Quote from: estar;1020051For example, while using Cublicle's stuff I have a few things of my own woven in. One of them resolves around Pallandro one of the Blue Wizards of the Istari that was sent to the east. He was corrupted by Sauron, and is tasked with preparing the Easterlings beyond the Sea of Rhun to act as the spearhead of the invasion of Erebor, Dale, and the Wilderlands.

One possible resolution would be the PCs find Alatar who is "lost" but not corrupted and convince him to help deal with Pallandro. If the PCs are completely successful the end result is that the Easterling are weakened enough to give the Free Peoples of Middle Earth a chance at military victory.

Very cool! :cool:

Quote from: Akrasia;1020577One complaint I have about C7's Rhovanion Region Guide is that it's surprisingly 'crowded' (there are a number of Northmen tribes never mentioned by Tolkien, a lingering Easterling tribe from the Wainriders' invasion centuries ago, some Anduin 'wild' Hobbits still around, Riverfolk traders, some lingering Eotheod tribes [they didn't want to go to Rohan for some reason?], etc.).

It may look dense

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2135[/ATTACH]

But keep in each of those hexes are 10 miles with a per day movement right of 20 miles or two hexes per day. Half of those sites are ruins, and notable location not settlements per say. I circled the settlements.

As for the extra groups, they are extrapolated from things mentioned in the text. We know from the appendices that Beorn became a chief of men. That there were still northmen in and around Mirkwood. As for the above region of the map we have this from Chapter Six of the Hobbit.

QuoteIn spite of the dangers of this far land bold men had of late been making their way back into it from the South, cutting down trees, and building themselves places to live in among the more pleasant woods in the valleys and along the river shores. There were many of them, and they were brave and well-armed, and even the Wargs dared not attacked them if there were many together, or in the bright day.

When I look at the same region in MERPS

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2136[/ATTACH]

Sure it only got four settlements but it not showing all the sites and points of interest either so looks far more empty. I don't think should be much debate on this. From what I understand ICE and Cubicle are following pretty much the same methodology for their respective time periods (TA 1650s versus TA 2940s). They took any hint that Tolkien give and extrapolate the shit out of it to develop a more complete picture of what Middle Earth was like.

Because of this, Arthedain, Rhudur, and Cardolan for ICE are far more densely packed than what depicted in Tolkien's writing. And for Cublic, since this is post Battle of the Five Army, the Wilderlands comes off far less empty than it did in the hobbit.

Quote from: Akrasia;1020577One great thing about AiME is that it is relatively to translate MERP stats into 5e (or it is for me). So if you have a decent collection of MERP stuff, you can translate the stuff you like for your AiME campaign.  This is what I'm doing: drawing on both C7's AiME books and ICE's MERP books for my campaign.

I tried doing that but in general too much has happened between the two periods and the stuff that remained relatively unchanged has the detail fleshed out in the AiME supplement. Having said that there nothing that say you have to start in the 2940s with AiME. Unlike The One Ring there is number outside details in AiME that it feasible to use the 1650s era material of ICE.

Still wish they hired Pete Fenlon as the cartographer tho.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1020562The problem is that while in the Legion you can make up new stories, there's really only one main story in Lord of The Rings.

I don't know why you are so hung up on this point. I ran four groups of players with AiME nobody expected to step in the fellowship's shoes or that the campaign would be about destroying the One Ring.

And if you were ballsy enough, you could go with an alternative history where the events of the hobbits took place. Bilbo in the Shire with the Ring, Bilbo doesn't have a heir as Frodo drowned in the Brandywine along with Frodo's parents, Aragon died along with his parents at the hands of Orcs and thus the Dunedain chieftains shift to a different branch of the family.  Then before Biblo's 111th birthday, Gandalf decides to involve the PCs in his plans instead of what occurred in the books.

The TOR/AiME stuff is good...very good.  I wouldn't say it's universally better than ICE's MERP.  I think ICE was much better at giving me bits and pieces I could use to make my own ME, particularly maps, NPCs, etc.  C7 in its writing suffers from too much metaplot-itis.  Their stuff is amazing...as long as I don't want to go too far off the paths.

Before people go apeshit, I'm not saying they are writing Pathfinder style AP railroads.  I am, however, saying, that, probably due to the era more than anything else, I see the MERP supplements as being much more useful to sandbox style play.  For example, if I want to play a 4th Age game with Eldarion as king, the MERP supplements, simply due to the *type* of detail they focus on, will be much more useful for that purpose, even if the situations of the adventures are specific to another era.

Now running the TOR/AiME stuff RAW as intended, I would agree it's superior because it has a plan and sticks to it, and executes it very well, where the MERP stuff was never really meant to be a campaign (except for something like Palantir Quest, which I WILL run, even if it's on my deathbed in Cyberspace after all of us are in Gamer's Retirement Brainboxes to save resources.) and I will admit the MERP run over time had some stinkers.

Quote from: estar;1020596Still wish they hired Pete Fenlon as the cartographer tho.

Do you have the Pete Fenlon add-in for CC3?

Quote from: CRKrueger;1020601Do you have the Pete Fenlon add-in for CC3?

Yup and thinking of breaking it out. But given the fact I am involved in the three campaign (one as a player). I haven't had the time to get proficient at it. So I fall back on CorelDraw and how I draw for my regular stuff.

But on the other hand, it all PNG images so I could just port it over to Corel. Mmmmmmmm

The Heart of Mirkwood



Battle map for Valtar's bandit camp in the Wolfswood (West Anduin Vales)

Quote from: estar;1020596Because of this, Arthedain, Rhudur, and Cardolan for ICE are far more densely packed than what depicted in Tolkien's writing. And for Cublic, since this is post Battle of the Five Army, the Wilderlands comes off far less empty than it did in the hobbit.

Well yeah, because the world Tolkien presented, while richly evocative, is completely unviable as a functioning civilization. Villages and small towns scattered a hundred miles from one another, trade almost non-existent. The population density he presents is Saharan-level. Then you get the weirdness of a region that has one small town raising an army of 1,000 well-armed men.

You don't need Harn-level historical and demographic accuracy to make a campaign world. But I don't have a problem with a game fleshing out Tolkien's world into something that's more plausibly populated.

Looks like Rivendell is next for Adventures in Middle Earth

http://cubicle7.co.uk/rivendell-region-guide-for-adventures-in-middle-earth/

Quote from: estar;1021805Looks like Rivendell is next for Adventures in Middle Earth

http://cubicle7.co.uk/rivendell-region-guide-for-adventures-in-middle-earth/

Cannot wait for it. I really enjoy the clip at which these products for AiMe are coming out. In about another year or so we should be at parity with TOR.

Quote from: Ulairi;1021809Cannot wait for it. I really enjoy the clip at which these products for AiMe are coming out. In about another year or so we should be at parity with TOR.

Yeah. Jugeing from the upcoming Moria module, which will have stats for both TOR and AiME, I guess that the two product lines will merge fully in the future.

Is there supposed to be a lot of adventuring in Rivendell?

Quote from: RPGPundit;1022210Is there supposed to be a lot of adventuring in Rivendell?

Yes but not of the hack and slash variety. For that, Eastern Eriador awaits. In AiME, and TOR, what you do in a safe haven, or a sanctuary is as important as the what you do while adventuring.

Quote from: estar;1022235Yes but not of the hack and slash variety. For that, Eastern Eriador awaits. In AiME, and TOR, what you do in a safe haven, or a sanctuary is as important as the what you do while adventuring.

That's what I thought. But I guess that's what happens when you make a bunch of region books.

I have many of the TOR books but, while I enjoy the lore, find my unfamiliarity with the system inhibits my fully enjoying them.  I'm not eager to learn the new system as I'm not playing many RPGs at the moment and am collecting / reading TOR for pleasure.  I'm seriously considering selling those bits of TOR that overlap with AiME and picking up AiME (and continuing to sell off TOR books as AiME releases books for Erebore, Rohan, etc.).  Other than the system are there any major differences in terms of lore, content, etc. between the two which would make it worth keeping both sets?

Quote from: BigWeather;1024847Other than the system are there any major differences in terms of lore, content, etc. between the two which would make it worth keeping both sets?

No, as far as Lore goes, AiME is replicating what they released for TOR. Just organized a bit differently for example Lake-Town not the Marsh Bell is in the Loremaster Book.