Ulrick
First Post
Middle Earth suffers from the same problem of all literary fantasy settings (Wheel of Time and Dragonlance included)- there just isn't enough room for the PC's to do anything very interesting- they're completely overshadowed by the plot of the main stories.
I've played MERP and it turns out that there is still plenty to do before or after the fall of Sauron. The sourcebooks offered a plethora of information of adventures and hooks. Characters in MERP can't take on Sauron anyway and expect to win. But they can explore Moria and all get killed (which happened in a campaign I was in). The plot of the main stories didn't overshadow the campaigns I was in.
But you're right about Dragonlance. Cool setting, but the gods seemed to interfere (or not, depending on the era). The problem with Dragonlance is that they keep coming out with books with world-shattering events that redefine everything.
At least with Middle Earth, world-shattering events happen once every couple thousand years and end with the dawn of the 4th age.