Fourth Age of Middle Earth gaming

[combatmedic]

Late Second Age could be cool, too.

[Andrew Hackard]

I just moved a LOT of off-topic posts into a thread in Geek Culture. If you're wondering where your tangent went, now you know.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Andrew Hackard

I just moved a LOT of off-topic posts into a thread in Geek Culture. If you're wondering where your tangent went, now you know.

No probs. Thanks.


It keeps the thread more focused on the 4th Age.


I think journeys of exploration would be fun.

[xerxes]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

So, the Fourth Age…

Is it boring because Sauron is gone?I’m not asking about novels, mind you, but games. Not the same thing.

My guess is ‘no, it’s not boring for not for gaming.’ Not every Middle Earth game needs to involve saving the whole world from the power of Evil, but games should have a moral dimension.

Evil remains, of course, even if its physical power is reduced. The world doesn’t just become a utopia. All the human failings that create conflict and drama still remain, and many monsters doubtless roam the darker parts of Middle Earth.

Tolkien started work on a thriller involving ‘the new Shadow’, an evil cult or secret society, and gangs of young men or boys acting in ‘orcish’ ways. He ditched it. While it might not have been up his alley, a thriller like that sounds like it could make for a great Fourth Age game set in Gondor.

Something else to consider is whether any of the orcs have changed after Sauron’s fall/banishment. If he’s not able to dominate them as he used to do, maybe some few orcs have turned from evil?
Who are the slaves in Rhun that were set free by Aragorn and given their own lands? Are they humans? Orcs? Half-orcs? A mix of all three kinds?

Magic presumably remains part of the world, although maybe magic related to Sauron is weakened. Or maybe not. Was he the source of black magic or simply a teacher of it? And what of the other sorts of magic in the world?
The elves diminish and retreat, but not all at once. I think a little diminishment of them is probably good from a game balance perspective anyway, judging by stat write-ups I have see :0

Men are the dominant race in this age, but the Dwarves and especially the Hobbits don’t seem to be badly off.
We have a fair idea of the large scale political situation of the early part of the Fourth Age.

Although Tolkien seemed pessimistic about the possibilities of success, a quest to find the missing Entwives might make a fun RPG campaign, if you wanted something grand.

All of this is just IMHO, and YMMV.

But what do you guys think?

I definitely like the idea of scenarios in the 4th Age but it should be a couple hundred years into the 4th Age. Maybe a little after both Aragorn and Arwen have died.

Shelob was not killed by Sam. Maybe she gets tired of eating orcs from Mordor and decides to hunt in Ithilien. Faramir's heir will have to send someone to put a stop to her once and for all.

Smaug was not the last dragon, only the last fire-breather. Maybe one of the worms from the Withered Heath comes South and raids the elves in Greenwood(there will at least be some of them who have not left yet). Or, it raids the Woodmen and Beornings who live even further South. The PCs (being heroic types) have to stop the dragon.

Three of the Wizards are (or may) reside in Middle-Earth. You could use one of the Blue Wizards in many different ways: new dark overlord, friendly good-natured mentor, indifferent seeker of knowledge. Radagast seems a good guy and might be a mentor who points the heroes in the direction of wrongs that need to be righted.

[xerxes]

Don't forget about the Mouth Of Sauron. The books did not say he was killed in the War of the Ring. He could have fled to Khand or Rhun. The book indicates he had great knowledge of sorcery. Maybe this knowledge was passed to his descendants. One or more of them could be a threat the PCs have to deal with. Maybe one of them becomes the Sorceress-Queen of Khand.

Before the making of the Rings of Power many lesser magic rings were created. Perhaps one of them could play a part in a scenario.

[xerxes]

The books indicate that before his downfall Sauron liked to accumulate mithril. He undoubtedly kept it in vaults beneath the Dark Tower. When the Tower( and the mesa it rested on) collapsed it left an emporer's fortune of the world's most valuable metal under a mountain of debris. Clearly, that is something the Sorceress-Queen of Khand wants to get her hands on. How will Gondor react to an army of Khandites digging up the remains of the Dark Tower?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

So, the Fourth Age…

Is it boring because Sauron is gone?

It's boring because everything cool is going or gone. No elves. No wizards. No magic. Hobbits and dwarves retreat from contact. Orcs disappear.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

It's boring because everything cool is going or gone. No elves. No wizards. No magic. Hobbits and dwarves retreat from contact. Orcs disappear.

That's certainly an issue as you go on into the Fourth Age, which is one of the reasons that I set my campaign in the first couple of decades of the Fourth Age (the other is that the later I set it, the more I have to write and the more my players have to read an remember). But it's not an immediate issue at the beginning. The Ring-bearers have gone, but Legolas and Gimli are setting up a new Elf-Dwarf realm on the borders of Rohan, and Celeborn and Thranduil have elves re-occupying the Greenwood. And for all that the orcs &c. have lost their decisive battle there is still a lot of mopping-up to do.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by xerxes

I definitely like the idea of scenarios in the 4th Age but it should be a couple hundred years into the 4th Age. Maybe a little after both Aragorn and Arwen have died.

Shelob was not killed by Sam. Maybe she gets tired of eating orcs from Mordor and decides to hunt in Ithilien. Faramir's heir will have to send someone to put a stop to her once and for all.

Smaug was not the last dragon, only the last fire-breather.

??

I don't recall that every being established. Smaug was probably the greatest of the remaining dragons, but IDR that JRRT every said he was the last fire-breather.

Three of the Wizards are (or may) reside in Middle-Earth. You could use one of the Blue Wizards in many different ways: new dark overlord, friendly good-natured mentor, indifferent seeker of knowledge. Radagast seems a good guy and might be a mentor who points the heroes in the direction of wrongs that need to be righted.

All the remaining Istari are questionable in some way. JRRT speculated at one point that the two undiscussed emissaries might be responsible for the foundation of various underground 'magical' traditions and cults. One or both might well become a threat at some point, or give rise to threats in the course of their own activities.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

It's boring because everything cool is going or gone. No elves. No wizards. No magic. Hobbits and dwarves retreat from contact. Orcs disappear.

Yeah, but that stuff doesn't happen all in one day. Probably the first several centuries of the Fourth Age, esp. in the Northwest region of Middle-earth, are much like the last few centuries of the Third in terms of what is present, though of course the mix will be different with Sauron gone. It's true that the Eldar are going away fast, of course, but the Avar Elves will still be around for some time, and the Dwarves will not die out overnight, nor will the Ents.