Is the difficulty to DM a LOTR campaign the reason behind D&D

>>44496507
No.

D&D was the first, did it well, and stayed the only serious contender for nearly a decade.

The reason LotR never took off is because of licensing. There's nothing hard to DM about it.

>>44496556
>only serious contender
Why would you say that Runequest was not a serious contender? I don't really know RPG history.

>>44496604
>Runequest
Because, at least in North America, it wasn't. It wasn't advertised in magazines or for sale at stores. Other RPGs started coming out, but that was just never a thing, in the USA. And the USA market has always been the biggest RPG market.

>>44496507
The reason is LOTR is a story, not a campaign setting or system. Removed from the context of its prose, events, and characters LOTR loses a great deal of interest.

>>44496649
LOTR is all about its lore on the contrary.
It's just that the lore completely ignore the people and everyday life.
Seriously we know nothing about any people outside the Hobbits and a bit of Breeside

>>44496710
They all eat potatoes and smoke tobacco. Very "dark ages" Europe.

>>44496710
LOTR is all about its lore as dictated by JRR Tolkien, high king of the autists. The only details provided are those relevant to the story Tolkien wanted to tell. Those details are exhaustive and inflexible. The only room to make a campaign setting is to choose a region or era that Tolkien didn't write about and accept the noncanonicity of your work. This kind of derivative is held as anathema by Tolkien's heir, who had inherited the autists soul.

LOTR is about the LOTR. Nothing else. Attempts to do otherwise is attempting to shoehorn into the ultimate monorail setting

>>44496808
We're basically saying the same thing though.
Also it's why it's such a pain to DM.

>>44496843
Yeah, exactly. Besides, it would be very limiting. Your rave choices are human, dwarf, Hobbit, and Sindarin. You can be a soldier, a rogue, a Ranger, or a bard. No casters

...actually the more I talk about it the more I get an erection so this might me counter productive to my point..

>>44496886
And playing an Elf older than a few centuries would be OP as shit.

You guys should check out the One Ring RPG

>>44496903
Right, Sindarin only, 80 yrs max