Morrus said:
There was a Middle Earth d20 fan site, but it pretty much died a death due to lack of interest.
I didn't realize that ENWorld had stopped hosting the site.
Anyway, years ago, when the first movie of the trilogy was about to come out, I reread the books and noted how poorly D&D fit the feel of Tolkien's work (at least the Third Age). Here's a scattershot list of suggestions for getting that Middle Earth feel in your campaign (even if you don't want to literally play in Tolkien's Middle Earth, with all the research that might entail):
Call halflings "hobbits", of course. Call goblins "orcs", and give them light sensitivity. Call hobgoblins "Uruk-hai". Call ogres "trolls", and have them turn to stone in sunlight. Stick to red dragons, and just call them "dragons". Treants are obviously "ents".
Eliminate heavy armor (splint, banded, plate, etc.). A warrior wears a hauberk of mail. You may also want to eliminate magical armor. A great warrior should wear mithril mail. Or you can just call magical armor "dwarf-forged", describe it as mithril, and keep the same +n bonus as always.
Eliminate inappropriate weapons. Obviously the wacky weapons should go, but even bastard swords and most pole-arms are probably inappropriate. It's not the Renaissance. Composite bows probably don't fit either. (By the way, I feel that all bows should be "mighty" or "wimpy" to fit their user's strength, not just special "mighty" composite bows.) Masterwork weapons should always be dwarven or elven. Magical swords should have cool elven names and a history. Oh, and they glow when orcs draw near, of course.
Eliminate the arbitrary distinction between divine and arcane magic. Allow wizards to choose spells from any list, but make sure they fit a character conception. For instance, Saruman stuck to enchantments (charm person, etc.); Radagast stuck to nature spells (the Druid list); Gandalf cast all the cool evocations (Sunbeam, Wall of Fire, etc.). I suppose any skills fitting that character conception should be considered class skills (e.g. Diplomacy and Bluff for an enchanter like Saruman, Animal Handling and Riding for Radagast).
Toss out clerics and paladins. Also lose most of the magical healing -- OK, just the "cure" spells really. Most of the healing in the book is performed by trained healers using herbs and still requires plenty of bed rest. The more "magical" healing seems to be restoration of drained levels/abilities from Nazgul attacks.
I'd recommend an alternative magic system where magic fatigues a caster, but you can just use Sorcerer-style spell slots. Casting spells, particularly powerful evocations, should definitely reveal the caster to any other scrying magic-users. This can turn into magical "submarine warfare", with wizards trying not to appear on magical "sonar". In fact, this is a big part of the feel of magic in the Lord of the Rings. Also, I'm not sure if scrolls and most potions fit into Middle Earth.
Come up with a new Ranger class for Aragorn (and his men), Faramir (and his men), Legolas, and the elven sentries of Lothlorien. I suggest a variant Rogue with the Ranger's skill list and bonus feats every other level (a la the Fighter) from a reasonable list (Alertness, the archery feats, the Druid virtual feats, Tracking, etc.).
Give the characters plenty of opportunities to make Knowledge (arcana) or Knowledge (history) rolls to find and open secret doors, to activate magic items, to know whom to seek out for help, etc. Any magic item should have a famous history revealing clues about how to use it.
I think that's a good start.
