Hello all, I just thought I'd introduce myself before jumping straight into the conversation. I go on a bit, so feel free to skim. Just setting up my background and where I come from as a gamer and LoTR fan.

I've been playing RPGs off and on for the last...oh, 15 years or so, give or take on or two, starting with HeroQuest! (loved that game, if only I had the cash to grab a box online! ) and then on to DnD with 2e, and then skipped 3.0, then grabbed 3.5, mostly played in spite of things that bugged me about the system in both cases. Same thing with Star Wars RCR, although Saga is a pretty good system.

DnD 4e came out, and I finally didn't feel like I was having fun with roleplaying in spite of the game itself, and I've gone from fairly casual gamer to RPG addict since then. DnD, GURPS, Saga, Hero System, one or two sessions of WoD, Old School Hack (a hack of the old DnD Red Box. It's amazing, and makes me feel like I'm playing HeroQuest again, but without the board, and some really cool additions.)

The only thing I've played as much as 4e, though, was freeform forum RP.

So, that's the background. Having established that, TOR is fantastic. Wildly different in some ways from what I'm used to, which is good as it provides a different type of play experience, rather than just being dnd in Middle Earth.

And I'm thrilled that there's a good LoTR RPG, because I've been a LoTR nerd for even longer than I've been an PRG nerd. (Read the Hobbit in 4th grade, Fellowship in 5th or 6th, finished the trilogy and started on the Reader and Sim by the end of JHS)


There are things that I'd like the game to have as optional rules, so I'll probably be working on a hack for combat complexity. Nothing too crazy, just a way to port combat to a hex grid with tokens and movement strategy of some kind. Or maybe the arena system of Old School Hack. http://www.oldschoolhack.net/

One of the things I'm really impressed by in TOR is the balance. You can run a party featuring each culture and calling, and no one is going to feel overshadowed or useless. That's awesome. That, to me, is one of the greatest possible facilitators of roleplaying. No one taken out of their character by frustration at being overshadowed by one hero.

So, hello again!