Lord of the Rings Role Playing (Free League 5e)

[Weiley31]

Dragon's Dogma 2 it.

The carriage your riding on from point a to point b gets destroyed in an orc attack

Well dang, guess we got to go the rest of the way on foot.

Begin Journey mechanic tutorial

It's dangerous to go alone, here take this!

Hands the party The On-REDACTED

 

[Wolfpack48]

Here is another thought, friends: evil. In LotR, evil is almost always Sauronic, i.e. it is related, somehow, to Sauron. There is Ungoliant (big ass spider) and Morgoth (ultimate BBEG). There are nameless things that gnaw the bones of the world (in Moria). Any other types of evil that might be a good antagonist for our heroes?

Are you thinking major villains?

 

[GothmogIV]

Does anyone have experience with MERP or Against the Darkmaster? Be curious to know how those feel compared to The One Ring or 5e AIME.

I played MERP back in high school (cough-cough, in the mid-80s) but I can't remember much about the system.

 

[GothmogIV]

Are you thinking major villains?

Yeah, like an overarching issue. Or is it better to think smaller? Like, bad guys are bad guys: cults, goblins, trolls, evil men, whatever.

 

[Wolfpack48]

Yeah, like an overarching issue. Or is it better to think smaller? Like, bad guys are bad guys: cults, goblins, trolls, evil men, whatever.

Well dragons of course. . There’s the witch king of Angmar. lower level but powerful troll, orc and human lords. You could do a warg themed bit. Giants are interesting in ME. There’s the barrows which could be controlled by an evil necromancer. Origins of the balrog and the watcher?

You can also use various races that have turned to evil as well. Plenty of elves, dwarves and humans gone wrong.

 

[Dire Bare]

Here is another thought, friends: evil. In LotR, evil is almost always Sauronic, i.e. it is related, somehow, to Sauron. There is Ungoliant (big ass spider) and Morgoth (ultimate BBEG). There are nameless things that gnaw the bones of the world (in Moria). Any other types of evil that might be a good antagonist for our heroes?

Sauron and Morgoth are technically two different beings, but in practicality they represent the same force of shadow or corruption. And that is the real enemy, not just the orcs and trolls your heroes fight, but their own slide into shadow. Or the corruption of the various folks they meet.

The rules have mechanics for PCs struggling with shadow/corruption, and they seem interesting so far. I haven't lost any players to shadow yet! But they get uncomfortable when I hand out shadow points as the rules direct . . . for basically playing like murder-hobo D&D characters!!!

One of the major antagonists that developed in my game is the petty thug tyrant of the city of Tharbad. My PCs passed through on their way to Moria, and really were tempted to change their goals to formenting revolution in the streets of Tharbad!

 

[Piperken]

But damn, how do I start this thing? "You are in a tavern" always works but it feels...not Tolkienish.

Any ideas or experiences you could share?

If this fits with the other thematic concepts you may be considering:

A local lord/thane etc. has sent the majority of their armed warriors to aid X in Y (perhaps a well-known Middle Earth battle). While exposed, a village near the border of their land was attacked. Refugees are in the process of fleeing. The lord has put out a call for assistance for able-bodied people to protect the displaced migrants from this village as they wend towards location Z, where the lord can sufficiently keep them safe.

(Echoes of the evacuation of Edoras to Helm's Deep, but on a smaller scale)

 

[Bill Zebub]

Here is another thought, friends: evil. In LotR, evil is almost always Sauronic, i.e. it is related, somehow, to Sauron. There is Ungoliant (big ass spider) and Morgoth (ultimate BBEG). There are nameless things that gnaw the bones of the world (in Moria). Any other types of evil that might be a good antagonist for our heroes?

Along with that is the corrupting influence of evil: formerly 'good' people/creatures who have been seduced by the Shadow.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I played MERP back in high school (cough-cough, in the mid-80s) but I can't remember much about the system.

Fantastic source material. Unwieldy, non-Tolkienesque rules. (IMO)

 

[Micah Sweet]

To me the best Tolkien-based RPG remains TOR 1e, with TOR 2e coming in second. 5e-based rules just feel like a square peg in a round hole, though the recent games to that effect have certainly put in real effort to get around that.