So, I had this urge to try my hand at using Beyond the Wall to portray the world of Middle Earth. I started by writing a playbook, The Barding – one of the men of the newly re-founded city of Dale after the worm Smaug was defeated by a company of dwarves, and a single hobbit.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this; is Beyond the Wall already sufficient for running a game in Middle Earth, no modifications or new material required? Is this a good playbook, or are there areas in which it could be dramatically improved? Are you interested in seeing playbooks for other cultures? Should I abandon the “culture” approach entirely and instead look at making (or modifying) more traditional playbooks that deal with a character’s past more than culture?

I suppose my biggest concern is whether Rhovanion is too large of an area to use the “playbook” style of creation. What do you think is the best way to handle the “The player to your right helped you” tables, and still keep characters starting with a very low-fantasy feel over such an enormous area? What about having all playbooks end with the characters now in Laketown or Dale for the Dragon Festival?

What about taking just the first three tables and replacing existing playbooks’ tables with those?

Flatland Games owns Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures.

Link: Barding

And as a bonus, here’s a brief, one page introduction to roleplaying in Middle Earth that I wrote. Text and illustration are by yours truly.

Link: Adventuring in Middle Earth