Middle Earth RPG

[Matthew West]

New-ish member here!

I've never met anyone who plays it, and being a huge Tolkien fan I've very curious about it. Can anyone provide a little bit of insight on how this RPG stacks up against say, D&D?

 

[Laurefindel]

New-ish member here!

I've never met anyone who plays it, and being a huge Tolkien fan I've very curious about it. Can anyone provide a little bit of insight on how this RPG stacks up against say, D&D?

Hum, which one?

The most recent iterations are Cubicle 7's The One Ring, which uses its own original system, and Adventures in Middle Earth, which uses D&D 5e mechanics.

I can only speak for the former (The One Ring), and I can't praise this game enough. IMO, it is the first game that truly captures the genre and feel of Tolkien's books. The game emphasizes on the cultures and people of the Rhovanion region and sets the default timeline 5 years after the death of Smaug the dragon (So 55-ish years before the war of the ring).

The system has become one of my favourites ever; mostly a skill-based systems with a few little quirks, just enough the give some "crunch" without being rule-heavy.

TOR however is more an analogue to the books, whereas D&D would be closer to the movies. D&D remains a faster-paced, more action-oriented game with crunchy mechanics and lots of character customization. Oh, and much more magic-heavy. TOR does have magic, but it makes a big deal about magic that would be the equivalent of a cantrip in D&D. ADventures in Middle Earth is most likely closer to D&D, sharing its mechanics and all, but I'm not familiar with that game.

 

[darjr]

I can’t say enough good things about The One Ring RPG. If your willing to step out of D&D it’s amazing. Adventures in Middle Earth is also amazing. If you want it to be a little more D&D like then this game based off of the 5e OGL is also a very fine choice.

 

[zedturtle]

If you'd like a little more direct information, here's the page for The One Ring.

And here's the equivalent page for Adventures in Middle-earth.

Just as a further note for clarity on the subject of Adventures in Middle-earth, while it does use the core 5e rules for mechanical familiarity (and this does mean you can add in anything you'd like to your vision of Middle-earth) the game as presented uses the same setting expectations as The One Ring. In other words, both games do have magic to them, but they're much more tied into Cultures, items of magical power, and the strange abilities possessed by exceptional beings.

 

[aramis erak]

I have both AIME and TOR. If you're a true fan of tolkien, and not a "D&D OR NOTHING" type, hands down, go with TOR. If you're just a casual tolkien fan, AIME is good enough for those who have "D&D OR NOTHING" types in their group.

There are several fan done ones floating on the net; I've not tried any of them. of the three I've read, only one was written well.

Decipher's LOTR is OOP, and many felt it allowed too much magic into player character hands.

ICE's MERP was a great game, and had great lore presentation, but it's long OOP, the mechanics and lore don't work well together, magic magic everywhere. Use it for a non-middle earth game, and it rocks as Rolemaster Light. Use it for Middle Earth, and a road of sorrow may lie ahead, as the system isn't trimmed to suit tolkien's Middle Earth; with the right players, that's avoidable, but it involves self-nerfing, so don't count upon it.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

TOR is awesome, and the books are works of art themselves. AiME is pretty good, too -- haven't played it, but have two books.

But, heck, I've done Middle Earth and had fun with D&D 1E, 3.0 and 3.5. Middle Earth d20 files are probably stashed around EN World, somewhere, still.

Gandalf was a 5th level magic-user, after all.

 

[aramis erak]

Gandalf was a 5th level magic-user, after all.

Which underscores why D&D doesn't do Tolkien well. In terms of what we see in parties in the novels... (THTABA & LOTR)
1 Angel in manifestation form, with Wiz 5 spells. No evidence he levels up.
13 dwarven fighters
1 halfling 0-level to gains thief 1 in play
3 halfling fighters. One class-changes to cavalier later on. One seems to switch to ranger or maybe druid.
1 0-level halfling who becomes a fighter
1 human non-caster ranger
1 human fighter
1 elven non-caster ranger

For NPCs, we see a fighter-cleric-illusionist, and a cleric, both of at least 5th level... remove curse and cure disease.

Note that the clerics in question have casting times in an hour or two, not a turn nor round.
The wizard, however, has casting times of a round each..

Also, the clerics may not even be clerics - they can heal, but is it really a cleric?

We see only a handful of true spell castings. Gandalf, Saruman, Galadriel, and Elrond. And Elrond is both a healer and an illusion caster...

The D&D game is much more magic-heavy than Tolkien's world. Good players with a good GM can make it work... but it's work to do it well.

ICE's game is actually going the way of "lots of magic by everyone" - but that's going too far the other way.

 

[darjr]

AME isn’t straight up D&D. Have you seen it? It’s very good. Don’t dismiss it because of a fear of D&D not being Tolkien like. C7 did a great job with it.

 

[thekindgm]

That was helpful for me as well. I've thinking about trying Adventures in Middle Earth and now I'm more convinced I should get it.

 

[aramis erak]

AME isn’t straight up D&D. Have you seen it? It’s very good. Don’t dismiss it because of a fear of D&D not being Tolkien like. C7 did a great job with it.

Yes, it's far better, assuming that, unlike the locals where I'm at, you don't allow any non-AIME classes.