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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. :-)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
d&d has plenty of monsters. Use some of them.
I got a whack of The One Ring books from a Bundle of Holding sale and after reading it over I think the system is elegant and well suited to the setting so I don't see any reason to get this D&D conversion.
Quote from: Voros;943951I got a whack of The One Ring books from a Bundle of Holding sale and after reading it over I think the system is elegant and well suited to the setting so I don't see any reason to get this D&D conversion.
That is probably true if all the players you are likely to run for agree with your preference.
My version of this game: 1E AD&D hardbacks, and the Atlas of Middle Earth. Who actually needs to be told what Middle Earth is all about? Didnt we all read a 1500 page book about it?
Quote from: Larsdangly;944001My version of this game: 1E AD&D hardbacks, and the Atlas of Middle Earth. Who actually needs to be told what Middle Earth is all about? Didnt we all read a 1500 page book about it?
That's nice, but for those of us who find that lacking, there's this. And now everyone can play! Isn't that great?
Quote from: Skywalker;943971That is probably true if all the players you are likely to run for agree with your preference.
Well my table isn't welded to one particular system so I don't think that will much of a consideration. We do like 5e though. Curse of Strahd and Out of the Abyss have gone over well but we like to mix it up with shorter games and one shots too.
I would like to tackle The Darkening of Mirkwood but I'm not sure we'll be able to finish it. May try one of the shorter supplements instead.
Does anyone know if the physical book is out or just the PDF? I asked at my local game store and the owner didn't think it was out yet, but he sometimes misses the obvious...
Quote from: finarvyn;944213Does anyone know if the physical book is out or just the PDF? I asked at my local game store and the owner didn't think it was out yet, but he sometimes misses the obvious...
Just the PDF. With Cubicle 7, the physical book usually follows the PDF after a month or two so it shouldn't be a very long wait.
Quote from: finarvyn;944213Does anyone know if the physical book is out or just the PDF? I asked at my local game store and the owner didn't think it was out yet, but he sometimes misses the obvious...
Players Guide is out physically. The LMG is likely an April release for the physical book.
Quote from: One Horse Town;943881d&d has plenty of monsters. Use some of them.
While not a bad idea, there are some definite needs to modify the D&D monsters if you like the idea of not having the entire party being crushed by creatures where the players won't have the tools to deal with the creature or the consequences. Or else something like a D&D wraith is going to be utterly dreadful. Which I guess might be the point, for some types of settings.
Glad to learn that this is out now (at least the PDF). Thanks for the heads up, Skywalker.
I quite liked the Players' book. My only quibble with how C7 is doing this is that the core rule books seem closely tied to a particular campaign (setting + time). I wish the rules would simply give DMs and players what they need to run the game anywhere in northwestern Middle-earth in the mid-late 3rd Age. While I think that post-Hobbit Mirkwood is a very good campaign area, I would prefer it described in its own book(s).
My own plan (should I get to run this sometime) is to convert the MERP Kin-strife campaign...
Quote from: Votan;944220While not a bad idea, there are some definite needs to modify the D&D monsters if you like the idea of not having the entire party being crushed by creatures where the players won't have the tools to deal with the creature or the consequences. Or else something like a D&D wraith is going to be utterly dreadful. Which I guess might be the point, for some types of settings.
It's not too bad. And as you say, it makes them appropriately scary :)
Quote from: Votan;944220While not a bad idea, there are some definite needs to modify the D&D monsters if you like the idea of not having the entire party being crushed by creatures where the players won't have the tools to deal with the creature or the consequences. Or else something like a D&D wraith is going to be utterly dreadful. Which I guess might be the point, for some types of settings.
This is the best thing about using D&D in a middle earth setting! Middle Earth is crawling with all sorts of D&D-ish monsters (not surprisingly, given the influence of the books on the game), and it is obvious from the texts that we are supposed to think that what you see is just the tip of the ice berg (side bar: worst mistake people make running middle earth is presenting only people, monsters, items, concepts, etc. that appear in the book: the author clearly wants you to think the world is much bigger than that!). Anyway, side-bar off: dealing with monsters you can't beat in the standard-issue 10 turns of combat is where the game gets interesting, not where it breaks. There is nothing more tedious than a D&D fight where everyone knows you have the firepower to win but you have to go through the hour long kabuki play it takes to resolve a fight in one of the more modern systems. You should be bummed out if your game world mostly contains things that can be nuked by one of the clubs in your golf bag. It means the game world is sort of crap and not that worth exploring.
I've read through it and I'm really happy with the book. I'm not a big fan of TOR but AiME hits the sweet spot for me when it comes to what I want from a Middle-earth game.
I've got it but haven't had a chance to read it yet. In the meantime, for those that are interested Game Geeks just put up a review of the Loremaster's Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLOUxYvweVo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLOUxYvweVo)
It sounds like a lot of the actual GMing advice, such as not feeling the need to stick too closely to canon, is carried over from TOR. Just glancing over the PDF, I have a feeling I will like AME a lot more than vanilla D&D5 since it heavily downplays monster resistance/immunity and the need for saving throws compared to a typical magic-heavy game full of weirder enemies.