Middle Earth Roleplaying Game

summerone

Vassal
Found this the other day and thought it might be of interest here. This was what started my miniature collecting and painting off: Middle Earth Roleplaying Game. Specifically, it was the advert (pictured with my selections!) in the box for Lord of the Rings Citadel Miniatures that got me intrigued and I ended up losing a lot of my pocket money to Games Workshop after that. I've never actually played this game, but used to read the manual a lot!
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We used to play a lot of WHFRP which is and was ace. I also own the old West End Games Star Wars book and Call of Cthulhu. We never really used figures to play with but it was nice to own one representing your character.

Nowadays a lot of roleplayers are a bit sniffy about miniatures, especially in respect of GW, with some people going as far as to disregard the company altogether around 1988ish when it started to become all about in house gaming and miniature gaming. Personally most of the appeal of the hobby for me was about the 'little men' I was an avid collector of the various ranges for these sorts of games.

I have to admit that I'm not really a fan of Lord of the Rings (the books) which always makes me feel like I'm trying to be an edgelord or deliberately contrary. I do love the 80s Citadel miniatures range though and own quite a few models that originally formed part of the LOTR range. The 'new' (as in 25 year old) range for the film tie in are absolutely amazing especially the likenesses, but oddly just don't do anything for me.
 
We went through a roleplaying phase in the late '80s. First AD&D and then MERP. We used figures for marching order and combat though they weren't central to our games. I did buy WHFRP but never played it as the system really didn't appeal after the neat and deadly MERP one. It was a bit of an eye-opener after AD&D. Orcs, especially Uruk-hai, were something to be feared.
 
The orcs of the white hand, urak hai, snagga goblins & wolf riders were all classic minis in that ME range. Always thought the horses were a bit 'undersized' (poniy scale!), especially Boromirs. Had Merp (GW/ICE) 2nd ed as well,along with the Isengard supplement and the goblins gate/eagles eyrie. The cardstocks and floorplans were brilliant in that box set. Good memories... :)
 
Citizen Sade said:
Great game. My copy's in worse shape than yours.
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Sorry, I realise that picture is a bit misleading - mine's in even better condition than that, that's just the box! It looks like yours has seen some good use - I'd much rather mine had too really.

I really liked the look of these miniatures at the time, but I ended up buying mainly Warhammer models and a few Warhammer 40k when I found a Games Workshop store. I think the newer miniatures for the other ranges being brought out caught my eye more when I saw them face to face.

Citizen Sade said:
I thought that the MERP supplements were generally pretty good.
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I had no idea there were so many, thank you for posting the images!
 

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It just seems an unnecessary throwback to RPG’s historical wargaming origins, I am more than happy to use “theatre of the mind” and let my imagination take over than fixate on the position of a model in combat rounds. The occasional map and location tokens can help, but are really just an extra detail. 🤔
 
Michael Stockin said:
I will have you know I have always been sniffy about miniatures in RPGs :P
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I didn’t really mean miniatures for role playing which I’ve never really done, I meant the presence of miniatures in the hobby. A lot of older roleplayers didn’t like Citadel mainly because of what happened to Games Workshop following Bryan Ansell’s takeover which is fair enough but I’ve always loved the miniatures as a part of the hobby.
 
I started in roleplaying (Dragon Warriors - great little set of rules), probably aged about 10 (my elder sister’s bf was into it and I’d sometimes be allowed to join in). Even then I was fascinated by the possibility of floor plans and miniatures. Dioramas also grabbed me - I remember seeing a small one of a dungeon in a glass case in GW Swindon, which can’t have been too long after the branch opened sometime in the 80s. That diorama fascinated me! It really caught my imagination. Wargaming eventually joined roleplaying as a hobby but I’ve always considered miniatures a part of both, albeit a “luxury” option in roleplaying.

I’ve never understood the sniffiness towards wargaming among some roleplayers. Maybe it’s because they perceived the rise of wargaming as something that “killed” the focus on their hobby in the late 80s/early 90s? For me they’re both parts of the same broad, imaginative hobby.
 
Dragon Warriors was one of my first RPGs too! Love the little comic illustrations to explain the rules. 😁

I started playing when I was at Primary School and got some minis and an old Dungeon Floorplan set, but I wasn’t really playing to any real rules so much as making up dungeons and pushing toy soldiers around. Later I started playing WFRP with a gang of friends at Secondary (including @willlucv!) and the use of minis for those games was kinda unnecessary.
 
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Just seeing that rulebook brings back so many memories - it was one of two roleplaying games I played for a short time with my father and his gaming group (the other being Maelstrom). There was something so atmospheric about those games... including the introductory scenario in the rulebook. Then years later when I opened the book I found it to be... well, rules and mechanics! And lots of them! Nothing mystical about it at all! But just seeing the cover takes me back.

Fimm McCool said:
Of course. But I'd also rather have a pretty setup and models to show roughly layouts of locations and characters than a scribbled map on a bit of paper. It's more immersive.
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Hmm. The thing I find hard is the abrupt shift from 'theatre of the mind' to what's practically a board game as soon as initiative is rolled/ a combat or walking along a corridor scenario is initiated. Probably a good GM would manage this but it's always been a bit of a barrier to my immersion - that moment where it's like "oh, I have to move a token on a map now" is basically the end of roleplaying.

But would I rather play with miniatures than scribbles on a map (or virtual tokens on roll20?) Of course, I'm a wargamer after all.
 
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