Prof. Tolkien and the Cheap DM – Online Resources for Putting Together a Middle-Earth Campaign

I never got into Rolemaster. My gaming friends and I, were quite happy with AD&D, thank you very much. Today, I wish I had started exploring what I.C.E. had to offer. If I had done so, I would no doubt now own some of the many Middle-Earth supplements the company produced. It would take quite a hefty bag of gold, to rectify that, now. Ebay beckons, so maybe someday.

But, aside from the concerns of the Collector, if all I want to do is run a Middle-Earth campaign, then I already have everything I need. There’s so much material on Prof. Tolkien’s milieu available on the web, that sorting through it all, is the real chore.

Though I didn’t spend a whole lot of time digging, actual Merp resources on the web, seem to be rather scarce. I did find a yahoo group, dedicated to Middle-Earth gaming utilizing Merp and other systems, which appears to be fairly active.  Membership pending.

All in all, I found very little in the way of specifically RPG tailored material for Middle-Earth. I ran across several references to instances of Tolkien Enterprises giving some gamer and fan based sites a hard time, so that’s probably a contributing factor. Over and over again, I found dead sites, abandoned sites, or sites where the owner’s had changed the focus of their gaming. I thought I might come across some useful work on Decipher’s Lotr RPG, but I found nothing of substance.

Regardless, there’s a ton of general info on the milieu. You’ll have to do the rules adjustments yourself, but for setting info and maps, we’re covered!

Maps! Some links to high quality maps of Middle-Earth.

Here’s the Complete Map of Middle-Earth website, hosting a 506k PDF map, which is very nicely done.

The Map of Middle Earth Version 7 by Thierry Jungels is a 1.02 MB JPEG file.

The Mearth Map site has a 1.15 MB PDF.

A 794 KB JPEG by Thomas Lornsen.

A 736 KB JPEG of Prof. Tolkien’s Red, Black & White map.

The Arda Library Maps Page, has some good files! This one in particular, is rather pretty.

Lastly, Maps of Middle Earth has some files, which you might want to check out. 

That fulfills our basic map needs. Several of the sites, which we will now be taking a look at, have some more map files and ones of specific areas, but the sites listed above contain the nicest and highest res maps, which I found in my search.

Now, we need a Gazetteer!

I am nowhere near, to being a Tolkien Scholar. I’ve also, only perused the following sites. So, I cannot vouch for their fidelity to the source material or general accuracy. They look pretty good to me, though. The list given here, is by no means complete. There’s a ton of material out there.

The Encyclopedia of Arda is damned impressive! Really, the only link we need in this section. It’s frickin Huge! The maps section has a clickable map of ME, zooming in to provide many, many small area maps. A list provides direct links to these. I’m not sure how many entries the encyclopedia contains. Far, far more for me to try to count and I didn’t see any statistics on the site, itself. An offline version, is available for purchase.

Moving on, let’s see what other nifty sites, we can find.

Tolkien Gateway is another Encyclopedia.

“the J.R.R. Tolkien encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

8,340 articles and 5,433 images”

Tolkien Fans, have been busy!

Wikipedia’s Portal: Middle Earth should keep you occupied, for a while. The main Middle Earth page at Wikipedia, has a nice overview.

While smaller in scope than the previous sites mentioned, Finduilas’s J.R.R. Tolkien Page, has some essays and material, which you might find useful.

And for the last of the Encyclopedia’s The Council of Elrond. There are others, out there on the web. But this should be more than enough!

For the Hardcore DM: Language Studies!

So, if I don’t create a language for my homebrew, does that make me a Poser as a World-Builder? I’m far, far too lazy busy, to learn enough about linguistics to even think of attempting such a task. Even were I so inclined. I’m geeky enough to think it’s cool, though.

Here’s the Quenya Course site.

I’m not sure what the name of this site is. The heading at the top of the page is in some form of Elven. Amongst other things, it contains a Sindarin Language Course, composed of 22 lessons. Get to studying!

Finally, the Resources for Tolkienian Linguistics site.

A few more Odds & Ends

Other Hands contains an archive of a Middle-Earth gaming zine.

Tolkien’s Parish: The Canonical Middle-Earth, has some essays, you might enjoy.

That should be enough to get us started!

That should about do it! Without resorting to piracy, or even purchasing, we have enough materials to run Prof. Tolkien’s milieu! Just throw in some Old School Elbow Grease and you’re all set to go. Here’s a couple of links from the OD&D Discussion Forum, with discussions about using OD&D in ME: here and here. A bonus map link, which I think you’ll like, appeared in one of those threads, as well.