MartyC -- MERP - Introduction

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MERP Campaigns - Introduction

This part of my site is about MERP - Middle Earth Role Playing. Over the years I have built up a collection of materials for roleplaying in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. This world is called Middle Earth, and has its own rich history, akin to our own world's various mythologies, which form a glorious backdrop for telling stories of all kinds.

One way to do this is by role-playing, a form of story telling that involves a bunch of people getting togther to act out adventures and develop the story as you go along. Over the years many different role-playing systems have been devised all with different strengths and weaknesses. Most people have heard of Dungeons and Dragons for example, but there are many, many more, some set in similar fantasy genres others in sci-fi or contemporary settings. But for me, if you're going to do fantasy there's no point doing it anywhere except Tolkien's Middle Earth, as the sense of depth just isn't there anywhere else.

So, years ago I got a MERP box-set. Middle Earth Role-Playing by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE). It was cool - the cover art alone by Chris Achilleos was awesome (this is from the UK edition of MERP licensed by Games Workshop, but otherwise identical):

Trouble was, compared to the Basic D&D rules I'd played before, it was extremely complicated. The character sheet covered 2 to 3 pages, and had loads of boxes all over it that had to be crossed, and added up and all sorts. I had to read the rules about 5 times before I found out how to work out how many hit points you had.

But it grew on me, and I started to appreciate the strengths of the system, in the flexibility it gave to allow a character to do what they want if they try hard enough, but maintaining balance. Reading through the critical tables helped too. I also got hold of some of the ICE produced modules that described areas of Middle Earth in more detail and provided sample adventures.

After a while I thought that I needed a bit more so I got Rolemaster (RM) another ICE product. MERP was based on a stripped down version of Rolemaster and it seemed the ideal next step. Most of ICE's modules included RM stats and class information rather than just MERP and they seemed to make more sense so why not follow suit?

Because it's a complete 'mare that's why. Even more tables for even more things, utter confusion. At first. Again after a few readings it started to make sense and the real strength of the RM system shows up - drop the bits you don't like, and just use the ones you want. Think the intiative system sucks? Then roll a dice instead. On the whole I like RM for it's flexibility and intended simplicity (D100 rolls for everything) but drop a lot of stuff to speed up combat and so on. Also later on I found a that having spreadsheets helps keep track of everything.

So anyway - this section of my site contains a colection of materials for MERP adventures. There are campaigns and adventures set in different eras, a few non-standard rules I use, some spreadsheets you might find useful if you run your own campaigns, and whatever else I find useful. So browse around using the links on the left and help yourself.


Home Campaigns: First Age Second Age Third Age Fourth Age Rules Tools Links		MERP Campaigns - Introduction This part of my site is about MERP - Middle Earth Role Playing. Over the years I have built up a collection of materials for roleplaying in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. This world is called Middle Earth, and has its own rich history, akin to our own world's various mythologies, which form a glorious backdrop for telling stories of all kinds. One way to do this is by role-playing, a form of story telling that involves a bunch of people getting togther to act out adventures and develop the story as you go along. Over the years many different role-playing systems have been devised all with different strengths and weaknesses. Most people have heard of Dungeons and Dragons for example, but there are many, many more, some set in similar fantasy genres others in sci-fi or contemporary settings. But for me, if you're going to do fantasy there's no point doing it anywhere except Tolkien's Middle Earth, as the sense of depth just isn't there anywhere else. So, years ago I got a MERP box-set. Middle Earth Role-Playing by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE). It was cool - the cover art alone by Chris Achilleos was awesome (this is from the UK edition of MERP licensed by Games Workshop, but otherwise identical): Trouble was, compared to the Basic D&D rules I'd played before, it was extremely complicated. The character sheet covered 2 to 3 pages, and had loads of boxes all over it that had to be crossed, and added up and all sorts. I had to read the rules about 5 times before I found out how to work out how many hit points you had. But it grew on me, and I started to appreciate the strengths of the system, in the flexibility it gave to allow a character to do what they want if they try hard enough, but maintaining balance. Reading through the critical tables helped too. I also got hold of some of the ICE produced modules that described areas of Middle Earth in more detail and provided sample adventures. After a while I thought that I needed a bit more so I got Rolemaster (RM) another ICE product. MERP was based on a stripped down version of Rolemaster and it seemed the ideal next step. Most of ICE's modules included RM stats and class information rather than just MERP and they seemed to make more sense so why not follow suit? Because it's a complete 'mare that's why. Even more tables for even more things, utter confusion. At first. Again after a few readings it started to make sense and the real strength of the RM system shows up - drop the bits you don't like, and just use the ones you want. Think the intiative system sucks? Then roll a dice instead. On the whole I like RM for it's flexibility and intended simplicity (D100 rolls for everything) but drop a lot of stuff to speed up combat and so on. Also later on I found a that having spreadsheets helps keep track of everything. So anyway - this section of my site contains a colection of materials for MERP adventures. There are campaigns and adventures set in different eras, a few non-standard rules I use, some spreadsheets you might find useful if you run your own campaigns, and whatever else I find useful. So browse around using the links on the left and help yourself.