DnD® comes to Middle-earth®.

[Glorelendil]

See you are more-or-less talking about making the setting fit the rules which is a big mistake. It is what TSR did with Lankmar back in the day, and it is pretty much widely regarded as failing to meet the feel of that setting; the rules are going to have to be made to fit the setting. For this to work properly the base system will require some pretty heavy overhauling. If C7 is going to pander to the D&D table top computer game crowd then this project will more-then-likely fall flat like Lankmar did in the past.

This makes me think of the discussion on Slashdot when the very first iPod came out. All the alpha-techies said, "This will never succeed...it doesn't play Ogg Vorbis...it has less storage than XYZ brand...it's not open source..." etc. etc.

Fortunately for Apple's sake they didn't market to the kind of people who hangout on Slashdot. They designed it to appeal to the masses.

[aramis]

Then why wouldn't they just stay with vanilla D&D?

Because they all love Peter Jackson and want to play D&D in Middle Earth. The closer to vanilla that is, the more likely they are to play it.

Then they're playing D&D, and D&D isn't ME. So, why are they part of the equation?

Because D&D outsells the next 3 competitors combined... And C7 as a whole probably doesn't rise to match any one of those 3 on a regular basis. (Those three being, most likely, at this moment 3 of the following: FFG's Star Wars, FFG's 40K RPG, Paizo's Pathfinder, Green Ronin's AGE, and Evil Hat's Fate Core.) There are better games than those 6 (counting 5e), but not better selling games at present. Getting even a few percent of D&D players is a rather noticeable bump. If done right. it will be a lasting one. If not...

Well, fortunately, the big flops in the industry tend to get forgotten pretty quickly. The successes are all that people tend to remember.

[Southron]

Would posting some of the rules of a fan made D&D game called "Balrogs and Bagginseses" be against forum etiquette?
IMO it has done a good job of giving D&D a Tolkien feel and may give us an idea of what C7 can probably even do a better job of.

[zedturtle]

Would posting some of the rules of a fan made D&D game called "Balrogs and Bagginseses" be against forum etiquette?
IMO it has done a good job of giving D&D a Tolkien feel and may give us an idea of what C7 can probably even do a better job of.

Not a mod at all, but I imagine posting "here's one rule from B&B, showing how they tweaked a D&Dism into fitting Middle-earth better" wouldn't be frowned too much on. But you're right, I doubt C7 wants whole chunks of somebody else's game on their site, for a variety of reasons.

[fjw70]

What TOR products would you recommend for someone playing D&D in ME? Obviously not the C7 ME D&D but just regular old D&D.

Of alternately, what are the best TOR supplements?

[Glorelendil]

What TOR products would you recommend for someone playing D&D in ME? Obviously not the C7 ME D&D but just regular old D&D.

Of alternately, what are the best TOR supplements?

Heart of the Wild, Rivendell, Erebor, and Horse-lords of Rohan

[Southron]

From Balrogs and Baggines:

B&B differs in several important respects from published editions of D&D: most noticeably, it lacks rigidly defined character classes, replacing them instead with the more flexible and setting-appropriate notions of ‘roles’, which are more flexible concepts that combine character race, homeland and occupation.

There are rules for corruption and how magic might work. For example, if one had the magical ability Light of Valinor they could cast the bless and light spells.

[zedturtle]

What TOR products would you recommend for someone playing D&D in ME? Obviously not the C7 ME D&D but just regular old D&D.

Of alternately, what are the best TOR supplements?

Heart of the Wild, Rivendell, Erebor, and Horse-lords of Rohan

I might flip-flop the last two, but that's only because of the large rules component to Dragons and Dwarves. But they are all really good.

[Cawdorthane]

Would posting some of the rules of a fan made D&D game called "Balrogs and Bagginseses" be against forum etiquette?

I would respectfully suggest not doing this. Leaving aside major intellectual property issues, this forum is to promote an interest and discussion in C7 products. Moreover there would be no point - C7 is no doubt well advanced with its own work on ME 5e and is unlikely to be assisted by such material. We will hopefully all soon see what C7 has done, and I can only again suggest patience and calm .

cheers
Mark

[Finrod Felagund]

What TOR products would you recommend for someone playing D&D in ME? Obviously not the C7 ME D&D but just regular old D&D.

Of alternately, what are the best TOR supplements?

Heart of the Wild, Rivendell, Erebor, and Horse-lords of Rohan

Definitely the first two. I'd also add the Journeys and Maps supplement.