You are here: Level One / Blog / RPG Legends: Middle-earth Role Playing If you look at Dungeons and Dragons, you can see several major influences. If you go all the way back to the beginning, though, it’s clear that one influence stood above all others – J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Tolkien’s estate was able to see that as well, which led to a few lawsuits and some revisions that led D&D to become the game it is today. That wasn’t the end of the story for Lord of the Rings and role-playing, though. The 1980s tabletop role-playing boom saw an official, licensed adaptation of Tolkien’s work in the form of the Middle-earth Role Playing game (MERP). This game was one of the earliest licensed RPGs and one of the first true contenders for the roleplaying crown. Taking a look at the game itself means looking not only at how it worked, but also its history and its impact. https://litrpgreads.com/blog/rpg-legends-middle-earth-role-playing
