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Count_Jaschk
2014-12-19, 07:44 AM
Has anyone here had any experience playing this game / reading through the core book.

I'm contemplating introducing it to my regular RP-group and was wondering what you guys thought of it.

Susano-wo
2014-12-19, 07:38 PM
I've read it, made a couple of characters for it.
Pluses are:
the weariness system for magic [you get one free spell an hour. any more than that and you have to make a weariness save afterward. If you fail, you are weary, and cannot cast any more spells until rested. Does a great job of emulating the way Gandalf seems to use magic.
and multiple abilities that can tie into saves [helps to allow more variety in character builds]

Other than that it felt like a good production value dnd[somewhere between 3.5 and 2nd ed]/rollmaster[the ICE Middle Earth RPG system of yesteryear] hybrid, and a clunky one at that. I would be inclined to rip off its better elements and graft them another RPG [I think 3.5/PF would work fine to some degree.]

Of course its been years since I've looked at it, and I no longer have access to the book, so I may be remembering wrong :smallbiggrin:

zeuspeo
2014-12-21, 09:17 AM
Im fairly certain this is the version I played. We made characters and were given the one ring in the shire and told that the story would follow the lord of the rings books until we went of track. Ofcourse having all read the books we made it to mount doom about 6 months ahead of time with not only the ring but one of the Palantir that a friend remembered the location of from the silmerillian. (we didnt hang out with Galadrial for ages like the do in the books.)

Frozen_Feet
2014-12-23, 10:03 AM
This is the LotR game with pretty pictures from the movies, right?

I bought it years back and have used it for one campaign. On the plus side, the book is well-presented, the GM's (narrator's) advice is pretty good for catching that Middle-Earth feel, I liked the weariness system and I liked the mechanics for several different flaws they presented. Also liked the goal-oriented method of granting experience points.

Other than that, it's a pretty unimaginative 2d6+modifiers fare. Runs a lot like 3.x D&D. I found the combat system too klunky and character creation too easy to min-max. Feels like characters are too tough at the start.

Janus
2014-12-27, 06:25 PM
Had the book years ago, though I never wound up playing. The main things I remember are:


The book tells you to make your characters unique, then lists a ton of personality traits heroes MUST have, despite the fact that LotR's heroes don't always measure up.
Humans could spend some inspiration points or whatever they were called to perform incredible feats. I wanted to have a character jump 30 ft (9.1 m) straight up for no reason.
The Transformation spell is the best spell. I remember looking, but failing to find a reason you couldn't transform a balrog into a bug.
Elves were overpowered.

Ichneumon
2014-12-28, 06:09 PM
Elves were overpowered.


Well, at least it's true to the source material then. :smallamused:

Corvus
2014-12-28, 06:21 PM
Never played it but do have the book. From memory I designed a dwarf magician who at 2nd level pretty much broke the game. Maxed out intimidate I think it was and took a couple of spells that boosted it (inspire awe and another that i cant remember) Pulled the old Gandalf "Do not take me a cheap conjurer of tricks" routine and there was little short of a Nazgul who wouldn't run and even they had a chance of being scared.

Anxe
2014-12-28, 08:15 PM
It's a fun system, but the minmax thing is definitely true. You can be an amazing death machine at level one and never really improve after that because you're already maxed out on death machine abilities.

The modularity of the class/skill system is pretty cool. You can completely change what your character does as their character arc changes (Pippin from theif into a fighter for example).

It's a system that is best when people have defined roles within the party. If you all go the death machine route... You might s well play D&D 3.5. If one goes swords, one goes bows, one goes magic, and one goes hobbit and you focus more on story than combat... Great system!

And yes elves are overpowered. Feel free to limit race choices if that worries you. I wouldn't though. The power boosts are pretty minimal.

EDIT: I remember the rules for the Ring and corruption being really good, but if thats the only appeal for you just port the rules into 3.5.