a task, they’ll continue to do that throughout their daily cycle (taking breaks for rest and meal times) until you give them another task or they run out of materials.

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When designing NPCs, the team started with “We know we want NPCs [in the game] and players do too” but they also wondered “What should they do?”. During one of our Community Building Challenges hosted in our Discord, a player had stationed armor mannequins into a tavern scene to make it feel more lively. Seeing this, the team realised there was more than just needing NPCs to tackle tasks in-game, players also wanted to feel like they were building a living Dwarven village. This sense of the player being the protector of the first brave Dwarves to enter Moria became a primary game design pillar for the creation of NPCs alongside “Well what do they do when they come in?”‍

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Traders and Economy:‍

If you’ve seen the Easter Egg Cinematic at the West Gate (aka: The Doors of Durin) after you finished the campaign, you’ll know that there was a promise of Traders making their way to Moria. In Durin’s Folk, Dwarven representatives from across Middle-earth™ are now arriving at the West Gate to trade! These Dwarves are acting as the middle-men for other regions and establishing contracts with other peoples who are watching to see what the future holds for Khazad-dûm.

The team wanted to avoid projecting any sort of modern global economy on the game when it came to the Traders and in-game economy. In his works, Professor Tolkien does not really mention currency much, and as such, the team decided the Traders would work with a barter system. 

Part of this barter system involves building up a reputation with the Traders. Each of them have unique items to trade, and specific things they want from Moria. By completing orders you can build up your reputation with a Trader and then use your newly earned reputation to get something in return. An example of something you might wish to trade for are new materials to unlock new building sets, such as Red Sandstone from the Red Mountains Trader, or White Marble from the Blue Mountains Trader!

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Expeditions:‍

The Expedition table that shows the Misty Mountains in 3D was inspired by Jon-Paul and Bradley’s love of hiking and the metal maps you might find in National Parks like Yosemite. The idea of shaping metal into a map of the mountains felt like a very Dwarven concept. The team also liked the idea of players gathering around a table like this when planning and organizing for Expeditions.

While the map does show a larger area, the Expeditions are focused on the areas surrounding Moria and they’re designed to help tackle the issue where some resources may have become scarce in a player’s world. At the table players can find an Expedition suited to their needs and head off on a resource hunt for their world. Every Expedition will begin in a small camp area outside somewhere in the Misty Mountains, players then breach their way into the Mountain to begin their resource hunt. This concept of a “breach moment” has been a recurring theme in the base game that the team wanted to bring to Expeditions too.

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Expeditions are small self-contained Mountain experiences where some of the environments will feel familiar but with a remix of resources and dangers to add to the fresh feeling of this new way to play. Similar to how Sandbox would feel following a Campaign run. These experiences are akin to going on a raid with your fellow players (or solo), as everyone in the same world will be going on these Expeditions together in one joint experience rather than potentially being scattered around Moria in personal bases or taking on individual tasks.

While there is currently no hard timer on Expeditions and players can take their time to explore and gather resources, there will come a point when packs are full or energy is low. Players will be unable to sleep or build during these expeditions and are limited to Field Crafting and Quick Build platforms, so eventually, it’ll be time to come home.

Through Expeditions the team wanted to be able to replicate the gameplay loop they see a lot of players engaging in at the end of the game, where players will prepare and set off on a trip to an area in Moria that contains a resource they need. However it’s important to note another key difference in the Expedition experience is each one you go on is unique. You will never be able to return to this specific area again so if you decide to leave an item behind in favour of gathering additional resources you cannot return to retrieve it, nor can you return to continue gathering resources from the same spot, so plan carefully!

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To learn more about Durin’s Folk, check out the recording of Forge Talk 12 and the previous blog posts linked above, and join our Discord to check out the #faq-durinsfolk channel and keep an eye for sneak peaks from Wandering Wizards who like to drop teasers in the general chat.

Don’t forget you can also Wishlist Durin’s Folk now on Steam