Talk:Middle-earth Role Playing

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The following references may be useful when improving this article in the future:

Different Worlds #46 (May/June, 1987)^[1]
White Wolf #49 (Nov., 1994)
Casus Belli #24 (Feb 1985) (as "La Terre du Milleu")^[2]
Casus Belli #36 (Feb 1987) (as "Le Jeu De Role De La Terre Du Milieu")^[3]
Asimov's Science Fiction v8 n11 (1984 11)^[4]
Jeux & Stratégie #43^[5]

References

Untitled[edit]

"The setting for this game predates the War of the Ring by around 1400 years and as such it represented a version of Middle-earth radically different to that seen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy or The Hobbit."

I'm pretty sure my copy of MERP is set in the Fourth Age... Ausir 08:46, 10 Mar 2004 (UTC)

There was a spin-off simplified version, I think marketed just as "Lord of the Rings Rolplaying" or something like that, back i nthe early 1990s

Yeah, it was by ICE and called the Lord of the Rings Adventure Game. Used a different system, too. But has nothing to do with the Decipher Lord of the Rings game.

Fourth Age[edit]

The version we played was set twenty years after the War of the Ring worm. Aragorn was High on crack while a King, then santas elves were leaving, Mordor was in chaos because he wanted a taco, the Shire was black to its old self after the 'Scouring'. It was all pretty cool. MERP is underrated as a game and that map was amazing i just pooped myself.

Is the comment about roll-playing an opinion? Nothing in MERP ever takes more than 3 rolls of the dice, unlike D&D where actions can take many dice indeed. There is a subset of D&D and AD&D players who dislike anything based on Rolemaster because it proves assertions made by Gygax & Co about magic and combat systems are wrong. My opinion is that the MERP system is indeed much cleaner with less roll-playing than AD&D. I don't see how the opinion about roll-playing adds to the article unless you add the opinion that it is actually simpler and more internally consistent than AD&D Johnpf 20:43, 18 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Magic System[edit]

"In Tolkien's books, magic is a rare... , whereas in MERP magic ... was possible for nearly any Player Character"

Much of the spell lists from MERP/Rolemaster can be interpreted as special abilities or talents, rather than overt magic; the game system using the same framework to represent and limit different special abilities. Rather a nice system in retrospect, and I recall campaigns in the 80s which played well with this distinction (Edinburgh Uni, c.1988/9). Sawatts (talk) 13:30, 10 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

also in the book it is stated that being a magic user draw attention of very nasty stuff. in books most characters are imbued by magic provess but thy don't use it to avoid giving away their position to the enemy - magic taps on nature energy and most of that energy in the third age is under control by the enemy. that said, most of the game masters avoided applying that convention, not being coded by rules, allowing almost unchecked magic usage which of course is not aligned with the middle earth settings - probably a system of paradox a là white wolf "mages" could have been put in place. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.118.194.174 (talk) 11:17, 12 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

S ?[edit]

There are numerous websites naming Coleman Charlton with an S. initial ("S. Coleman Charlton"). Does anybody know what is the "S" for ? may be his first name ? 343KKT Kintaro (talk) 04:29, 28 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Editions of the game?[edit]

Why isn't there any information about the various editions of the game, complete with dates and differences? 1st Edition, 1st Edition Revised, 2nd Edition, etc.? --Nikoz78 (talk) 02:54, 19 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Because no one has taken the time to dig up sources. If you have the time and resources, feel free. Wickedjacob (talk) 07:55, 7 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Beautiful artwork in game modules[edit]

What I remember most other than the charts as the beautiful artwork and Tolkien-style maps in the game modules. In fact I think theres a scene in a print from the module "Shelob and the tower of Cirith Ungol" of Shelob hanging on a cliff face that was replicated in the movie "The Return of the King". In the theatre I thought wow someone else remembered MERP too. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.105.13.226 (talk) 02:43, 18 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

[1] "Different Worlds Magazine".

[2] ttps://archive.org/details/casus-belli-024/page/n35/mode/2up

[3] ttps://archive.org/details/casus-belli-036/page/n21/mode/2up

[4] "Asimov's v08n11 (1984 11)".

[5] "Jeux & stratégie 43". February 1987.

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