steffworthington
Mongoose
Having collected RPG's for nearly thirty years now I feel validated in offering my opinion on this..
The only game system which i feel has ever come close to having the same feel to Middle-Earth is in fact based on one of Tolkien's inspirations:
King Arthur Pendragon by Chaosium.
Combat is deadly, healing is realistic, and magic is in the hands of the very few. In the last chaosium edition there was 'ambient magic' and a kinda dice pool depnding on where you were, what religion you followed, and what time of year it was. You had more chance of doing greater magics if you were a pagan druid on samhain at stonehenge than you did if you were in Camelot at Christmas.
Also, the magic was slow, deliberate, and powerful (no real 'battle magic' unless you were Saxon and a worshipper of Wotan). Plus... it 'aged' you badly!
I picture Elrond wroughting great healing magics at Imladris... but having trouble at dagorlad.
Another plus is that the Pendragon system had an amazing system called traits and passions which steered the pc toward behaving more like a knight than an adventurer. If you failed to take note of these traits and passions you'd have to check them and your character would become more evil and gain names like Sir_____ sans Pitie and 'Le Brut'. A bit like being corrupted by Sauron's threats or blandishments.
Just a thought.
The only game system which i feel has ever come close to having the same feel to Middle-Earth is in fact based on one of Tolkien's inspirations:
King Arthur Pendragon by Chaosium.
Combat is deadly, healing is realistic, and magic is in the hands of the very few. In the last chaosium edition there was 'ambient magic' and a kinda dice pool depnding on where you were, what religion you followed, and what time of year it was. You had more chance of doing greater magics if you were a pagan druid on samhain at stonehenge than you did if you were in Camelot at Christmas.
Also, the magic was slow, deliberate, and powerful (no real 'battle magic' unless you were Saxon and a worshipper of Wotan). Plus... it 'aged' you badly!
I picture Elrond wroughting great healing magics at Imladris... but having trouble at dagorlad.
Another plus is that the Pendragon system had an amazing system called traits and passions which steered the pc toward behaving more like a knight than an adventurer. If you failed to take note of these traits and passions you'd have to check them and your character would become more evil and gain names like Sir_____ sans Pitie and 'Le Brut'. A bit like being corrupted by Sauron's threats or blandishments.
Just a thought.
