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Of course, had I remembered it, the answer's actually in The Hobbit at the end of Fire and Water:

"They removed northward higher up the shore; for ever after they had a dread of the water where the dragon lay. He would never again return to his golden bed, but was stretched cold as stone, twisted upon the floor of the shallows. There for ages his huge bones could be seen in calm weather amid the ruined piles of the old town. But few dared to dive into the shivering water or recover the precious stones that fell from his rotting carcass."

I actually created a custom Character Background related to this, appropriately called "The Curse of Smaug". Here's what I've got so far:

Soon after your fourteenth birthday, you started fraternizing with a group of local daredevils and rabble-rousers, and you went on many strange adventures with your newfound friends. On one occasion, you decided to pick some treasure off of old Smaug’s bones with them; however, you did not realize at the time that there was a good reason that people avoid that place - for the Dragon’s personal hoard is under a terrible curse... a curse that has still failed to dampen your indomitable spirit.

Basic Attributes:
Body 6, Heart 5, Wits 3

Favoured Skill:
Explore

Distinctive Features:
Adventurous, Clever, Elusive, Energetic, Merciful, Nimble, Secretive, Steadfast

In my next post, if you're interested, I could provide you with the Special "Virtue" that goes with this character choice, also called "The Curse of Smaug," which is currently incomplete. Please tell me what you think!

MReader wrote:In my next post, if you're interested, I could provide you with the Special "Virtue" that goes with this character choice, also called "The Curse of Smaug," which is currently incomplete. Please tell me what you think!

Absolutely, please do! I love reading what other people create for this game.

Giblet Blizzard wrote:Of course, had I remembered it, the answer's actually in The Hobbit at the end of Fire and Water:

"They removed northward higher up the shore; for ever after they had a dread of the water where the dragon lay. He would never again return to his golden bed, but was stretched cold as stone, twisted upon the floor of the shallows. There for ages his huge bones could be seen in calm weather amid the ruined piles of the old town. But few dared to dive into the shivering water or recover the precious stones that fell from his rotting carcass."

Noteworthy that he used "few" instead of "none"....

Rich H wrote:

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).

My feeling exactly. For the most part, the fluff was very good and reasonable (or at least a big step in the right direction), but as you say the mechanics were in no way up to the same standards.
It lacked a coherent line development though, so that it did not make the impression it was developed and published with a unified and thought-out concept behind it. Only in its final stages there was a stronger editorial hand towards an overarching concept, but it was too little and too late.

Anyway, the legacy it left is a good base to build upon fluff-wise - IMHO of course.

Cheers
Tolwen

Tolwen wrote:Only in its final stages there was a stronger editorial hand towards an overarching concept, but it was too little and too late.

Anyway, the legacy it left is a good base to build upon fluff-wise - IMHO of course.

Cheers
Tolwen

Any favorite supplements from the long list? I've been digging through some of them and have found a few nuggets, such as the treatment of the Barrow Downs.

Elfcrusher wrote:Any favorite supplements from the long list? I've been digging through some of them and have found a few nuggets, such as the treatment of the Barrow Downs.

That depends heavily on your preferences of course. The good thing with this disunified corpus is that there's something in it for everyone
In general you have to keep in mind that the default time was TA 1640 - 1,300 years before the TOR timeframe. Many features mirror the Hobbit and LotR-era though. It seems they wanted both - to have their cake (be free of the restraints of a well-known timeframe) and eat it (have all the well-known features and constants from this available for gaming - even though many were anachronistic then). So, the different timeframe is not as big a problem as it looks at first glance.

Bree and the Barrow-downs is a good example for an early gem. It later became part of the "Arnor" books (especially the two volume edition: "The Land" and "The People").

My personal favourite is The Kin-strife - a time of turmoil and multitude of adventuring ideas. The interesting part (for me) is that it is almost free of the typical "evil servant of Sauron threatens the Free People" scheme (they are there, but play only a very minor and mostly observational or manipulative role), but all the problems arise from the men of the land themselves - a murderous civil war that rips apart the South-kingdom. This can be combined into a great campaign with the great war in the North somewhat 25 years earlier.

Rivendell - The House of Elrond is one of my favourite places. IMO it manages to capture the spirit of the books far better than the movie design and the LotRRPG depiction (which was basically the movie design 1:1).

Another great (mostly historical and therefore fluff) publication is Lórien and the Halls of the Elven-smiths. Despite the title, Lórien covers the smaller part of the book and the focus lies on Eregion in the Second Age when the realm of the Noldor was in full bloom there. Despite some minor issues I have with it, I still love its fleshed-out history of the realm and place. Ever wanted to explore the halls of Celebrimbor and his fellows? Here's your chance

My favourite pure adventure books are set in Eriador:
Dark Mage of Rhudaur, which is set in the preludes of the 1409 war and thus roughly compatible with the Kin-strife book.
Second, I love the place and setting described in Phantom of the Northern Marches. The adventures supplied are more of the typical and not very imaginative sort, but the setting described in a few words bears the potential for much more great fluff. In this, the hand of its author Graham Staplehurst (a great RPG author of the 1980s) is clearly seen

Concerning places Weathertop - Tower of the Wind is great stuff as well and perfect for a an early-15th century campaign in Eriador
Another great place with very good fluff is Halls of the Elven-king, which obviously renders good service even for a TOR-era campaign.

If you like to go "off the map", The Northern Waste may be the one for you.

Oh yes - and it might also be a good idea to name the - IMHO - worst examples as well: Mirkwood and Angmar in their several incarnations (three for each) stand out as the - mostly - generally accepted absolute low points of the series (especially their last, 2nd ed. versions).

Cheers
Tolwen

Tolwen, no love for Thieves of Tharbad? Was a fantastic urban adventure setting, beautiful map. Sadly the TA1640 time shows through though, by the end of the Third Age it's in ruins.

Giblet Blizzard wrote:Tolwen, no love for Thieves of Tharbad? Was a fantastic urban adventure setting, beautiful map. Sadly the TA1640 time shows through though, by the end of the Third Age it's in ruins.

Yes, I forgot that (the list above was impromptu). I don't know how often I had my group back then in Tharbad. Its depiction as an ancient city in decay was great. At the end they were so fed up with it, its corruption (the normal one; not the TOR one of course) and problems... I guess I got it right to show the state of decay there
Also, its primary setting in the aftermath of the 1409 war fits well to the era of the early 15th century as described above.
Overall yes - ToT definitely needs to be listed here too

Cheers
Tolwen

Wow... I have the Rivendell and Lorien supplements, and, I was so hugely disappointed in them that I stopped buying supplements altogether. I always assumed that they weren't among the best ones, though.