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One of the most hotly debated topics related to role-playing in Middle-earth, is how to use and represent magic in Middle-earth true to Tolkien's works. There are many essays, articles, mailing list conversations, and downright flame-wars over this issue. This section of the site is dedicated to trying to provide as coherent a reference for this topic as possible.

Beginning the discussion, a few essays on Magic in Middle-earth.

One of the most hotly debated topics related to role-playing in Middle-earth, is how to use and represent magic in Middle-earth true to Tolkien's works. There are many essays, articles, mailing list conversations, and downright flame-wars over this issue. This section of the site is dedicated to trying to provide as coherent a reference for this topic as possible.

This section of the site is an amalgamation of several other parts of Merp.com services. This topic has come up in so many areas, it seemed time to dedicate a section of the site as a repository for this extensive topic. This section was just added July 13th, 2005. If links are working yet, it's because we're scrambling to get all that content organized correctly. Thank you for you patience. First of all, there are the "high-level" philosophical interpretations of what exactly is "magic" in Middle-earth, how was it represented and illustrated in Tolkien's works, what were some of the thoughts and goals Tolkien had in presenting his variation of "magic", and other relevant ideas and concepts. Below are several postings related to this:
  • Here is an in depth essay by Chris Seeman titled: Magic in Middle-earth


  • Here is an article discussing "divine" magic by Neville Percy aka "Osric" titled: "Reverence and Lore, not Clerisy"


  • Below are several on the issue of magic in Middle-earth by Michael Martinez



    • Then there are the actual attempts at representing various philosophical views in an actual role playing game system.
  • Here is one by Hawke for "Arcane" magic using his adaptation of the D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) 3.5 system (he calls it Ea d20) titled: "Arcane Magic in Middle-earth Using D&D 3.5"(Early Draft RFC (Request For Comments) Revision 2005.07.09a. There is also a supporting spreadsheet listing the different DCs (Difficult Checks) for each spell level and for spell casters levels.
    • These documents and many others, and relevant ideas are being actively discussed on the Eagroup.merp.com website forums, feel free to join in. eagroup.merp.com.

    Below are links to websites that discuss magic in Middle-earth as well:


    Below are links and/or excerpts to/from discussions about Magic in Middle-earth on forums, chat rooms, and mailing lists.
    • Newer Merp.com YABB bulletin board forums discussions
    • Old Merp.com YABB Bulletin Board forums discussions

    If you know of a good email thread, website, forum thread, essay, document or other media, that you think would be worth having on this section of the site, please email us at webmaster@merp.com and let us know, we're always happy to add any contributions.



    Additional Magic in Middle-earth Site links

    Posted by Middle-earth Role Playing Website Administrator at 2006-10-24 00:03
    I thought of signalling a couple of websites dealing with the topic of magic in ME. The links are:

    http://gofree.indigo.ie/~warrenl/Tolkien/Magic/Magic.html

    http://erikt.cts.com/tolkien/magictxt.htm

    They are not RPG-related, but I think they offer good food for thought.

    Regards,

    Alessandro

    Additional Magic in Middle-earth Site links

    Posted by Middle-earth Role Playing Website Administrator at 2006-10-24 00:03
    These are great websites about magic in me. I can't stop looking at them.

    Regards,
    Kanchi