As I understand it, Cubicle 7 has not the rights to do anything in the First Age, as their rights extend only to The Hobbit and LoTR. Still, I've been reading through the HoME, and I can't help but think how fun a campaign set in the First Age could be. Have other people over the years played games set in that era, perhaps with MERP or another system?

To paraphrase Professor Corey Olsen, the only way anyone is getting the rights to anything from that period, is over Christopher Tolkien's dead body, possibly literally.

However, I know for a fact people have attempted MERP games set during the First Age of Middle-Earth, though I can't attest to their success as a campaign. I'd like to be involved in such a game at some time, but all I've got to go on until then are stories shared with me.

C7 could release First and Second Age materials based solely on the hints given in the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. Such materials would quite necessarily differ considerably to Tolkein's vision as laid out in Silmarillion and HoME. How satisfying they would be as gaming worlds is anyone's guess.

I would love to see a well done game set in Gondolin but even if the full Tolkein writings were laid out there is little enough to go on.

Actually, C7 may be contractually limited by the scope of their license as to what time period they can set gaming materials.

Although I agree it might be very interesting to see these alternate time periods.

I ran a First Age campaign with MERP a long time ago. The "heroes" were Noldor. The campaign commenced in Tirion with the heroes as followers of Maedhros. It was fun to see how each character reacted to the Kinslaying and then later, in the first skirmishes and battles in Middle Earth. The company made a few bad choices, though, and most were butchered during a skirmish between the Dagor-nuin-Giliath and the Dagor Aglareb. It was a fun campaign, although it didn't seem worth the trouble to carry on after the bulk of the first batch of heroes were slain.

I think there's a lot of potential, but it is necessarily heavily scripted unless you want to forge an entirely new "history." It hinges on having players who either don't know the Silmarillion or are solid enough at role-playing that they can have fun despite knowing that almost everything they do is ultimately doomed.