New Lord of the Rings RPG!

[Turtlejay]

Oh, I'd agree. My personal preference may be to err on the side of being a second bananna. I fully understand that not everyone, and not even half of everyone would agree with me. Riding that line between 'special' and lore breaking is a tall order. I suppose that is why I have not done more than browse through settings with strong main characters (Serenity!), but it can be done (Star Wars!)

My issue with using d20 is magic. Even cantrips are more magical than we see in the book. Gandalf does not continually cast flashy spells. Nobody approaches his power with magic.

It is a shame the licence will be restricted so. Setting books relating to the Ages of Middle Earth could rock very hard indeed. It would be a way to introduce more. . .wonder. This has to do intensely with my personal opinion that the Third age is post apocalyptical. Things are old and falling down in the Third age. It might be much more *magical* to adventure in the First age!

Jay

 

[Afrodyte]

Damnit! Right when I get somewhat close to finished with my unofficial First Age Sourcebook for Decipher Games, this comes out!

Although I do have a Cinematic Unisystem version I did kicking around somewhere.

And Dramatikos - that would work well too.

Crap.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Creating a system that could accommodate Frodo, Aragorn, and Gandalf all in the same party, without the Frodo player spending 90% of the time twiddling his or her thumbs, would be quite a trick.

They did a good job with Doctor Who......Heck, they did a great job. Far better than my own attempt. I have some faith as a result.

 

[Ourph]

Did you read the same books I did? Sam took on an entire tower of orcs.

Apparently not. In the LotR I read, Sam hid while the orcs in the tower killed each other and then stepped out of the way while the last one fell through a hole and broke his neck.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Apparently not. In the LotR I read, Sam hid while the orcs in the tower killed each other and then stepped out of the way while the last one fell through a hole and broke his neck.

Just goes to show how two different people can come away with two different inferences from the same material. In the book I read, Sam charged bravely into the tower, chased one orc until it outdistanced him, jumped Shagrat and forced him to flee, then attacked Snaga and threw him into the hole. Yeah, the orc tripped, but unforerseen things happen in combat. As for Merry, he slew the leader of the bandits, a huge orc, if I remember correctly, in single combat. In fact, all of the shire handled itself quite well in the scouring. Hobbits may be small and they do not posess the physical strength of men, but they are just as capable as adventurers.

 

[pawsplay]

Somebody somewhere said it's the book license they are playing with.

I'll try and find a link.

I'm actually excited about this. I hope they manage to make a rules set that is evocative of the setting.

For the Decipher game, they ran up against problems like: there is only one Valar named in LOTR, they could not use the Silmarillion, and they were not allowed to make up new Valar.

 

[Zaruthustran]

I think the system developed for Lord of the Rings Online is pretty great. They use Morale instead of Hit Points, which is much more in keeping with Tolkien. As I recall, his battles tended to include phrases such as "giving in to despair" and "losing heart".

And the classes and races make sense within the confines and requirements of an RPG set in Middle Earth. It really is a good game, if you're into the setting, and don't feel the need to play the main protagonists.

 

[Turtlejay]

I think the system developed for Lord of the Rings Online is pretty great. They use Morale instead of Hit Points, which is much more in keeping with Tolkien. As I recall, his battles tended to include phrases such as "giving in to despair" and "losing heart".

And the classes and races make sense within the confines and requirements of an RPG set in Middle Earth. It really is a good game, if you're into the setting, and don't feel the need to play the main protagonists.

Well, kinda. I'm not sure on how lorebreaking the Loremaster is, since his effects seem more tied to nature and natural things (feels like a druid to me).

But the Runekeeper throws fire and lightning around like a d&d wizard. They couch it in lore explanations, but it is a little over the top. Toe me at least.

I'm with you 100% on the morale though, and in the approach taken with relation to the main characters. I never felt like I wasn't heroic. And healing through the restoration of morale, as the Minstrel and Captain do, feels pretty spot on to me.

Jay

 

[TarionzCousin]

Tolkien's world isn't really built for gaming, IMO. I guess I'll pass...

Whoa! Okay, okay: I'll buy it.