To MERP or Not To MERP

[Markraven]

I know a lot of folks hate the MERP stuff, and while I totally agree that some of it is way uber-powered in the "best" tradition of RoleMaster there are some good little treaures to still be had in those books.

I thought maybe we could talk abotu which books are better for use as "resources" and which books are worse.

For Example: In prepping for my Shieldmaiden narration I am using the MERP book "Riders of Rohan" to some extent. Whiel there's a few things that seem odd (like the Jugler's School) there seems to be some decent "cultural" things and history within it...that for the most part seems to jive with other sources, such as the The Encyclopedia of Arda.

Thoughts or ideas?

[Tomcat]

Riders of Rohan is a great book! I am also fond of the Arnor books which contain Bree, The Barrow Downs, and the three kingdoms. These are very useful for maps and history. The people and items within them are pretty useless, but MERP did a great job at describing the societies, fauna, and animals of the region. I even like how they named the tribes of orcs – this is a big help.

I like how they give us what Tolkien left out and that is how the people lived and how the different societies tolerated each other. Some of it you have to weed out, but it can be very helpful when building a chronicle.

PS - I can't forget to mention Angmar as well! Very useful book...

[Ineti]

As I have never seen a MERP product up close, I'd hesitate to use any information from on in my games. I have the LOTR, the Hobbit, and the various other books by Christopher Tolkien and others. That in itself provides me more resource material that I could ever hope to use.

I guess if I found some MERP books somewhere I'd check them out, but I probably wouldn't use any of the info unless it was extraordinary.

[Beryl]

I have 95% of all MERP material ever printed and 100% of the Decipher material.

I personally think the problem with the early, or 1st edition MERP material, was that it didn't feel Tolkienesque. It felt more like AD&D. However, this was slowly corrected over time. The 2nd edition material is much better.

The best modules are those that were produced last, namely the Southern Gondor modules, The Northern Waste, and Hands of the Healer. I honestly think that this is due to the overwhelming influence of Chris Seeman, who happens to be a well-known Tolkien expert. He also published the Other Hands unofficial MERP magazine, wrote the Moria module for Decipher, and is the "Tolkien expert" for Decipher.

The Southern Gondor module is an excellent composition of material from JRR Tolkien's notesm expanded based upon realistic historical cultural models. The end result is hands down the best module I ever seen written. Unfortunately, it takes a bit of work converting it into the Decipher ruleset and timeframe.

The modules The Northern Waste and Hands of the Healer are also excellent, though they have little in common with the Decipher representation of Middle-Earth. I would still highly recommend them though. Check the back issues of Other Hands, they have some good content.

[AslanC]

Believe it or not, but I read the Court of Ardor and liked it.

It needs much fixing to work in Tolkien. But it will be a welcome part of my 4th Age game. A group of corrupted Elves to the south worshiping Morgoth.

Hell yeah

Like I said it needed some tweaking

[Phantom]

If I can find them I will be picking up the MERP sourcebooks for use in any games I run...I like them much more then Dec books. Though one of these days I'll probably have to get FB&WM.

[Meneltin]

Originally posted by AslanC
Believe it or not, but I read the Court of Ardor and liked it.

Isn't that the 'infamous' book where they had the 'magical' nuclear bomb?

[jadrax]

I find them a good source of Names and Maps. Theres some pictures that are useful too, (I just used the pic of Gundabad when my elf PC went within viewing range of it.)

I think as with all the material, you have to pick and chose what bits will help your game. It dosent matter how accurate to Tolkien a lot of stuff is, because he did leave huge gaps that you will have to fill at somepoint. The trick is to fill them in with stuff thats true to tolkiens style, if it cannot be true to his details.

[Turin]

I feel that most of the MERP books, like the Decipher books, are designed to add feel and facts for use in the regular game. There is a lot of information that Tolkien never discussed and as a Narrator you can either fill in the blanks with your own ideas or use those of other people.

Now I personally use my MERP books because I don't have time to fill in all the missing info and they are great at doing that. Eventually Decipher will publish more source books and as they do I will use the info that I like best between the two, merging them also.

For the most part if you stick with the source material, not the adventures, the MERP books are great. I felt that most of the adventures that they developed felt too much like D&D and never made me feel like I was in Middle Earth.

Out of the Decipher books the Moria Box set is by far my favorite, it added alot of information that was never in ME canon, but it felt right to me. For that matter felt more like the MERP source books.

Just my two cp.

[AslanC]

Originally posted by Meneltin
Isn't that the 'infamous' book where they had the 'magical' nuclear bomb?

Must have missed that part. Any idea where it would be? Since I don't understand the MERP system I have no idea of what does what.

[ReptileJK]

I use it quit frequently as a reference and to fill in the gaps that I don't have time to do myself. Currently, I"m running a campaign in the Mirkwood/Grey Mountains area. Obviously, Decipher has no books about these regions, I frequently refer to my Grey Mountains sourcebook (one of my top three favorite MERP books of all time) and also the old Northern and Southern Mirkwood modules. While I COULD come up with all of this info on my own for my Decipher game (as most of us probably could), I really can't afford to waste the time doing it, when the info is already there. I don't use any of the NPC or creature stats, but the maps and descriptions are golden.

Also really like the second edition Arnor book (which I think later got split into Arnor the Land and Arnor the People), Bree and the Barrow Downs, Lorien, Hillmen of the Trollshaws, and Riders of Rohan. All good stuff.

[Janus]

Originally posted by Beryl
I have 95% of all MERP material ever printed and 100% of the Decipher material.

I personally think the problem with the early, or 1st edition MERP material, was that it didn't feel Tolkienesque. It felt more like AD&D. However, this was slowly corrected over time. The 2nd edition material is much better.

The best modules are those that were produced last, namely the Southern Gondor modules, The Northern Waste, and Hands of the Healer. I honestly think that this is due to the overwhelming influence of Chris Seeman, who happens to be a well-known Tolkien expert. He also published the Other Hands unofficial MERP magazine, wrote the Moria module for Decipher, and is the "Tolkien expert" for Decipher.

The Southern Gondor module is an excellent composition of material from JRR Tolkien's notesm expanded based upon realistic historical cultural models. The end result is hands down the best module I ever seen written. Unfortunately, it takes a bit of work converting it into the Decipher ruleset and timeframe.

Agree.

Personally, I believe the best sourcebooks collection is “Gondor, the Land”, “Gondor, the People” and “the Kin-strife”

These 3 make a particularly good campaign, specially if you also throw in “Minas Tirith,” and to a lesser degree “Minas Ithil” and perhaps “Gorgoroth”

[Beryl]

Another module I like was Hands of the Healer. It tried to summarize the key cultural material from all the previous MERP modules. It did a great job of then outlining how a healer could be developed for each unique culture.

If Paths of the Wise is ever developed by Decipher, it has a tough act to follow.

[Camdin]

I toss my hat in with everyone else here.

The MERP/RoleMaster stuff is great for the maps, background, history, flora, and fauna, but I wouldn't try to convert or use any of the adventures or NPCs.

The RoleMaster herbs and other medicinal plants are a little wonky and overpowered, too, so I would just stick with Athelas if you want healing herbs.

[vgunn]

Originally posted by Beryl
The 2nd edition material is much better.

I honestly think that this is due to the overwhelming influence of Chris Seeman, who happens to be a well-known Tolkien expert. He also published the Other Hands unofficial MERP magazine, wrote the Moria module for Decipher, and is the "Tolkien expert" for Decipher.

I too own about 95% of all the MERP stuff published. Beryl it right in saying that the second edition was better than the first, however it is still flawed.

I hope Chris Seeman (who I like, but see more than a few things differently from his viewpoint) did not approve of some of the common-sense blunders Decipher made with the game. Istari, Werewolves, Vampires, and Hobbit magic just to name a few.

If you can pick up some MERP stuff cheap, I see no reason why it could not help in acting as resource material and giving food for thought. But thats about it. Really the actual works (as Ineti pointed out) are your best bet.

BTW - Best of MERP in my mind is: Palantir Quest