Adventures in Middle Earth Loremasters Guide

Skywalker · January 31, 2017, 02:32:21 PM

The Loremasters Guide has been released. Its a pretty great book with setting details (covering Wilderland and with focus on Laketown as a homebase), more mechanics such as magic items, audiences, a bestiary, and a raft of LM advice.

Contents page is here: http://i1.wp.com/cubicle7.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Adventures-in-Middle-earth-Loremasters-Guide-contents-2000.jpg

PDF is here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/204133/Adventures-in-Middleearth-Loremasters-Guide

Previous thread on the Players Guide here: http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?35598-Adventures-in-Middle-Earth-Players-Guide

Brand55 · January 31, 2017, 03:04:35 PM

I just saw the email from OBS. I'll definitely look into picking up the LMG in the near future. While I expect I'm covered thoroughly on setting content from The One Ring, I'm curious to see how they translated over some of the rules such as magical items as well as just how tough the 5e monsters will be.

Skywalker · January 31, 2017, 03:13:28 PM

Quote from: Brand55;943486I just saw the email from OBS. I'll definitely look into picking up the LMG in the near future. While I expect I'm covered thoroughly on setting content from The One Ring, I'm curious to see how they translated over some of the rules such as magical items as well as just how tough the 5e monsters will be.

Magic items use the craft your own approach from The One Ring.

Monsters are around 5e equivalents with some special abilities for flavour.

crkrueger · January 31, 2017, 03:20:18 PM

Quote from: Skywalker;943470(covering Wilderland and with focus on Laketown as a homebase)

That's an interesting choice.

Sounds like they are simply plugging AiME into the current TOR timeline moving towards War of the Ring, which presumably is going to cover the Northern Front.

I wonder if that means they are not going release 5e versions of the entire TOR line, or at least conversion guides.

Skywalker · January 31, 2017, 03:32:27 PM

Quote from: CRKrueger;943492I wonder if that means they are not going release 5e versions of the entire TOR line, or at least conversion guides.

The next release is Tales from Wilderland, so it looks like they are following TOR pretty closely.

They have added a good chunk of the Laketown Sourcebook including JonH's beautiful detailed map in the LMG, making a great tool for a starting Sanctuary.

finarvyn · January 31, 2017, 05:53:45 PM

Quote from: Skywalker;943498The next release is Tales from Wilderland, so it looks like they are following TOR pretty closely.

They have added a good chunk of the Laketown Sourcebook including JonH's beautiful detailed map in the LMG, making a great tool for a starting Sanctuary.

That makes sense, actually, as they could crank out a bunch of converted stuff really quickly since the bulk of the writing would be done and it would just be a matter of tweaking stuff to fit the new rules set. Folks who haven't invested in TOR will see it as "new."

I own TOR but haven't really played it; if I had to pick from scratch I might pick the 5E version just so I wouldn't have to learn a new rules set. :-)

Skywalker · January 31, 2017, 05:59:36 PM

I have all of TOR but have also picked up the PG and LMG as they give you the base needed to run under the alternative 5e system, including a lot of the new Cultures and the Rivendell magic item rules. Its not hard to convert most of the other TOR stuff over.

estar · January 31, 2017, 10:27:21 PM

I think the lack of undead or restless spirits is a major omission. However I appreciated the generic journey tables for laying out the bare bones of how that works. Working my way through the magic item system now.

estar · January 31, 2017, 10:29:59 PM

Quote from: finarvyn;943509I own TOR but haven't really played it; if I had to pick from scratch I might pick the 5E version just so I wouldn't have to learn a new rules set. :-)

Given the terse nature of the TOR rules and stats the supplements have a lot of value packed in terms of setting background and adventure ideas. I bought them all since the release of AiME last fall and so far I haven't been disappointed with any of them. Even the Loremaster Screen had Lake-town in it. Of course that showed up in the Loremaster Book but at the time I felt I got my money worth.

Christopher Brady · January 31, 2017, 10:48:00 PM

I need to find a hard copy of this stuff. This looks cool. No one has ever really done (in my PERSONAL EXPERIENCE) a LOTR-style D&D game. And I'm honestly curious about the system and how malleable it is.

estar · January 31, 2017, 11:23:18 PM

Quote from: Christopher Brady;943544I need to find a hard copy of this stuff. This looks cool. No one has ever really done (in my PERSONAL EXPERIENCE) a LOTR-style D&D game. And I'm honestly curious about the system and how malleable it is.

Archery is the new fireball when it comes to AiME.

Skywalker · February 01, 2017, 12:54:14 AM

Quote from: estar;943541I think the lack of undead or restless spirits is a major omission. However I appreciated the generic journey tables for laying out the bare bones of how that works. Working my way through the magic item system now.

A wight would have been good but in TOR they were statted up with the Eriador setting material IIRC. From what I have seen though, the D&D equivalents are going to be too far off.

S'mon · February 01, 2017, 01:37:49 AM

Bestiary section looks incredibly meagre. Tolkien is full of critters - wights, ringwraiths, nazgul beasts, the watcher in the water, dead men of Dunharrow, werewolves, giants, & dragons are a few that come to mind.

Skywalker · February 01, 2017, 02:04:02 AM

As with TOR, AME is focussed on the Wilderland. Hopefully, that is made clear in the sales material.

Until further releases, the SRD should cover most of those monsters. The LMG goes to show that mechanically there isn't a massive discrepancy with D&D at its base. FWIW werewolves are in the LMG.

KingofElfland · February 03, 2017, 09:18:47 AM

I wish it had some sort of undead too, but the beastiary only looks meager in the table of contents. There are a lot of variations within those categories. The marsh hag from the TOR book is found under the orc section (which is interesting, I thought they were more mewlip type beings). There is a bog ogre under trolls. Also the NPC section is nice and not just a reprint of the MM. There's also a list of special attacks and other features for creating your own—it's a nice tool kit book as well.