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The roles section covers a wide variety of topics, including the gender, race, and class of a player’s character. These roles can be strictly or loosely defined, determined by the narrative or by the player. They are divided into creator roles, participant roles, and character roles. The depth of a role tells as much about the game as it does about the player. Roles with more extensive information about the character require more of an investment by the player— those that provide very little information rely almost exclusively on the player to fill in the blanks. I also cover the demographics of the players themselves and the meta-game roles they take on to play the game.

The status section also includes levels, social status, and advancement. Leveling and advancing in power is a distinctly American concept that we’ll explore in more detail later. Status is associated with this increase in power in multiplayer games, as it provides a pecking order of sorts that is overtly and subtly encouraged by the game itself.

Gaming has taken some surprising turns over the years. The goal of this book is to trace the origins of the Fellowship and its application for characters and players in a text-based, graphical, online, and in-person medium. By examining how fantasy gaming has evolved across mediums, much can be learned about what the future holds in store for our own Fellowships, be they in fantasy lands or around dining room tables.

ONE

THE LORD OF THE RINGS

How did it influence the D&D game? Whoa, plenty, of course. Just about all the players were huge JRRT fans, and so they insisted that I put as much Tolkien-influenced material into the game as possible. Anyone reading this that recalls the original D&D game will know that there were Balrogs, Ents, and Hobbits in it. Later those were removed, and new, non–JRRT things substituted—Balor demons, Treants, and Halflings [Gygax 2007].

Introduction

The structure of John Ronald Reuel (J.R.R.) Tolkien’s Fellowship was first established in The Lord of the Rings. The Fellowship consisted of nine individuals and it encompassed elves, humans, hobbits, dwarves, and a being that might be considered an angel of sorts (Gandalf). The number was chosen to counter the nine Ringwraiths who opposed them.

Each member of the Fellowship represented their race. Legolas embodied the typical elvish traits of archery and stealth, Gimli represented the raging dwarvish warrior, and Boromir was an analogue for humanity in all its selfishness and nobility. These characters established archetypes that would shape the fantasy games that followed.

In gaming, the term “Fellowship” is archaic. The more common reference is “party,” short for “adventuring party.” “Group” is also commonly used in massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Though they vary in composition, the party is a fantasy staple that has been consistent across gaming mediums. And all of them have their roots in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings helped shape fantasy games through Tolkien’s obsessive attention to detail and world building. Unlike typical “sword and sorcery” novels, Tolkien’s works spanned epic struggles, incorporating realworld languages and mythologies. This is not to lessen the contributions of other authors to fantasy gaming—Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, and H.P. Lovecraft are all major contributors—but rather to emphasize the importance of Tolkien’s contribution to what would later be termed “high fantasy” (Barton 2008:18).

Although Dungeons & Dragons largely emulated Middle-earth and its peoples, two game companies had explicit rights to the world’s license: the Middle-earth Role Playing (MERP) game from Iron Crown Enterprises (1997) and Decipher’s The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game (2002). Middleearth Role Playing used a streamlined version of the Rolemaster rules. Of the two, The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying