The whole idea of the detail in this old RPG books is to encourage GM's to get to know their stuff. When a GM goes into a campaign ill prepared it becomes obvious to the players very quickly. However, when a GM reads all this stuff, gets a good handle on it all and is able to utilise this knowledge into his campaign it gives his/her sessions an authenticity, believability and sense of awe. The players become invested and each session is looked forward to with much greater anticipation. I have been GM'ing since 1980 and still do every Friday night to this day. The reason my games are so successful and players kept coming back is because of what I described above. As a GM if you know and understand what it is you are describing in detail to your group the more your players want to keep coming back.
I love the damage system of roleamster. And the healing herbs were a highlight. Wonderful stuff that no other game I have played comes close to. Maybe the Dark Eye but that's about it. And you are right, that is not an adventure. It's a setting. I feel classic adventures in Moria make little sense. Moria during the time of the dwarves was a city of splendor. You could have a mine rescue or political intrigue. But then again - who apart from dwarves would be allowed to just wander off underneath the mountains? And after the fall of Moria - who in their right mind would go there? The next (human) settlement would be Tharbad or maybe some iron age style settlements of the Eothrain or Woodmen. The ELves wouldn't let you in. So it's basically suicide to go there. So no need for a specific adventure.
The larger Rolemaster Middle-Earth campaign setting modules were not intended to be "gameable content" only; they were meant to provide context and perhaps a few settings which GMs and players might find interesting. For playable content, I.C.E. sold smaller adventure modules which were perhaps 1/3 or 1/4 as thick as these large campaign setting modules (Isengard, Gundabad, Rohan, Arthedain, Ardor, Angmar, Gondor, N and S Mirkwood, Umbar, Harad, Dunland, Fangorn, Cardolan, the South). The adventure modules were more like Bree and the Barrow Downs, or the Dead Marshes, Erech and the Paths of the Dead, Cirith Ungol. Note that some of the NPCs in Middle-Earth are thousands of years old, they are very high level. Most characters and some creatures like dragons are thousands of years old, characters simply cannot fight them. Some of the modules contain drawings of towns and cities, or provide locations of villages which can serve as starting points for adventuring in the wilderness. There is so much information in these modules. I wish I.C.E. had been able to continue making modules, now they probably would be publishing modules in the 2nd Age, like Gondolin. Some of the interpretation in the Peter Jackson movies is less true to Tolkien than I.C.E. modules (e.g. Saruman's orcs being born out of geodes or pods when Tolkien wrote that they had fathers or that they were perverted elves).
They made awesome stuff they sure did. It was a tragedy that they lost the liscence. I've personally always blamed the movies for bankrupting the company, in a roundabout way. They revoked that license and called in all the debts right as the movies were being made or about to come out. I always thought that they just wanted a unified look and feel for all the Lord of the rings licensed content. They would rather have had games that tied in with the movie, rather than the books. For example card games that have movie still images rather than art. Plus, they probably figured they could negotiate a different licensing contract with someone else for more money.
Moria is one of my favorite MERP Modules. Lost Realm of Cardolan was better. I like how ICE tried to fill in the gaps that Tolkien never got arond to. It was fun to play and the critical stats were hilarious.
The whole idea of the detail in this old RPG books is to encourage GM's to get to know their stuff. When a GM goes into a campaign ill prepared it becomes obvious to the players very quickly. However, when a GM reads all this stuff, gets a good handle on it all and is able to utilise this knowledge into his campaign it gives his/her sessions an authenticity, believability and sense of awe. The players become invested and each session is looked forward to with much greater anticipation. I have been GM'ing since 1980 and still do every Friday night to this day. The reason my games are so successful and players kept coming back is because of what I described above. As a GM if you know and understand what it is you are describing in detail to your group the more your players want to keep coming back.
I love the damage system of roleamster. And the healing herbs were a highlight. Wonderful stuff that no other game I have played comes close to. Maybe the Dark Eye but that's about it. And you are right, that is not an adventure. It's a setting. I feel classic adventures in Moria make little sense. Moria during the time of the dwarves was a city of splendor. You could have a mine rescue or political intrigue. But then again - who apart from dwarves would be allowed to just wander off underneath the mountains?
And after the fall of Moria - who in their right mind would go there? The next (human) settlement would be Tharbad or maybe some iron age style settlements of the Eothrain or Woodmen. The ELves wouldn't let you in. So it's basically suicide to go there. So no need for a specific adventure.
That's right. But I think that the Moria chapter in the fellowship of the ring is the origin of dungeon crawls
@@movingcardboard8254 exactly right. Maybe also the Quarmall story of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
The larger Rolemaster Middle-Earth campaign setting modules were not intended to be "gameable content" only; they were meant to provide context and perhaps a few settings which GMs and players might find interesting. For playable content, I.C.E. sold smaller adventure modules which were perhaps 1/3 or 1/4 as thick as these large campaign setting modules (Isengard, Gundabad, Rohan, Arthedain, Ardor, Angmar, Gondor, N and S Mirkwood, Umbar, Harad, Dunland, Fangorn, Cardolan, the South). The adventure modules were more like Bree and the Barrow Downs, or the Dead Marshes, Erech and the Paths of the Dead, Cirith Ungol. Note that some of the NPCs in Middle-Earth are thousands of years old, they are very high level. Most characters and some creatures like dragons are thousands of years old, characters simply cannot fight them. Some of the modules contain drawings of towns and cities, or provide locations of villages which can serve as starting points for adventuring in the wilderness.
There is so much information in these modules. I wish I.C.E. had been able to continue making modules, now they probably would be publishing modules in the 2nd Age, like Gondolin.
Some of the interpretation in the Peter Jackson movies is less true to Tolkien than I.C.E. modules (e.g. Saruman's orcs being born out of geodes or pods when Tolkien wrote that they had fathers or that they were perverted elves).
They made awesome stuff they sure did. It was a tragedy that they lost the liscence. I've personally always blamed the movies for bankrupting the company, in a roundabout way. They revoked that license and called in all the debts right as the movies were being made or about to come out. I always thought that they just wanted a unified look and feel for all the Lord of the rings licensed content. They would rather have had games that tied in with the movie, rather than the books. For example card games that have movie still images rather than art. Plus, they probably figured they could negotiate a different licensing contract with someone else for more money.
hi, cool! I played Merp back in the 80ies a lot! And still love it and have the books! thanks for the video!
Moria is one of my favorite MERP Modules. Lost Realm of Cardolan was better. I like how ICE tried to fill in the gaps that Tolkien never got arond to. It was fun to play and the critical stats were hilarious.
Nice review. Thank you
Fantastic! Please do more. I have about 90-95% of the released product from 1983 when I was first introduced to it.....
I really hope to. I absolutely loved MERP
Man, they told me that you could actually kill a dude with MERP material and they meant it, that thing alone must weight a ton.