There were also twenty-seven secondary skills, usually described in a sentence. The combined "weapon proficiency" skills were welcome (e.g., if you knew how to use a longsword, you also knew how to use a shortsword both under "One Handed Edged"), whereas the Movement & Maneuver skills distinguished by armour type (none, soft leather, hard leather, chain, plate) was a little more unusual. Spell list ranks gave the character a 20% chance of learning the list per level language ranks were based on conversational ability graded from 1 to 5. Primary skills were broken up into categories Movement & Maneuver, Weapon Skills, General Skills, Subterfuge Skills, Magic Skills and two "others", Perception and Body Development (1-10 concussion hits per rank). There was twenty-four primary skills plus spell lists and languages. Abbreviated descriptions of skills are also provided, along with an explanation of skill rank bonuses (-25 for 0 ranks, +5 for rank 1, then an additional +5 for ranks 2-10, +2 for ranks 11-20 and +1 for ranks above 20). Some twenty-seven race/culture combinations are available derived primarily from western Middle-Earth. Characteristics are range from 1 to 100 for Strength, Agility, Constitution, Presence, and Intuition with stat bonuses (the important part) derived from both this raw roll (which represents distribution within your social group) and modified by race and with background based on culture. Straight into character creation is the game's caveat that it is only designed for character's level 1 to 10 after which you are supposed to graduate to Rolemaster. The book starts with a pretty standard introduction to "What is roleplaying", "What is Middle-Earth", a sample narration (which includes, perhaps as warning, a levitating Elf), and a glossary of MERP terms. For purposes of this review I'll be primarily referring to the second edition (1986). The massive increase in the 1993 edition was nearly entirely expanded background material and character templates, with the exceptions of optional 'Corruption Points' invoked during spell failure for impure reasons and an expanded secondary skills list. There was also a 1985 first edition published under license by Games Workshop and several foreign language editions I was particularly impressed by the cover art by Chris Archielleos on the GW edition featuring the Witch-King leading a horde out of Mordor.ĭespite these various editions the game remained pretty much the same. A third edition, confusingly with "Second Edition" emblazoned on Angus McBride's different cover, was released in 1993 and weight in at a whopping 268pp. It now was expanded to 128pp and was bound rather than saddle-stapled. A second edition, at least according to the insider cover page, was published in 1986 and now featured improved layout (including an index!) and artwork by Angus McBride. The first was published in 1984 (note the copyright to Tolkien Enterprises), was 104pp and featured cover by Chris White. There is, to my knowledge, three English-language editions of this game. Personally, I used to quite enjoy this game as a "rules-lite" version of Rolemaster and have recently had the opportunity to play several sessions of the game again. This is somewhat of a surprise as MERP was, at least during the 1980s, one of the more successful RPGs available both in terms of raw sales of the primary rulebook and supplementary material. Remarkably there is has only been one previous review of ICE's Middle Earth Role Playing on RPG.net in the past and it is polite to say that one is hardly comprehensive.
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