Middle Earth D20 Conversion

GruTheWanderer · Mar 5, 2002

Alignment

Spider,

Excellent question. What sort of allegiance system do you have in mind. I remember someone's (Orcus?) excellent post on the power of words in Middle Earth (the heroes constantly calling on the names of their clans, nations, heroes).

So far I'm retaining the good/evil spells and abilities and throwing out the law/chaos abilities. However, it's still a useful abstraction for players to think about the values of their characters (selfish vs. selfless, communal vs. individualistic).

Derek

GruTheWanderer · Mar 5, 2002

Campaign concept elaborated

Hi All,

Since my players now know more, I thought I'd elaborate on the future of the Numenor campaign.

It is set at the very beginning of the first War of the Ring. Sauron is mobilizing armies to attack Eregion and capture the rings created by Celebrimbor and the Elves.

Celebrimbor is currently making a solo trip to this region (future Belfalas) seeking another clan of dwarves, hoping to find a hiding place for another of the seven. I thought this would be fun, since Tolkien focuses so much on the clan of Durin (but there were six other dwarf fathers).

However, the dwarves of clan Torvan were driven out of their stronghold in this area by a evil Maiar two hundred years ago. The Maiar fell into sleep, but has been awakened recently by human prospectors in the hills.

If they are willing, the players can aid Celebrimbor, find the lost dwarves, and take on a renegade Maiar (and that's before Sauron launches his invasion of the north).

Tell me what you think.
Derek

GruTheWanderer · Mar 5, 2002

Re: Greetings and "Aeglos" conversion

Mjollnir said:
I am new at this forum and as I suppose I used to play MERP old game from ICE as many of you. I have converted the famous spear from Gil-Galad only paying a slight look at ICE stats of that weapon so I finally adapted it only taking a partial inspiration from it. Here it is:

Spear of size change(*) +15
Frost Brand & Icy Burst
Keen
Ghost Touch (on command)

For many of you it may appear as an over-powerful weapon. In other conversions I have made I have adapted some enemies weapon even more powerful than this one.

Hi Mjollnir,

I'm glad you're enjoying the new conversion site. Please share more ideas with us.

Regarding "Aeglos", I'm not sure why it has to have such a high enhancement bonus. Even if it is an artifact, +5 should be the maximum (such as the Sword of Kas or the Mace of Cuthbert in the DMG). Counting in the special abilities makes it equivalent to a +10 weapon on DMG weapons chart (pg 184). That would be more than enough power for any High King of the Elves.

How would you use this weapon in a campaign? I can't imagine anyone lower than 20th level owning such a weapon. How was it used in MERP?

Out of curiousity, what did you enjoy the most about MERP. I never played it, but I'd like to hear stories.

Derek

LordMelkor{Talos} · Mar 5, 2002

GruTheWander, is this Maia a Balrog? Wolfspider could you post main magical spells for your converted characters?

Osric · Mar 5, 2002

Non 3e-er

Forgive the intrusion, I'm sure I'll make myself useful here one day, but as a Tolkienist RPer who doesn't know 3e: "What's ECL?"

Apart from stuff I might not understand everything here seems right on the mark (oh yeah, there's Celestial this and Celestial that, but those could take some explaining; don't worry, I'll get by on assumptions)

Just to share what happens to be latest on my mind this particular evening, what do people think about what I -- as an old AD&Der call verbal, somatic & material components? I've just been giving my notes on LOTR a run-through and a whole load of stuff seems to happen without any verbal, somatic or material requirements at all, unless you count eye contact as a somatic component.

These things might help, but don't seem to be essential, and even when the central characters would have every reason to want all the bonuses they can get, they don't necessarily start spouting rhymes in Quenya, waving their arms about or crushing gemstones... A whole load of the subtler stuff, and possibly the majority of all magic in the texts on M-e seem to happen without any rigmarole. When you describe on the website what spells are allowed and what are not, have you given any thought to what is possible to a caster who remains silent and doesn't wave his hands about?

GruTheWanderer · Mar 5, 2002

The Maia in NGV

LordMelkor{Talos} said:
GruTheWander, is this Maia a Balrog?

Thanks for asking. No, it's not a Balrog. It's closer in nature to Ungoliant or Shelob, although probably not spider-like in appearance. I haven't decided yet how it will appear, but like Ungoliant it is spawning lesser monsters: fiendish dire boar, fiendish monstrous scorpions, fiendish crocodiles, etc. It might have elements of some of these creatures.

Derek

GruTheWanderer · Mar 5, 2002

Re: Non 3e-er

Osric said:
Forgive the intrusion, I'm sure I'll make myself useful here one day, but as a Tolkienist RPer who doesn't know 3e: "What's ECL?"

Hi Osric,

ECL is Effective Character Level. It is used to balance races which are more powerful than others. For example, a D&D Centaur is an ECL 3 race. This means a first level Centaur character is as powerful as a fourth level character of a standard race (I wish D&D had this when I did allow a player to have a Centaur character long ago). The elves of Middle Earth are supposed to be more powerful than humans, dwarves, orcs, and hobbits, thus their ECL would help a DM balance them with other characters.

As for spell components, it's somewhat a matter of taste and somewhat a matter of D&D semantics. I agree that they are not used much in the literature. If they are not required, magic users become more powerful (not vulnerable to silence, being held, losing their possessions, etc). Several feats would also become irrelevant.

On the other hand, we could assume that those who use magic in the books have abililties (or the Silent Spell, Still Spell feats) which allow them to cast spells without all the mumbo-jumbo.

Derek

ColonelHardisson · Mar 5, 2002

Re: Non 3e-er

Osric said:
Forgive the intrusion, I'm sure I'll make myself useful here one day, but as a Tolkienist RPer who doesn't know 3e: "What's ECL?"

Apart from stuff I might not understand everything here seems right on the mark (oh yeah, there's Celestial this and Celestial that, but those could take some explaining; don't worry, I'll get by on assumptions)

Just to share what happens to be latest on my mind this particular evening, what do people think about what I -- as an old AD&Der call verbal, somatic & material components? I've just been giving my notes on LOTR a run-through and a whole load of stuff seems to happen without any verbal, somatic or material requirements at all, unless you count eye contact as a somatic component.

These things might help, but don't seem to be essential, and even when the central characters would have every reason to want all the bonuses they can get, they don't necessarily start spouting rhymes in Quenya, waving their arms about or crushing gemstones... A whole load of the subtler stuff, and possibly the majority of all magic in the texts on M-e seem to happen without any rigmarole. When you describe on the website what spells are allowed and what are not, have you given any thought to what is possible to a caster who remains silent and doesn't wave his hands about?

Well, many spells in 3e have just the Verbal and Somatic components now - it seems to me that fewer have material components, but that may just bemy perception.

In 3e, wizards and sorcerers (or any spellcaster, really) can take the feats Still Spell and Silent Spell, so even Core Rules spellcasters can cast just about any spell without the arm waving and mumbling - although it doesn't seem far-fetched for Gandalf to do so. He even uses material components in The Hobbit, when he sets the worgs and goblins on fire.

I guess my point is that there really doesn't have to be a lot of special provisions made to alter casters much to do what you're talking about - it's written into the main D&D rules already.

Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're asking.

ColonelHardisson · Mar 5, 2002

ECL - the quick answer is: add the +number to the characters level to find what level he/she is equivalent to. A first level Silvan Elf, from my conversion stuff, would be equivalent to a second level character.

EDIT - I see Gru got to this one first

grodog · Mar 5, 2002

Col H---

I went to take a quick look at your new site for the ME conversion, but it wouldn't load in NS 4.79 beyond the the top banner.

I thought you might like to know