Is Middle-Earth a good setting for unique adventures and "your dudes"? The history of different major events and the time periods between them seem pretty well established, leaving little to imagination.
Is Middle-Earth a good setting for unique adventures and "your dudes"?
Middle Earth has the same problem as Starwars and Dragonlance. Someone else has already done all the interesting and exciting things and anything you do will be in the shadow of that. While such things make for good movies/books, they make for poor worlds to play in.
Star Wars writers managed to add grand adventures to the stormtrooper that bumps his head and the droid that breaks down in ANH. If you can't do cool stuff in the galaxy far far away it's on you
Personally I find that Beleriand would be a far more interesting place to play with than Middle-Earth in the Third Age. There is more stuff of wonder, canon is more wishy-washy which helps with creativity, is lesser known which mitigates metagaming, and the canon story spawns a few centuries so you could play around it without stepping any toes. The War of the Ring was relatively brief, and if you set your game in the South you will pretty likely end up involved in the plot of Return of the King.
Star Wars works well because the EU has accustomed people to viewing the setting as a larger place than just what happens in the movies. So you can made up whatever (within reason) and people won't bat an eye.
>no bumps
>no ridges
>just smooth
the post
>Someone else has already done all the interesting and exciting things
The Third Age of Middle-earth, from Sauron losing the One Ring to the One Ring finally being destroyed, lasted for over three thousand years. I mean just looking at an abbreviated history there's a bunch of wars between Gondor and the Easterlings and Men of Harad. It should be child's play to do some story about set in that using those details alone
Some Haradim sultan with delusions of grandeur working with the Witch-King of Angmar (active from at least T.A. 1409, if not earlier, and Angmar itself lasts until T.A. 1905) to invade Gondor from the North and South. That's literally off the top of my head with about five minutes of effort looking for a place where a story could fit in.
/thread
Half of the world is just empty wasteland with literally nothing.
Middle Earth (and Star Wars) were never designed around playing games in the setting, so they're excused.
Dragonlance, on the hand, absolute crap.
No. My dudes are a switzerland like mix of slavs, gaels, and finnics with periods of focus analogous to the 1750s, 1930s, and 1990s. Very little of that works in Middle Earth.
if your limit on imagination and story means being unable to relate to it a known IP or historical setting, then you are not a good DM, player or writer.
of course you can have plenty of unique adventures
the events of the main lord of the rings adventure took place over a year alone
You can even cite video games if you want - Third Age was basically FInal Fantasy X playstyle following the fellowship
and just never being able to catch up
if you don't need that you have buckets of adventures elsewhere
there's a video game mod for Total War called Third Age which lets you sandbox play around.
You can definitely have plenty of characters bound within the confines of the IP and setting, so as long you have the strength of will to reject moronic space lizard laser rifleman you can absolutely play around with unique adventures
fricking hell, even within the events of the LotR or the Hobbit there is so much going on. away from the lens of the prose that you can play around there
the siege at Cair Andros, the burning of the Westfold, the Rhunic invasion to Dale, Saruman's cronies taking out the shire
You can even have really powerful heroes and the like and not have it too limited by level - they might be the Blue Wizards. Glorfindel wasn't sat on his arse simply because he wasn't part of the fellowship, the rangers didn't bimble around waiting to form the grey company, even the films went to effort to highlight the sindarin weren't being layabouts while the world ended, Moria had been "re-settled" off camera (and died again, lol).
There is so much fricking scope dude
Middle-Earth at least has enough wiggle room in between those eras to set up your own things, and the various Middle-Earth TRPGs do a good job giving you an idea of what you should be doing. If we're talking about big licensed settings with published TRPG books, I found Dune to be extremely limited.
You could do something interesting with one of Middle-Earth's apocalyptic periods like the Great Plague or the Long Winter/Days of Dearth. Or go out into the far east, but that might as well be a different setting.
If it's good enough for you, you should do it.
Strangers on the internet you won't be playing with should have no effect on your games.
Yes, although I think you've got to pick your time period and run with it. Personally I'd play earlier in the Third Age, and set it either in Rhovanion (after the fall of Rhovanion but before the arrival of Smaug) or Arnor (during the civil war and conflict with Angmar).
With Rhovanion you've got Northmen in Dale, Dwarves of Erebor, Grey Mountains and Iron Hills, Elves in Mirkwood, plenty of room for Orcs in Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains, various Easternlings, and Dragons up in the weathered heath and beyond. Lots of room for adventure.
Arnor is a similar area with a good mix of playable and friendly races + potential antagonists.
>The history of different major events and the time periods between them seem pretty well established, leaving little to imagination.
Don't play major events. There's room for minor character stories and choices in every single era and even story.
My prefererence would be to play a Mordor campaign with an orc party, just trying to survive.
It's Tolkien's setting not yours, leave it alone.
hello, Embracer Group!
As a massive fan of Tolkien's work, I would find it very hard to both DM or play in a game set in Middle-Earth.
To me, it would cheapen the beauty of the Great Work. Lord of the Rings is a modern day mythology - whether it was his deliberate ambition or not, Middle Earth provides a sound religious, spiritual and moral basis for a modern European myth. It would feel very bizarre indeed to roleplay in a setting that should replace all religions in Europe.
Sure, but remember it's very detailed, entire story is known and Tolkien fanbase is super autistic about smallest detalis.
Yes. There’s literally thousands of years of history in each age much of it only partially explained by Tolkien. Anyone with an ounce of creativity can figure it out
No, because there are extreme lore autists, who have an:
>if Tolkien hasn’t mentioned it, it doesn’t exist
attitude to LotR, despite Tolkien explicitly intending the adventures he wrote about to be a very small tiny glimpse into a very fantastical world.
But these autists just learn everything about the world and then claim that‘s all there is to it.
Then you try to meet them half-way:
>Sauron took the shape of a Vampire. How is it possible for him to transform to a Vampire, if they don’t exist?
>how can there be an island of werewolves, if werewolves don’t exist either?
>how can Istari be mistaken for conjurers of illusions and other magicians, if they are practically the only ones capable of magic?
>how can the Witchking of Angmar reasonably be mistaken for a Dark Numenorian Sorcerer, if they are so rare, they practically don’t exist?
These autists fundamentally disagree with the high fantasy setting of Lord of the Rings. They want it to operate under very specific parameters they are used to. An adventure in such a world would completely run counter to Tolkien‘s narrative brilliance. It would be a very boring predictable experience. You would know exactly what to expect.
P.S.:
I always like to bully lore autists by explaining to them how hobbits are literally rabbit-people like from anime.
>hobbit -robbit - rabbit
>have large ears, small stature
>like to eat a lot, very vegetarian diet
>peaceful
>supernaturally good at running and hiding
>love green meadows
>live in burrows under the ground
>hairy paw-like feet
You only don‘t get it, because Western depictions of Hobbits don‘t make them into cute, cuddly creatures, but horrifyingly ugly little Britains, because being cute isn’t compatible with SERIOUS WESTERN FANTASY BUSINESS!
>>how can there be an island of werewolves, if werewolves don’t exist either?
Why would anyone argue that they don't exist? Sauron sent many Werewolves to kill Luthien.
>Hobbit - robbit
Hobbit is derived from the old English term for 'Hole Dweller'
They love meat.
>leaving little to imagination.
Finding and investigating Angband, the Iron Prison.
>But Angband was utterly destroyed in the War of Wrath.
Or was it?! (dun dun DUNNN)
>Or was it?!
Yes, it was.
> The history of different major events and the time periods between them seem pretty well established, leaving little to imagination.
It wasn't written as an RPG setting, that is to be expected. If you approach the Tolkien writing like the Bible, you will quickly find yourself out of wiggle room.
If you are willing to start off with Tolkien, operate in the areas that he didn't cover well, and take some creative liberties after that - I think you're well set.
With that said, you are going to have more luck with low-stakes personal stories. Your character is a son of a proud Rohirrim noble and orks have burned his homestead and taken away a family relic, and you are assembling a party of friends to have revenge - this works well. Sauron has returned yet again and your party is charged by Vala themselves to investgate? This doesn't. Most of the mythical heroic stuff is indeed already in the canon, and with all respect for your creative abilities, you're probably not going to outwrite Tolkien on something like the story of Beren and Luthien.
I once made an assumption in the style of "what do orks do after LotR?" and went from there - I still think the campaign would have been dope. Sadly, the party had IRL drama and fell apart, and I never found the time to find a new one.
>Is 1400s Europe a good setting for unique adventures and "your dudes"? The history of different major events and the time periods between them seem pretty well established, leaving little to imagination.
Sure. You can set it whenever you want. Put it in the war of wrath if you want and go wild.