Let's Talk About Middle Earth Gaming

[Stormonu]

Smaug (and the dragon from Dragonslayer) has been my iconic image of a dragon. The dwarves of the hobbit have also driven my ideal of a dwarf.

I've tried to play MERP, but it didn't pan out like I hoped. The rolemaster system is too overwrought for my tastes, and the magic system seemed a bad fit (especially channeling). I'd never use D&D to run a ME setting without drastically downplaying magic and wizards, if not outright cutting out wizard PCs.

 

[Remus Lupin]

I was always a big fan of I.C.E.'s Middle Earth Role Playing game. Though I think the rules system was rather complex and esoteric, MERP stripped them down a bit from their origins.

http://quagkeep.blogspot.com/2011/05/middle-earth-role-playing-iron-crown.html

 

[Shadowsmith]

I was a huge fan of ICE's Rolemaster system. Just not for Middle Earth. Far to much magic use.

 

[RobShanti]

It seems to me that no one has ever found the "right" system for a game set in Tolkien's legendarium. One often expresses a preferred system, but invariably also expresses some complaint about it too.

I'm about to begin running a game set in Tolkien's legendarium (starting date: II 1599) using the FATE system (Spirit of the Century rules, specifically). I'm eager for the FAE system to be released so I can try using that.

I start on Wednesday the 20th, in fact, and I'm eager for the session. Not sure how it's going to work out, but I'll let you know.

 

[randomwizard]

I played a little MERP set in the late 3rd age. MERP can be deadly with its critical hit tables.
I also played a couple of sessions of 3E d&d set concurrent to the ring bearer's journey. No one was allowed to pick a spellcaster class. We were tasked with tracking down one of the rings of power that were given to the dwarves.

 

[Reynard]

When using 3.x or pathfinder, I wonder if one answer to the magic problem is to play it E6 style and maybe trim the most egregious offenders of super heroic magic off the spell kiss. It seems to me that magic isn't weak in Tolkien in th 3rd Age, it's subtle, so the problem is more about throwing around force bolts.

 

[JoeCrow]

I ran the starter adventure for The One Ring with my crew a while back. They didn't really click with the system (they've got some fairly strong hack-and-slash tendencies, as a group) and the combat system was a bit stiff. The stances seem like an interesting idea, but the in-combat options are pretty limited. They were also less than happy with the pretty abstract stat system (Body/Heart/Wits). I might have been able to get them into it a bit better with more time, but we've got other systems to run with that they're actually into, so that campaign kinda faded. I did like the essentials of the Journey system, though.

It does a pretty decent job of emulating the Tolkeinian feel. And I like the base campaign idea, of running stuff in the period between the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I've been thinking about taking some of the adventure ideas in Tales from Wilderland and maybe Heart of Mirkwood (whenever that comes out) and running another campaign with a different system. Depending on how things turn out with DnDNext's modularity, maybe with that. Or I've actually been thinking about trying to hack the nWoD Storyteller system into a Middle Earth capable system. Soup up some racial templates and like that.

I've looked over the Decipher system, a while back. Seemed like there were some interesting ideas there, but never got the chance to run it. Ages ago, I ran a MERP game for a couple of sessions. Didn't work out, but that might have been personality rather than system.

 

[Votan]

There is an implicit idea in Middle Earth that magic has a price and should not be abused. But this sort of subtle magic system is hard to model. Ironically, Mage did a decent job, despite the magical effects being completely unsuited for the setting.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Surprise: I prefer HERO for something like this. You can model magic however you want, meaning you can be very precise about what magic can and cannot do...right down to side-effects and penalties.

As an aside, I'll echo others in admitting that JRRT's LotR is one of my major touchstones in my preferred fantasy style gaming, alongside the work of other luminaries like Lieber, Moorcock, REH & HPL. Its the rare homebrew of mine- or in any I can think of that i have played in- that didn't at least borrow some elements from Middle Earth.

 

[dm4hire]

I love ME and have tried the Decipher version and currently own The One Ring, but haven't played it yet. I model a lot of my perceptions of fantasy based off of ME and other classics as Danny just mentioned.

A system I think might work well would be to use a modified True20 along the lines of Blue Rose, but perhaps use True Sorcery as the system for magic. True Sorcery works similar to 3e True Name Magic in that every time you cast the spell the DC for casting it increases so eventually you can't cast it for the day and need to rest. I think I'd raise the initial DC and then stagger the increase so the DC goes up faster.

I definitely think that a rules light system is probably the best match up for ME.