Manny & RJ take a fond look back at the Middle-earth Roleplaying game by Iron Crown Enterprises and discuss if the game holds up today. Join them as they uncover the hidden treasures that fans of today’s One Ring RPG and Lord of the Rings Roleplaying games can find within this classic game.
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In 2026 my friend and I restarted MERP after 15 years of D&D. We're both loving getting back into the world once again. This is the GM talking btw. I slicked back the complexity of the game so it runs just fine for us.
We rushed through learning to play the game, and unfortunately, we didn't play any other games beforehand. As a result, we have Always played some version of homebrew, either by accident or design. Then we modified the game, and then we expanded it with RoleMaster. I ended up having to create a binder of charts for the GM, to put everything in one single spot.
I ran a ME campaign back in the day using the full Rolemaster rules. Very crunchy but lots of fun. Ran around Rhudaur during the Angmar wars.
Some of the best experiences of my younger life playing this game.
I love Rolemaster, since I had a system of finding the tables quickly, and then suddenly it became perhaps the most fun fantasy role playing game. Would I use it in Middle-Earth? Probably not if I want to stay close to Tolkien's vision, but you can also handle e.g. the southern Harad modules as just generic fantasy modules, and very well-made ones too. I agree on Angus McBride. He's probably the one who sold me on ICE products to begin with. But we did have a lot of fun with the systems too.
Love it. I will search for more informations about this game.
I used Rolemaster, but with more Tolkien-like magic for a campaign last year. I have played MERP and RM since 1986, and I will stop the day I die.
I have mixed feelings about this game. On the one hand, I'm not a fan of D100, you NEED to play with a fucking calculator, it's extremely slow and sloppy. There's a gazillion tables, you have to be checking tables all the time, and again, that's slow, doesn't make a lot of sense. Also, if you wanted to abide 100% to the rules (which I never do in any game), characters would die all the time, and I'm not a fan of that playstyle either. And on top of that, the magic system just wasn't LOTR at all, that system alone makes it a bad LOTR game. Might be a good high fantasy game for whatever setting, but a bad LOTR game.
On the other hand, LOTR 2nd ed. was the first game I played and the first game I ran as DM. I have fond memories of semi-improvised adventures, with the rulebook being my only reference material, with a full noob roster of players (including myself), chaotic sessions going off the rails all the time, ignoring or misinterpreting those (for the 15 yo me, complex) rules… but having a lot of fun and laughing our asses off. I've played ttrpg games for many years and still those LOTR games, not knowing what the hell we were doing, feel somewhat the best I ever played.
My favorite system, for sure.
First edition The One Ring felt more like Middle Earth, but the system isnt fantastic.
This system and restricting magic users is the top shelf for me.
Oh ChartMaster….
I haven't played MERP in around 30 years… I used to play Half Elf Warrior… Loved it…
The Maiar where what we in Western culture conceive as "Angels" or "Higher Entity Spirits"… Of which the Istari ( Wizards ) were a part of, but they were always called the Istari…
Above the Maiar where the Valar… Beings we can relate as "Gods/Goddesses"…
I am currently running a campaign using the Gates of Mordor campaign book. It has been enjoyable! Definitely a bit slower with math and charts but the critical tables and fumbles make it worth it!!
a few years ago i managed to get a copy of MERP because a friend of mine his brother in law interned with ICE back in the nineties and his parents were getting rid of stuff they had in their attic. I remember reading through it and the rulebook stating that creating your own character should only be done by an player experienced for the setting.
Background points did a decent job of balancing those pesky Noldor. The partial success mechanic for skills is superior to most roll above DC systems.
I used to be a Game Master for MERP. I read the Lord of the Rings 7 times, the Hobbit 5 times, the Silmarillion 3 times. I was very knowledgeable. I took my D&D friends on MERP adventures. My knowledge of Middle Earth just astounded people. When I talk to people about the Valar, Maiar, Valinor, the Simarils, Faenor, Fingolfin and Finarfin, the Noldor and the Vanyar, people just freak out. I literally could have written way better stories and diaglogue for those stupid Rings of Power shows. I should write to them and offer my services because they could have done so much better!
MERP was the first game I ever played back in the 90’s. More recently I have been running the One Ring 2e but I have a lot of MERP pdfs which have so much great material that I sprinkle in.
Nice acknowledgment of Angus McBride's work. He was a fantastic artist. iirc there was even an ICE artbook featuring his work. Agree 100% about the art direction being evocative of Middle-Earth, but the rules did nothing to either make you feel like you were in Tolkien's world, or helped the GM run the game. Hopelessly outdated now, of course. An interesting historical piece to see how early RPGs were constructed but unless you're just into retro gaming then you'd have to be a masochist to try and run it.
Loved it for all the reasons you gave. A real change from ADnD – first time two of us ran up against an Orc we died Really quickly 🙂 . My main dislike was in the character creation – book was beautiful but poorly laid out, you had to flip back and forth to find the tables you needed. I would play it today under a good GM, would no want to run it. Enjoyed hearing you discuss it.
How often we went out to search for those herbs! Mirenna berry junkies:)
I think a big plus for Merp was the concreteness of the rules, wounds are real wounds, herbs have names. That made the world so much more real than abstract hit points and some unnamed “healing herbs”
The Noldor should be more powerful than the other races!!!
Those Fenlon maps are also great, as are the regional descriptions in the books.