Forum

The MERP Thieves of Tharbad and Free League's Eriador books - set 1,500 years apart - offer a unique opportunity to explore the full implications of immortality. Photos and ideas how to utilize the city of Tharbad at my game blog. enjoy! -Wayne

THARBAD (TA 1409 & TA 2965) – Mix Middle Earth RPGs Old & New for an Adventure Spanning Millennia

Wow. You open this and there are so many links available.... I have just used over an hour of wandering through a few.

So many games... so little time (sigh)

Anyway thanks!

Haha, well I'm glad you enjoyed the site. My focus is on old school RPGs, and my goal is to document the best passing through the shop for posterity.

I played MERP with my friends back in the 80s and I have a lot of fond memories. There was nothing quite like fumbling your weapon and tripping over an unseen imaginary deceased turtle.
Confused? Imagine how your character felt, and they were stunned 2 rounds trying to figure out what just happened. But I think you are right Wayne, the Fria Ligan rules handle magic in a much better way and although I loved the combat rules in MERP when I was young, the game was perhaps a little too focused on combat and a simple fight could take far too many charts to resolve. I've been surprised by how well 5e has been adapted.

But the Pete Fenlon maps from MERP really were beautiful and they are the number one reason I kept collecting the supplements over the years.
Joining the maps together was something I also enjoyed doing. You can build up a substantial map of some regions that way. The maps did evolve in subtle ways over the years. I don't have the 1st edition Angmar map but I do have the 2nd edition and it fits much better with the Mirkwood map. It looks like the 1st edition map actually ended on the eastern edge, while by the 2nd edition they had created a much larger area. The Isengard area map is the only disappointing one. It uses a completely different scale than the others. I don't have the north-western map package that they created for 2nd edition, but from what I have seen it looks to me that they created a fresh map set that may have consolidated the original maps and added some new features.

Those maps were all created before computer graphics so watercolour originals must exist somewhere. I have often wondered how large an area they ended up producing on a single watercolour sheet. I hope they go to a public gallery some day.

But the Pete Fenlon maps from MERP really were beautiful and they are the number one reason I kept collecting the supplements over the years.
Joining the maps together was something I also enjoyed doing. You can build up a substantial map of some regions that way. The maps did evolve in subtle ways over the years. I don't have the 1st edition Angmar map but I do have the 2nd edition and it fits much better with the Mirkwood map. It looks like the 1st edition map actually ended on the eastern edge, while by the 2nd edition they had created a much larger area. The Isengard area map is the only disappointing one. It uses a completely different scale than the others. I don't have the north-western map package that they created for 2nd edition, but from what I have seen it looks to me that they created a fresh map set that may have consolidated the original maps and added some new features.

Those maps were all created before computer graphics so watercolour originals must exist somewhere. I have often wondered how large an area they ended up producing on a single watercolour sheet. I hope they go to a public gallery some day.

I've been meaning to document (beyond my one post on the topic) how the MERP maps fit together. They really are the crown jewels of the MERP line, those maps.

I've been looking at ways to utilize MERP resources in FL One Ring/LotR RPG. Tharbad is the beginning, and I hope to return to the topic in the future.

Bree and the Barrow Downs is a great resource for doing a barrow adventure. It has a list of a couple dozen royal burial sites with simple layouts, the name, and grave contents, and the kind of wight that haunts it.
In my campaign the players were shown a sword that had been taken from a brigand who had been killed by Rangers. It clearly came from a royal burial, so how did he get it? The players consulted Elrond who was able to determine the name of the king and which mound he had been buried in. So it was off to confront the wight in a riddle contest and find out what had happened. From the merp supplement I picked a suitable grave site, which just helps pad out the name of the king, how important he was, when he was buried.

Bree and the Barrow Downs is a great resource for doing a barrow adventure. It has a list of a couple dozen royal burial sites with simple layouts, the name, and grave contents, and the kind of wight that haunts it.
In my campaign the players were shown a sword that had been taken from a brigand who had been killed by Rangers. It clearly came from a royal burial, so how did he get it? The players consulted Elrond who was able to determine the name of the king and which mound he had been buried in. So it was off to confront the wight in a riddle contest and find out what had happened. From the merp supplement I picked a suitable grave site, which just helps pad out the name of the king, how important he was, when he was buried.

Excellent idea! Bree and the Barrow Downs is a great start. I get so overwhelmed by the immensity of the setting, and find myself in research paralysis. The barrows have a tight focus, great for for kicking off play, and learning the FL LotR5e rules in practice.

I like your idea of a millennia long campaign and Tharbad and Bree make very good settings for that. Both cities are still occupied, but the Prancing Pony doesn't exist in TA 1640. Imagine being the first elf to visit! you could tell Barliman you met his ancestors.