This (MERP) was my favorite RPG ever created, and I played quite a lot. I have almost every supplement ever created, except for about 3 - 4 or so. There are actually DOZENS (60 - ish?) of supplemental modules for it so I consider that a pretty great achievement. This was the most advanced RPG ever put out at the time. I read every book and supplement module, cover to cover, more than once (though it has been a few years) and could probably be a very good guest if you wished to discuss it or even play. I could probably recite all 34 or so playable races and which skill point attributions they got for character creation off of the top of my head, to this day, LOL 😂 I really loved how this game handled critical hits with weapons, and the whole combat system with armor and weapons. IMHO the coolest and most interesting supplement they put out for it was Moria, with their descriptions of all the Dwarven traps, and the super cool three Axes of Azaghal that could theoretically be found by players. Sooo cool! I actually discovered this game when there were only four supplements for it in total (which is how I was able to obtain almost every one, though many were hard to come by, and some I only ever saw on the shelves once - the day I purchased it 👍😂😁) If you (or anyone) is interested in finding out more about this game, or playing it, you can contact me at my channel name at gmail.com or leave a message on my videos here on You Tube.
My group in the 80s all played D&D until we found Merp and Rolemaster from ICE. Their combat system is more sophisticated with critical hits that you have to be careful when deciding to fight. Sometimes better to avoid fight! I started playing again recently!
I'm the same. My group played DnD and then got into Rolemaster for the same reasons. In Rolemaster you can die at any point at any level, all it took was a good roll and good crit and any one or anything could kill you. I'd love to get into it again - I have all the Rolemaster books.
This is awesome!! I played this game in the 80s, 90s, 2000s, took about a 10 year break, and now am playing it again with friends. MERP is awesome. Now as adults, we live in different states, usually play over zoom, and every six months or so, we travel and have a role playing weekend!
MERP got me into TTRPG in 1986, as an apprentice carpenter. I saw Rangers of The North and Riders of Rohan and though they were a sort of Silmarillion (I am Danish in Denmark and had not found Unfinished Tales yet). I bought them, read them and discovered it was a kind of game. So I bought the rules and tried to get my friends to play. I still play, but since 1988 with Rolemaster, and since 2019 with almost no magic. Like the books.
Would be fun to GM a MERP game with people who aren't familiar with Lord of the Rings. They start the adventure as hobbits in the Shire who have inherited Bilbo Baggins magic ring, and are pursued by dark beings on horseback. Would be interesting to see what the players do next - would they make a run for Bree to meet Gandalf, and then Rivendell? Or try to defeat the Ringwraiths & keep the Ring? Actually safest thing to do is bury the Ring somewhere and stay away lol!
Great video. Back in the 80s my group of friend s played rpgs all summer long often for 12 hours a day. Everything from AD&D, champions, traveler, melee, battletech, toon (look that one up,lol) and ICE(merp). Because we were such huge comic book fans we often gravitated to Champions as it was a hero rpg with a fantastic game system. ICE (merp) was the most detail but least played rpg for us because it took so long to complete a simple encounter. Crazy stupid long and it was insane. The battle system was so detailed that a basic attack would have you scrambling and cross referencing tables and charts to figure out what part of the body got hit and to what extent the damage was.. it was fun but also very tedious.
I remember the first one I bought. It was Lost of Realm of Cardolan. I got it home and then realized that I needed a Rule Book to play. This was back in 1988. I had to wait another 2 weeks before I had the money to get the rules.I have the whole MERP collection. I agree the Ebay prices for these are ridiculous. You can download them for free off Soulseek.
They're very much in demand right now, so if you ever need to make some quick cash, list them on eBay. I've had some good offers made for mine (this video only shows a small portion of the collection)
I was introduced to RPG with the Rolemaster system and I've never been able to get away from it. I'll admit it takes time to learn all the rules but when you crack the code it just gets under your skin. I'm an old player of Shadow World, MERP and Cyberspace :D
There's only one MERP module I don't own in either first or second edition (The Kin Strife). We played through the 90s. I think they lost the license for Middle Earth in 1998, when they were starting on the movies. I still re-purpose the maps & modules for our Old School Essentials (D&D) game.
Aaaah! Nostalgia right in the nuts. I used to have most of these books (and the map!!!) back in the late 80's/ early 90's (including a first edition boxset of the rules, with the Chris Achilleos artwork). God knows what happened to it all, would be worth a fortune these days, apparently!
Thanks for showing off this wonderful series! I still have mine. I think I’m only missing two books. (The series was in print for about 17 years total but some modules dropped out of print during that time.) I met one of the game writers and played a module he was working on (in ‘87, I think). He was really great as was the unfinished module. The only thing I don’t get about this (marvelous) vid is why you would never actually play the game. The modules and adventures are excellent and a lot of fun, and it’s a streamlined version of the at times over-complicated Rolemaster system (though I liked that one fine). I know there’s only so much time for gaming but this one is worth it to me.😊
It was a combination of there not being enough time and discovering it during a time when I had stopped gaming for various reasons. Had a hiatus of about 10 years before I got back into it. I for sure would have played it had I discovered it a few years earlier! I recently picked up the full Adventures in Middle Earth series, loosely based on 5th edition D&D, so we may adventure in Middle Earth one of these days soon!
We played MERP in our youth and my brother have loads of moduls, he has Role Master as well from I.C.E. and the minis were mithril miniature, by prince august located in county Cork in Eire, the covers of the books are amazing paintings by Angus Mcbride. I just loved that game.
The Mithril miniatures were fantastic. I have a bunch of them, some painted, some not. They had an elegance most of the other minis from the era did not
We played a lot of MERP in the 80s. It became the favorite fantasy RPG for a long while (and we played a lot of systems). I haven't played since the 90s so some details may be misremembered. MERP was a sub-set of the RoleMaster (RM) system by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE). ICE held the license for LOTR at the time - and made a number of board games in the setting before MERP. They lost the license in the late 90s when the estate reclaimed the rights leading up to the film trilogy. This was a very sad event because the material put out by ICE far exceeded - in quality and respect to the original material - anything that I have seen since. While you say that the extended world is not "cannon" - it is not randomly invented by ICE. The world JRRT created far exceeded the places visited or even mentioned in LotRs. Most of the places (AFAIR) in the MERP "world map" are placed mentioned or described (to varying degrees) in the works of Tolken. ICE will have to fill in the dots - but this was always done with respect for the source material, and as a world-view of Middle Earth its probable as good a source as from anywhere. MERP was set "officially" earlier in the Third Age - in the middle of the age, or a few centuries before the events of LotR. This was considered a period with more possibilities for adventure than that time. Of course players where free to choose other times and periods - which were supported in the suppliements as you point out. As a game system MERP/RM (and others) where pretty good - if a little unusual at the time. A percentile system, it mixed classes and skill progression - so skills favored by your class were easier to progress, but extra-class skills were not forbad. Each level you progressed a number of skills - but you also then picked which skills you were developing for the next level, to avoid sudden convenient aquisition of skills. One really great feature of combat is that you could split your skill percentage between attack and defense. Usually this meant, when fighting a larger foe, putting it all into defense until the creature fumbled and then taking the opportunity to pummel it with all your might. The MERP/RM system has copeous pages of hit tables, and after scoring a hit you'd roll on the column for your weapon. I have seen critisism of these as "critical hit" tables - but they are the "real" damage effects, rather than "concussion points" (hit points) which are more akin to fatigue. MERP/RM didn't take the abstract view of damage - so you had a stab to the leg which was bleeding 4 points per round until someone could heal it, or worse. You didn't want your opponent rolling a 66 anywhere on these tables! "Magic" was based on spell lists. You learnt a spell list and could use entries on it up to your level (basically). But these shouldn't be considered as just magic - most of them could also be interpreted as heroic deeds. We played a RM LotR game which was "low magic" - as magic in the setting is really only associated with mythical characters, and most of those are evil, and all are not to be trusted. One player had a character with overtly magical spell lists - which he kept concealed for 12mo gametime until forced to use one in public. This resulted in the character being chased out by the villages, supported by the other (naturally shocked) player characters. Overall, MERP captured the essence of RPG in a LotR settings. It was easy to play, not complicated (really), and backed up by fabulous material. I think there is one rare suppliement which was last seen for something like £/$1000. I wish I still had all the ones I use to own ("great purges" happen) - but proud to have the HD Minas Tirith on the bookshelf still.
Thanks for your detailed comment! I remember Rolemaster well, though I ever played it. It was fairly popular at the time, one of the few systems that came close to D&D as far as popularity. I like percentile systems and skill-based systems, even tinkered with my own design at the time, so I'd probably feel right at home with Rolemaster.
Mithril Miniatures is still around and producing middle earth inspired miniatures. 2023 is their 35th anniversary as a miniature company. I use several of them (rebased) with my GW Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game forces.
I started collecting these again when I found they were being sold on ebay. It took me years to finally get them all - but it was SUCH a fun hobby in itself. Dont do 'Buy-it-now'! as you can get all of these books much cheaper - but you have to be patient and keep your eye out every week for whats available.
Agreed! I've filled in a lot of holes in the collection by just taking it slow and steady. Every now and then, you'll run into a great bargain that other buyers miss. I have around 40 books from the series, and among the ones that aren't my originals (IIRC, the stuff in the video is from my original collection), I've been lucky to get most at a good price. Just took a lot of patience!
Grew up in a very similar way, had to go into the big city to a random bookshop or hobby store and see whatever random old books they had. Then realized they were still producing books in the early 90s and started ordering. Wish I had taken good care of those books, they're in storage on another continent now heh. Was a great game to play, a stepping stone to the more advanced Rolemaster. I think Minis Ithil was my first book heh. Our GM picked up and used Moria and there were crazy maps in it.
Man, I know that everyone got into the genre with D&D, but this and Cyberpunk were the only two RPGs is actually played for some time with a group of friends. I had the Italian edition of this (which was called GirSA, as Gioco di Ruolo del Signore degli Anelli or "Lords of the Rings roleplay game") and a lot of these modules you showed the covers of. Aside for the great quality and production value in general, the cover arts by Angus McBride were consistently absolutely stellar. It's bizarre that I crossed this video completely by chance and now I'm suddenly getting so nostalgic about something in the end I practiced only for few months more than 20 years ago.
Ha! A hobby shop 30 minutes away? We had to drive 2 hours and 30 minutes to get to a hobby shop! I bought many of those MERP books and modules back then and still have them all! Really good stuff!
Know you said you're going to collect but not play MERP, but I think you ought to run a campaign and post on your channel. Or even play a different system & use the MERP books & maps as resources.
We have discussed doing a Middle earth campaign using the Adventures in Middle Earth rules, which adapts the D&D 5th edition rules into Middle Earth. Those rules + these books could work pretty well!
@@EricSanJuan Awesome! Yes they're incredible resources. Though reading the Bree and Barrowdowns book recently, I was sad to see no Prancing Pony in Bree! (MERP takes place centuries before LOTR.)
I didn't play them either BUt I played the Gamebooks "Tolkien Quest" (3 books in English) and the "Middle Earth Quest" (4 books in Spanish) (they were all published in English excpet one of 'Middle Earth Quest"). They were made by ICE too. The reason I wanted to read MERP campaign book (the red manual you showed first) was because a nerd thing. In one of the gamebooks they mention a "light spell" but that spell wasn't in the spell list in any of the gamebooks! BUT they had convertion systems to play MERP and I wanted to know if the spell existed or not! so after years and years I found the book (I live in Honduras, very difficult to find books like those) and spell DID exist so I homebrew that spell into the character of the gamebook and now, my character doesn't need torches!
Those Tolkien Question / Middle Earth Quest books are great! They reminded me of the Fighting Fantasy series, such as Dungeon of Despair, City of Thieves, and the Forest of Doom
@@EricSanJuan Also a fan of those! Deathtrap Dungeon and Seas of blood are my favorites. I would mention House of Hell, but that wasn't a favorite.... it was really.... hell.
@@oscarsiri2763 If you want to revisit some of those books in a modern way, the Fighting Fantasy series is now available on a mobile app. The app and a sample book are free, then the originals are around $4 each. The app tracks your inventory, hit points, dice rolls, etc., making them really easy to play. I just replayed City of Thieves that way and loved it all over again!
This is one of those things where you see some developer type guy (loaded), with like a room packed with these books... plenty of money to spend because they understand like 6 programming languages and have insurmountable wealth (i.e. can't spend it all just on themselves). That does look fun though, haha, albeit tedius!
I played this game in the late 80’s for about 2 years. Great fun! Today I still have my books, and have been collecting slowly for years. At this point I am thinking of selling it all. Your thoughts?
If you've been thinking of selling, now is still a very good time. The books remain in high demand. The slim books go for an average of $30 to $50 each, and the squarebound books are usually anywhere from $80 to $200 each. I suspect demand will remain high as long as the Rings of Power show is on. PS - Feel free to reach out, I have a few holes in my collection to be filled!
Random but I stumbled across a helpful comment you left on a subreddit and I love your passion for the content in this video! idk if i can say this but its adorable. love.
You know, I never got into D&D, but I'd have to guess it really depends on who you play with, and more importantly, who the DM is. Because I was talked into playing ONCE as a teen, and the DM sucked. I was turned off from wanting to play it again. But a LOTR game? I'd be game to try it.
I (Tig) had the same exact experience. Tried it once around 20 years old, the DM sucked, then I didn't play again until Eric got me into it. Now, I love it. Do it def matters who's running the game and who you play with.
All the corrections had me laughing. Does Eric have any fishing stories? Another great video, guys! I had no idea this stuff was out there, but it looks very cool. Love Eric's passion about it too.
Hah! In all fairness, I fact-checked myself after we filmed this and asked Tig to insert them so my talking-out-of-my-ass didn't mislead anyone. Needless to say, our pre-show research is ... sparse! Heh!
@@EricSanJuan that's fair for sure. And of course, ebay is a moving animal. Just gave me a chuckle. Thanks for sharing this stuff with us. Always fun. Sometimes nostalgia, sometimes learn about stuff I missed back then, like this.
@@alexgarbe1971 You've got that right re: eBay. You HAVE to have patience if you're going to hunt down collectibles on there, not because they're hard to find, but because you'll pay way too much if you just go for the first thing you find. And thank YOU for watching! It makes it much more fun knowing someone out there enjoys it
I was looking online for some ICE puzzles and I found MERP and I need to know more... the One Ring game is out now so I probably need to stick with that one...
I'm not too familiar with this one. I'm sure I heard of it back then, may have even seen it at my local hobby shop but I didn't play it. Sounds interesting, but way to rich for me. I think I'll stick with my old TSR stuff.
I can only imagine.. roll for encounter. You're attacked by orcs again. Lol that has to be the only down side if you're into modern fantasy. Also Eric did you not have a waldenbook in town. For yrs that was my lgs till I was about 12,1992 or 93, and then my world exploded with magic and it was all down hill from there
Yep, we had a Waldenbook. Between that and Toys R Us, that was the only place we could get RPG books locally. They are where I got all my D&D stuff at the time.
We bastardized this game so much … Tolkien would have puked… going though ancient weapons of our world and applying them to Middle Earth… that’s what happens when the lads running it are all into martial arts and European warfare
Thanks For Watching! Let Us Know If You Still Play Role Playing Games!
This (MERP) was my favorite RPG ever created, and I played quite a lot. I have almost every supplement ever created, except for about 3 - 4 or so. There are actually DOZENS (60 - ish?) of supplemental modules for it so I consider that a pretty great achievement. This was the most advanced RPG ever put out at the time.
I read every book and supplement module, cover to cover, more than once (though it has been a few years) and could probably be a very good guest if you wished to discuss it or even play. I could probably recite all 34 or so playable races and which skill point attributions they got for character creation off of the top of my head, to this day, LOL 😂
I really loved how this game handled critical hits with weapons, and the whole combat system with armor and weapons.
IMHO the coolest and most interesting supplement they put out for it was Moria, with their descriptions of all the Dwarven traps, and the super cool three Axes of Azaghal that could theoretically be found by players. Sooo cool!
I actually discovered this game when there were only four supplements for it in total (which is how I was able to obtain almost every one, though many were hard to come by, and some I only ever saw on the shelves once - the day I purchased it 👍😂😁)
If you (or anyone) is interested in finding out more about this game, or playing it, you can contact me at my channel name at gmail.com or leave a message on my videos here on You Tube.
My group in the 80s all played D&D until we found Merp and Rolemaster from ICE. Their combat system is more sophisticated with critical hits that you have to be careful when deciding to fight. Sometimes better to avoid fight! I started playing again recently!
I'm the same. My group played DnD and then got into Rolemaster for the same reasons. In Rolemaster you can die at any point at any level, all it took was a good roll and good crit and any one or anything could kill you. I'd love to get into it again - I have all the Rolemaster books.
This is awesome!! I played this game in the 80s, 90s, 2000s, took about a 10 year break, and now am playing it again with friends. MERP is awesome. Now as adults, we live in different states, usually play over zoom, and every six months or so, we travel and have a role playing weekend!
That's pretty awesome!
MERP got me into TTRPG in 1986, as an apprentice carpenter. I saw Rangers of The North and Riders of Rohan and though they were a sort of Silmarillion (I am Danish in Denmark and had not found Unfinished Tales yet). I bought them, read them and discovered it was a kind of game. So I bought the rules and tried to get my friends to play.
I still play, but since 1988 with Rolemaster, and since 2019 with almost no magic. Like the books.
Would be fun to GM a MERP game with people who aren't familiar with Lord of the Rings.
They start the adventure as hobbits in the Shire who have inherited Bilbo Baggins magic ring, and are pursued by dark beings on horseback. Would be interesting to see what the players do next - would they make a run for Bree to meet Gandalf, and then Rivendell? Or try to defeat the Ringwraiths & keep the Ring? Actually safest thing to do is bury the Ring somewhere and stay away lol!
Loved playing MERP with my buddies in the mid to late 80s in our teens. I'm starting up again with some newbies, feels good I tell ya!
This game was my life for about 2 years on high school
I still have all of my loremaster, MERP and a bunch of the ICE stuff locked away in a plastic tote.
Love how excited Eric gets when talking about LOTR
You don't know the half of it! I'm surprised we've never dug deep on the channel. One day we will.
@@EricSanJuan Looking forward to it!
MERP continues to be one of my favorite RPG systems.
I love Tolkiens world. I'm sad now. I remember when Tolkien enterprises shut down merp. It was a sad day.
Great video. Back in the 80s my group of friend s played rpgs all summer long often for 12 hours a day. Everything from AD&D, champions, traveler, melee, battletech, toon (look that one up,lol) and ICE(merp). Because we were such huge comic book fans we often gravitated to Champions as it was a hero rpg with a fantastic game system. ICE (merp) was the most detail but least played rpg for us because it took so long to complete a simple encounter. Crazy stupid long and it was insane. The battle system was so detailed that a basic attack would have you scrambling and cross referencing tables and charts to figure out what part of the body got hit and to what extent the damage was.. it was fun but also very tedious.
I remember the first one I bought. It was Lost of Realm of Cardolan. I got it home and then realized that I needed a Rule Book to play. This was back in 1988. I had to wait another 2 weeks before I had the money to get the rules.I have the whole MERP collection. I agree the Ebay prices for these are ridiculous. You can download them for free off Soulseek.
WoW. I have so many of these products tucked away at the bottom of boxes that have not seen the light of day for 30+ years.
They're very much in demand right now, so if you ever need to make some quick cash, list them on eBay. I've had some good offers made for mine (this video only shows a small portion of the collection)
There is a retro clone of the merp rpg called Against the Darkmaster, its the same game system with all the LotR serial numbers filled off.
Very cool! I wasn't aware of this. Now I need to seek this out
OMG, I have the exact same LOTR poster in my house (behind Eric) and this was the first RPG i have ever play.
I was introduced to RPG with the Rolemaster system and I've never been able to get away from it. I'll admit it takes time to learn all the rules but when you crack the code it just gets under your skin. I'm an old player of Shadow World, MERP and Cyberspace :D
There's only one MERP module I don't own in either first or second edition (The Kin Strife). We played through the 90s. I think they lost the license for Middle Earth in 1998, when they were starting on the movies. I still re-purpose the maps & modules for our Old School Essentials (D&D) game.
Sounds like you have a terrific collection! Very impressive. I can see them being fun to convert for OSE, too. Nice choice!
The Adventure Game was very simple and aimed as entry level for younger teens..... It had some expansions which are quite hard to get.
I've seen one on eBay called "Darker Than the Darkness," but it's always a little too rich for my blood.
Aaaah! Nostalgia right in the nuts. I used to have most of these books (and the map!!!) back in the late 80's/ early 90's (including a first edition boxset of the rules, with the Chris Achilleos artwork). God knows what happened to it all, would be worth a fortune these days, apparently!
I haven't thought about this game since the mid-eighties. Never played it, as I was already heavily invested in AD&D, but it always looked cool.
By far my favorite part of Eric's collection... all the maps!
I would LOVE to play these! The maps alone are amazing!
Thanks for showing off this wonderful series! I still have mine. I think I’m only missing two books. (The series was in print for about 17 years total but some modules dropped out of print during that time.) I met one of the game writers and played a module he was working on (in ‘87, I think). He was really great as was the unfinished module. The only thing I don’t get about this (marvelous) vid is why you would never actually play the game. The modules and adventures are excellent and a lot of fun, and it’s a streamlined version of the at times over-complicated Rolemaster system (though I liked that one fine). I know there’s only so much time for gaming but this one is worth it to me.😊
It was a combination of there not being enough time and discovering it during a time when I had stopped gaming for various reasons. Had a hiatus of about 10 years before I got back into it. I for sure would have played it had I discovered it a few years earlier! I recently picked up the full Adventures in Middle Earth series, loosely based on 5th edition D&D, so we may adventure in Middle Earth one of these days soon!
Which modules are you missing?
We played MERP in our youth and my brother have loads of moduls, he has Role Master as well from I.C.E. and the minis were mithril miniature, by prince august located in county Cork in Eire, the covers of the books are amazing paintings by Angus Mcbride. I just loved that game.
The Mithril miniatures were fantastic. I have a bunch of them, some painted, some not. They had an elegance most of the other minis from the era did not
We played a lot of MERP in the 80s. It became the favorite fantasy RPG for a long while (and we played a lot of systems). I haven't played since the 90s so some details may be misremembered.
MERP was a sub-set of the RoleMaster (RM) system by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE). ICE held the license for LOTR at the time - and made a number of board games in the setting before MERP. They lost the license in the late 90s when the estate reclaimed the rights leading up to the film trilogy. This was a very sad event because the material put out by ICE far exceeded - in quality and respect to the original material - anything that I have seen since.
While you say that the extended world is not "cannon" - it is not randomly invented by ICE. The world JRRT created far exceeded the places visited or even mentioned in LotRs. Most of the places (AFAIR) in the MERP "world map" are placed mentioned or described (to varying degrees) in the works of Tolken. ICE will have to fill in the dots - but this was always done with respect for the source material, and as a world-view of Middle Earth its probable as good a source as from anywhere.
MERP was set "officially" earlier in the Third Age - in the middle of the age, or a few centuries before the events of LotR. This was considered a period with more possibilities for adventure than that time. Of course players where free to choose other times and periods - which were supported in the suppliements as you point out.
As a game system MERP/RM (and others) where pretty good - if a little unusual at the time. A percentile system, it mixed classes and skill progression - so skills favored by your class were easier to progress, but extra-class skills were not forbad. Each level you progressed a number of skills - but you also then picked which skills you were developing for the next level, to avoid sudden convenient aquisition of skills.
One really great feature of combat is that you could split your skill percentage between attack and defense. Usually this meant, when fighting a larger foe, putting it all into defense until the creature fumbled and then taking the opportunity to pummel it with all your might.
The MERP/RM system has copeous pages of hit tables, and after scoring a hit you'd roll on the column for your weapon. I have seen critisism of these as "critical hit" tables - but they are the "real" damage effects, rather than "concussion points" (hit points) which are more akin to fatigue. MERP/RM didn't take the abstract view of damage - so you had a stab to the leg which was bleeding 4 points per round until someone could heal it, or worse. You didn't want your opponent rolling a 66 anywhere on these tables!
"Magic" was based on spell lists. You learnt a spell list and could use entries on it up to your level (basically). But these shouldn't be considered as just magic - most of them could also be interpreted as heroic deeds. We played a RM LotR game which was "low magic" - as magic in the setting is really only associated with mythical characters, and most of those are evil, and all are not to be trusted. One player had a character with overtly magical spell lists - which he kept concealed for 12mo gametime until forced to use one in public. This resulted in the character being chased out by the villages, supported by the other (naturally shocked) player characters.
Overall, MERP captured the essence of RPG in a LotR settings. It was easy to play, not complicated (really), and backed up by fabulous material.
I think there is one rare suppliement which was last seen for something like £/$1000. I wish I still had all the ones I use to own ("great purges" happen) - but proud to have the HD Minas Tirith on the bookshelf still.
Thanks for your detailed comment! I remember Rolemaster well, though I ever played it. It was fairly popular at the time, one of the few systems that came close to D&D as far as popularity. I like percentile systems and skill-based systems, even tinkered with my own design at the time, so I'd probably feel right at home with Rolemaster.
Yup! I loved D&D but always found MERP/Rolemaster percentage (1-100) system so much more intuitive.
Mithril Miniatures is still around and producing middle earth inspired miniatures. 2023 is their 35th anniversary as a miniature company. I use several of them (rebased) with my GW Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game forces.
Excellent game, I have every single source book and supplement for it and all the boxed games and expansions as well. Prize of my collection
I started collecting these again when I found they were being sold on ebay. It took me years to finally get them all - but it was SUCH a fun hobby in itself. Dont do 'Buy-it-now'! as you can get all of these books much cheaper - but you have to be patient and keep your eye out every week for whats available.
Agreed! I've filled in a lot of holes in the collection by just taking it slow and steady. Every now and then, you'll run into a great bargain that other buyers miss. I have around 40 books from the series, and among the ones that aren't my originals (IIRC, the stuff in the video is from my original collection), I've been lucky to get most at a good price. Just took a lot of patience!
Loved that it's called MERP 😅, and loved this vid. So interesting!
I giggled when Eric said it.
Grew up in a very similar way, had to go into the big city to a random bookshop or hobby store and see whatever random old books they had. Then realized they were still producing books in the early 90s and started ordering. Wish I had taken good care of those books, they're in storage on another continent now heh. Was a great game to play, a stepping stone to the more advanced Rolemaster. I think Minis Ithil was my first book heh. Our GM picked up and used Moria and there were crazy maps in it.
Who knew when we got into this stuff all those years ago that there would be a big collectors market for it?
These books were amazing.
Man, I know that everyone got into the genre with D&D, but this and Cyberpunk were the only two RPGs is actually played for some time with a group of friends. I had the Italian edition of this (which was called GirSA, as Gioco di Ruolo del Signore degli Anelli or "Lords of the Rings roleplay game") and a lot of these modules you showed the covers of.
Aside for the great quality and production value in general, the cover arts by Angus McBride were consistently absolutely stellar.
It's bizarre that I crossed this video completely by chance and now I'm suddenly getting so nostalgic about something in the end I practiced only for few months more than 20 years ago.
Always wanted Cyberpunk that and there was a vampire one
Ha! A hobby shop 30 minutes away? We had to drive 2 hours and 30 minutes to get to a hobby shop! I bought many of those MERP books and modules back then and still have them all! Really good stuff!
Know you said you're going to collect but not play MERP, but I think you ought to run a campaign and post on your channel.
Or even play a different system & use the MERP books & maps as resources.
We have discussed doing a Middle earth campaign using the Adventures in Middle Earth rules, which adapts the D&D 5th edition rules into Middle Earth. Those rules + these books could work pretty well!
@@EricSanJuan Awesome! Yes they're incredible resources.
Though reading the Bree and Barrowdowns book recently, I was sad to see no Prancing Pony in Bree! (MERP takes place centuries before LOTR.)
Ericana Jones
He's playing the new Indiana.
I didn't play them either BUt I played the Gamebooks "Tolkien Quest" (3 books in English) and the "Middle Earth Quest" (4 books in Spanish) (they were all published in English excpet one of 'Middle Earth Quest"). They were made by ICE too. The reason I wanted to read MERP campaign book (the red manual you showed first) was because a nerd thing. In one of the gamebooks they mention a "light spell" but that spell wasn't in the spell list in any of the gamebooks! BUT they had convertion systems to play MERP and I wanted to know if the spell existed or not! so after years and years I found the book (I live in Honduras, very difficult to find books like those) and spell DID exist so I homebrew that spell into the character of the gamebook and now, my character doesn't need torches!
Those Tolkien Question / Middle Earth Quest books are great! They reminded me of the Fighting Fantasy series, such as Dungeon of Despair, City of Thieves, and the Forest of Doom
@@EricSanJuan Also a fan of those! Deathtrap Dungeon and Seas of blood are my favorites. I would mention House of Hell, but that wasn't a favorite.... it was really.... hell.
@@oscarsiri2763 If you want to revisit some of those books in a modern way, the Fighting Fantasy series is now available on a mobile app. The app and a sample book are free, then the originals are around $4 each. The app tracks your inventory, hit points, dice rolls, etc., making them really easy to play. I just replayed City of Thieves that way and loved it all over again!
@@EricSanJuan I've seen it, it looks fantastic.
This is one of those things where you see some developer type guy (loaded), with like a room packed with these books... plenty of money to spend because they understand like 6 programming languages and have insurmountable wealth (i.e. can't spend it all just on themselves).
That does look fun though, haha, albeit tedius!
I played this game in the late 80’s for about 2 years. Great fun! Today I still have my books, and have been collecting slowly for years. At this point I am thinking of selling it all. Your thoughts?
If you've been thinking of selling, now is still a very good time. The books remain in high demand. The slim books go for an average of $30 to $50 each, and the squarebound books are usually anywhere from $80 to $200 each. I suspect demand will remain high as long as the Rings of Power show is on. PS - Feel free to reach out, I have a few holes in my collection to be filled!
Random but I stumbled across a helpful comment you left on a subreddit and I love your passion for the content in this video! idk if i can say this but its adorable. love.
Awesome, thank you!
You know, I never got into D&D, but I'd have to guess it really depends on who you play with, and more importantly, who the DM is. Because I was talked into playing ONCE as a teen, and the DM sucked. I was turned off from wanting to play it again.
But a LOTR game? I'd be game to try it.
I (Tig) had the same exact experience. Tried it once around 20 years old, the DM sucked, then I didn't play again until Eric got me into it. Now, I love it. Do it def matters who's running the game and who you play with.
All the corrections had me laughing. Does Eric have any fishing stories?
Another great video, guys! I had no idea this stuff was out there, but it looks very cool. Love Eric's passion about it too.
Hah! In all fairness, I fact-checked myself after we filmed this and asked Tig to insert them so my talking-out-of-my-ass didn't mislead anyone. Needless to say, our pre-show research is ... sparse! Heh!
@@EricSanJuan that's fair for sure. And of course, ebay is a moving animal. Just gave me a chuckle.
Thanks for sharing this stuff with us. Always fun. Sometimes nostalgia, sometimes learn about stuff I missed back then, like this.
@@alexgarbe1971 You've got that right re: eBay. You HAVE to have patience if you're going to hunt down collectibles on there, not because they're hard to find, but because you'll pay way too much if you just go for the first thing you find.
And thank YOU for watching! It makes it much more fun knowing someone out there enjoys it
Def worth putting on your nerdiest hat! If someone was smart, they would print those map as full size posters. Make a pretty penny.
I was looking online for some ICE puzzles and I found MERP and I need to know more... the One Ring game is out now so I probably need to stick with that one...
The map may not be canon but that's how I.C.E. convinced the Tolkien Foundation to grant them the rights instead of TSR
I have both the box set and the hard bound book. and most of the modules.
More LOTR stuff please!
You two are going to make me spend so much money.
10 years ago you could get them in game shop bargain bins
Truth
I notice that Tig's side of the screen in backwards/reversed, so does that mean that his name is actually "Git"..??
Yes, I'm a mean old git.
Loving it!
I'm not too familiar with this one. I'm sure I heard of it back then, may have even seen it at my local hobby shop but I didn't play it. Sounds interesting, but way to rich for me. I think I'll stick with my old TSR stuff.
Yeah, it's a shame it's so expensive.
I can only imagine.. roll for encounter. You're attacked by orcs again. Lol that has to be the only down side if you're into modern fantasy. Also Eric did you not have a waldenbook in town. For yrs that was my lgs till I was about 12,1992 or 93, and then my world exploded with magic and it was all down hill from there
We had a Waldenbook in the mall we both went to as kids. (We grew up in the same county)
Yep, we had a Waldenbook. Between that and Toys R Us, that was the only place we could get RPG books locally. They are where I got all my D&D stuff at the time.
There was actually a lot of variety.
Man, would have been nice to get them all, but you'd have to sell your first born and a kidney.
Anyone know where I can find a PDF repository?
Check out Scribd. It’s like a Netflix for books. There’s a lot on there.
Or just get them all on .pdf like I have.
That works as well.
Wow ❤❤❤❤🎉
We bastardized this game so much … Tolkien would have puked… going though ancient weapons of our world and applying them to Middle Earth… that’s what happens when the lads running it are all into martial arts and European warfare
Tho I have to say I was on the cool town… massive comic book store downtown and a comic book store and hobby shop 2 blocks from my house
the game is free