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Mountains on the Left, Ruins on the Right - Page 5

© Michael Martinez

Adventure gaming is supposed to be about exploring the unknown fastness of the imagination. Of course, Iron Crown Enterprises tried to open up the Third Age for gamers. They created histories and scenarios which fit neatly into Tolkien's greater chronology. But the problem with adventuring in Middle-earth is that the only times when Orcs, Trolls, and Dragons are plentiful enough to give everyone some kill points, they are usually in the ascendancy. Tolkien is not kind to the good guys. They either fall into evil or folly or they are overrun. Evil is constantly overwhelming good in Middle-earth. There are final battles where the Dark Lords are overthrown, but getting to those battles is a long and bloody path. The average gaming group won't make it through in the pencil-and-paper gameverse. And the online crowd will mostly never get past their front door, since the player-killers will eschew all pretense of going after Sauron (who is too powerful anyway) in favor of just collecting experience and other players' stuff. So, then, if all is hopeless and there is no way any self-respecting purist can enjoy a game set in Middle-earth, why should anyone care if Other Hands retreats before the menace of the Lawyers of Morder? There is no easy answer to that question. Ultimately, Middle-earth thrives in each of Tolkien's readers. Many is the mind which wonders if there were other tribes of Northmen hanging out in the Vales of Anduin. And, if so, what were they doing all the time? And when Sauron's armies marched through Eriador, where did the people flee. But more importantly, how did they rebuild? It would have been pretty interesting, actually, to wander across the landscape in the aftermath of the War of the Elves and Sauron. Yes, whole towns and villages were slaughtered. But people would have been restoring order to the lands. There would be frontier-like conditions everywhere. Lost fortunes lay buried in the ruins. Devastated kings and princes had to rally their people and vie for dwindling resources. Yet, ultimately, the good principles of Elven and Adanic cultures prevailed and civilization was rebuilt. Many gamers might feel that Turin Turambar would be the perfect model for a gaming hero. After all, he was brave, strong, and always met up with kings and warriors who could help him. But Turin's problem was that his friends usually ended up dead. His decisions were usually so strategically bad he would be awarded far more negative experience points than positive ones.

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