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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8882315" data-attributes="member: 42582">Here's a belated response to your question:I agree that some stories are more closely linked to particular stories than others. And in the past, perhaps influenced by Gygax's well-known editorial explaining why there was no good RPGing to be had in Middle Earth, I would have thought they weren't good settings for RPGing.But I think I've changed my mind, based on the fact that over the past few years I've had an enjoyable time GMing Marvel Heroic RP and a LotR/MERP game using a Fantasy-flavoured version of the MHRP system (Cortex+ Heroic Fantasy).In the MHRP games, players have played iconic PCs - Wolverine, Nightcrawler, War Machine, Ice Man, etc. In the Middle Earth game I wrote up pre-gens - Gandalf, an Elf, a Dunedan, a Dwarf, a Hobbit. The tropes and themes were what one would expect for the settings and characters, but the events and the character development were dictated by the players - so eg in our Middle Earth game (set between The Hobbit and LotR) the PCs ended up entering Moria well before Balin and his fellows, and Gandalf ended up being much closer to Saruman in his behaviour!I don't think it's a coincidence that this particular system produced these happy experiences. Upthread Umbran posted this:But my experience is quite different - I think the system provides excellent support (through the Milestone system in particular, but also with effective use of Scene Distinctions and Complications) for taking iconic characters (in the supers case, and Gandalf) or iconic character types (in the Middle Earth case) but putting them into new situations where new possibilities and unexpected character developments take place.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8882315, member: 42582"] Here's a belated response to your question: I agree that some stories are more closely linked to particular stories than others. And in the past, perhaps influenced by Gygax's well-known editorial explaining why there was no good RPGing to be had in Middle Earth, I would have thought they weren't good settings for RPGing. But I think I've changed my mind, based on the fact that over the past few years I've had an enjoyable time GMing Marvel Heroic RP and a LotR/MERP game using a Fantasy-flavoured version of the MHRP system (Cortex+ Heroic Fantasy). In the MHRP games, players have played iconic PCs - Wolverine, Nightcrawler, War Machine, Ice Man, etc. In the Middle Earth game I wrote up pre-gens - Gandalf, an Elf, a Dunedan, a Dwarf, a Hobbit. The tropes and themes were what one would expect for the settings and characters, but the events and the character development were dictated by the players - so eg in our Middle Earth game (set between The Hobbit and LotR) the PCs ended up entering Moria well before Balin and his fellows, and Gandalf ended up being much closer to Saruman in his behaviour! I don't think it's a coincidence that this particular system produced these happy experiences. Upthread Umbran posted this: But my experience is quite different - I think the system provides excellent support (through the Milestone system in particular, but also with effective use of Scene Distinctions and Complications) for taking iconic characters (in the supers case, and Gandalf) or iconic character types (in the Middle Earth case) but putting them into new situations where new possibilities and unexpected character developments take place. [/QUOTE]

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