So I am intrested in Adventures in Middle-Earth by Cubicle 7. I already got The One Ring rpg but I don't think I will get much use of it. The rules feels quite wonky. And  I am gaming on a tight budget,  so I don't feel very inclined to shell out money on the 5e core books right now. So I wonder how much do you need to print out from the free 5e basic rules to run Adventures In Middle-Earth? Which chapters/pages for the very essence of it as a reference at the table?

Adventures in Middle Earth is excellent.

Yes you can use just the Basic Rules

Players Guide
Creating a Character Page 6 to 10
Playing the Game Page 57 to 62
Adventuring Page 63 to 68
Combat Page 69 to 77
Condition Summary Page 105 to 106

DM Rules
Monster Intro Page 2 to 7
Most of the Animals from the Monster Stats
Building Combat Encounters 56 to 58 However AiME has a different balance as far as combat goes so run a few sample encounters to get a feel for it.

OR

Download an editable version of the SRD and use your word processor to edit it

The Markdown version of the 5e SRD

The Word conversion

I've been tempted to get Adventures in ME.
However I'm a bit leery of Cubicle 7.
I got the first edition of tOR, which was pretty awful .

It'd be nice to see a review/overview of Adventures in Middle Earth here before I invest as there's several books in the line and I don;rt want to spend money on it yet.

Quote from: estar;1018204Adventures in Middle Earth is excellent.

Yes you can use just the Basic Rules

Players Guide
Creating a Character Page 6 to 10
Playing the Game Page 57 to 62
Adventuring Page 63 to 68
Combat Page 69 to 77
Condition Summary Page 105 to 106

DM Rules
Monster Intro Page 2 to 7
Most of the Animals from the Monster Stats
Building Combat Encounters 56 to 58 However AiME has a different balance as far as combat goes so run a few sample encounters to get a feel for it.

OR

Download an editable version of the SRD and use your word processor to edit it

The Markdown version of the 5e SRD

The Word conversion

Thank you very much, good sir!

Quote from: danskmacabre;1018211I've been tempted to get Adventures in ME.
However I'm a bit leery of Cubicle 7.
I got the first edition of tOR, which was pretty awful .

It'd be nice to see a review/overview of Adventures in Middle Earth here before I invest as there's several books in the line and I don;rt want to spend money on it yet.

It good, very good. It is both D&D 5e and something different.

In a nutshell Adventure in Middle Earth takes the core rules of D&D 5e and strips out monsters, classes, spells,  and magic items, basically the "stuff". Then supplies it own set of monsters, classics, and magic that are crafted for Middle Earth. For example there are no spell casters, no references to ANY D&D spell. In it's place you have a set of abilities (a few of which that are called spells), and virtues that form a low key system of magic that fits Middle Earth perfectly.

The classes are

Scholar
Can either be the party's (fellowship) healer or the go-to guy for lore and information.

Slayer
A re-skinned barbarian but focused on killing monsters rather being somebody from a primitive culture.

The Treasure Hunter
The Rogue/Thief of the system. But focusing more on Stealth than the 5e Rogue.

Wanderer
Basically a wilderness fighter tweaked for Middle Earth

Warden
A warrior who is an inspiring leader. Like a 5e bard with some of the ethos of a paladin.

Warrior
A re-skinned 5e fighter with a few tweaks.

Cultures

Instead of races you have cultures which could be another race. So there is a difference between a Dwarf of Erebor and a Dwarf of the Blue Mountain. The same with a Elf of Mirkwood and a Elf of Rivendell.  In AiME there are Dwarves of Erebor, Hobbits of the Shire, Elves of Mirkwood, Men of Bree, Men of Minas Tirth, Men of Rohan, Woodsemen, Men of Dale, Men of the Lake, and Beornings.

Virtues
Instead of feats they have virtues including some that are culture specific. They are all very atmospheric and fit Middle Earth.

Monster
Monsters are tough and they are not. In AiME bows are the killer weapon if the fellowship works together. Otherwise the Wolves, Spiders, Goblins, Orcs, Trolls, and the dead will just annihilate the part.

Journey, Resting and Campaign Time
AiME now has what is called a fellowship phase. At first it looks like a variant of 5e's downtime activity but it really about the flow of the campaign. Many D&D campaign grind out time day by day with the players never really stopping much.

In AiME that not the case. First off you can only take a Long Rest during the Fellowship phase and only get the full benefit of a Long Rest if you are in a sanctuary. A sanctuary is just a shorthand for a place that the PCs been around along enough to become part of the community.  Outside of the fellowship Phase you can only take short rest.

Then there are Journey rules. Middle Earth is big and sparsely populated particularly in the Wilderlands, AiME's default region. The general idea is that you look at the length of the journey and the difficulty of terrain and generate one or more random encounters. Instead of rolling hex by hex or day by day, you sprinkle these encounters where it makes sense. The most you will ever generated around five encounters.

The Encounters are varied and evocative. They are not all about random NPCs or Monsters. But can involve overcoming obstacle, or seeing the wonders of Middle Earth. While at first it seems a bit structured it works pretty well once you internalize the benefits and complications. The Players Guide has the encounters with all the fluff while the Loremaster Guide presents them stripped down to their bare mechanics. I found both useful.

The Journey rules also bring up a salient point about AiME, you got to be willing to roleplay the results. A lot of things in the overall rules involve the characters feeling joy or despair. A bad journey can have the entire fellowship arriving at their destination tired, down trodden and exhausted. While a good journey can give the fellowship a major boost.  

The exhaustion rules are a major factor in AiME. The first level of exhaustion imposes disadvantage on all ability checks and it goes downhill from there. And exhaustion can generally only be recovered with a long rest during the fellowship phase.

All of this works hand and hand to make AiME much gritter game than D&D 5e. In addition time flows much faster in a similar manner to Pendragon and Ars Magica Season.


The Supplements
Are kick ass way better than any previous Middle Earth RPG included ICE's MERP supplements. I got all the books now including the The One Ring versions. Even if you don't ever use AiME or TOR the supplement are just great to have for Middle Earth Roleplaying.

I agree with Estar. I purchased the TOR core rulebook years ago when it was two paperbacks and game with the set of Gandalf dice. It was poorly organized and edited and the system was a bit wonky for me. I'm not a big fan of 5E but AiME clears out a lot of the things I don't like and like Estar said, the supplements are bloody fantastic. They are coming out with a Moria box set this year and if they can make it as good as the one Decipher released I'll be super happy.

I have the one volume rules and they seem fine to me.

Thanks estar for the overview!

I was never a fan of the travel mechanism in tOR, so perhaps ME Adventures is not for me.
But I might buy the core player's book for a read, as I'm a big LotR fan, so it might be cool to read.

Quote from: danskmacabre;1018389Thanks estar for the overview!

I was never a fan of the travel mechanism in tOR, so perhaps ME Adventures is not for me.
But I might buy the core player's book for a read, as I'm a big LotR fan, so it might be cool to read.

While sharing some elements it not the same.

Quote from: estar;1018204Adventures in Middle Earth is excellent.

Yes you can use just the Basic Rules

Players Guide
Creating a Character Page 6 to 10
Playing the Game Page 57 to 62
Adventuring Page 63 to 68
Combat Page 69 to 77
Condition Summary Page 105 to 106

DM Rules
Monster Intro Page 2 to 7
Most of the Animals from the Monster Stats
Building Combat Encounters 56 to 58 However AiME has a different balance as far as combat goes so run a few sample encounters to get a feel for it.

Quote from: Teodrik;1018255Thank you very much, good sir!

Yes, that is very useful Estar. Thanks!

Do you know whether there is anything in the three physical D&D 5e core books that really makes them worth buying if all you want to do is run Adventures in Middle Earth?

Quote from: NinjaWeasel;1018472Yes, that is very useful Estar. Thanks!

Do you know whether there is anything in the three physical D&D 5e core books that really makes them worth buying if all you want to do is run Adventures in Middle Earth?

No not really. When I had just AiME and not the Loremaster Guide I use some of tolkeinish monsters like orc, goblins, and trolls but now I only use the animals which can be gotten from the SRD or the Basic Rules.

Quote from: estar;1018480No not really. When I had just AiME and not the Loremaster Guide I use some of tolkeinish monsters like orc, goblins, and trolls but now I only use the animals which can be gotten from the SRD or the Basic Rules.

That's good to know. I'm going to put together a booklet, using the SRD/Basic docs, of character gen and the essential rules for some potential players then I think.

Quote from: NinjaWeasel;1018482That's good to know. I'm going to put together a booklet, using the SRD/Basic docs, of character gen and the essential rules for some potential players then I think.

Might want to use this a template. Haven't made one for AiME. If I did it would be the first three levels and all the classes.

http://www.batintheattic.com/downloads/D&D%205e%20Convention%20Classes%20Rev%202.pdf

This info is good to know. I, too, am eyeing AiME for my low-magic gaming 5e needs.

Quote from: estar;1018405While sharing some elements it not the same.

Ok thanx, that's good to know.

So if I just get the Middle Earth Adventures Players guide only.  can I run the game with just that?
Or is the Loremaster guide an absolute necessity to run it?

For example, you can quite easily run DnD 5e without the DMG, but it's a nice to have.