News — MERP

There are great fantasy artists, and then there is Angus McBride. That is how I see things at least, and I’m always incredibly impressed with the amount of work this incredible South African [by way of England] artist was able to produce in his lifetime.For me, Angus was how I was introduced to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien with the Middle-Earth Role-Playing game by Iron Crown Enterprises, but realistically he was much better known for his historical paintings done for Osprey.Whatever way you managed to view a McBride, his ability to capture the power of a scene was beyond question....

When I.C.E. produced the MERP campaign supplement The Court of Ardor in Southern Middle Earth the company was still in its infancy. In fact, MERP as a game didn’t even exist, just the world map and two other campaign settings, Umbar: Haven of the Corsairs and Angmar: Land of the Witch King [to this point, a player would have used Rolemaster]. I find this incredibly interesting for a couple of reasons, but the primary of which is how Pete Fenlon looked at the Middle-Earth license he’d recently managed to wrangle from the Tolkien estate.You see, what sane person gets the...

Anyone who reads my work, either here or over on Black Gate, knows of my infinite joy concerning the artwork of I.C.E.’s Middle-Earth Role-Playing game. Today, I’m going to take a look at perhaps my favorite Angus McBride contribution to setting, Thieves of Tharbad.Now first, I say to anyone interested in playing MERP, take a serious look at both Tharbad and Cardolan as a place to start a campaign. They are extremely old and extensive places to house any campaign while still giving you access to various ‘traditional’ Lord of the Rings settings. Located southeast of the Shire, south of...

Today I’m taking a look at Iron Crown Enterprises Cities of Middle-Earth: Minas Tirith. My love affair with MERP started long, long ago, probably because Tolkien taught me to read, and while D&D taught me to create, the ability to imagine my own tales in J.R.R. Tolkien’s world was a carrot I couldn’t resist.That said, there was something about the artwork for this setting that also inspired me to bigger and better things. I credit both MERP and D&D equally for my current life path as an art director [well, and Elmore’s covers or Dragonlance].This particular book, which bears an...

Iron Crown Enterprises product #8070, The Goblin – Gate and Eagle’s Eyrie was one of those that I waited a great deal of time to lay my hands on.  You see, as I.C.E. rolled out the various supplements for Middle-Earth Role-Playing the players and GM’s alike got to pick up statistics for the various items and heroes from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.  So, it was with bated breath that I finally got a copy of this little module way back in 1985 because it was the first place you could get stats on The One Ring.  You see, The...