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There Are Games Afoot! - Page 11

© Michael Martinez

I think the concept of professions is foreign to Tolkien as well. Everyone knows there are Rangers in Middle-earth, but are the Rangers of Eriador the same as the Rangers of Ithilien? I don't believe so. The former may seem to be more mystical than the latter, but each group's skills seem better suited to the different geographies and situations they had to address. And the fewness of Aragorn's people might be deemed sufficient reason for their Rangers to become exemplary warriors and scholars. They had to achieve more than the average Ranger of Ithilien, because that was the only way they could survive. But the Rangers of Ithilien would have their own advantages outside of war and scholarship. The chief distinctions in Tolkien are based upon both race and culture. Elves and Dwarves are clearly distinguishable from each other and other races. But are the Dunedain of Gondor so easily physically distinguished from the Dunedain of Arnor? On one level, after thousands of years of separation, it follows that there should be dissimilarities. The southern Dunedain should be darker skinned, and few if any of them are actually described as being pale of skin. But on the other hand, they were all Dunedain, descendants of the Numenorians and the Edain of Beleriand. The chief distinctions between them were cultural. Hence, a character can start out as any race and be a craftsman, sorceror, rogue, or fighter. But a fighter should be a soldier in someone's army (or recently discharged). And they should have some level of skill or accomplishment that makes them capable. The emphasis should be on the adventure itself, and not on the advancement of the character. Role-playing games can become so distracted and preoccupied with the need to advance the character to that next level, in order to add more skills and spells to the sheet. Role-playing is not supposed to be about how many spellbooks you've mastered, or how many weaponstyles you can utilize. It should be about the choices you make for your character. In the end, we'll probably see a whole new system devised for the next LOTR-based game. But it will most likely honor many traditional stereotypes found in adventure gaming. There is simplicity if not elegance in stereotypes, and simplicity frees the imagination for use in other areas. If we end up with Hobbit thieves, Elvish sorcerors, ale-guzzling Dwarven fighters, and warrior-philosophers from Arnor and Gondor, it won't be the worst thing ever to happen to Tolkien's world. But let the players beware a gaming system is true unto itself, and may owe little or no fidelity to Tolkien. So its answers are only relevant to its own questions.

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