this is a rant...this is only a rant
no dancing baloney, no graphics, no links, no popups, just me thinking out loud

MIDDLE EARTH:

THREE AGES,
ROUGHLY TEN THOUSAND
YEARS OF HISTORY;
MILLIONS OF SQUARE MILES,
MOST OF IT UNMAPPED.

SO WHERE AND WHEN DO YOU SET YOUR LOTR ADVENTURE GAME CAMPAIGN?

Okay, boys and girls, this is Steve Hess in full rant mode. I love Middle Earth, I love Tolkien’s vision of reality, especially his Dwarves; hell, I’m on the waiting list for a large-sized post office box at Erebor. Gimme that ten thousand year history; gimme the overly-technical language of The Silmarillion and the English-countryside homespun simplicity of The Hobbit. I’ll take it all in heaping portions. My own role-playing experience with Middle Earth is extensive, starting with home-grown AD&D stuff circa 1981, switching to MERP and Rolemaster by 1986. My collection of MERP adventures is, I believe, complete, as is my collection of Tolkien writings. I reread the trilogy once per year, every September, with touches on the other works in between. I’ve seen Movie #1 with my wife nine times, and plan to see it again as soon as the Two Towers trailer gets attached to it.

So where do I set my Middle Earth campaigns?
THIRD AGE 2790, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

Let’s start with the facts, shall we?

I. T.A. 2790 allows for maximum player identification with the world they know from the books.

Every realm present in LotR, T.A. 3018, is present in 2790 in almost exactly the same configuration, and 2790 is virtually identical to the world of The Hobbit. Smaug has occupied the Lonely Mountain for 20 years; the Necromancer rules from Dol Guldur; Gondor and Rohan are recovering from the Long Winter invasions of 2758-59, but are similar in frontier and strength to their War of the Ring counterparts; The Shire is a thriving community. Equally as important, the empty places of LotR are the empty places of 2790. Only ghosts parade down the ruined streets of Fornost Erain, called Deadman’s Dike by the ignorant; Angmar is a wasteland, home to wolves and scavengers; Osgiliath is a shattered wreck; the Anduin Vales are home only to scattered Beorning settlements.

The major differences between 2790 and 3018?
1- Mordor is not formally occupied by the Dark Lord Sauron, and Mount Doom is quiescent. Orc-tribes and groups of Trolls most certainly infest the lower reaches of every ruined keep and citadel, and one or more Nazgul coordinate Sauron’s efforts across the area.
2- Tharbad, old capital of Cardolan, is not yet deserted. Sacked centuries before by the armies of the Witch-king of Angmar, it has become a free-town of traders and thieves only a fraction of its former size.
3- Dol Guldur is at the height of its power, with Sauron (barely disguised as the Necromancer) in residence and in full control. Southern Mirkwood, and all the realms and wastes around it, are enormously dangerous, perhaps just as dangerous as the lower Anduin was with all the servants of Sauron searching for the Ring-bearer in early 3019…

II. And now, the Roster of Important Persons, In No Particular Order

Steward of Gondor? Beregond
He will rule to 2811; his father Beren was Steward when the Long Winter invasions occurred.
King of Rohan? Frealaf Hildeson
Nephew of Helm Hammerhand, he is elderly (d. 2798) and has seen his realm only begin to rebuild from the Dunlending invasion.
Thain of the Shire? Fortinbras Took
His son Gerontius, who will become famous as “The Old Took” and the grandfather of Bilbo Baggins, was born this year.
Chieftan of the Rangers of the North? Arathorn I
Great-great-grandfather of Aragorn II, he will roam the wilds of Eriador for another 58 years.

The realms of the Firstborn in 2790 are identical to their 3018 counterparts. Celebrian, wife of Elrond, departed over the Sea in 2510, so the cast of Rivendell is set. Lorien hasn’t really changed since the War of the Last Alliance…and who can say for certain what transpires in the Grey Havens under the guidance of Cirdan the Shipwright? Pretty much everyone who goes there KEEPS GOING WEST…
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I know what you’re saying.

You’re saying, “Steve, you forgot something. What about the Dwarves?”

Yeah…I know. “What about the Dwarves” is the BIG question here, folks. “What about the Dwarves” is the CENTRAL, HUGE HONKIN’ QUESTION. See, I love ‘em, as I said earlier. I love ‘em, their whole tragic history, their attitude problems, and especially their capacity for slaying Morgoth’s creatures on an ongoing basis.

Determining the leadership of Durin’s Folk in Third Age 2790 is a difficult matter. You see, sometime early in the year, King Thror, who had escaped from the sack of Erebor by Smaug with his son and grandson 20 years before, wandered away from Dunland and ended up as food for crows outside the East-gate of Moria with the name of his murderer branded on his forehead: AZOG. When Nar, his only companion, brought the news back to Thror’s son Thrain, he brooded for a week and then declared genocidal war against the Orcs of the Misty Mountains.

III. So, You Want the Real Reason?

This is the REAL reason that I love 2790 as a setting for games in Middle Earth: The War of the Dwarves and Orcs is about to start!
Mass combat!
Ancient treasures!
Hideously powerful creatures crawling out of the very roots of the earth!
Powers vast and terrible unleashed to destroy!

And all of it, all of it, taking place OUT OF SIGHT. The war was fought almost exclusively far underground, beneath the Misty and Grey Mountains, far from the sight of the surface world and all those curious Elves and Men.

Third Age 2790 allows players of a Lord of the Rings Adventure Game campaign to experience the full range of heroic adventure, from silent and solitary scouting all the way up to massive military campaigns involving creatures of Darkness and treasures of ages long past, WITHOUT IMPACTING THE HISTORY OF MIDDLE EARTH IN ANY WAY!

IV. Textual Analysis…

Very little has been published about the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. There are references to the war in The Hobbit and a description in Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings. As far as consequences are concerned, Rohan had to endure Orc refugees fleeing south, and their King Walda is slain by these Orcs almost a century after the W.D.O. was over. There’s not a lot else to interfere with GM creativity.

That’s it. I’m tired, the medication is kickin’ in, and my vision’s getting blurry. Email me if you have any questions, and remember: J.R.R. Tolkien himself said that ‘other hands’ would be writing about Middle Earth long after he was gone. Insofar as his children, grand-children, and their legal representatives will allow it, we are his inheritors as well.

Baruk Khazad!

Steve Hess, Parsippany, NJ, March 7, 2002

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page