Best Middle-earth Themed Roleplaying Games:

I see this question come up a lot in various forums:

What game system should I use for a campaign set in Middle-earth?

First, we need to set the criteria:

• Middle-earth isn’t centered around combat. There is combat – but it’s not the sole focus of the game. Your vision of Middle-earth may vary. In mine, there’s combat, but also a lot of story and character interactions.
• It’s a low magic setting compared to more traditional RPGs. There’s not a mage or wizard in every village that can be hired to shoot fire balls or polymorph people into sheep. Instead, there is magic in the earth. It’s there but not necessarily shooting from your fingertips.
• Limited species of player characters: humans, hobbits, dwarves, and elves.
• Limited adversaries. It’s not the same as the D&D monster manual.
• Journey rules are a plus.

This is the list of game systems that I always recommend. Most of them fit into the above criteria:

The One Ring Roleplaying Game by Free League

This is a given. If you want to play in Tolkien’s Middle-earth, why not use a game that’s designed just for it. While this might seem like the obvious choice, some people prefer a different game engine or one with less complexity.

I would consider this game to be about a medium or slightly higher level of crunch. It has rules for most aspects of Middle-earth, such as journeys, exploration, combat, council interaction (social rules), fellowship rules (downtime), and a host of enemies you will encounter in Middle-earth.

The game is published by Free League with the lead designers being Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi. You can see my article about its starter sets here. There is also a 5e version of the game made by the same company.

Dragonbane by Free League

This game is designed by Tomas Härenstam. It is a modernization of the hit Swedish game Drakar och Demoner (Dragons and Demons). The majority of Scandinavians played Drakar och Demoner, while American’s played Dungeons and Dragons.

Dragonbane is sleek, streamlined game taking place in a medieval-inspired world. There’s tactical combat, journey rules, and all the monsters you need for Middle-earth. You will need to scale down some of the magic and playable species, but the tone of this game is perfect to Middle-earth. It’s easy to get to the table and players can quickly learn the rules in no time.

It’s fun game that offers a lot, while keeping the rules out of the way. Also, the core box for this game is one of the best deals you’ll find for an RPG. Highly recommended!

The Hero’s Journey by Gallant Knight Games

James M. Spahn is the designer of this game and it’s essentially a love letter to Middle-earth. The game evokes a sense of classical fantasy danger and heroism.

Characters aren’t superhero type warriors looking for gold. Rather they’re common types that are swept into a adventure. It has standard character classes but leaves out high powered magic users. There are wizards and magic in the game, but the spells are much more sedated along the lines of Gandalf or Elrond. There is even a class called the Yeoman, which is clearly based off Samwise Gamgee.

There are rules for journeys, hirelings, combat, despair, hex crawling, and a menagerie of setting appropriate beasts (as well other folktale orient creatures). The Hero’s Journey is low to medium in complexity.

It’s built off the Swords and Wizardry chassis. James M. Spahn even helped write the adventures in the first starter box for The One Ring.

This game was designed by Leonard A. Pimental and uses the Black Hack game mechanics. It’s a perfect game for those seeking a low complexity game where the rules don’t stifle or box you in. You can teach a player the rules in less than 5 – 10 minutes. The game has similar mechanics to other Middle-earth themed games, such as travel, combat, low magic, and a host of monsters. However, it condenses them into a very streamlined set of rules.

Typically, if I’m running a one-shot adventure for guests, I use this system because it’s easy to understand and quick to start. It’s not easy to write a robust, yet rules lite game, which this most definitely is.

Designed by Massimiliano Caracristi, this is a beautifully illustrated tome of a book. It has taken the rules for old Middle-earth Roleplaying game (MERP) and streamlined them for a modern audience. While the game has removed it’s Middle-earth serial numbers, it’s still very much a game for those wanting to journey through Middle-earth.

This is definitely a higher complexity game that uses charts and tables, but it’s not hard to learn. You will just need a group of players that commits to learning the rules and looking their rolls up on various charts.

Like MERP, this game has heavy combat options and allows you play magic users that can decimate a group of orcs. While some players might not like this aspect in their Middle-earth games, others love the Middle-earth fever dream of slaying beasts and fighting back the Dark Lord.

One of the more interesting aspects of the game is that the whole table works together to create the Dark Lord. It’s a fun experience to work on this as a group.

Castles & Crusader by Troll Lord Games

Designed by Dane and Troy Larsen, this game is always one of my top suggestions for any setting. While inspired by early iterations of D&D, Castles & Crusades has it’s own proprietary game engine called the SIEGE Engine, which allows play to be quick and easy.

It’s a very modular system that allows you to pick and choose what rules you want to employ. By default, it’s a rules-light game that emphasizes heroic adventure, while still staying grounded. You’re not a superhero in C&Cs. It’s known as the Rosetta Stone of gaming because you make any adventure from any system work (especially OSR adventures) fluidly with C&C’s rules.

It’s a top-notch game made by a friendly group of gaming enthusiasts.

This was first a series of books from the 1980s with a game system built in. They were written and designed by Marc Gascoigne. The rules were put into a proper tabletop rpg by Dave Morris and team.

Dragon Warriors a mix between old school gaming simplicity and narrative driven games that are steeped in atmospheric fantasy. The is a low magic setting that is evocative European folklore and the middle-ages, which makes it a great fit to port Middle-earth into the system. The world is grounded, where magic exists but is feared. Dark creatures lurk in forests and shadows. The game is a standard d20 type mechanic with opposed rolls. It’s very easy to run.

You might have tweak some aspects but it’s very easy. The game was reprinted not that long ago, so it’s not hard to find.