A Complex Problem / Solution

[jamesrbrown]

The way I see things is that The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are about particular heroes who played a role in destroying the One Ring. Those were their stories and I wouldn't want to change them. What I'm interested in is telling the other stories of Middle-earth, which are exciting and powerful in their own right.

The trouble is, players know the story of The One Ring from beginning to end because they have read the books or seen the movies. Their very desire to alter the story by interjecting their hero is only possible because of their foreknowledge. If they didn't know what was really happening (and the Loremaster didn't clue them in either), they could never discover or achieve enough to change canon.

I suppose if someone simply wanted to use only choice pieces of Tolkien's story, characters, and geography, etc., then the group could do that. For example, a game where Hobbits didn't exist in Middle-earth. But, that's not really what The One Ring game is about.

[Corvo]

Just something minor that bother me... Narsil?
I have no books with me, yet I believed the sword wasn't fit for battle at that time.
Nitpicking, yet the passing of the sword from a character to the other looks pretty important in your schemes.

[Aiwendil]

The way I see things is that The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are about particular heroes who played a role in destroying the One Ring. Those were their stories and I wouldn't want to change them. What I'm interested in is telling the other stories of Middle-earth, which are exciting and powerful in their own right.

I absolutely agree with this statement.

There is a ton of material available to craft interesting, potentially high-impact, adventures pre, post, or around the 'main' quest-line of the One Ring.

There are three Ages to play in with a well fleshed-out chronology for each, MERP modules, large availability of online resources (to include the encyclopedia of Arda for all things Middle Earth), the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, Histories of Middle Earth, etc...

I am currently running the TOR adventures with my group (to get a better 'feel' for the mechanics) but I am actually looking forward to crafting my own Adventures, using the absolutely massive material available out there.

I would rather not have my PCs play an arguably 'small' part in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Tales. I would rather have them play 'principal' parts in other ones, crafted by me (or C7) but informed by canon. I suspect PCs would rather have it that way as well; much more engaging/rewarding for them...

[Otaku-sempai]

One of MERP's greatest strengths, I thought, was its general focus on Middle-earth made it easy to set a campaign in the early Third Age or even the First, Second or Fourth Age. It made it much easier to "go big" with more experienced characters and have epic-scale adventures that had an impact on the world. Of course, it was still hard to do that and still maintain Tolkien's canon. More likely, a gamemaster would end up with his own alternative Middle-earth unless he was very careful. Naturally, in a Fourth Age campaign that would be less of an issue.

[Rocmistro]

I appreciate all your comments, criticisms and posts.

I myself, and on behalf of my players, want to feel more entrenched in Tolkien's greater grand unified theory, if you will. I think there is a certain level of respect (too much) where you disconnect from the legendarium so completely out of fear of altering it, that you don't feel like you're playing in Middle-earth anymore. That has always been my experience with LotR RPGing. Or conversely, in MERP, where the system was so poorly designed that you just end up stomping all over the legendarium. (Dunedain mages throwing fireballs...anyone???)

Particularly, I am interested in what Aragorn did before we first see him as "Strider" in the Fellowship of the Ring. I want to know what he did in those early years; when he took over as Chieftain of the Dunedain, the battles with Thengel and Echtelion when he walked as Thorongil, and where he went where "the stars are strange". Those are 60 great years to work with.

I love the origins of hero part of any mythology. I think it is most interesting. This is/was my clever way to allow my player to take over that roll, and let him feel like he was interconnected to the story. If he wishes to deviate from it, he can, and we get a whole new story. If not, then we end up with a conclusion called "The Lord of the Rings".

For me, i can roll either way. If I was playing in a campaign, I would be happy to keep it small and local and intimate. Unfortunately, I am Loremastering and my players need a little less constraint. One of my players expressed an interest in being fey, having magical qualities and/or power. If you are going to grant that wish and respect canon, you don't have much wiggle room to justify those kinds of powers. Would you have just shut such a player down? "No, you cannot do that...this is Middle-earth" I don't feel that such a puritanical response is a requirement for RPGs in Middle-earth, nor is it being a particularly good evangelist for Tolkien's work.

[William]

Hi, new to the forum. (Mentioned this in another post so forgive me if you're reading this and thinking, "what a redundant chap...!") Following my first post on another thread, this kind of stuff really grabs my attention. So I will jump right in...

They could not, for example, kill Bilbo and take the Ring and do something else with it (at least, not without majorly screwing up the events of Lord of the Rings, which they are respectful enough not to do).

Why not let them kill Bilbo, huge misdeed, and grace them with a hefty helping of Shadow points? This sounds a lot like Gollum's story. The ring betrays them in a sad fashion much like Isildur. Why not soon after have a good portion of the company slaughtered by Orcs?

A quirk of fate or someone else's will, the ring finds its way into the hands of the Little People, etc. For what was meant was that Bilbo should be the ring-finder and Frodo the ring-bearer. Had either gotten the whammy would that have frustrated the plan of whoever Gandalf refers to in these cryptic passages?

Someone would find the ring as it was intended all along, no...?

How are people handling "misdeeds" when senseless aggression or nefarious behavior has such a mechanical response from the rules? I find this a far richer and more realistic approach than an alignment-based system. My pennies worth.

Hope this makes sense, and hopefully I didn't derail your thread. :}

PS Please boot me to another thread if I showed poor form or took this off topic. Still trying to get the hang of the proper forum etiquette and all. Very frustrating when tea and digestives aren't involved, slows my catch a drift groove!