From: seurer@rchland.vnet.ibm.com (Bill Seurer)
Subject: Re: Middle Earth Role playing?
Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1992 17:08:29 GMT
Distribution: usa
Reply-To: BillSeurer@vnet.ibm.com
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM Rochester

In article <1992Nov6.105535.8836@csusac.csus.edu>, emamid@athena.ecs.csus.edu (David Emami) writes:
|>
|> 2. Make it dangerous to be a magic-user. This is one aspect hinted at often
|>    through a lot of ICE's modules, yet there are no game effects. They have 
|>    often said things to the effect that mages not allied with Sauron are 
|>    actively hunted down. In ROTK, Gandalf, after using what in RM terms would be
|>    probably a 1st-level spell, worries that "I have now written 'Gandalf is
|>    here' in signs that can be read from Rivendell to the mouths of Anduin.'"
|>    As it is, the only real incentive NOT to use a spell is the loss of power
|>    points. The solution I have toyed with is to use the Power Perception skill
|>    from RMC-2. The basic idea is that Power Perception will detect magic use,
|>    even when not being actively used. Probably a very slight chance, unless
|>    the spell is high level, the caster is high level, or Power Perception skill
|>    is high. Think of the scene in Star Wars where Obi Wan feels "a great
|>    ebbing in the Force."

This is exactly what I did.  Any use of overt magical power was noticable
by all other mages within quite some distance.  One time someone used a
fireball to torch an orc that was running away when they were in southern
Mirkwood.  Later he sensed a dark power probing for him and figured he'd
gotten noticed by a Nazgul (true).  Last time he did something like that.

The nice part is this cuts both ways.  The NPCs aren't likely to open up
with the heavy artillery spells either for the same reason.
 
|> It does mar the experience a bit, but only for those of us who are die-hard
|> Tolkein fans. Most of my players are only vaguely familiar with LOTR, and
|> they have a good time, so I'm able to forget about the Prof rolling in his
|> grave sometimes. Also, remember that at the time that LOTR occurs, magic has
|> been on the wane for a while. If the camaign is set in the mid-Third Age
|> time frame (about 1400 years earlier), magic would be a bit more common.

Sounds like my group except I have a couple of LotR fans as players too.

|> And make that FOUR occassions, not three, of Gandalf using combat magic. I
|> forgot about his battle with the Nazgul at Weathertop. Granted, it was "off
|> camera", but it is strongly implied that a lot of fireball-type spells were
|> used.

Are you including the Hobbit?  There were a couple times there he was more 
open with magic use.  Of course at the time that was written it wasn't part
of the bigger picture yet.

|> If you want a good module to start with, get Hillmen of the Trollshaws. This
|> one is fairly magic-poor, and there are lots of things for the players to do,
|> see, find, and kill. Plus it links in nicely with several other modules.
|> Bree and the Barrow Downs is also a good one, if you run the wights to their
|> fullest ability.

That is one of my favorites, too.

I have been a bit disappointed with some of the later ones.  They still have
some great stuff, but there are some rediculous things too.  One of them set
in the southern Misty Mountains (I forget the name) had a random encounter
chart for some underground areas.  There was a 1 in 100 chance of running
into a Balrog!

Scratch that group.  Or are "real" MERP groups tough enough to handle such an
encounter?  Even Gandalf barely beat one and I can only think of a handfull
of others who did, mostly elves from the 1st age.
-- 

- Bill Seurer     Language and Compiler Development      IBM Rochester, MN
  Internet: BillSeurer@vnet.ibm.com    America On-Line: BillSeurer@aol.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc