Lord of the Rings RPG

[sfgiants]

Hey all, just a few questions for those in the know about the Lord of the Rings RPG from Decipher. I am considering picking it up so figured I may get some info first. First off, how does it play? Is it easy to learn? Many supplements for it? Still in print? What are your experiences with it? Any info you have would be great

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I haven't really looked at it beyond flipping through it in the bookstore.

I couldn't help but plug ICE's MERP (Middle Earth Roleplaying). Sure it is out of print but you can still find the books on E-Bay easy enough. To steal Diaglo's quote "MERP is the only true Lord of the Rings RPG... all others are only pale imitations".

 

[dougmander]

I have played Decipher's LOTR -- one or two brief campaigns, before we drifted back into D&D. Here's my take on it.

The production values are very good, the layout beautiful, with still images from the films taking a prominent role.

The core rulebook is not very well organized. Character creation was hard to puzzle out, for example. I found myself making a cheat sheet that summarized what a character could do in one turn, because this information is IIRC not presented in a single table in the actual book.

Once we got past the organization issue, the game itself was actually very easy to play. I can't really say how, but it really captured the feel of the books for me, and nothing in it seemed out of place in Tolkien's world. We played a game that started in Bree the morning after the raid on the Prancing Pony. The PCs were ordinary Bree-folk (a human and a halfling) who find a bedraggled Boromir, off-course and searching for Imladris. They had to get the son of Denethor safely to Rivendell with the Black Riders in pursuit.

Our second campaign had the PCs searching the Blue Mountains for a lost palantir before the Lord of the Nazgul could find it. Tellingly, when it became a standard dungeon crawl through an old dwarven settlement, the campaign lost its momentum and we never returned to it.

 

[Stormborn]

I couldn't help but plug ICE's MERP (Middle Earth Roleplaying). Sure it is out of print but you can still find the books on E-Bay easy enough. To steal Diaglo's quote "MERP is the only true Lord of the Rings RPG... all others are only pale imitations".

And now for a different opinion: Of all the game systems I have ever played the only one I have ever truly hated was MERPS. In particular I hated the tables. Obviously others have enjoyed it, its not for me and mine.

Don't know a lot about the Decipher system, although I have looked through the book. Personally, if I were going to play LotR I would just use Iron Heroes and use the copious amount of nonRPG related Tolkien material as refrences for atlases, setting, etc.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I have played Decipher's LOTR -- one or two brief campaigns, before we drifted back into D&D. Here's my take on it.

The production values are very good, the layout beautiful, with still images from the films taking a prominent role.

The core rulebook is not very well organized. Character creation was hard to puzzle out, for example. I found myself making a cheat sheet that summarized what a character could do in one turn, because this information is IIRC not presented in a single table in the actual book.

Once we got past the organization issue, the game itself was actually very easy to play. I can't really say how, but it really captured the feel of the books for me, and nothing in it seemed out of place in Tolkien's world. We played a game that started in Bree the morning after the raid on the Prancing Pony. The PCs were ordinary Bree-folk (a human and a halfling) who find a bedraggled Boromir, off-course and searching for Imladris. They had to get the son of Denethor safely to Rivendell with the Black Riders in pursuit.

Our second campaign had the PCs searching the Blue Mountains for a lost palantir before the Lord of the Nazgul could find it. Tellingly, when it became a standard dungeon crawl through an old dwarven settlement, the campaign lost its momentum and we never returned to it.

Most of this sums up my own experiences with the game. It plays really well, and is very much like a streamlined d20, using 2d6 as the core mechanic. Much of the game would be easy to port into d20 - Edges are equivalent to feats, the magic system wouldn't be a big hassle to use, and the game uses "orders," which are much like d20 classes. The game is more skill based than d20, though.

I enjoyed this game a lot. The designers obviously know and love the books really, really well, and evoke the mood and feel of the setting. They also didn't make one of MERP's big mistakes - MERP placed way too much emphasis on playing in ICE's default era of Third Age 1640. Decipher's game discusses playing in the era that most readers like and are familiar with, the end of the Third Age. Plus, there are some good ideas about playing in the Fourth Age, something I've advocated for a long while.

The designer's notes on running an epic fantasy game are worthwhile. This game could've had it's basic system used for a generic fantasy game, but Decipher dropped any support of it before they even produced a Return of the King sourcebook. The books for the first two movies, as well as a monster/treasure book, are high quality and worth having. I got the magic supplement available as a pdf at RPG Drive Thru, and while I think it's nice, it doesn't add enough material to be worth the money, in my opinion.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I haven't really looked at it beyond flipping through it in the bookstore.

I couldn't help but plug ICE's MERP (Middle Earth Roleplaying). Sure it is out of print but you can still find the books on E-Bay easy enough. To steal Diaglo's quote "MERP is the only true Lord of the Rings RPG... all others are only pale imitations".

I'm sorry to disagree with you completely. I have most MERP books, and while many of them are top-notch, I've never felt the game system really evoked the mood and feel of the setting very well. Plus, even though, as I said, many of the sourcebooks are well-done, there are a lot of examples of sourcebooks and adventures which bear almost no resemblance to anything Tolkien wrote. The best example would be Dunland, in my opinion.

Spoiler

It features a flying castle populated by elves, one of whom performs Dr. Moreau-like experiments grafting animals to humans and elves. Not a bad book, overall, but Tolkien-like? Not even close.

Decipher's game is carefully researched and true to Tolkien. MERP isn't bad, but it's often not very Tolkien-like.

 

[RFisher]

I generally like the CODA system, but its realization in the LotR book leaves a lot to be desired. You should definately check out some of the stuff at The Steward & the King as well as the three official documents they put out. (An errata, a FAQ, & something else)

I haven't seen the second printing, though, so I don't know how much better it is.

The biggest complaint (from die-hard fans) is that the formulaic spells are counter to how Tolkien envisioned magic. I, however, am impressed that they made sure every spell reflected something that actually happened in the book.

My biggest complaint was that the one supplement I wanted, Fell Beasts & Wonderous Magic, disappointed me. I didn't see anything in it that justified the cover price.

In any case, I enjoyed the campaign I ran with it a lot. We intend to restart it in the not too distant future. I may not have stuck too strictly to the RAW, though.

I have also read very good things about free Legends of Middle Earth game, but I haven't played it myself.

Also, you can pick up MERP books second-hand that can be good additional inspiration.

 

[pawsplay]

The rules have as many holes as a swiss cheese. Some of it is just damned ambiguous, and the main core book has substantial errata for every single race, class, and sample character.

The art is nice, the world info is gold.

 

[Technomancer]

It is sooooo much like D20 it is not funny. It is basically D20 but using 2D6 instead. You roll 2D6, add modifiers (often many fiddly modifiers like D&D) and try to beat a target number. It has a long skill list like D&D, basically the same six ability scores (with different names), it has "feats" (I forget what LotR calls them, Talents maybe?), saving throws (four instead of three), classes (Orders), Prestige Classes (Elite Orders), a big spell list (though it is much less flashy than D&D in keeping with the subtle nature of magic in the books), and virtually identical mechanics.

The biggest difference I can think of is combat. You have a Health score which is sort of like Hit Points, but smaller and with wound levels. And each time you take cumulative damage equal to your Health score you go to the next wound level.
Oh, and I believe your combat ability is skill-based, instead of being an automatic progression based on your class like D&D's BAB.

Having said all that, let me add that despite the fact that it seemed nearly a carbon copy of D&D, there is just some subtle difference (or perhaps many little subtle differences) that for whatever reason really do seem to capture the feel of Tolkien's books. It is a good game in its own right, and the many similarities to D&D may actually be a good thing for D&Ders wanting to try it.

For more info, here's a review comparing it to 3.x

 

[Odhanan]

Decipher's LOTR game is cool. I ran a couple of games with it, and the system is intuitive, to-the-point. You can tailor the game and adapt it to how you imagine Middle-earth should behave (for instance, in terms of how common wizards are - whether only the Istari use magic or if some people might have been taught by them).

It's a very good game when you want to concentrate on the world and the characters rather than reason on the system in a vaccuum. If the system is important to you, and if you think the rules ought to reflect your own vision of Middle-earth or be "heretic", you may end up disappointed. If however you use the system to fuel your games, keep control of the game rather than yield to its system, then chances are you'll be very happy with it.