This is an oldie but a goody, at least for me, but I thought I'd re-post it since I can't seem to find it on this site. Maybe it got pruned. Anyway, here are some thoughts on the running of a Fourth Age Middle Earth game campaign.

A Fourth Age Middle Earth campaign is a great way to use Tolkien's world as a game setting without having to worry about, or change, canon. Tolkien himself provides a lot of interesting detail about his world after the time of the Lord of the Rings, detail that provides a wealth of campaign hooks and ideas. I'll quote some of this material to show how relevant it is to a DM wanting to run a campaign in Middle Earth.

"For though Sauron had passed, the hatreds and evils that he bred had not died, and the King of the West had many enemies to subdue before the White Tree could grow in peace. And wherever King Elessar went with war King Eomer went with him; and beyond the Sea of Rhun and on the far fields of the South the thunder of the cavalry of the Mark was heard, and the White Horse upon Green flew in many winds until Eomer grew old."

- The Return of the King, Apendix A, part II, The House of Eorl

This paragraph sets the premise for decades of Fourth Age adventure. It doesn't involve just Men, either. Even though Tolkien makes much of how the Fourth Age is a time of fading for all the peoples of Middle Earth except Men, it is apparent that many of the other races are actually becoming much more gregarious in the Fourth Age. Here are some examples:

"After the fall of Sauron, Gimli brought south a part of the Dwarf-folk of Erebor, and he became Lord of the Glittering Caves. He and his people did great works in Gondor and Rohan. For Minas Tirith they forged gates of mithril and steel to replace those broken by the Witch-king. Legolas his friend brought south Elves out of Greenwood, and they dwelt in Ithilien,
and it became once again the fairest country in all the westlands."

- The Return of the King, Appendix A, part III, Durin's Folk

"Three times Lorien had been assailed from Dol Guldur, but besides the valour of the elven people of that land, the power that dwelt there was too great for any to overcome, unless Sauron had come there himself. Though grievous harm was done to the fair woods on the borders, the assaults were driven back; and when the Shadow had passed, Celeborn came forth and led the host of Lorien over Anduin in many boats. They took Dol Guldur, and Galadriel threw down its walls and laid bare its pits, and the forest was cleansed.

In the North also there had been war and evil. The realm of Thranduil was invaded, and there was long battle under the trees and great ruin of fire; but in the end Thranduil had the victory. And on the day of the New Year of the Elves, Celeborn and Thranduil met in the midst of the forest; and they renamed Mirkwood Eryn Lasgalen, The Wood of Greenleaves. Thranduil took all the northern region as far as the mountains that rise in the forest for his realm; and Celeborn took all the southern wood below the Narrows, and named it East Lorien; all the wide forest between was given to the Beornings and the Woodmen. But after the passing of Galadriel in a few years Celeborn grew weary of his realm and went to Imladris to dwell with the sons of Elrond. In the Greenwood the Silvan Elves remained untroubled, but in Lorien there lingered sadly only a few of its former people, and there was no longer light or song in Caras Galadon."

- The Return of the King, Appendix B, The Tale of Years

In addition, it seems that the Fourth Age is a time of renewal and rebuilding. A few brief but significant passages suggest that Elessar seeks to reinvigorate the entire northwestern part of Middle Earth, something which will take a number of hardy individuals performing countless heroic deeds. Here are some examples:

"King Elessar rides north, and dwells for a while by Lake Evendim."
[Fourth Age 14]

- The Return of the King, Appendix B, The Tale of Years

"And Aragorn gave to Faramir Ithilien to be his princedom, and bade him dwell in the hills of Emyn Arnen within sight of the City.'For,' said he, 'Minas Ithil in Morgul Vale shall be utterly destroyed, and though it may in time to come be made clean, no man may dwell there for many long years.'"

- The Return of the King, Book VI, Chapter V: The Steward and the King

As simple as these passages seem, the actual doing of the deeds required to accomplish them is rather difficult. Elessar not only travels to, but actually lives at Annuminas for a while. Seeing that the city was a ruin at the end of the Third Age, abandoned for centuries, and surrounded by wilderness, this implies an enormous effort was made by Gondor. It seems clear that Annuminas is restored, and becomes the chief city of the northern kingdom. It is not difficult to picture that King Elessar also rebuilt Fornost Erain and Tharbad. It is also highly likely, even though unmentioned, that Osgiliath was cleared and rebuilt; given Elessar's desire to rebuild the Dunedain kingdoms, this seems a natural assumption to make.

In addition, the destruction of Minas Ithil, an entire fortress-city the size of Minas Tirith (at least), held by the chief of the Nazgul for centuries and used as a base for a large part of the strength of Mordor, is a task which would have to involve thousands of troops. This is especially true if the city was used as a rallying point and base for some of the remnants of Sauron's armies. It is not hard to imagine that the interior of the city is filled with all manner of evil things - Men, beasts, traps, and a generally unwholesome atmosphere. Very much like a D&D adventure. And speaking of D&D adventures...

"Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked there, but I will bring no report to darken the light of day."

- The Two Towers, Book III, Chapter V: The White Rider

With the Balrog defeated, Sauron gone, and a huge part of the strength of the orcs in the region destroyed, it is quite likely that the Dwarves would at least begin to explore and clean out Moria. This would provide the archetypal dungeon adventure. Especially given that tantalizing glimpse Gandalf gives into a world of darkness and horror far beneath even where the Kings of the Dwarves once dwelled.

Here are a few random, and final, thoughts about possibilities for Fourth Age campaigns:

Mirkwood (renamed Eryn Lasgalen) and Ithilien would likely also remain havens for a time for evil creatures, such as spiders and orcs, until the Elves, woodmen, and Beornings finally rid the forest of them. Shelob still dwells near Cirth Ungol, and the Watcher in the Water still haunts the lake near the west gate of Moria.

Veterans of Celeborn's taking of Dol Guldur would be good candidates for duty in Mordor itself, or any place wherein darkness still holds sway.

There are at least two great Elves still unaccounted for in the 4th Age: Daeron and Maglor. Perhaps one or the other is encountered in the East, or perhaps one or the other returns to western Middle Earth, finally weary of wandering, their pain and sorrow driving them towards the west at last. Perhaps one of them could take up residence in fading Lorien, or even in Rivendell for a time, or take up the kingship of East Lorien once Celeborn leaves.

All in all, Middle-earth of the Fourth Age is a vital, interesting setting. The gloom of Sauron's presence has been replaced by an atmosphere of beginnings, but remnants of the Shadow and the things it wrought are still in Middle-earth, awaiting heroes to root them out and vanquish them. Just because the One Ring and its master are gone doesn't mean their legacy has vanished.

I've read this before when you've posted elsewhere but I think it's a great idea for a few of reasons.
 
1. The number of uber-NPCs drops dramatically.  Gandalf et al. have fulfilled their destinies and left the remainder behind.  
 
2.  It's post apocalypse but in a good way.  Many of the old power structures are gone so there are chances for upward mobility and nation building.
 
3.  It's largely unwritten.  It's harder to do much earlier in the timeline without some players worrying about how it conflicts with canon.  (The good part of using a well known setting is that many people have heard about it and like it.  The bad part is that there are too many self designated experts.)
 
Sure, most of the famous demihumans are gone but that just leaves more room the unknown demihumans to enter the stage.  Even if they know their kind will dwindle, it isn't instant and they could survive pretty much forever with a low profile along the lines of Tom Bombadil.
 
I've never read beyond the Simarillion but it's celar that there were many entities good and bad, such as Bombadil, the Balrog, etc. who were never part of Sauron's war on either side.  But they still might have opinions about new activities in their area.

I totally agree that this is one of the best ways to go about using a middle earth setting.

Mirkwood, The Far North, and Mordor would still be a places of darkness, needing to be cleared.

What kind of system would you use, to really capture the essence of this?  How would you deal with the question of worship?

Tolkien actually worked on a Fourth Age sequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy at some point, where darkness came back to the halls of Minas Tirith long after King Elessar's death. Shadow cults, plots to kill the king of Gondor and Arnor, and a resurgence of orcs in the wild... it was in the end deemed too dark and gritty, not heroic enough to bother (from JRRT's point of view: remember this is the guy who hated Shakespeare with a passion).

There's a way to build a fantastic campaign out of it all, I agree. But the tone needs to be right, i.e. no goofy magic, no high fantasy. Something more like Harn in tone, I'd think, since the War of the Ring itself would be remembered as the grand time of epics and glories at that time.

Quote from: LordVreeg;406153What kind of system would you use, to really capture the essence of this?

I think a lot of fantasy RPGs could handle it, but that's just me. The actual Lord of the Rings RPG Decipher produced would work. I could see a case being made for a BRP take on it, or, as Benoist suggests, Harn.

My own personal druthers run to D&D, whether a variant of AD&D, d20, or 4e. All of them would necessitate going through the spells and powers to cull inappropriate stuff, and a definite list of available classes and races. Decipher's game's take on magic and corruption would be at least a good guideline for modifying the magic system.

Quote from: LordVreeg;406153How would you deal with the question of worship?

I don't think I would deal with it at all, at least for the Free Peoples. With Aragorn on the throne, perhaps the Valar would once again be venerated, but it never seemed that they were worshiped, at least in the sense modern religion or even RPGs use the term. For the evil folk, like the orcs or Black Numenoreans, I think they would continue to worship Sauron, and, by association, Morgoth. Perhaps the way the Conan RPG deals with the worship of evil entities would be appropriate.

When it seemed likely I would get to run such a campaign, I'd written an outline of a campaign I called "The Ruins of Barad-dur," set very early on in Aragorn's reign. It would be centered on a keep built to watch over the titular site. The gist of it was for the PCs to keep servants of Sauron from recovering anything useful from the rubble of Sauron's fortress, and to destroy anything that turned up. I thought it would be cool to introduce a sanity system akin to call of Cthulhu's, or a modified corruption system, for those stationed at the keep, and let the effects of being so near to what had been the focus of evil in Middle-earth to wear away at the characters. I'd still like to run that campaign.

The 4th Age for me always seemed to lack to epic feel of the first 3 ages.
 
For me, I would be more interested in running the big epic scenes from the 1st and 2nd Ages. It just seemed to have more passion, more world shattering events that would be quite a background (albeit metaplot) to the dragon-dodging adventures of the party. Whilst every player would know of the real events of the 3rd Age, half the fun would be playing out new possibilities and what-ifs...

Quote from: Lawbag;406223The 4th Age for me always seemed to lack to epic feel of the first 3 ages.
 
For me, I would be more interested in running the big epic scenes from the 1st and 2nd Ages. It just seemed to have more passion, more world shattering events that would be quite a background (albeit metaplot) to the dragon-dodging adventures of the party. Whilst every player would know of the real events of the 3rd Age, half the fun would be playing out new possibilities and what-ifs...

The First and Second Ages could be fun, but I've never found them all that interesting as the context for a game. They seem too remote to me, too filled with characters that are difficult to relate to. Still, I can understand that they would appeal to many as the setting for a game. Plus, they have a "no holds barred" feel to them - after all, whole continents get destroyed. That could be pretty cool.

The Third Age is more easy to relate to. The temptation to muddle with continuity is there. I've thought about running a campaign set in the time period from when Frodo left the Shire with the Ring until Sauron was brought down. The PCs would work for the good guys, perhaps as some of the folk Elrond sent out, since Rivendell seems like a good hub for that. The main mission would be to find and assist Frodo; Glorfindel was the one who did it in the book, but maybe the PCs could be the ones to do so. If the PCs didn't become part of the Fellowship, they could be sent to assist in any number of other hotspots. Also, I recall someone discussing how Tolkien had mentioned that the Blue Wizards had actually succeeded in their mission to the East, meaning that Sauron didn't end up getting as much help from there as he'd intended. It would be interesting to run a campaign dealing with the Blue Wizards and their allies fighting the Easterlings.

The Fourth Age strikes me as interesting for any number of reasons, many of which I mention above. It also strikes me as similar in power level and (to an extent) tone to early Greyhawk.

We spent many years playing in the Fourth Age with MERP when I was younger. It holds some of my most fond memories as a gamer. I heartily endorse any gaming in that period for all the reasons the Colonel stated

Quote from: ColonelHardisson;406227The First and Second Ages could be fun, but I've never found them all that interesting as the context for a game. They seem too remote to me, too filled with characters that are difficult to relate to. Still, I can understand that they would appeal to many as the setting for a game. Plus, they have a "no holds barred" feel to them - after all, whole continents get destroyed. That could be pretty cool.

The Third Age is more easy to relate to. The temptation to muddle with continuity is there. I've thought about running a campaign set in the time period from when Frodo left the Shire with the Ring until Sauron was brought down. The PCs would work for the good guys, perhaps as some of the folk Elrond sent out, since Rivendell seems like a good hub for that. The main mission would be to find and assist Frodo; Glorfindel was the one who did it in the book, but maybe the PCs could be the ones to do so. If the PCs didn't become part of the Fellowship, they could be sent to assist in any number of other hotspots. Also, I recall someone discussing how Tolkien had mentioned that the Blue Wizards had actually succeeded in their mission to the East, meaning that Sauron didn't end up getting as much help from there as he'd intended. It would be interesting to run a campaign dealing with the Blue Wizards and their allies fighting the Easterlings.

The Fourth Age strikes me as interesting for any number of reasons, many of which I mention above. It also strikes me as similar in power level and (to an extent) tone to early Greyhawk.

1st and 2nd age ME is more about an epic/mythic level, when mortals and elves would challenge Morgoth directly; and balrogs were part of Morgoth's army.

I think the power level thing you talk about is a really good reason to play fourth age.

Quote from: Benoist;406163Tolkien actually worked on a Fourth Age sequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy at some point, where darkness came back to the halls of Minas Tirith long after King Elessar's death. Shadow cults, plots to kill the king of Gondor and Arnor, and a resurgence of orcs in the wild... it was in the end deemed too dark and gritty, not heroic enough to bother...

That story is called "The New Shadow" and can be found in The History of Middle-Earth Vol. 12.

It's not exactly set "long after King Elessar's death", but rather during the reign of Elessar's son Eldarion.

Here is what Tolkien himself said about the story:

QuoteI did begin a story placed about 100 years after the Downfall [of Sauron], but it proved sinister and depressing.  ... I could have written a 'thriller' about the [revolutionary] plot and its discovery and overthrow -- but it would be just that.  Not worth doing. (P. 410)

A pity he didn't finish it!  I found the 8 pages that Tolkien did write very intriguing.  It certainly could serve as the premise for a great 4th Age campaign.

Quote from: ColonelHardisson;406147...
There are at least two great Elves still unaccounted for in the 4th Age: Daeron and Maglor. Perhaps one or the other is encountered in the East, or perhaps one or the other returns to western Middle Earth, finally weary of wandering, their pain and sorrow driving them towards the west at last. Perhaps one of them could take up residence in fading Lorien, or even in Rivendell for a time, or take up the kingship of East Lorien once Celeborn leaves...

Speaking of Maglor, Graham Staplehurst wrote a really great adventure about him for White Dwarf in the mid-1980s.  It was called "Star Spray", and included stats for both MERP and AD&D.  I think that it would work splendidly in a 4th Age campaign.  It's actually a 'mini-epic' adventure, i.e., a way for the PCs to become involved in one of the great stories of Middle-earth (the life of Maglor) without disrupting its history in any way (not that that would be an issue for a 4th Age campaign).

(I have a PDF of the adventure.  Feel free to PM me with your e-mail address if you'd like me to send it to you.)

Another great quest for a Fourth Age Middle-earth campaign: the recovery of the lost palantiri of Arnor!

ICE designed a very good campaign based on this idea entitled 'Palantir Quest'.

More info here.

Quote from: tellius;406231We spent many years playing in the Fourth Age with MERP when I was younger. It holds some of my most fond memories as a gamer. I heartily endorse any gaming in that period for all the reasons the Colonel stated

Yeah, I ran a number of campaigns using MERP set in the Fourth Age during my high-school years.  Good times!

I also ran one about a decade ago.  It was less successful, thanks to one irritating player.  In retrospect, I simply should have kicked him out.

Quote from: Akrasia;406247Yeah, I ran a number of campaigns using MERP set in the Fourth Age during my high-school years.  Good times!

I also ran one about a decade ago.  It was less successful, thanks to one irritating player.  In retrospect, I simply should have kicked him out.

I still have all my MERP books sitting in my gaming shelves at home waiting for some old style playing. I might hit up the group for some nostalgia gaming this weekend.

Quote from: Akrasia;406243Another great quest for a Fourth Age Middle-earth campaign: the recovery of the lost palantiri of Arnor!

ICE designed a very good campaign based on this idea entitled 'Palantir Quest'.

More info here.

I actually own a copy of that. I got it new, and was stunned to see it on the store shelf when it appeared. I think it's decent enough, but I'd want to rework some of it.