Adventures in Middle Earth: Player's Guide (First Looks)

Cubicle 7 Entertainment took on a daunting task worthy of Fellowship and adventure.  They put together a campaign setting that uses the Middle Earth from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series using the fifth edition rules for Dungeons and Dragons.  What they’ve accomplished is an amazing interpretation of the source material that provides you with an excellent game setting to tell your own adventures in the wild places of Middle Earth.  

From top to bottom, the Player’s Guide goes through everything that’s different from Middle Earth and the typical Dungeons and Dragons setting.  Each of the races of the Free People of Middle Earth is detailed, including regional variations and thematic choices that make each group feel distinct from each other.  The Riders of Rohan have different ability score modifiers and skills than the Dunedain, and they are in fact different from the Men of Bree.  There are so many interesting choices for races, we really can’t decide what we want to play.  

In the same way that races have been overhauled, the Classes have also been given a serious treatment to make them feel like MIddle Earth.  You won’t find a spell caster in this grouping, of either the arcane or divine persuasion.  This is a book that lets you tell stories about simple folk who find themselves on the adventure of a lifetime.

With new backgrounds, virtues, and a host of other interesting gameplay mechanics, we very much like the Adventures in MIddle Earth adaptation.  It’s not your traditional Dungeons and Dragons game, but we think that once you get into the game and its intricacies, you’ll find yourself wondering why you weren’t playing this sooner.  

Cubicle 7 has done a masterful job of adapting a world touched by powerful magic into a role-playing game where magic traditionally serves another role.  This is a world where the strength of a person’s character can be just as powerful as their sword arm, and you can play a game that feels like the novels and the movies.  

To us, that’s the measure of a truly successful adaptation, and Cubicle 7 has done so.  We really would kind of like to see how terrifying the monsters are, and we hope that they continue releasing the other books for this line.  Until that happens though, we’ll be digging into this book a little more closely for you in the coming weeks.  

You can find Adventures in Middle Earth: Player's Guide at http://cubicle7.co.uk/our-games/adventures-in-middle-earth/