Tabletop Roleplaying Games in the world of Arda

[Vorondir]

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Tabletop Roleplaying Games in the world of Arda

So, yesterday night, I was chatting up some friends with whom we used to dabble in some tabletop roleplaying (with games such as DnD, Star Wars, and the like) and we came to agree that we'd all really enjoy playing a game in the years of the War of the Jewels in the First Age.

What kind of ruleset do you think would be up to the task? I know there's an official The One Ring roleplaying game but I gather that it is a low-fantasy dark and gritty kind of game where a single goblin does indeed pose a threat to the greatest warrior (not very Silmarillion-like).

Have you played any tabletop roleplaying games in the world of Arda? In what Age did you play? What system did you use?

And most importantly, do you have any ridiculous tales to share about the experience?

[Fuin Elda]

So I GM a ME based game in the 4th age (Elessar is dead) atm and we have been running on Pathfinder 1e (DnD3.5) and they've just finished exploring an abandoned Woodlandhall and are in Goblin Town atm. It's been being played for 2 years now basically every second weekend.

IT's been working fairly well I just said low/no magic and any spells they wanted they could have if they could convince me there was a way to do the effect non magically. The only races that have magic are dragons and any elves left (and the two missing Blue wizards) and halflings with their luck for not getting 1s

Recently I've started playing DnD5e recently and it has been decided that after Goblin town since MOST have played 5e vs I have several struggling to learn pathfinder1 we will be making the switch (they put up with pathfinder because I was a baby GM having only GMed 2 games before I took over the table.)

Which Goblins attack enmasse which is what makes them dangerous to roleplayers especially in open spaces especially after about the 3rd level for players... first level is yeah about even but greatest warriors would start at the VERY least at level 10, level 20 and your legendary game play is more where I feel like the War of the Jewels heros would fall under and likely would be (at least in a game run by myself) would be NPCs that the players would see and meet.

That said I currently am running a table that had an elf cleric(she hasn't been playing in about the last 8 months sadly) a dwarf fighter, a human ranger (gondorian), and a baby (now young) cold drake rogue originally. The cold drake was immediately accosted by the elf who isn't very LOTR canon and put in a bow and a cloak and was lead around on a leash so that player and I have a new system for the dragons vanity....

We now have a Thrush druid /rogue, and we got two games ago a halfling artificer that does healing since the elf hasn't been playing.

We've had some pretty crazy stories, including saddling them with a petty dwarf child that is literally Mahal incognito to mess with their mind as NONE of them made the perception check on the Petty Dwarf keep I stuck them in. And literally after me making them fight an entire ARMY of orcs and wargs at level 2... was the 'OH NO. A CHILD.' Scariest part of the entire game for them.

[Androthelm]

I ran some Mörk Borg for a couple of friends a while back, set just after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and really playing into the potential horror of Morgoth's domain / the kind of influence the Silmarillion had on a lot of metal bands back in the day (you could probably make a case that Mörk Borg is reflecting a specific subgenre which was less Tolkien-inspired, but whatever.

[Vorondir]

I really like the strangeness of the fact that Elves try to fight Morgoth even though it is evidently so desperate and they're so outmatched. And I like that Morgoth acts scared sometimes, as if he could actually be hurt. It is the RPG equivalent of the Game Master roleplaying a big bad enemy in full knowledge that it has a stat block and a hit point count and, ergo, it can be affected by character powers and it is theoretically possible for it to get killed!

I once ran a game of Pathfinder 1st edition and, somehow, the party ended facing-off some level 20 devil mob and there was that same feeling; that there's a snowball's chance in hell to win, but at least there's a chance! That's how I imagine a Silmarillion game should feel.