My group has been running a huge, epic campaign in Middle-Earth for more than a decade now, with a team of three "core" GMs working on several intertwined big background campaigns divided into individual chapters/adventures.
Our setting evolved out of ICE's little-regarded III-1410 timeline for MERP, in particular the "Thieves of Tharbad" and "Dark Mage of Rhudaur" modules, augmented by material from numerous other ICE/MERP as well as outside sources (including a campaign lifted from The Guild Companion, and literally dozens of adapted, re-written or massively altered modules from other RPGs), and of course original adventures and massive editing on our own behalf.
I'm more than a little proud of the stories and adventures we've produced - while it doesn't compare to the Song of Ice and Fire, we've certainly created an intricate, deep setting and storylines that focus on character development and roleplaying over hack'n slash dungeon crawls (and thereby somewhat downplays the rules - sorry RM!).
I am toying with the idea of compiling our massive storyline into a campaign module and make it available to the general public for free, probably in the form of a bundle of PDF files.
Naturally, original ICE concepts and artwork feature heavily in the campaign background. Therefore, I find myself wondering:
Would it be legal to reproduce parts of old ICE products in those PDFs, like the old map of Tharbad and floorplans (oftentimes altered) of various buildings?
What about characters and concepts created by ICE? (Such as the Vulseggi which are entirely a ICE creation as far as I'm aware; we massively fleshed out their culture and history and based a sub-campaign around their struggle to become a reckognized nation.)
All ICE material in question was for MERP, and is thus out of print.
Given the sheer size of the task, this will certainly be years out if it ever really happens at all, so at this time the question is rather academic. But I'd still like to know, if someone cares to answer. The intention is to make the full campaign available for free, i.e. not commercially.
(Btw, assuming that user Terry K. Amthor is the author of the Tharbad module of old: Great job, sir! This was the first RPG supplemental I ever bought, and more than two decades later I still find myself handing the Tharbad map out to my players...
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