Topic: Converting MERP to RMU

[Frewfrux]

I'm starting a new campaign soon set in Middle Earth and using the RMU rules. One of the challenges I've had, which has actually been far more enjoyable than it has been a challenge, is converting the races/cultures in MERP II into races for RMU. So far the only real 'hiccoughs' have been some of the racial abilities in MERP not really having a RMU talent counterpart. (Notably one Beorning character with the ability to shapechange into a bear.) I've just created new talents where appropriate using my RMSS books as guides and I think it's worked fairly well.

Then I wondered if anyone else had done this, and maybe I could learn a bit from their efforts. Is this something people have done and could share a bit about? Or am I "breaking new ground" and being all innovative and stuff? (I'm guessing it's the former, not the later.)

[Thot]

Well, Creature Law should be out eventually. Supposedly it contains all those missing, more exotic talents.

[nash]

The Creature Law beta is still floating around I believe - it should have a shapeshifter talent.

[Malcolm of Clan Ewen]

Interesting.  I've ordered the first two RMU books, but haven't received them yet.  I'm also coming from a primarily MERP background, though we used a few RM supplements over the years.  So I was kicking around campaign ideas when it occurred to me that the answer lay in my old MERP stuff.  I wanted a campaign set in a northern region with dark forces looking to revive a long lost evil and the scattered forces of good struggling to resist the rising tide of darkness.  And I was thinking of a sort of shamanic Native American/Alaskan feel rather than Norse, but with some fantasy elements.  Then I remembered the MERP campaign setting for the Northern Waste.  It's perfect for this.  You've got Eskimo types (Lossoth), the Umli half-dwarves, sweat-lodge vision-questing Noldor, Snow Elves, remnants of Morgoth's old fortress and allies, and the rising power of the Witch King.  So there's our backdrop. 

I always thought that the greatest strength of MERP was in adding stuff around the fringes that wasn't canon, but gave you the freedom to game in Middle Earth and bring in the tropes and foes you want to.  This is far different from the other Middle Earth RPGs, that want to slavishly reproduce the films or books and set things at the end of the Third Age.

So now I think we'll be doing just that.  Using MERP as our base, but adding bits from RMU for depth and customization.  Can't wait to get started.  So my advice to the OP is to simply fudge it.  I think you can easily move stuff from one to the other.  And MERP adventures usually have RM stats for key NPCs.  Do you have anything with stats for Beorn or some other shapeshifter?  Even though it would be an older edition of RM, that could give you what you need.

[Hurin]

Yes, Creature Law has it, though the formatting is tough to get through. Shapechange: Therianthropy is 30 DP for example.

[assur]

I think the special abilities in merp non essential. You could flash out the merp cultures with childhood skillpoints alone.

[MisterK]

Interesting.  I've ordered the first two RMU books, but haven't received them yet.  I'm also coming from a primarily MERP background, though we used a few RM supplements over the years.  So I was kicking around campaign ideas when it occurred to me that the answer lay in my old MERP stuff.  I wanted a campaign set in a northern region with dark forces looking to revive a long lost evil and the scattered forces of good struggling to resist the rising tide of darkness.  And I was thinking of a sort of shamanic Native American/Alaskan feel rather than Norse, but with some fantasy elements.  Then I remembered the MERP campaign setting for the Northern Waste.  It's perfect for this.  You've got Eskimo types (Lossoth), the Umli half-dwarves, sweat-lodge vision-questing Noldor, Snow Elves, remnants of Morgoth's old fortress and allies, and the rising power of the Witch King.  So there's our backdrop. 

I always thought that the greatest strength of MERP was in adding stuff around the fringes that wasn't canon, but gave you the freedom to game in Middle Earth and bring in the tropes and foes you want to.  This is far different from the other Middle Earth RPGs, that want to slavishly reproduce the films or books and set things at the end of the Third Age.

So now I think we'll be doing just that.  Using MERP as our base, but adding bits from RMU for depth and customization.  Can't wait to get started.  So my advice to the OP is to simply fudge it.  I think you can easily move stuff from one to the other.  And MERP adventures usually have RM stats for key NPCs.  Do you have anything with stats for Beorn or some other shapeshifter?  Even though it would be an older edition of RM, that could give you what you need.

Just FYI, there is an old Shadow World campaign module (the Iron Wind) that provides a sub-polar/polar setting with several cultures struggling against (and some of them in the process of being corrupted by) one of the powerful evils that have settled in the area. It is set in a cluster of islands. It definitely has a more fantasy feel than the Northern Wastes MERP campaign module (the underlying settings, Shadow World vs Middle Earth, are significantly different), but it is quite interesting in its own right.

[Hurin]

And I think it was originally set in Middle Earth. If you take a look at the big poster map of Middle Earth released with MERP, you can see in the north the island 'Mur Fustisyr'. That's the land of The Iron Wind.

[Frewfrux]

Thank you everyone who reminded me of Creature Law. I totally forgot I still had that file from playtesting. That should help out for sure!

I always thought that the greatest strength of MERP was in adding stuff around the fringes that wasn't canon, but gave you the freedom to game in Middle Earth and bring in the tropes and foes you want to.  This is far different from the other Middle Earth RPGs, that want to slavishly reproduce the films or books and set things at the end of the Third Age.

I couldn't agree more. This is why my upcoming campaign will be set in Rhun and the lands in the east. There's some cannon around it, but not much. And if I need them I can always add in a blue wizard here or there.

[MisterK]

I always thought that the greatest strength of MERP was in adding stuff around the fringes that wasn't canon, but gave you the freedom to game in Middle Earth and bring in the tropes and foes you want to.  This is far different from the other Middle Earth RPGs, that want to slavishly reproduce the films or books and set things at the end of the Third Age.

To each their own, I guess. MERP was in my opinion right to provide its own take of Middle Earth, but I think it was best when exploring NW Middle Earth regions in another historical period of the Third Age. I loved what they did with Arthedain, Rhudaur and Cardolan, for instance, because it provided a useful background for campaigns that took place around the Northern Wars, between the rise of the Lich King of Angmar and the Fall of Fornost. I also liked what they did for Gondor around the civil war for the same reason: known places, but not at the end of the Third Age.

By comparison, what ICE did for the far south, for instance (The Court of Ardor, Shadow in the South) was good, but could have been done for any fantasy RPG. This was where the cross-pollination between MERP and what would become Shadow World was most obvious, I think. Exploring the fringes of Middle Earth is very fun, but if the local setting is just generic fantasy with Middle-Earth tags plastered on it to sell it, what's the point ?

[Malcolm of Clan Ewen]

I always thought that the greatest strength of MERP was in adding stuff around the fringes that wasn't canon, but gave you the freedom to game in Middle Earth and bring in the tropes and foes you want to.  This is far different from the other Middle Earth RPGs, that want to slavishly reproduce the films or books and set things at the end of the Third Age.

To each their own, I guess. MERP was in my opinion right to provide its own take of Middle Earth, but I think it was best when exploring NW Middle Earth regions in another historical period of the Third Age. I loved what they did with Arthedain, Rhudaur and Cardolan, for instance, because it provided a useful background for campaigns that took place around the Northern Wars, between the rise of the Lich King of Angmar and the Fall of Fornost. I also liked what they did for Gondor around the civil war for the same reason: known places, but not at the end of the Third Age.

By comparison, what ICE did for the far south, for instance (The Court of Ardor, Shadow in the South) was good, but could have been done for any fantasy RPG. This was where the cross-pollination between MERP and what would become Shadow World was most obvious, I think. Exploring the fringes of Middle Earth is very fun, but if the local setting is just generic fantasy with Middle-Earth tags plastered on it to sell it, what's the point ?

My point is that I like both approaches because they stay away from the book events for the most part, which is something the other Middle Earth games don't do.  We always played in the ca. 1640 Third Age setting and in the northwest, as our longest campaign was based around Mirkwood, later crossing into Eriador and northern Gondor.  We never went further afield than Rhun.  But I loved that they gave back stories for all the Ringwraiths, with some being in the far south.  That allowed one to do something totally unexpected if your players were hardcore book fans.

So for the upcoming campaign I want to play in the Northern Waste, but with the Witch King and his minions as the main foes.  So we'll still be on the fringe of canon, but with Lossoth, Umli, and Snow Elves as PCs.

[Finwe]

And I think it was originally set in Middle Earth. If you take a look at the big poster map of Middle Earth released with MERP, you can see in the north the island 'Mur Fustisyr'. That's the land of The Iron Wind.

Terry Amthor sayd in an interview that this was a joke from the authors.

[Hurin]

And I think it was originally set in Middle Earth. If you take a look at the big poster map of Middle Earth released with MERP, you can see in the north the island 'Mur Fustisyr'. That's the land of The Iron Wind.

Terry Amthor sayd in an interview that this was a joke from the authors.

Cool, I did not know that! Like, it was a joke that they threw in 'Mur Fustisyr' on the ME map?

[nash]

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