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I've been a great fan of LOTR for many years. I've always wanted to play in a campaign in that setting, but the rest of my regular gaming group shows no interest.
I'm curious if there are any forum members who've played in a LOTR campaign, particularly using the CODA rules from Decipher that came out after the movies were released. But I'm also interested in campaigns using the old MERPS rules, or homebrews, or mods of D&D/Pathfinder/any other system.
If you've had a go at Middle-Earth as a game setting, tell me about your experience.
Better be careful, there are playing a who are downright sarcastically hostile to Tolkien races and anything Tolkien related here, who view not using anything remotely Tolkien as a badge of honor.
As for me, I have used Merps before in a game run by my brother when I was younger. I can tell you that while role master is normally to intensive and has too many tables and the like for my taste ... When run by a future engineer with great organizational talents and a head for numbers it was great, and smooth running.
Yeah I played MERPS back in the day. Good fun, although the Crit tables are brutal.
One thing I found was that you can absolutely paralyse yourself creatively if you get too caught up in canon. But, there is a wealth of stuff to draw on, which is great.
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One thing I found was that you can absolutely paralyse yourself creatively if you get too caught up in canon. But, there is a wealth of stuff to draw on, which is great.
This is very true. Probably why my friends don't want to play Middle-Earth with me. I would always be trying to tell them a lot of canon stuff. There's a very good reason I don't DM.
I've been itching to try Cubicle7's The One Ring RPG, but my usual group doesn't seem interested.
Best system for LotR so far IMO, with mechanics fitting with themes dear to Tolkien like Hope, Fellowship, Fear and Despair.
It's a bit brutal, wounds are recovered slowly, but system runs smooth and combats are quick.
Setting is confined to Rhovanion between the events of The Hobbit and LotR, which is great on a gaming perspective becasue it allows you to play in grounds that are not covered in LotR but familiar from Bilbo, but can be frustrating because people want to play rangers of Eregion, soldiers of Gondor, riders of Rohan and knights of Dol Amroth...
Lots of love for this game, but new publications seem a bit on the slow side...
It was called MERP not merps... It was a stripped down version of RM and very easy to use. It was the preferred fantasy RPG of my group back in the 2E D&D days.
If you are a purist go with Cubicle 7 if you want epic fun with - this is where the cannon stops and you can change the world go with MERP.
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So if some of you have played in Middle Earth, whatever the rules system, what did you do? Did you play the characters from the books, or reenact LOTR with different characters? Were you trying to keep the forces of evil distracted while the Ringbearer made his way to Mount Doom? Were you Rangers defending against the encroaching darkness, or fighting alongside Gil-Galad and Isildur before Sauron lost the One Ring?
Tell me about your campaigns.
So if some of you have played in Middle Earth, whatever the rules system, what did you do? Did you play the characters from the books, or reenact LOTR with different characters? Were you trying to keep the forces of evil distracted while the Ringbearer made his way to Mount Doom? Were you Rangers defending against the encroaching darkness, or fighting alongside Gil-Galad and Isildur before Sauron lost the One Ring?
Tell me about your campaigns.
Never played, always DMed. Never played with characters with lead roles from the book and major events from LotR, but used many minor characters as NPCs and made good use of the appendixes.
First game about 12-15 years ago, using Rolemaster Standard Edition as engine but playing with MERP material. Nothing directly related to the War of the Rings other than visiting some places featured in the book (Hollin, Rivendale, Fangorn, Isenguard with the not-yet-revealed-as-villain Saruman. This game was predating the War of the Ring by a few years with the emergence of the Black Riders.
fast forward a good decade.
3-day "one shot" with Cubicle 7's system, set in Rhovanion 5 years after the death of Smaug, so 50 something years before the War of the Rings (default year for that setting). Party of Elves of Mirkwood, Bardings of Dale and Woodsmen of Mirkwood investigate a werewolf (in Tolkien's spirit, that's king of a smart and powerful Warg) on request of Radaghast. Foray into Mirkwood, battle with wargs and orcs, leading to the discovery that evil has not been completely routed out of Dol Guldur.
Then reboot of the game with different players, but this time detailed as a full-fledged campaign, started a few years after when the ring-wraiths are sent back to Dol Guldur, which would have led to the discovery that the Necromancer had been Sauron all along, and that he is quite alive (but the game got cancelled).
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It's awesome to hear about people playing outside the time period of the novels. I've always thought playing during the timeline of the books would be rather confining, like playing Star Wars during the movie timeline.
But, on that note, a friend of mine is running a Star Wars campaign set exactly during the events of 'A New Hope'. The PCs got to Mos Eisley cantina just before Han Solo arrived and managed to beat him to the job of transporting some old guy, a kid and two droids to Alderaan. :D
It would be interesting to see what would happen to the One Ring with a different group of people responsible for it. I've heard stories of such campaigns on other messageboards, usually ending in disaster.
My own desire would be to play something just after the fall of Numenor, when the very geography of the world had abruptly changed. Lots of monsters still roaming the world, new territories to explore and settle, and everything in a bit of turmoil.
It's awesome to hear about people playing outside the time period of the novels. I've always thought playing during the timeline of the books would be rather confining, like playing Star Wars during the movie timeline.
Iron Crown Enterprise's MERP default years was set in 1960 of the 3rd age, which is a nice change of pace from the comparatively unpopulated state of the free lands in LotR (War of the Ring is in 3019).
Some of the modules reflected that fact better than others IIRC.
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It's awesome to hear about people playing outside the time period of the novels. I've always thought playing during the timeline of the books would be rather confining, like playing Star Wars during the movie timeline.Iron Crown Enterprise's MERP default years was set in 1960 of the 3rd age, which is a nice change of pace from the comparatively unpopulated state of the free lands in LotR (War of the Ring is in 3019).
Some of the modules reflected that fact better than others IIRC.
The Thieves of Tharbad being one of my favourite modules.... Turned that one into a campaign.
hmmm this happened very long ago in a world powered by MERP. We played a campaign in the lands of old Arnor after the fall of the Witch-King and before the Hobbit. What I can recall is faint but maybe the writing will bring down the cobwebs?
We got to see and play in many of the locations of this area of Middle-Earth , with Weathertop, Bree, Rivendell and the Bridge therein all playing roles. The campaign resolved what happened to the tribes of men who disappeared from the areas of the Ettenmoors and trollshaws (this seemed right at the time but my lore is rusty at this time!)
A Chieftan had gone North and stole a ring from the barrow of a great Captain of Angmar and fell under sway of this evil artifact (the campaign was made to resonate with Tolkienesque tropes so there you go!)
He basically united the existing tribes (I remember Pachen and Morichan...) of men in the area and led them on a campaign to the west, as it was mid winter it was very much a suicidal operation and our group tried to prevent it to save Bree, the Shire and even perhaps the Havens?
We had all bases covered with a Noldo warrior, Dunedain Ranger, Dwarf, Sindaran mage (who attracted the attention of a vampire...merp had warnings about this!) and a Dunedain healer. Great battles and deeds ensued in an adventure informed by "Last of the Mohicans" , the "Duellists" and War and Peace (it was winter!)
The enemy force was stopped at Weather-top and the Cheiftan and his elite followers fell to our party.
However as these things went, at a great council in Rivendell it was decided by the "wise" Elrond Glorfindel(who had seen these rings before and who knew most had been destroyed), Gandalf and Saruman that we were to take the ring north to old Angamr to destroy the ring in the forge of its making (echoes not very subtle!) Saruman didn't think that was a great idea but was overruled! We got as far as Angmar and the party had just been ambushed by LARGE trap door spiders when it sputtered!
System worked well and was very deadly. Was a memorable trip there and I would still recommend the system to others. The time periodhas great opportunities to play in and away from canon