> I may have posted before that I am trying to design a fantasy
role->playing game campaign based on the Lord of the Rings. I really >don't
like the way the Middle Earth Role-Playing Game handles >magic. There's
just too much of it. So I'm trying to do it myself
>but I'm really struggling with how to define magic in Middle Earth. >I
know there are others on this list who love Tolkien as much as I >do. I
was wondering if there was anyone here who could possibly >help me with this
or could point me to some web resources that might >help.
Hrm. It seems to me that magic in LotR was really limited to a very few
individuals. I mean, who could *wield* it in the books? Gandalf, Saruman,
Radagast, Elrond, Galadriel, Tom Bombadil, Sauron, the Balrog, maybe Shelob,
and the Witch-King of Angmar were the only who I remember really using magic
spells and the like.
I'll grant that magic was all around in the books, but I felt it more
inherent in places and things than in people. I don't know if this helps
much, but the fact is that "magic users" were few and far between, and the
ones who did have it were very powerful, but used it sparingly. If you
consider the way the characters with magic behaved, they were either loathe
to use it because it would reveal the group's position to Sauron (the idea
that it was like a beacon in the darkness sort of thing), or they were
reluctant to use it because, esentially, "power corrupts."
I'll grant you this is from memory, and I haven't read the books in a dog's
age, but I did read them some ten to a dozen between the ages of 12 and 20,
so I do have some recollections of how it went.
So if you're looking for a way to balance the magic, there are really two
paths: don't let PCs play wizards, or put stringent controls on the amount
of magic a wizard can use.
Jim (Who hopes Santa brings that really neat-o LOTR collection he saw at
Amazon.com!)
"Smithers, give him the plague" - Montgomery Burns
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