Issue 19 of Other Hands magazine was published in October 1997. Editor Chris Seeman accepted contributions from Dirk Brandherm, Bridget Buxton, Brian Carlton, Fredrik Ekman, Jeff Erwin, and Deena McKinney. Linguistic material was provided by David Salo and Arden Smith. Charles Watteyne assisted with editing duties. Quentin Westcott handled layout and design work. Artwork was provided by Arden Smith, Bridget Buxton, and Quentin Westcott.
EDITORIAL: THE END OF AN ERA
![Other Hands Issue 19 Issue 19 of Other Hands Gamer Magazine was published in October 1997.](http://me-archive.xenite.org/files/2012/01/other-hands-issue-19-231x300.jpg)
In 1993 — in fact, in the very first issue of Other Hands — Iron Crown Enterprises announced the rebirth of its Middle-earth Role Playing line. The rule system and its support products were to undergo a thorough revision and expansion on a scale hitherto unheard of, resulting in the most extensive and detailed fantasy game setting on the market. Over the past five years, we have witnessed the gradual fulfillment of that promise—many readers of Other Hands have even contributed to it. While 2nd Edition MERP remains an unfinished project, I think all would agree that much has been achieved.
Regrettably, this chapter in the annals of Middle-earth gaming is now at an end. On September 19th of this year, ICE declared a moratorium on the MERP line as we know it. The viability of MERP has been in question for some time now, due to poor sales. Over the past four months, sales figures have dipped below the profit margin, with no indication of reviving. Accordingly, ICE has been forced to cancel all current MERP projects. Following the release of Hands of the Healer (which should be in stores by the time you read this editorial), ICE will be publishing no more MERP modules of the sort that we have grown accustomed to.
The reasons for the growing unmarketability of the MERP line are complex, but a few key factors may be identified with some confidence. Above all, there is the universal downward trend in the mass popularity of traditional fantasy role playing products (supplanted in part by the rising success of collectible card games): no matter how good a module may be, the audience is simply not large enough to sustain it. A second contributing factor is the perception of the game distributors responsible for getting the products onto the shelves: if they judge (rightly or wrongly) that a module will not sell well, too few copies of it will be purchased. Finally, there have been rising production costs to contend with (in particular, the sky-rocketing price of paper), which have resulted in prohibitive consumer prices for all but the diehard MERP completist. In the course of the past few MERP releases, ICE has attempted to meet these challenges through innovations in the format, content and size of its publications; but whatever the intrinsic value of these efforts, they have been too late to save the sinking ship.
But the news is not all bad. ICE does plan on continuing to release MERP products, but these will be much shorter in length (ca. 48 pages) and will be much less focused on world description in favor of ready-to-run adventures for pre-generated characters (in some respects, much more in the vein of ICE’s Lord of the Rings Adventure Game series). The emphasis will be on products which place a premium on accessibility and zero preparation time.
ICE plans to release two such “adventure kits” in 1998, in addition to a crossover product linking MERP to MECCG (Elrond’s House), an RMSS sourcebook for Middle-earth races and cultures, and the remaining two episodes in the LOR series (Before the Goblins and Greatest of the Forests).
More importantly, though, are ICE’s plans for 1999. In that year, Miramax will be releasing a trilogy of Lord of the Rings movies (no doubt with the intention of rivaling the next Star Wars trilogy), and ICE hopes to take advantage of the heightened visibility (and, one would hope, popularity) generated by those films in order to launch a new role playing line for Middle-earth (which may or may not end up supplanting MERP). At the core of this projected line will be an entirely new rule system — not, as with MERP, a watered-down version of Rolemaster grafted onto Middle-earth, but rather one customized to convey the distinctive themes and atmosphere of Tolkien’s world— supported by a quick succession of bimonthly adventure module releases (probably of the same scope and size as the MERP prototypes mentioned above). In short, ICE has hardly abandoned Middleearth; on the contrary, it is about to get one step more ambitious.
What, then, is to become of all of the effort that MERP authors have invested in their respective projects over the past years that ICE will never publish? It is my hope (where the authors are willing) to publish these modules as supplements to Other Hands, complete with text-setting, artwork and maps that will fit with Pete Fenlon’s classic 1” = 20 mile pieces. At present, I have a finished manuscript for The Inland Sea realm module, along with other possible candidates (not all of them yet completed): The Grey Havens, Khand and Near Harad. I have received permission from ICE to proceed with this so long as it (like Other Hands) is a non-profit endeavor. Hopefully, I will know by the end of the year which authors will be interested in releasing their manuscripts.
Whew! That was a load of news and no mistake. And now, onto this issue of Other Hands. Our main feature for this issue is an article by Dirk Brandherm which explores the possibilities of developing a Middleearth magic system off of Hârnmaster game mechanics. Like every attempt at translating literary representations of magic into gaming terms, Dirk concentrates on the problem of classification—how does one categorize the magic depicted in Tolkien’s works and how do these divergent types relate to one another?
Next up is a creative essay by Deena McKinney on a rather practical topic for adventurers: how do they honor the fallen? This piece is followed by a brief overview by Brian Carlton of what the more recent volumes in the History of Middle-earth series have revealed to us concerning the genealogy of the Noldorin ruling house — again, very useful if one is running a campaign that deals with Elves. We wrap up our special offerings for this issue with the second installment of the campaign dramatization penned by Bridget Buxton last issue.
Next issue (celebrating the fifth anniversary of Other Hands) is just around the corner. I would like to include a directory of OH subscribers, so please let me know if you would prefer not to have your address appear. (The list will only be circulated among actual subscribers, and the information contained in it will not be released to any outside party.) According to my calculations, Other Hands currently has a total of 63 subscribers worldwide.
Maybe we’ll pass the hundred mark sometime during the next five years….
Chris Seeman
October 10, 1997
You may download Other Hands Issue 19 for free either from Other Minds’ Other Hands archive or MERP.Com’s Other Hands archive.