[Icelander]

I love Tolkien's writing (the more long-winded the better), but I have discovered through experience that I am poorly suited to present Tolkienesque worlds.

My working assumption is that I am too cynical, secular and materialistic to convincingly portray a world peopled by mythic kings, dark lords, benevolent angels, ageless elves, noble heroes and iredeemable orcs, at least without indulging in entirely unsuitable speculation about economics, politics and unheroic individual motivations.

I am capable, I believe, of understanding the psychology of Théoden King, Éomer, Denethor, Boromir and Faramir, for example, but do not feel confident that I could convincingly portray characters of such tragic heroic scope, with value systems so radically alien to me. As for any of the elven characters or the Maiar, they are enigmas to me, ones I fear I could never understand well enough to portray well. In any case, I am well content not to attempt to compete with Professor Tolkien in a field where I can clearly see there is no risk of me ever rivalling him.

I have set games in settings created by various designers, but ultimately, I think that my favourite campaign setting is some version of Earth. Choosing different geographic areas and historical eras already offers near infinite variety and and an embarrassment of riches for background and reference materials. The possibility of adding impossible things, in the form of myths, legends, superstitions or other supernatural phenomena, ensures that any kind of campaign I can foresee wanting to present has a viable home on Earth.