Post by Lord Huthor on Oct 4, 2014 0:35:33 GMT
I'd been playing D&D and AD&D in high school for a number of years when one day, a friend of mine came around to my place.
He had this red boxed set he called MERP. For those of you unfamiliar with it, this is Middle-Earth Role Playing by Iron Crown Enterprises.
I loved this game from the moment he cracked open the box lid. I'd always wanted to explore Middle Earth through an RPG that wasn't mixed with non-Tolkienesque fantasy stuff. So naturally I did the obvious thing - made him tweak the rules a little so I could be a Hobbit Mage!
Anyway, fast forward a bit, and I eventually got a copy of my own (2nd Edition, 1986). I stopped being a shithead with character bending and settled down to learn it properly as it was meant to be run.
This system has one of my favorite character generation processes - nearly every step has a way of being applied to the character's RP, so by the time you're done, you've already got a lot of background elements established (with a bit of thought) - secondary skill choices, why bonuses to some certain things, heirloom items, etc. It also follows the Middle Earth lore in great detail, drawing on everything from the Silmarillion on.
And best yet - it's possible to not only play as the good races, but there is a variety of orc and troll types you can use!
Need a bit of a break from DM'ing dungeons and dragons and other conventional fantasy games, and I've decided to go back to this for it.
If you're interested in checking it out, you'll find a lot of great additions that go with it - VERY, VERY detailed region expansion books and city books for example.
Though the boxed set only covers characters 1-10, there are various other system compatible books that can be added onto it (Spell lore, etc), which takes it up to....think it was either 50 or 100, don't recall off-hand.
The game also allows for very open-ended adventuring when you're sick of the standard kind of games. Outdoor exploration handles everything from hunting up herbs, to 'let's just run around and see what's out there!'
I know this whole post sounds like an advertisement, but I'm pretty excited about this game again.
If it's your kind of setting, highly recommend you look into it.
He had this red boxed set he called MERP. For those of you unfamiliar with it, this is Middle-Earth Role Playing by Iron Crown Enterprises.
I loved this game from the moment he cracked open the box lid. I'd always wanted to explore Middle Earth through an RPG that wasn't mixed with non-Tolkienesque fantasy stuff. So naturally I did the obvious thing - made him tweak the rules a little so I could be a Hobbit Mage!
Anyway, fast forward a bit, and I eventually got a copy of my own (2nd Edition, 1986). I stopped being a shithead with character bending and settled down to learn it properly as it was meant to be run.
This system has one of my favorite character generation processes - nearly every step has a way of being applied to the character's RP, so by the time you're done, you've already got a lot of background elements established (with a bit of thought) - secondary skill choices, why bonuses to some certain things, heirloom items, etc. It also follows the Middle Earth lore in great detail, drawing on everything from the Silmarillion on.
And best yet - it's possible to not only play as the good races, but there is a variety of orc and troll types you can use!
Need a bit of a break from DM'ing dungeons and dragons and other conventional fantasy games, and I've decided to go back to this for it.
If you're interested in checking it out, you'll find a lot of great additions that go with it - VERY, VERY detailed region expansion books and city books for example.
Though the boxed set only covers characters 1-10, there are various other system compatible books that can be added onto it (Spell lore, etc), which takes it up to....think it was either 50 or 100, don't recall off-hand.
The game also allows for very open-ended adventuring when you're sick of the standard kind of games. Outdoor exploration handles everything from hunting up herbs, to 'let's just run around and see what's out there!'
I know this whole post sounds like an advertisement, but I'm pretty excited about this game again.
If it's your kind of setting, highly recommend you look into it.