From: "Horn, John" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 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.
>
There are comments scattered throughoutn the History of Middle Earth
series.
The primary source of magic is the act of subcreation. When Maia
and, to a lesser extent, Elves do great art they can put a part of
their essence (effectively mana, but Tolkien used his own neologisms)
into their work. Feanor put much of his essence into the silmarils and
Sauron put most of his into the Ring. Maia can regenerate mana slowly,
Elves might not be able to.
This doesn't allow for PC wizards throwing fireballs and lightning around.
The Maia can do that sometimes, but they are basically demigods. Most
magic would consist of Elves spending a few years making beautiful things.
The main magical battle we see is between Sauron and Felagund, where
they both made up suitable poetry on the spot and chanted it at each
other. It seems that if Elves compose great poetry, describing the way
they want the world to be, and put their heart into it, they can amend
reality. There are no standard spells, but if a player can make up
good completely original poetry on the spur of the moment that might
work.
The other approach to magic is purely evil. Morgoth sank most
of his essence into middle-earth, tainting all matter with it. Humans
can manipulate the Morgoth aspect of matter, but not for good
purposes. This was the magic mostly used by Sauron's minions.
