Ever since EA binned The White Council, I've been dying for an open-world RPG set in the world of The Lord of the Rings. I am also far from the only one, as a team of modders has been working on building themselves just that, using Bethesda's Elder Scrolls games as a base.


The project, called MERP (Middle Earth Role-Playing Project) was originally intended to be a massive mod for Oblivion, but is recently undergoing transportation to Skyrim's slightly-tweaked engine.


Once (if ever) finished, MERP will put you in the ring-bearer's shoes following their quest from the classic tale, though instead of just being Frodo you can be one of ten playable races, including elves, hobbits, dwarves and a few different types of men.

If you've got Oblivion and feel like checking out the recreation of Middle Earth the team has built, a beta is available for download below.

Latest News: MERP 0.2.6 beta release! [ModDB]