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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 3231204" data-attributes="member: 42582">Running out of food is not a typical feature of D&D adventures - spells like Create Food and Water are designed expressly to exclude it as a typical consideration.I'm not sure what quest for gold you have in mind in LoTR. Of the magic weapons, Sting is mere flavour, and Aragorn gets his weapon near the beginning of the adventure, not as a reward for completing it. And before Narsil is reforged, he is armed only with a broken blade - not a standard choice for a D&D adventurer.Unlike D&D, LoTR has a party of vastly different character levels, with varying levels of equipment (Merry and Pippin start with nothing, Frodo with a mithril shirt and Sting). Most magic item gain results not from overcoming challenges, but from friendly NPCs: Elrond has Narsil reforged, Galadriel hands out gifts, etc. The challenges they face are not ones they can overcome by expending a quarter of their resources: 9 Nazgul vs 4 halflings and 1 ranger, 1 Balrog plus hundreds of orcs vs 9 PCs, 2 halflings vs dozens of orcs (the Uruk-hai), 2 halflings versus Shelob and a fortress of orcs (Cirith Ungol). The hobbits really have no D&D-type resources to expend at all (maybe the Phial of Galadriel is an exception, but it seems to be an unlimited-use item); the other NPCs are non-spell users with no one-use items (the least resource-management style characters) with the excpetion of Gandalf, whose main constraint on spell use is one which, in D&D, would be considered mere flavour. And the resolution to the whole thing is an obvious contrivance.I can imagine an RPG that could make this sort of play possible. One possibility might be to split characters into 3 categories: the Hobbits would have weak abilities but lots of Fate Points to spend on escapes or good fortune; the fighters (Boromir, Legolas, Gimili) would have strong abilities; and the destined (Aragorn, Gandalf) would have base abilities somewhere in between these two categories, but boosts analogous to TRoS spiritual attributes, that kick in only when they are pursuing their pre-destined fates. This might lead to a style of play in which the main plot direction is driven by the destinies of Aragorn and Gandalf (because their players naturally have an incentive to play to those strengths), with quirks introduced by the Hobbits' frequent use of Fate Points. The unfated fighters would simply be along for the ride (they would make good cohorts, or Ars Magica-style grogs, but would violate the D&D maxim that all characters should enjoy equal time in the spotlight).Whether or not this would be a viable game, it would not be a D&D game.</blockquote>

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