Does anybody even still play LotR?

>>48928336
Yes

Like, that Middle-earth Role Playing system, or something?

If you're talking about the GW LotR tabletop, then yeah, I play a bit with a friend.

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>>48928336
I'd like to play a LOTR RPG, but I'm not sure how such a well established universe that's completely based on an already written story would translate into a game vs. a system that was made to have gameplay shape the story, and not have so many restrictions and technicalities just to satisfy the lore.

I feel like it would end up being just another generic medieval fantasy RPG, unless your DM is the ghost of Tolkien and you're playing an almost linear story.

>>48928647
The One Ring is your best bet, but I tend to agree with you. Either the players don't get involved in the story of the books at all, in which case why bother placing it in Middle-Earth at all? Or they do get involved in the events of the books and can't have any real impact without breaking canon, in which case why bother playing at all?

Either way you're not likely to capture the feeling of the books.

>>48928647

I've played in 2 good LoTR set RPGs (one a surprise you're in Arda one), but it is tough, no two ways about it.

I wouldn't even say that the pre-existing material is your biggest problem. If you're really trying to make it like the books, you have to deal with all this fate and mental influence and otherworldly perception crap that's only alluded to in the books but winds up driving a lot of shit. You're going to have to make Elves fuck up at the crunch time despite being ultra-powerful; you're going to need to work in Dwarven lack of a proper fea, Mannish inability to see into the "other" world; etc.

>>48928770
Not the guy you're responding to, but it's very possible to want to get into the atmosphere and setting of middle-earth without touching the main war of the ring story, or doing so peripherally. And hell, there's all the second age, virtually unmentioned except for the broadest of brush-strokes by Tolkien. Why don't you do something with the War of Elves and Sauron? Or the Numenorean expedition (the first one). Or an expedition to Carn Dum to see and make sure no evil lingers there that could menace Eriador? Or stirring up trouble with Sauron's allies in the East? Or taking part in Aragorn's raid on Umbar when Denethor was a youth?

There's lots of stuff you can do.

>>48928821
I'm not saying that you can't do it, but the way that most people play rpgs, and especially how /tg/ does it, is by treating the setting like a theme park where every adventure is another ride that leads to something exciting, and Middle-Earth is not a setting that lends itself to that.

The thing is, the story of Lord of the Rings has already been told. The greatest evil the world has ever known has been defeated, and so your options are as follows:

1. Tell the story of LotR by setting up the same problem, but with different characters, and let them try to defeat Sauron (might work with the right group).

2. Make it a sequel, center it around political intrigue or something since the Age of Man has arrived and the great evil is gone.

3. Make it a prequel, hope players don't mind either having no agency or fucking up the entire future of Middle Earth so the books can never happen in that version.

4. Set it at basically any time and/or place that doesn't require interacting with the story of LotR itself, and make it more focused on shorter adventures, sword and sorcery style (likely to completely change the tone, which is a major point of wanting to play in Middle Earth anyway).

Basically, I can't see a way to run a campaign in Middle Earth and have it work, aside from doing #1 with a group that's REALLY into the world, as a kind of alt-history thing.

>>48929038
>Make it a sequel
Tolkien actually started writing one, set a couple of decades after the end of RotK when Elessar's son was King, if I don't misremember, and a cult of Sauron or Morgoth started to form in secrecy. He abandoned the project after writing one chapter, saying that the venture was very depressing and took away the extraordinary achievement of the Fellowship.

Is there any game to play in First Age? Like Noldor fucking Morgoth's shit up, etc.

>>48928336
which one? Tabletop Wargame? RPG? (of which there are many) TCG?

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TCG was fucking based

>>48928989
>the way that most people play rpgs, and especially how /tg/ does it, is by treating the setting like a theme park where every adventure is another ride
thanks, D&D

>ITT you cannot have other adventures in Arda

I play LOTR SBG and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on The Shire

>>48932463
That's more the fault of retards than it is of DnD. Look at this anon's list>>48929038

Then think of a campaign set during the Balchoth invasion, with the PCs trying to save a beleaguered Gondor or even the Vales of Anduin. You've got lots of latitude, epic scope, investigation of you want to see the hand of Sauron in it, etc.

The problem is a mentality that it must be YOUR adventure that solves everything forever, and I never got that from playing DnD for nearly 30 years.

What about playing as a tiny group of Dunedain in the ruins of Arnor?

>>48933842
>Fornostheim, the City of the Damned
>Warbands:
>Dunedain
>Carn Dum
>Bree Treasure Hunters
>Rivendell Elves
>Witch-King's Slaves
>Neutral Goblins

>>48933894
That could work :o

Yes.

...if we mean the MMO. I paid for a lifetime subscription long long time ago so it essentially is free to play for me.

>>48933959
don't they plan to kill all lifetime subscribers before pulling the plug on the game one day, so as not to false advertise?

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What does /tg/ think of this?

It's being made by the same people who did The One Ring, and appears to basically be a port of that game to 5E.

I personally think it shows promise.

>>48934181
I'm sure it's great but
>the world's greatest fantasy setting
Let's not go crazy.

>>48934190
Yeah, that particular part of the advertising seems a little exaggerated.

I mean, don't get me wrong, Tolkien made a great world, but calling anything "the greatest" when it can't be objectively measured is kind of pretentious.

>>48934234
It is great, but it isn't a disc on the back of four elephants on the back of a giant turtle.

>>48934181
>What does /tg/ think of this?
It's specificaly made for retarded stubborn plebs refusing to play anything but their shitty dee-and-dee, instead of playing the original, perfectly theme-tailored game (The One Ring)

>>48934181
They couldn't beat 'em, so they're joining 'em. I don't begrudge them that decision, either; D&D is too much of a juggernaut this edition.

>>48929038
you've got thousands of years of history, characters and events to choose from. pick a point and try using your imagination.

>>48934181
To the layman, Tolkien = THE fantasy setting, kinda like how D&D is THE roleplaying game so it's not that big a leap of logic

>>48931617
Truth. I played a ton of it in my formative years.

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>>48931617

This one was way better.

>>48934342
/thread

>>48929038
Darkening of Mirkwood campaign is literally one of the best RPG books ever made. What are you talking about? Just because you don't have the imagination or maturity to create a proper campaign in middle earth doesn't mean the setting doesn't allow it.

>>48928336
Yes.
Everyone who plays elves, dwarves, wise robed wizards, all who are on quest for magic McGuffin of the defeated dark lord.
They are playing Lord of the Rings

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>>48934190
delet

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>>48934190

>>48940345
this
I did read the book for the pleasure of reading alone, together with the setting book (heart of the wild), as with no other rpg book ever

>>48928770
My entire reason for not wanting to run/play star wars rpgs

>>48929266
>took away the extraordinary achievement of the Fellowship

If only people today stopped to think about this before shitting out tons of sequels to actually good movies.

>>48941029
>>48942103
Nehwon is better.

>>48943236
literally who

>>48934181
Most prolific would be more accurate.

I just played in a game on Sunday of TOR that was made from a TOR thread on /tg/. It was fun.

>>48943990
Have you really never heard of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser?

That being said I wouldn't say Nehwon is better because, and I've only read like 3 books of it, I still don't feel like I know any part of the world other than Lankhmar. Stories are fun, but setting is just whatever works in the moment.

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>>48944237
I'll see your Nehwon and raise you Tekumel

>>48944237
for people like me, white spaces on the map are best
heck, while I consider Middle Earth probably the best setting, my most favourite parts are Angmar, Rhun and non-forested parts of Rhovanion exactly because we know so little of them