THE ONE RING: RUINS OF THE LOST REALM was a part of the THE ONE RING Kickstarter, and it’s obviously a sourcebook for the wilds of Eriador during the game’s time period (several generations prior to the War of the Ring). I’m curious to see how it contrasts with ICE’s old MERP/Rolemaster source books. Probably the two will be broadly similar, because they’re drawing from the same source material, but ICE chose a drastically earlier year for its game setting (Third Age 1640, just after the Great Plague). That should make a difference. So far, the book is very melancholy: given the setting, that makes absolute sense, so go them.
…Sorry for not explaining any of that.
I have several of ICE’s books but not an extensive selection by any means. Only played one game using the MERP system and came away with the distinct feeling that the setting details had a lot of attention from people who cared about it, but the characters one okayed didn’t match Tolkien’s writing at all. Especially magic.
I really need to look at the new one to see how it feels.
“the characters one played”
Otto’s Irresistible Correction strikes again. I really don’t like Otto’s Correction some days.