But if you wanted to adapt the LotR into an RPG, the most natural way would be to give Frodo's player lots of meta-abilities to simulate the "protagonist luck" that Frodo enjoys in the story.Yep, this is why Frodo was never allowed to travel with the likes of Aragorn and Legolas... oh wait, he did
In 4e, for instance, he would be a lazy warlord whose presence inspires Aragorn, Boromir etc onto greater combat heights, and whose hit points are interpreted in an almost completely meta-fashion.
My sense is that 3E doesn't have so many meta-options, but maybe that means it's harder to do LotR in that system.
Of course there's nothing to stop you running a 3E game with a 5th level human paladin/ranger, a 5th level dwarf axe fighter, a 5th level elf archer and a bunch of 1st level halfing commoners (plus an aristocrat for Frodo). But I wouldn't expect that party to play much like LotR - eg the 1st level halflings will almost certainly not survive the fight in Moria. In fact Frodo would have virtually no chance of surviving the stabbing on Weathertop, without his player having any meta-resources to deploy.
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