D&D 5E LOTRO + D&D5e + PnP = A dang fun Middle-earth RPG

[Dungeonosophy]

I haven't played Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online MMORPG, but I am impressed with the idea that if all this digital game material were converted into pen & paper, and married to the D&D5e rules, this would be fun.

I look at all the Quests that are available, and think how fun it would be to run those for a table-top gaming group.

I made a few notes about a Hobbit D&D5e RPG here. Instead of six Ability Scores, there'd be six Qualities:

• Strength
• Nimbleness
• Hardihood
• Wits
• Perception
• Bearing

 

[TarionzCousin]

Obligatory Tom Bombadil joke goes here.

 

[trancejeremy]

I have played Lotro (I have a lifetime sub). Most of the quests are like:

Go kill 10 bears
Go kill 10 boars
Go kill 10 wolves
Go kill 10 goblins
Go kill 10 bandits
Go kill 10 orcs

Over and over and over for 65 levels (that's where I stopped).

Granted, that's a plague of most MMORPGs (and there are a handful of cool quests, like the one with Gollum). But what really hurts LOTRO is that your opponents are very limited - a handful of animals and a handful of enemy humanoids and evil humans/dwarves.

I do not want to play a 10th level character in D&D and be fighting 10th level orcs or goblins (unless it's a very rare and special occasion, like a goblin chief)

Also, to properly convert Lotro a PNP game, you'd gain a special magic sword at level 9 (I figure to convert from Lotro, divide by 10 then multiply by two, so 50th would be 10th level, 45th is 9th) , one that would be treated like its own character with powers and experience, and would level up.

But, you'd have to throw it away and get a new one every level, starting up the process all over again. That is what drove me to quit playing...I could take the repetitive quests. But not the grinding up items.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Thanks trancejeremy for the insiders view.

Well, the quests sound like a grind, but what about the actual mapped areas, villages, dungeons/caverns, NPCs, and placed magic items and treasure? Couldn't they make for a D&D5e adventure, or are is it all story-less?

 

[thatdarncat]

While there are quite a few "Kill X" quests, each region has a number of quests that form a story line. A good resource for information is the LOTRO Wiki: Lotro-Wiki.com

 

[Dungeonosophy]

While there are quite a few "Kill X" quests, each region has a number of quests that form a story line. A good resource for information is the LOTRO Wiki: Lotro-Wiki.com

Thanks thatdarncat

 

[Gryph]

The wife and I have lifetime subs too. While I don't disagree with trancejeremy about the nature of most of the thousands of LOTRO quests (I play pretty infrequently anymore, myself), that darncat is absolutely right. There are some very cool storyline quests woven through the various zones and dungeons.

If you just used the epic "Book" quests you could run a pretty good campaign in Middle-Earth with a minimum of additional effort.

 

[BobTheNob]

No doubt about it, Lotro was a grindy game. The thing that really got me off it (liek most MMO's, which I have all but given up on till GW2) is "This is a game about groups, so theres lots of things you can only do in a group"

Great!
LFG
LFG
LFG
LFG
(three hours later)
LFG
LFG
(Screw this)

LOTRO had alot of points like that(Prob more that Wow) and worst of all was it wasnt a very densly populated game, so finding people was a nightmare, (Especially for me. I live in Aus meaning we didnt play in those more densly populated American play time), which made so many of the potentially interesting parts of the game inaccessible.

LOTRO was great for polish, but the dependence on grouping as a problem was probably the worst of all the MMO's I have played.

That said...ME as a setting? Would be plagued a little by a thin line up of baddies, though that might not be such an issue as long as they stay true to their word and flatten the number growth.