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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Deleted member 7015506" data-source="post: 7808600">So some of my personal thoughts here:I don´t know too much about what Mrs. Williams did or didn´t do. I have no idea how well known the financial problems of TSR were back in those days or anything about mismanagement pertaining to that era. But for me the following can be said:1) MERS was translated into german and it sold well and was played pretty widely here in Krautland. the system was known and had a solid fan base (contrary to Rolemaster which was considered a no-go for too much complexity by most gamers I knew (excuse me here). So a market for a Middle Earth RPG was there.2) LotR was a book many knew by name, but haven´t read it. "The Hobbit" (renamed "The little Hobbit" here in Germany) was even read in schools as official literature in classes, but after the "true" nature became known, it felt out of grace somehow (too much violence/spooky/whatever?, No idea). Again an indictor for a possible market.3) The movie by Ralph Bakshi was no success at the screen due to its unusual technique and leaving out of great parts of the book.  We never ever heard of the other hobbit movies (the animated ones) until many decades later (at least the circles I usually confer with). 4) D&D/AD&D 1e/AD&D 2e was translated into german but tremendously lost ground to our home based systems "The Dark Eye" and "Midgard". Nowadays you can buy 2e german stuff for pennies over here. And 2e was at least what I experienced over here, not an engine to fuel a LotR RPG (subjective view here).5) What was included in the licensing between TSR and the Tolkiens? AFAIR from posts here, "games and some mercs". So can we conclude, that the license was solely on publishing print RPGs and some obscure merchandising? Where computer games included? (remember TSR did pretty well on the SSI deal). 6) IIRC Gygax denied more than once, that LotR had a great impact on D&D. So I can imagine, that aquiring the license during his primes would have "destroyed" his reputation as a kind of "godfather" to RPGs. So not a bad move IMHO from him. And was there really a market for another setting back in those days? More to that later.7) IIRC Rian Demsey (hopefully written correctly) stated, that TSR killed itself partially by publishing too much material/settings and therefore competing with itself? So would have the publication of a ME setting have raised the sales to save the financially struggling TSR at this time in a time, when the RPG market was battled more than it is nowadays? I leave that to others to evaluate and decide. Finally let me say this with so few information it´s hard to make any definite conclusions about that decision either by Gygax or Mrs. Williams. Hindsight is not the solution IMHO.</blockquote>

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