So I saw the Lord of the Rings Adventure Game boxed set complete with dice, maps, little stand-up figures, and the modules "Dawn Comes Early," "Darker Than the Darkness," and "Over the Misty Mountains Cold" and bought it since I reckon  I've thrown away $12 on worse things in my life. It seems oriented toward being an introductory-type RPG for the younger set. Has anyone played this game?  It's from Iron Crown, copyright 1991, and says it's compatible with MERP. Did I waste $12? Did I discover a lost gem? I'd never even heard of this game before a week ago. I just kind of thought it might be cool to have if my kids ever get into The Hobbit and such things.

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Oh boy, one of my favourite games ever. It's a lost gem, but also a little flawed gem.

ICE had initially developed the system for their ill-fated solo adventure line, Tolkien Quest and Middle-earth Quest. The books were brilliant developments of the solo adventure idea, using hex maps and floor plans for movement (instead of just "go right, read #75; go left, read #221"), and time keeping was essential.

Fun fact: Although it was an ICE game it was first published in Germany, in a flimsy, expensive, 16 page booklet as "MERS für Einsteiger" ("MERP for beginners"). The German MERP and Rolemaster publisher, Laurin Verlag (later bought by Queen Games) wanted an introductory game, but their title choice was a misnomer of course, as it wasn't a lead-in into their MERS/MERP game (they are not compatible!). They should have waited for the US boxed version.
Their publication basically was what today would be a free Quickstart booklet: basic rules and a sample adventure. They never published anything else for it. (Apart from the solo adventures that they published - later - as hardcover books, without mentioning any compatibility with their intro booklet, AFAIR.)

ICE had bigger plans for the line, and published the modules you mentioned. More were announced but never materialized. This is sad as it was clear that they morphed the game from simple, railroady, adventures to more traditional, open fields. The first trilogy felt like The Hobbit or the travels of Frodo to Rivendell, even meeting Gandalf, Elrond, and Bilbo: Bandits, trolls, a barrow, a Weathertop-like ruin, a dwarven ruin, culminating in a very fairy tale-like adventure (involving a rainbow). Two more modules were announced, slowly leading into the darkening of Mirkwood. I would have loved to see that!

The US version was flawed because it was overly clearly aimed at children - Mentzer has been accused of having Basic D&D "dumbed down" but the language in LotR really holds your hands. I guess many gamers viewed it as another flaw that the game didn't have "proper" character creation. It used a template design (not unlike Star Wars d6), with templates modeled after the Fellowship (and weirdly named, Gandalf was a bard!).
The structure of the adventures gives away the origin as solo adventure rules - they were "programmed adventures" (similar to the gatehouse section in B3 Palace of the Silver Princess), and only very late in the line the modules become "regular", site-based adventures.
(This was different in the German booklet - they only had so many pages and probably didn't know of the US plans, so they used a traditional approach.)

When the ICE game was discontinued fans took over and expanded it to the Middle-earth Adventure Game.
On this very forum, David Johansen explained how he would streamline the game: A Simple Middle Earth RPG.
Recently LotR got its own retroclone, Tales & Legends, which opens up character creation a bit, but is (as all games by Mikael Hassel) in need of an editor.

The LotR Adventure Game was also the role model for my own introductory RPG, Abenteuer Fantasy Rollenspiel (included in the German DVD release of Astrópía). I didn't copy the rules but the simplicity and general parameters (2d6 + mod) were my inspiration.

It's very tight mechanically and manages to be as condescending as a Bearenstien Bears book about STDs.

I wish I still had a copy.  Novus from FireHawk games came out of Rasyr and me arguing about what a new version should look like.  I actually am playing around with a couple designs along these lines right now, including an old west game that's kind of like Rolemaster on 2d6.

I enjoyed playing this game more than MERP. While MERP is sort-of Rolemaster lite, LotR Adventure Game is MERP lite.

As noted, the Middle Earth Quest/Tolkien Quest gamebook rules were based on this, but I actually think the gamebook rules were superior, as chargen was more open and not bound by the template system of the rpg, and attributes and skills were separated.

Quote from: finarvyn;1003358LotR Adventure Game is MERP lite.

"Microlite MERP" ... I like that.

Quote from: Technomancer;1003375the gamebook rules were superior, as chargen was more open and not bound by the template system of the rpg, and attributes and skills were separated.

I completely forgot this! You are right, basically a handful of paragraphs that would have made the LotR box "complete"!

You totally wasted your money. It's awful and made for kiddies. Are you a kid? I mean you wasted $12.

Being that I'm a good person I'm totally willing to take it off your hands for $12 just so you get out of this dire situation whole. I'm just willing to help you out....

I played a lot of Merp back in the day but I've never seen this.

The sad thing is that the game books are where ICE signed the license renewal that eventually killed them and then Tolkien Enterprises forced them to recall the books and destroy them.  Even when they were raking in cash from the Middle Earth CCG ICE never made money on Middle Earth stuff again.  It was money owing on that license that Tolkien Enterprises used to push ICE into bankruptcy.

Same here, first time seeing this. If it's anything like MERP then it's a solid game.

I'm not familiar with the game, but "MERP light" sounds almost tolerable.

Quote from: John Scott;1003455If it's anything like MERP then it's a solid game.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1004246I'm not familiar with the game, but "MERP light" sounds almost tolerable.

Ok, this "MERP light" analogy might be misleading.
It isn't really "anything like MERP".

"MERP light" suggests (to me) a system that uses d100, roll high, compare to table, but with much less stats, skills, and tables. A system where a character's stats look like abridged MERP stats, but still speak to me directly.

LotR (over)simplifies the MERP engine (itself a simplification of Rolemaster) so far that it effectively becomes a different system. It's much closer to the other RPG named, Lord of the Rings Adventure Game from Decipher. It's so close that it could be mistaken for a quickstart version of that one, rather than MERP.
But the closest comparison would indeed be Microlite 20, using 2d6 instead of d20.

ICE's LotR character stats map directly to M20:

   Strength --> Strength
Agility --> Dexterity
Intelligence --> Mind

Movement --> MV
Defense --> AC (deducted from attack roll, rather than roll over)
Endurance --> HP
Melee OB --> Melee BAB
Missile OB --> Missile BAB
Skills:
General --> Physical (+ Communication?)
Subterfuge --> Subterfuge
Perception --> (Knowledge)
Magical --> (Knowledge)
(nil) --> Communication

Rolls are 2d6 + stat or skill vs. difficulty (--> DC), and there is no maneuver table with staggered results/qualities. Beating the difficulty does it.
There are no spell lists, either, only single spells. Spellcasting is like in M20, roll + skill vs. difficulty, pay cost in Endurance/HP.
The only table is the combat table; here LotR combines all MERP combat tables in one:
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So nearly all defining elements of MERP are gone and replaced by what would much later be D&D3/CODA/M20 mechanics. (I don't know if Greywulf, the M20 designer, was familiar with LotR.)

The MERP modules were great, if a bit same-same. When I think back to the line as a whole one thought crosses my mind, "brigands and barrow mounds". Standouts like the adventure with the swan prince, or the whole Palantir Quest, were rare.
The LotR modules, on the other hand, felt extremely "Tolkieny", and captured Middle-earth much better than the MERP modules, IMO.

Was this the same system that was used in those solo-play MERP adventure books?

Quote from: RPGPundit;1004547Was this the same system that was used in those solo-play MERP adventure books?

No, based on comments above. I haven't seen any MERP game books myself. Sounds like they might be fun.

Never heard of this.

MERP was fun, in retrospect I think a better game then Rolemaster which it was based on, more playable anyway. It wasn't really a good simulation of Tolkien, being more or less D&D in a place that looked a lot like Middle Earth. It was fun though and we didn't really care that the connection to Tolkien was only skin deep. I loved me some Rolemaster back in the day, but my god the charts, and tables and charts... did I mention the tables and charts.