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Post by bestialwarlust on Oct 12, 2015 18:25:34 GMT -6
From what I've read Gary wasn't a big fan of Tolkien, but added elements because of requests. I know a lot that started with whitebox were more sword and sorcery (grey mouser, etc..). The trend today it seems with a lot of resurgence of earlier d&d seems to be "gonzo" settings. But what about middle earth have you ever used it? or stolen elements from it? How much of your homebrew (if you have on e) is inspired by it?
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Post by scottenkainen on Oct 12, 2015 18:35:38 GMT -6
Names, particularly reclaiming the name "Hobbit" for halflings. Everything else I'm saving for the day I finally get to run a Middle Earth campaign.
~Scott "-enkainen" Casper
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Post by bestialwarlust on Oct 12, 2015 18:55:35 GMT -6
Names, particularly reclaiming the name "Hobbit" for halflings. Everything else I'm saving for the day I finally get to run a Middle Earth campaign. ~Scott "-enkainen" Casper Are you going to use od&d for your ME game or a different system?
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Post by derv on Oct 12, 2015 19:08:07 GMT -6
I think Tolkiens Orcs are hard to avoid completely.
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 12, 2015 19:39:46 GMT -6
Ran a Middle Earth campaign through college, but that was using MERP and Rolemaster.
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Post by scottenkainen on Oct 13, 2015 8:15:07 GMT -6
]Are you going to use od&d for your ME game or a different system? REALLY too soon to say. Maybe in 1-2 years I'll be ready to think about starting another campaign. ~Scott "-enkainen" Casper
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JMiskimen
BANNED
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere." - Sagan
Posts: 53
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Post by JMiskimen on Oct 13, 2015 9:11:21 GMT -6
In my campaign, there are many reference to Tolkien, particularly in my handling of Demihumans.
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Post by scalydemon on Oct 13, 2015 9:38:47 GMT -6
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Post by Finarvyn on Oct 13, 2015 11:01:03 GMT -6
The SPI wargame "War of the Ring" has an amazing hex map, and I use that when I run a Middle-earth campaign. I've used M-e with OD&D, a variant of Amber Diceless, and a few other rules sets.
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Post by tetramorph on Oct 13, 2015 11:16:18 GMT -6
Tolkien is a "trope codifier," if not "setter" and so he seems, regardless of Gygax' explicit statements, absolutely inescapable per the genre now.
In my campaign, Tolkien is a background much as I understand that he himself would have intended:
This is an alternative, fantastical history of the actual world we live in. But it explains fantastical things like "gods," elves, dwarves, monsters, etc. -- And why they have eventually disappeared by the late 6th age (right about now-ish).
I also take the midrashic, folkloric, multiple overlapping stories, contradicting myths are okay point of view. Tolkien had many versions of many of his stories. I take each one of those versions as potentially the "true" version, depending upon who was telling the tale and why.
But the basic story: ages of the world, a dark power bent on chaos, powers of law, pagan neutrality, elves the fay first-born, dwarves a mistaken addition of an otherwise benign power, men the followers, hobbits as diminutive men (although I count them as "fay" in my campaign, for convenience) and the fell races as ancient evil distortions of the free races which now spontaneously generate from the chaotic filth of the underworld and hostile wildernesses -- all this is just basic fundamental background for my campaigns.
Other than that, my campaign is set in the early 6th age so there is still lots of fay in the world, lots of wildernesses, and a lot more monsters than in Tolkien. Including, as the twisted chaotic counterpart to the new Church of Law -- the rise of the Undead!
Of course, I mix in the Arthurian and French cycles, myth and especially the Greco-Roman near-eastern mystery religions, Ancient Near Easter and Egyptian stuff. Just a kind of Arnesonian gonzo grab bag -- but still a fantastical earth whose history we inherit even now. Tolkien's alternative history is just an inevitable part of the mix. But other folks tell other stories. Who knows which is true? Do you want to go into that abandoned and ruined temple and find out? Fight on!
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Post by Red Baron on Oct 13, 2015 11:32:08 GMT -6
The SPI wargame "War of the Ring" has an amazing hex map, and I use that when I run a Middle-earth campaign. I've used M-e with OD&D, a variant of Amber Diceless, and a few other rules sets. Haven't played that in a while. I found an old copy at my girlfriend's house this weekend, and it made me want to have another go at it.
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Post by tkdco2 on Oct 13, 2015 12:19:18 GMT -6
I have run a Middle-earth campaign using MERP. I haven't used OD&D to run a Middle-earth game, but I used AD&D for the "Khazad-dum" adventure in White Dwarf. I have converted some of my MERP characters into different systems.
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Post by Vile Traveller on Oct 13, 2015 17:16:20 GMT -6
I have played in and then took over running a very long-running campaign in Middle Earth back in the 80s. We used the I.C.E. Middle Earth books for background and the lovely maps, but not the system. The twist was that all the PCs were normal people somehow sucked into the setting from the modern real world. In 80s cold war Britain that meant unemployed and penniless, with limited combat ability, but with the opportunity to acquire some modern equipment including a very limited selection of firearms, mostly based on copies of Gun Mart.
It was a low magic game, at least in terms of in-game spell casting, and there was quite a lot of character death to the point that the character insertion portion in the real world actually became quite a major element, and we ended up expanding the range of "real world" characters and eras beyond our home town and time. One of my favourites was a set-up based on a Biggles / Mythago Wood mash-up.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2015 21:19:22 GMT -6
MERPer here: what shall I say? - Worked well, and the rather simplistic Rolemaster scenarios enabled more fluff-y, story-, and shared mythology-driven roleplaying.
What I enjoyed about it, mainly the possibility to tell stories within a world that my players implicitely understood - and considered interesting, rather than a game-enabler, like, say, FR.
What stayed of it, mainly the storyteller's approach to roleplaying, and the narrative techniques. Curiously, since ME is a setting very narrowly defined, my approach of high player-empowerment was developed during my occupation with MERP.
In sum, a very rewarding experience, at least from my perspective.
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Post by tkdco2 on Oct 23, 2015 20:20:23 GMT -6
I have played a couple of MERP games where the PCs are the children of the original PCs. It's MERP: The Next Generation!
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Post by tkdco2 on Nov 5, 2015 14:03:41 GMT -6
In one short-lived MERP campaign I played in, the GM said the campaign started ten years before the War of the Ring. It's not a bad idea on reflection. The characters can gain a few levels and take part in the events of the books, even in minor roles.
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