2025-10-09 14:35:28-04:00 - Reading Middle Earth Role Playing, Second Edition (MERP #2001) from Iron Crown Enterprises

Keywords: Middle Earth Role Playing, MERP, Rolemaster, Tolkien, RPG


I started reading *Middle Earth Role Playing* (MERP) Second Edition from Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) two days ago, as part of my exploration of games in the Rolemaster lineage, and started listening to the audio book of *The Hobbit* about the same time (I listen on my commute). As reading an RPG often does, it makes me want to run a campaign using MERP (which is always a plus for an RPG). I have a bunch of old MERP adventures and sourcebooks (so different when I was young from the D&D modules and T&T adventures I was familiar with at the time), and I think it would be a fun campaign. I know that some people say *The One Ring* RPG better reflects Tolkien's Middle Earth, but for this campaign I'm more interested in playing in ICE's version of Middle Earth, with the MERP rules, with easier access to magic for PCs. I plan to point out to players that this would definitely be an alternate world version from straight Middle Earth, and that there are risks to using magic. I would still count the Wizards as a separate class of people, but allow MERPs magic to PCs and opponents. It would be a game of heroes and good rather than murder hobos, but probably not involve the ending of an Age. 😃


I figure I'll listen to *The Hobbit* and *The Lord of the Rings*, and probably reread them, while I'm planning the campaign. As well as the ICE materials, I've got Karen Wynn Fonstad's *Atlas of Middle Earth* for additional maps, which is very useful, and have Brian Sibley's *The Maps of Middle-Earth* coming as well.


Middle Earth Role Playing, Second Edition (MERP #2001) Paperback – January 1, 1997 by C. Charlton

MERP - Middle Earth Role Playing - ICE — reference at Wayne's Books

Atlas Of Middle-Earth Paperback – Illustrated, April 10, 1991 by Karen Wynn Fonstad

The Maps of Middle-earth: The Essential Maps of J.R.R. Tolkien's Fantasy Realm from Númenor and Beleriand to Wilderland and Middle-earth Hardcover – Folded Map, April 9, 2024 by J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Brian Sibley (Author), John Howe (Illustrator)