Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="BendBars/LiftGates" data-source="post: 4630933" data-attributes="member: 58779">CapnZapp, I'm not sure how you yourself arrived at that angle. It seems that we have a completely legitimate difference of opinions. The OP asked about which things should be excluded from D&amp;D (including &quot;obviously [...] the arcane classes,&quot; divine classes except for elven clerics, and races except for human, halfling, elf, and dwarf) to make it more like Middle-earth.I think it's fine to say that you want to cut out things that aren't in Middle-earth. If that feels more like the books, then it'll be a more satisfying play experience. What I said was that I also think you can play a Middle-earth game with some elements of D&amp;D that never appeared in any of the books.My argument is this: You may easily get tired of playing only with things that appeared in Tolkien's books. He wasn't trying to tell nearly as many stories as a D&amp;D campaign might potentially accomodate or touch upon, and he never claimed that his books were an exhaustive account of all the inhabitants of the world. If your campaign is doing things that no one did in the books, then you can include monsters, classes, races, and all kinds of things that have no analog in the literature.To that end, I'm trying to come up with plausible justifications to include things from D&amp;D that haven't been described in Middle-earth, but could fit.If anyone hasn't seen it, the <a href="http://www.critical-hits.com/2008/10/03/review-advanced-players-guide/" target="_blank">Advanced Player's Guide</a> is a really fantastic 4e book that includes &quot;the Shire Halfling,&quot; which are, unsurprisingly, exactly the hobbits you want in a Middle-earth campaign. Much more familiar than what halflings have become.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="BendBars/LiftGates, post: 4630933, member: 58779"] CapnZapp, I'm not sure how you yourself arrived at that angle. It seems that we have a completely legitimate difference of opinions. The OP asked about which things should be excluded from D&D (including "obviously [...] the arcane classes," divine classes except for elven clerics, and races except for human, halfling, elf, and dwarf) to make it more like Middle-earth. I think it's fine to say that you want to cut out things that aren't in Middle-earth. If that feels more like the books, then it'll be a more satisfying play experience. What I said was that I also think you can play a Middle-earth game with some elements of D&D that never appeared in any of the books. My argument is this: You may easily get tired of playing only with things that appeared in Tolkien's books. He wasn't trying to tell nearly as many stories as a D&D campaign might potentially accomodate or touch upon, and he never claimed that his books were an exhaustive account of all the inhabitants of the world. If your campaign is doing things that no one did in the books, then you can include monsters, classes, races, and all kinds of things that have no analog in the literature. To that end, I'm trying to come up with plausible justifications to include things from D&D that haven't been described in Middle-earth, but could fit. If anyone hasn't seen it, the [URL="http://www.critical-hits.com/2008/10/03/review-advanced-players-guide/"]Advanced Player's Guide[/URL] is a really fantastic 4e book that includes "the Shire Halfling," which are, unsurprisingly, exactly the hobbits you want in a Middle-earth campaign. Much more familiar than what halflings have become. [/QUOTE]

Verification