a sword & sorcery version of The Hobbit

[geoffrey]

I have been reflecting upon the fact that Bob Bledsaw's old (pre-Judges Guild) D&D campaign was based in Middle-earth, with sword & sorcery elements added. It makes sense. Perhaps the only fantasy books on the shelves back in the mid-1970s that included maps were Tolkien's books. Thus Bob used the only pre-made maps available, and filled them with all kinds of fantasy stuff.

Take a look at the map of the Wilderland found in The Hobbit. Ignore the small strip to the left outside of the Wilderland. If you were to map that on four Judges Guild-sized hex sheets (the kind that Kent has been mapping on to great effect), to keep the dimensions right you would need to leave the easternmost eight columns of hexes of the eastern two maps blank. Then fill those hexes with whatever terrain you desire. Perhaps match them to the western edges of Wilderlands maps 1 and 4 (using the Necromancer numbering system). Now comes the fun part...

Start putting sword & sorcery stuff in there. The Gray Mountains in the extreme north of the map? Those surely are in Hyperborea ("beyond the North"), and thus are surely the Eiglophian Mountains from Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborea cycle. Clearly, then, Mount Voormithadreth is in that mountain chain, with Tsathoggua, Atlach-Nacha, and Abhoth below. Uzuldaroum and ruined Comorriom are not far away.

Put a big inland sea in the southeastern part of the map, fed by the River Running. Lankhmar is on the shore. So is Tegel Manor. Undoubtedly isles in the sea have some stuff from CAS's Zothique.

Joiry (from C. L. Moore's Jirel stories) could be found in the foothills of the Misty Mountains.

Don't forget Valusia (ruled over by King Kull)!

Put in some nice Dying Earth locations.

How about a cave in the Misty Mountains that is a magical gateway to Barsoom?

A. Merritt's various lost civilizations could be placed on the map, as well as H. Rider Haggard's Kor--perhaps in the depths of Mirkwood.

Etc.

There is a lot of empty space on the map in The Hobbit, and there is no reason to not place your favorite sword & sorcery locations therein. Sword & sorcery literature, The Hobbit, and D&D make for a heady mix! The PCs could run into Kull, Jirel, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Turjan, etc. just as well as they could encounter Gandalf, Elrond, Balin, etc. Imagine going on a quest for King Kull to slay a purple worm and obtaining advice from Elrond along the way.

[scottenkainen]

Tangential to your post - scottenkainenland.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-hobbit-of-mars.html

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

[Falconer]

I was just thinking the Second Age is the most S&S period in Middle-earth history. Obviously Atlantis is a common theme in S&S, and Númenor expresses this admirably — and even better are their cities Umbar and Tharbad in Middle-earth. The Elves have their own kickass empire called Eregion with the city Ost-in-Edhil as its capital (where Sauron slums around). Outside these empires are plenty of barbarians (see Tal-Elmar). Excellent! So you can adventure in sort-of familiar lands, but with lots of opportunities for completely new stuff to crop up and not feel out of place.

The Fourth Age has potential, too. Obviously you will see very little of elves or dwarves in this age. But you know how in S&S you constantly have the ape—>barbarian—>civilized progression and regression? It would be very thematic to do that with orcs in place of apes. The “new shadow” is a Black Númenorean sorcerer from the south named Herumor, of whom we know very little, but I imagine him to be a lot like Xaltotun from The Hour of the Dragon. I always imagined the Blue Wizards heading empires to the east, as well — Romestamo in a great Balchoth city-state on the shores of the Sea of Rhûn, and Morinehtar leading a horde of nomadic Wainriders. The problem with focusing on lands untouched by Tolkien is that it’s almost not worthwhile calling it Middle-earth.