So I weakened and bought "Adventures in Middle earth". More commonly known as AiME.

I have the Loremasters book, a couple of settings books and I've ordered the Player's guide.  
I have the Player's guide PDF to tide me over until the hard copy arrives.

I'll probably have lots of questions as I read through everything.


First one seems a bit obvious, but for the life of me I can't find ANYWHERE in the Player's guide what system you use to generate the basic attributes.
Presumably you just use the options offered in the 5e PHB, but I can't find anywhere a specific reference whether that's correct or not.

Is it mentioned anywhere in the Player's guide? If it is, what page?  I had a good look through the pages 24 onwards where the character gen starts.

Am I blind? Or is it I'm trying to find it at 3am on a Sunday night

Quote from: danskmacabre;1107890First one seems a bit obvious, but for the life of me I can't find ANYWHERE in the Player's guide what system you use to generate the basic attributes.
Presumably you just use the options offered in the 5e PHB, but I can't find anywhere a specific reference whether that's correct or not.

Is it mentioned anywhere in the Player's guide? If it is, what page?  I had a good look through the pages 24 onwards where the character gen starts.

Am I blind? Or is it I'm trying to find it at 3am on a Sunday night

It's not really spelled out explicitly, but if you read the back cover and the foreword they explain that AiME just adds the Middle-earth materials for you to plug into the OGL. So, basically you're right. Go to the 5e rules first for anything not covered or replaced by AiME's rules.

What! Not The One Ring? Bloody 5e poking its head in again...

Quote from: Trinculoisdead;1107903What! Not The One Ring? Bloody 5e poking its head in again...

In defense of 5e - I had the one ring, system wise, it was not really that great.

And for most people in the hobby the core d20 mechanic is "good enough".

My question is does AiME have hit point level bloat?

Quote from: Jaeger;1107920In defense of 5e - I had the one ring, system wise, it was not really that great.

And for most people in the hobby the core d20 mechanic is "good enough".

My question is does AiME have hit point level bloat?

Yes, which looks like a glaring design error to me. Otherwise it is a great game.

Edit: rethinking this. High HP may make sense for important NPCs in ME. Not sure about PCs though.

I bought a bunch of TOR books. The style was decent enough and very Tolkien-like, but the system never did grab me. Never actually played the thing. Discovered AiMe, which is basically a rehash of the TOR books on top of a 5E-inspried mechanic. Much better. I feel it has the same feel of TOR but rules that I (and my players) can enjoy.

As to the OP question -- Brand55 has the right idea. Use AiMe for the baseline rules, but default to 5E wherever something isn't covered in AiMe.

Quote from: Aglondir;1107928Yes, which looks like a glaring design error to me. Otherwise it is a great game.

Edit: rethinking this. High HP may make sense for important NPCs in ME. Not sure about PCs though.

Keep in mind that AiME most definitely isn't D&D. Healing is often in short supply, and the PCs will often be taking long trips into dangerous territory where they will only have short rests. So a high hit point total doesn't quite mean the same in AiME as it does in regular 5e.

Quote from: Brand55;1107955Keep in mind that AiME most definitely isn't D&D. Healing is often in short supply, and the PCs will often be taking long trips into dangerous territory where they will only have short rests. So a high hit point total doesn't quite mean the same in AiME as it does in regular 5e.

That has been my experience in two campaigns and several one off sessions

Quote from: Trinculoisdead;1107903What! Not The One Ring? Bloody 5e poking its head in again...

System wise it makes a lot more sense than The One Ring and plays with the same feel.

Quote from: danskmacabre;1107890Is it mentioned anywhere in the Player's guide? If it is, what page?  I had a good look through the pages 24 onwards where the character gen starts.

Am I blind? Or is it I'm trying to find it at 3am on a Sunday night

Just download the free basic rules off of Wizards website. Anything that AiME doesn't have it will. Without all the frills of the PHB.

Do I lose any LotR flavor with AiME vs. TOR?

Quote from: Spinachcat;1107990Do I lose any LotR flavor with AiME vs. TOR?

I don't think so. The two sets of books have virtually the same content. I'm sure that some would say that the 5E-ization ruins something, but I think that the 5E books really capture the Middle-earth feel and with a game mechanic I don't have to learn. AiMe has its own classes and such to mostly replace the PH, which is probably why the OP was surprised to find that some stuff was missing.

TOR falls flat for me because of the abstract nature of combat. It feels more like fighting in ranks in old-school CRPGs, like Bard's Tale, at least little bit.

Quote from: Brand55;1107902It's not really spelled out explicitly, but if you read the back cover and the foreword they explain that AiME just adds the Middle-earth materials for you to plug into the OGL. So, basically you're right. Go to the 5e rules first for anything not covered or replaced by AiME's rules.

OK. Thanks. That feels like a bit of an oversight to me.

Quote from: finarvyn;1107930As to the OP question -- Brand55 has the right idea. Use AiMe for the baseline rules, but default to 5E wherever something isn't covered in AiMe.

Yeah , I assumed that too. But I feel it could have done with at least a few lines relating to Ability checks to use the core 5e rules.