Theme & Setting for our Middle Earth
Often when I bring up the subject of roleplaying in Middle Earth with other RPG fans I get a response that goes something like “it’s too restrictive” or “everything has already been written”. Now I don’t subscribe to those opinions but I do see the point. One of the most enjoyable parts of roleplaying is doing it yourself. There are lots (way too many in my humble opinion) of published settings out there that define a world but because in Tolkien’s ME we know there is a ring, it’s the one ring of power, it has caused and will cause a war in which good will triumph over evil there is a blind spot to all the space still available for exploration. Reasonable people can disagree on whether the blind spot is exaggerated in size or just right but regardless I do want to address the perception in our setting design. Now we won’t be messing with Tolkien’s themes but I think I have a creative solution that might satisfy Tolkien devotees and non-fans alike on the subject of setting.
The world (or map of ME) will be as it’s defined in the LotR series. The peoples that populate the ME will generally be located within the regions we all know, e.g., there is a Southern Kingdom of men it is called Gondor, to Its North is another Kingdom of Men it’s called Rohan, etc. But, where we will depart (and I hope this is not too blasphemous) is in what we consider to be the mythological canon in all its depth. I propose that for the purposes of named heroes, mythological background, historical enemies and alliances we will consider only one text, The Hobbit. If it aint explicit in the Hobbit it aint an established fact in our world! For example there is a Gandalf and an Elrond but is there a Galadriel or an Aragorn? It depends on if as a group of players we want to introduce that fact into our ME and then deal with it in game. One last restriction, I’m referring to the prose of The Hobbit not the poetry, lyrics and lymrics. That brings me to my second point that I will elaborate on in a future post about narration but here is a teaser.
If as an individual one wants to introduce canon elements from the LotR novels or the Silmarillion you can, during play, in character, and at a point that blends with the evolving story. For example its perfectly acceptable that while at the Prancing Pony drinking one too many a player character lets it slip that they heard the Necromancer has left Mirkwood but letting loose the same story element while trying to rescue a comrade from a Barrow just wouldn’t feel right, it wouldn’t fit the current events. There won’t be any dicing mechanics that I will propose to fit this element of the game. It’s simply on your honor and I think after a few attempts everyone will get a feel of how to do it. So if you can’t sleep at night until you know that you might encounter Saruman (I don’t know why you would)
then get it out there and make it part of the world. If you couldn’t care less about the canon and just want to split Goblin skulls well there will be some of that too – you needn’t worry!
Again, much more to come in character creation and narration but there is the basic concept. I would enjoy any feedback that interested readers might want to offer. There is plenty of time to modify this approach to taste and of course I’m willing to address any problems potential players might have with what I’ve described above.
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