New Lord of the Rings RPG!

[Nikosandros]

Actually I think it's sadder that Tolkien agreed to a bum contract to Saul Zaentz that didn't have a time limit and revocation rights. Most modern licenses have a time limit. It's these perpetual licenses that get people into trouble.

Well, yes of course I agree. I was merely speaking in the limited context of having a Tolkien inspired RPG.

One question is do they also have the film rights, or is this going to avoid dealing with the films. One of the tricky things was that computer games had to not only license from TE, but they had to also license from New Line because otherwise they could not reproduce the distinct look used in the films, but I doubt they are needed for a paper RPG.

From what one person from C7 posted, the rights refer to material in the books, the movies shoud't have anything to do with this game.

 

[Dausuul]

Creating a system that could accommodate Frodo, Aragorn, and Gandalf all in the same party, without the Frodo player spending 90% of the time twiddling his or her thumbs, would be quite a trick. I wonder if they plan to attempt that, or simply recommend that any group wishing to replicate the Fellowship should treat the hobbits* as NPCs.

[SIZE=-2]*Or the non-hobbits, but I suspect most players would prefer to play Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Boromir instead of Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin...[/SIZE]

 

[rogueattorney]

Creating a system that could accommodate Frodo, Aragorn, and Gandalf all in the same party, without the Frodo player spending 90% of the time twiddling his or her thumbs, would be quite a trick. I wonder if they plan to attempt that.

It depends on the assumed playing space of the pcs - when and where are they acting, who are they portraying, what are they assumed to be doing - but I could see Gandalf-type characters, and possibly even Aragorn-type characters being NPCs.

 

[Armadillo]

Buffy (the RPG) is just one example of a successful licensed RPG wherein you can have a powerful PC (e.g., Buffy) and a relatively hopeless one (e.g., Xander) in the same party, and have it work just fine. I'm sure they have thought about such basic [potential] issues. What solution they will favour, I have no idea. But I'm willing to bet there will be one (. . . or more than one, perhaps.)

Actually, now that you mention it, Cinematic Unisystem would be perfect for a LotR game.

Also, keep in mind that Cubical 7 are the folks that just produced the Dr. Who RPG, another license with huge differences between the abilities of characters. The RPG designer for the new LotR RPG developed the War of the Ring boardgame. So, I'm cautiously optimistic about this.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Actually, now that you mention it, Cinematic Unisystem would be perfect for a LotR game.

Then you'll be glad to hear there's a very nice free conversion floating around on the net.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Creating a system that could accommodate Frodo, Aragorn, and Gandalf all in the same party, without the Frodo player spending 90% of the time twiddling his or her thumbs, would be quite a trick. I wonder if they plan to attempt that, or simply recommend that any group wishing to replicate the Fellowship should treat the hobbits* as NPCs.

[SIZE=-2]*Or the non-hobbits, but I suspect most players would prefer to play Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Boromir instead of Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin...[/SIZE]

Did you read the same books I did? Sam took on an entire tower of orcs. And defeating Shelob was no mean feat. The Lord of the Nazgul would not have went down without Merry and he was pretty tough during the cleansing of the Shire as well.

 

[Herschel]

It would be at least a tiny bit more forgiving if you try to play narratively than MERP was. My friend has told me countless times of the instance he played a hobbit adventurer:

HIM: I climb atop the roof to see the area better.

*DM rolls*

DM: You fall and die.

HIM: Oh. Well, that was fun...

He actually got to climb atop the roof before the Orc shot an arrow through his throat, pinning him to a tree (see Crit Chart from MERP). That system ate more characters than Dark Sun and they stated in no uncertain terms that character trees were a good idea.

Yeah, you could say I liked it in an odd way.

 

[Turtlejay]

Yeah. . .d20=bad idea.

In fact, playing as any of the iconic characters or their archetypes would be a bad idea. I'd much prefer a setting done in the Lord of the Rings Online style. You are *near* the main protagonists, and you may meet them, but they are operating at a level that you simply can't hope for. . .yet. There was plenty of action and adventure off-screen in those books, and plenty of room to play without every game turning into a clone of the books.

I'm cautiously interested, but I'd like some more detail about the mechanics before I throw my hat in.

Jay

 

[UngainlyTitan]

He actually got to climb atop the roof before the Orc shot an arrow through his throat, pinning him to a tree (see Crit Chart from MERP). That system ate more characters than Dark Sun and they stated in no uncertain terms that character trees were a good idea.

Yeah, you could say I liked it in an odd way.

Ah yes the MERP crit chart . I still have fond memories of my sylvan elf ranger who got blown up by his sword (basically I got something like 400 on a fumble, I was off the crit charts, the GM decided that I blew up the sowrd)

 

[rogueattorney]

In fact, playing as any of the iconic characters or their archetypes would be a bad idea. I'd much prefer a setting done in the Lord of the Rings Online style. You are *near* the main protagonists, and you may meet them, but they are operating at a level that you simply can't hope for. . .yet. There was plenty of action and adventure off-screen in those books, and plenty of room to play without every game turning into a clone of the books.

This is the double edged sword of literature based rpgs. Do you really want to make the pcs second bananas to npcs? Or do you want to radically change the setting such that the characters loved from the books aren't there? Or do you completely isolate the game from the books by going to a different time or place... "Lord of the Rings II, The Revenge of Sauron?" It's a fine line.

It's much easier with a serialized license like Star Trek or most super hero comics where there's more "open space" and the option of simply doing "the further adventures of..."