Iron Crown Enterprises

A nicely described setting with a forlorn folklore aura. Of the three adventure included only the third (The Lost Ring) really resonated with me with its fairy-tale echoes. All in all, better as a setting rather than a trio of ready modules.

An excellent supplement with a wealth of history and geography as far as Bree-land is concerned. Its assumed setting is after the Great Plague of the Third Age, around 17oo T.A., an era in which the kingdoms of Arthedain still exists. It has a detailed description of Bree locales and personalities, with subtle hooks spread throughout. There is also a very detailed description of the Barrow Downs, reminiscent of archaeological and architecture manuals. There are also some adventure frameworks show more in the end, as well as well detailed map of Bree environs (apart from small maps of the town itself and Combe, Archet and Staddle).

All in all lots of information, much more than Cubicle 7's Bree supplement (which was also very scarce on maps). Definitely recommended. show less

A desert kingdom rpg land only loosely based on Middle Earth, since it is an area barely described by J.R.R. Tolkien. But that works for me, as I probably want to steal it and transplant it to my own game world anyway.

When using Tolkien's universe as a game setting, there are two major constraints; the geography, and the history. Obviously, Tolkien never intended for his work to be used for role playing games; he wrote simply because he wanted a context for his languages (and to tell stories, of course). Consequently, he only "discovered" as much of Arda as he needed for these purposes - which makes for a realtively meager geographical gaming context; with only a handful of documented settlements and show more hotspots to play with, environments are bound to get old fast. On the other hand, the vast portions of empty space on the maps leave plenty of room for players to come up with interesting places of their own - which is also what Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) does in Middle-Earth Role Playing (MERP). But in the end, there is only so much you can add to the setting and still keep it intact. Which leads to the second hurdle; the history.

In Tolkien's Middle-Earth, all global events of epic proportions have either already taken place, or - as in the case of the time setting for MERP (which is ca year 1600 Third Age of the Sun and onwards) - are still to come. Important and fantastic things will happen - regardless of what the players do with their characters. Role playing in the Star Wars universe is a good example of the opposite: there is enough space for players to act out and have an impact on the setting without contesting the original. MERP still does its best not to turn players into bystanders, and the overall result is satisfactory. show less