The Tavern Chat Podcast - Episode 99 - LotR RPG Bundle, Torchwood Bundle and More

My ass is dragging this morning. But hey, sleeping from 5 am to 10 am is perfectly normal...

My internal clock is doing a flashback of two years and thinks I'm working overnights - oh my! Humble Bundle has a LotR RPG Bundle as well as a Torchwood / Dr Who Audio Book Bundle. Did I mention there is a Munchkin StarFinder release on the horizon? 

Link to Episode 99 - https://anchor.fm/tavernchat/episodes/Episode-99---LotR-RPG-Bundle--Torchwood-Bundle-and-More-e234cc

Link to the LotR RPG Humble Bundle - tenkars-tavern.games/LotR-RPG-Bundle

Link to the LotR RPG Bundle post at The Tavern - http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2018/08/humble-bundle-lord-of-rings-rpg-15.html

Link to Torchwood & Dr Who Audiobook Bundle - https://www.humblebundle.com/books/more-torchwood-doctor-who-audiobooks?partner=tenkar

Preorder - Adventures in Middle-Earth Player's Guide (PDF / RPGNow / 5e)

Just a quick heads up. The Adventures in Middle-Earth Player's Guide for D&D 5e is taking preorders at RPGNow.

The PDF is $20 It is LotR after all. Heck, I already preordered the physical books...

Middle Earth Coming to D&D 5e This Summer (Gollum!)

As announced over at the Escapist, EnWorld and other places online, Cubicle 7 is bringing the world of Middle Earth to D&D 5e (which, by extension and minimal tweaking means it should be accessible to every edition except 4th)

"We're all very excited to be building on the success of The One Ring Roleplaying Game and bringing Middle-earth to D&D players," Cubicle 7 CEO Dominic McDowall said in a statement. "Uniting two things very close to the hearts of gamers, me included, is very cool - I can't wait for the summer." 

Cubicle 7 will base its new Middle-earth game around The One Ring, and has brought designer Francesco Nepitello on as a consultant. Presumably the games won't have too many content differences, but simply give D&D players a chance to play using a more familiar rules system. Details will be announced soon, but we're expecting an initial release date sometime in Summer 2016.

The driving question will be, as always: is Gandalf a 4th Level Magic-user?

One Does Not Simply Cow Bell into Mordor!

Many levels of awesomeness!

How Many LotR RPGs Do I Own?

Upon finding Middle Earth Roleplaying 2e (otherwise known as MERP) under my bed, I got to thinking about the different versions of Lord of the Rings based RPGs that I own.

The first was the MERP boxed set from Iron Crown Enterprises.  I played the shit out of this game.  Rolemaster rules that the average gaming group could actually master.  Very sandboxie in nature, as there were tons of setting books released, not much in the way of adventures.

Then we had The Lord of the Rings Adventure Game.  I'm not even sure if I still own it.  From what I can recall, very dumbed down.

MERP 2e was next.  Somewhere between MERP 1e and Rolemaster in complexity, I don't recall if we ever played with the 2e rules.

The Lord of the Rings RPG from Decipher was licensed from the movie if I recall correctly.  Tons and tons of shots from the movies were included.  Not much if any real art.  I bought the core book, left it as bathroom reading for 6 months and never got past skimming it.

The One Ring - this is the latest and it landed at Gencon.  I only have this in PDF so far.  I need to spend some more time with it.  At first glance it seems fairly faithful to its source material.

That doesn't include games like Midnight, which is essentially LotR with the evil, alternate director's cut ending.  Well done but a depressing setting to play in.

Oh, and ICE published some endless quest style books using the LotR license.

Did I miss anything?