Quote from: RPGObjects_chuck... Settings, especially, can be done quite effectively in a book or two...

I agree.  In fact, for Angel-type games, all you need is the Angel book.  (Indeed, you can use Angel for all kinds of other types of games -- e.g. low-powered supers.)

I would have liked to have seen more adventures for BtVS and Angel, as that is my stumbling block with that genre.  But aside from possibly 'The Magic Box', all you need is in the core books.

Quote from: Sosthenes... But seriously, the only licensed RPG I can think of that really worked was Star Wars. But that's a setting that is wildly popular, has enough pre-existing material and still enough room for the exploits of the gamers.

ICE's Middle-earth Roleplaying (MERP) was enormously popular in the mid and late 1980s, and perhaps the early 1990s as well.  At one point it was the second biggest selling FRPG (after D&D).

The RPG slump of the early/mid 1990s hurt ICE badly, and when Tolkien Enterprises pulled the licence the company basically collapsed.

But for many years, Middle-earth was very, very good to ICE.

MERP is wicked cool.  The collector's market for old MERP stuff is harsh.

Quote from: jrientsMERP is wicked cool.  The collector's market for old MERP stuff is harsh.

And how.  Freakin' awesome products (including the best game cartography ever), but by damn, is it ever a seller's market.  Too rich for my blood, for the most part.

MERP might've sold, but I don't think it worked. The information about Middle-Earth is just to sparse to build a campaign that doesn't turn the setting into yet another fantasy world...

And yes, you heard me right. Sparse. There might be whole languages, there might be a good history and mythology. But the nations are mere props used in a epic sage of the battle of white vs. black.
The RPG that would work with such a setting would have to be much more grounded in mythology, a descendent of role-master is a little too tactical for that.

Having said that, what ICE did with MERP was quite good. It just wasn't really a totally truthful adaption of the setting. I distantly remember critically hitting an assassin somewhere in Gondor, so that he bled to death during his flight. That was a really cood adventure, Tolkien it was not.

There's also Call of Cthulhu to consider. While possibly not as commercially successful, it's technically still in print, and has a wide fanbase.

Sosthenes: you're dead on the money.  If you want to do dungeon grubbing and other low adventure in a realm that just happens to be Middle Earth, then MERP is the right game.  For epic Tolkien adventure, I think other systems would deliver better.

I think the thing with MERP and CoC is that they didn't have the license holder constantly looking over their shoulder - maybe it helps to be working with a dead author.

Quote from: NicephorusI think the thing with MERP and CoC is that they didn't have the license holder constantly looking over their shoulder - maybe it helps to be working with a dead author.

It surely helped that none of them were regarded as 'hot' properties at that time, and that there wasn't the level of concern about merchandising and IP profitability that exists today. You can see that ICE had more leeway to develop their LOTR game than Decipher.

It's a shame, really. You've got these good games, like Buffy or Capitan Alatriste, with one or more finished sourcebooks, yet the approval proccesses are so slow that they never get to see the light.

the bejeezus outta everything these days on the internet. Sure it's generally crap, but it's free crap that gives you ideas!

One of these days I'm gonna run a MIB 1-shot or a Mystery Men 1-shot...they've both got some material already made online...just not in the systems I want for them. Still, it's comforting to know that some fanboy out there has done the work for us.

Then again, it is nice to see something get the official treatment because it's usually SHINY then...