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DavetheLost wrote:Having not really liked most of MERP, I tried but it just didn't feel like Tolkien to me, I don't have any problem sorting out Tolkien vs MERP.

I think a lot of the 'fluff' was perfectly on the mark; it's the majority of the adventures and game mechanics that I had an issue with (including many stat-blocks and magic items).

DavetheLost wrote:I expect Tolkien vs Jackson will be an even bigger problem as the years go forward.

Personally, I reckon I'll be fine, on account that I don't own any of his films!

Boneguard wrote:MERP did a lot to "flesh out" the ME universe -like naming the 2 Blue Wizards

I'm pretty sure that Alatar and Pallando are named in at least one of Tolkien's letters. Technically they were their names in the West (like Olorin or Curunir). Did ICE give them new names for Middle Earth?

The MERP Moria supplement was excellent and I wish I still had a copy. I have no quarrel with those who like MERP, it just wasn't for me. Sort of like how some people enjoy the PJ films and others don't.

Iirc Gandalf says of the Blue Wizards that their names are now forgotten, similarly the names of those who bear the Nine and who bore the Seven (and which of the Seven were recovered and which consumed by dragons). I am not sure if Gandalf, Sauruman and Radaghast remember or even ever knew the names of the Blue Wizards. The Wise seem awfully forgetful of important stuff, like the fate and description of the One Ring or the resemblance that the Necromancer bears to Sauron and the Nazgul.

If we start with the premise that swimming around Smaug's bones looking for gems would result in some nasty corruption tests, the plot idea that comes to me is that an LM Character has done exactly this, and the Adventure calls for tracking down the now-mad LMC, dealing with him, recovering the tainted treasure, and disposing of it.

You can find more details about Alatar & Pallando in UT.

BTW, the text alludes to more than just five wizards (an often misunderstood passage), so you can possibly have a lesser wizard of your own creation in your game. Here's the sentence:

Of this Order the number is unknown; but of those that came to the North of Middle-earth, where there was most hope (because of the remnant of the Dúnedain and of the Eldar that abode there), the chiefs were five.

Yes, MERP never worked for me either - too crunchy (flipping back & forth to those endless charts drove me nuts ).

GB: Decipher's LOTR has an adventure about a sorcerer hiring thugs to dive on the bones of Smaug. I won't spoil it here with additional details, but if you look it up, it may answer your question

Mim wrote:GB: Decipher's LOTR has an adventure about a sorcerer hiring thugs to dive on the bones of Smaug. I won't spoil it here with additional details, but if you look it up, it may answer your question

oh thanks for the heads up... what was the adventure called, which book was it in?

"Do not mistake me for some cheap conjuror of tricks" and the simple fact that the Necromancer was not instantly recognized, along with "the Dwarves of yore made mighty spells", Elvish magic and such definitely suggest that the Five are not the only ones able to work magic.

I don't think it is either common or flashy, but it is out there. Even Old Man Willow seemed to use a bit to put the Hobbits to sleep before he did his mischief to them.

I don't remember the Decipher adventure with Smaug's bones, but I think I have most of the books. I was always sorry they didn't get to finish the run.

Smaug's skull would certainly make an impressive trophy.

Dredging the skull up and presenting it to Bard as a "kingly gift" when in fact it it radiates corruption is a nifty plot idea for the forces of darkness.

Mim wrote: GB: Decipher's LOTR has an adventure about a sorcerer hiring thugs to dive on the bones of Smaug. I won't spoil it here with additional details, but if you look it up, it may answer your question

I would also be curious to know the Title of that adventure (and in which book it is).

For my group, I have proclaimed the area a blighted area. My version is not Canon, does not necessarily follow the limited TOR source material, and it doesn't matter to us. It does seem logical from a gaming standpoint. This is my version and I'm sticking to it!

Even in death the Rot of Smaug has become a great calamity for the ecosystem. The carcass is colossal, and even after five years is not wholly consumed. Loathsome things are the only things that can dwell in the vicinity.

The water is befouled, disease ridden, black and oily with flotsam and jetsam of hideous unknown black slimy floating colonies of stuff that's anyone's guess as to what they are.

Black maggot like things the size of big cigars wiggle in the blackened oily mud of the shoreline.
There has recently bee heard a rumor of a large tentacled thing having been spotted near the carcass so the boats give the place a wide berth.

The shoreline itself has died and supports no life but for unwholesome vegetation, biting flies and wicked nasty black mosquitoes. Vegetation has wilted and most but the hardiest of trees have died and those that survive are sick.

Loathsome things lurk in the shadows near the shore waiting for an easy meal.

I haven't had any problems with the fellowship having a burning desire to loot the corpse of Smaug.