Fourth Age of Middle Earth gaming

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

As I said there is room for gaming. The problem is that the good guys are now the top dog and it gets to be more like "Kipling with spooks and spirits" then Tolkien.

Interesting comparison, because one of Kipling's recurrent worries was that the British Empire (and Western Civilization more generally) might be too strong to be destroyed from without, but that even so they could still decay from within, morally and spiritually, making their short-term physical power a moot point.

For an example, see: Recessional

For gamers with a taste for political and social storylines as well as combat, a Fourth Age setting could deal with the struggle to remind the peoples of the Reunited Kingdom, 200 or 300 or 400 years after the War of the Ring, of what it was all about and why, and that the Kingdom exists for reasons greater than maximizing profits or comfort or self-aggrandizement. Kipling would feel right at home.

Whatever can be done, the new Numenorean empire can't be overthrown.

"This thing all things devours,
birds, beasts, trees, flowers,
gnaws iron, bites steel,
grinds hard stones to meal,
slays king, ruins town,
and beats high mountains down."

The Reunited Kingdom is by no means immortal.