Re-imagining magic in Middle-earth Role-playing (MERP) Notes, etc..

Hi all.

(Also posted on Other Minds)

Spurred into some form of action by a thread on RPG.net, I returned to one of my many, dangling, Middle-earth related projects floating around my head and hard drives.

Inspired by an old post by Chris Seeman (on MERP.com, I think!) I came to the conclusion that magic in Middle-earth is an expression of will. A rather fascistic concept, one might think, but its an idea that finds a lot of play in various genre sources in the 20th century.

Anyway.

I came to the conclusion that in terms of rules and drama, performing a magic action is an exercise of will, summoning divine spirit, and contesting against an enemy, an adversary or a situation. Spells are described in metaphorical or similaic terms: like a spell, like a bolt of light. Gandalf certainly does things that are closer to traditional spells, but I’ll worry about him later. Besides he doesn’t do it terribly often. What’s more magic is seen as (as in Norse myth) something unclean, unmanly, sort of cowardly, possibly even superstitious. The Riders of Rohan have no dealings with magic, we are told.

So magic-use is sort of rare, sort of metaphorical, often subtle. And its called upon by many different characters who are not magic-user sorts, or who aren’t even scholarly. (Theoden blows the Horn of Rohan on the Pelennor, breaking the horn, but driving his men towards victory, and scaring the bejesus out of the Witch-king) Fortunately MERP accidentally models this idea: Power Points.

Willpower is represented by the MERP Power Points level. Thus a magically inclined character (ie, a Mage, Animist, etc) is one with great mental resources, with great willpower. The greater a character’s willpower, the more supernatural power they have.

At its heart, working magic is a static manoeuvre (page 243 of the MERP rulebook). “Working” magic is thus an action akin to Interaction & Influence rolls, Read Rune rolls or Perception and Track rolls.

Thus a character announces what he or she wants to do, and the GM decides how difficult it will be. Each use of magic costs a Power Point. More power points can be spent to reduce the difficulty rating. This costs two power points per difficulty rating (ie, spend 14 power points to reduce the difficulty from Absurd to Light).

Each “spell” is “cast” for a turn. Stretching the effect to another turn costs the same amount of power points. (Thus Gandalf adds a +80 difficulty to the Moria Goblins’ action of breaking the door down, and must maintain that effect for several turns. Eventually either Gandalf’s power or luck runs out.)

Each spell is a static manoeuvre; to do so on the move modifies the SM roll by -20 to -50 depending on the GM’s desires.

A character casting a spell against someone is effectively placing a negative modifier on the enemy. The magician puts a -10 modifier on the enemy for each point of Power used. A Dunedan magician bends his will against that Orc captain, spends 10 points of Power and reduces the Orc Captain’s Offensive Bonus by 100. The demoralised, enchanted Orc is thus easy pickings for the heroic Elf warrior to slay.

A character casting a spell in support of someone is placing a positive modifier on an ally. The magician puts a +10 modifier on the friendly character for each power point spent. The above-mentioned Dunedan magician bends his will towards his Dwarven ally, spends 5 points of power, giving the Dwarf a +50 to his attack bonus for that round.

This means magic costs a lot, and should only be used for dramatic moments (just like the books).

Thoughts? Enhancements? (I suspect this lot needs a list of about twenty or so “spells” – ie canned magical actions to inspire the players)

Gavin