Tolkien must be regarded by many as one of the major influences of the development of Role-Playing. I know that Gary Gygax has claimed that Lord of the Rings had very little influence on Dungeons and Dragons and in fact I can well believe it. However, D&D, was clearly influenced by the relatively new genre of the fantasy novel and Tolkien has indisputably been one of the major influences on the field.
All this said, therefore, it is odd that running or playing a game set in Tolkien's Middle-Earth has, for many people, proved to be a rather disappointing endeavour. It's not necessarily that hard to role-play in Middle-Earth, but it is hard, in my opinion, to make it actually feel like the world described in Tolkien's books and not some generic fantasy world.
It is widely accepted that transferring many novels into a satisfactory game world is difficult simply because in most novels the emphasis tends to be on character over action whereas in most role-playing games the emphasis will be on action over character. And yes, you can go on all you like about good role-playing etc. etc. but try and imagine running a game based on Jane Eyre, say, that maintains the semi-gothic romance of the book and doesn't end up as a sub-Cthulhu detective adventure. I'd be prepared to bet that the average party would be in attic, sub-subduing Grace Poole and discovering the mad wife in a matter of minutes.
"Ah! but.." people say, "Tolkien is not like Jane Eyre, it is fundamentally action based, not character based". This is where the difficulty comes. Tolkien is telling a story on several levels, or perhaps a better way of putting it is that Tolkien is telling several different stories that interlink. There is the overall action/adventure/war story of the progress of the war of the ring and how it was won. This is basically an action based story with a happy ending. Contrast it with the story of Frodo who starts out as a comfortable well-to-do hobbit and who grows in understanding and strength throughout the book until he finally FAILS to achieve his task on Mount Doom. Then haunted by failure and the wounds of his journey he returns home to find he has no resting place there and passes away to west. That is a character-based tragedy. In fact much of Tolkien's works are melancholy in tone and record only partial victories. The Silmarillion ends with the words.
So Tolkien's works while on the surface can appear straight-forward action adventure contain a great deal of tragedy and introspective character development that can be so hard to reproduce when Roleplaying.
Another huge problem with Tolkien's works from the point of view of standard fantasy role-playing is the relative lack of both combat and magic. I feel I may have to justify my assertion about the lack of combat.
The thrust of Lord of the Rings is, as Gandalf says that "small people do things because they must while the big folk look elsewhere" (or something similar, I don't have my copy of Lord of the rings here so I can't verify this). Entertaining as people may find the accounts of the big battles the fact remains that these are all diversionary tactics aimed a drawing Sauron's attention away from the two virtually unarmed hobbits who are creeping into and across Mordor. Tolkien's main heroes are not the fighters and wizards though they are numbered among the fellowship but the little people who "value food and good cheer above gems and jewels" (The Hobbit, said by Thorin as he dies - again this may not be correct).
The lack of magic should be fairly obvious. Only twice are anything similar to spells mentioned in Lord of the Rings. The first is the word needed to open the gates of Moria (is this a spell ?) the second is in Gandalf's encounter with the Balrog where he tries to put a shutting spell upon the door that bars the way. Gandalf, however, is special, he is a Maia and one of the Istari of which there are only seven in Middle Earth (only three of which get mentioned in Tolkien's works), moreover he is the bearer of one of the three Elven rings. The Balrog uses a counter spell but I'm fairly sure that Balrogs are Maia as well. In fact nearly everyone who uses powerful magic which is unconnected to magic items of any kind is either one of the Valar, the Maia or a High elf (i.e. an elf who had dwelt in Valinor), with the exception of Luthien who was the daughter of a Maia so she almost counts. So unless you want to set your campaign in the first age when Middle-Earth was lousy with Valar and High Elves it is unlikely that the players will meet any very powerful magic users unless they are engaged in world-shattering events. Magic items are more common, but they tend to be fairly "low level" stuff. Swords that glow on the approach of orcs, cloaks that allow you to remain unseen until the observer is at close quarters (both of elfish make notice). So the FRP player who is used to having at least one magic item by the time he reaches his fourth or fifth session is going to have a problem.
It also presents the prospective GM with a problem. Producing stories where there is little magic and a de-emphasis on combat is not easy, you can become stuck for events and encounters that are both interesting and challenging.
A friend of mine, Chris Seeman, who GM's a lot in Tolkien's world (using Runequest, not MERP, with most of the magic taken out) likes to base his adventures on notes in the appendices making the characters the unsung heroes of those times. The players tend to owe allegiance to Gondor (or Umbar) for various reasons and act out of necessity to avert threats to their cities than out of a desire for profit. This has produced a fairly political slant to many of the campaigns which, again, is an aspect not very prevalent in Lord of the Rings, though if you read between the lines of the Silmarillion and the appendices then there is evidence of a lot of political manoeuvring among the Numenoreans. I have played some excellent games with Chris where I haven't lifted a sword or cast a spell, though I did, almost single-handedly (the rest of the party might have helped a bit, though most of the time they were too busy with political in-fighting to do much except lay siege to each other) save the line of Elendil from extinction (this wasn't entirely selfless on my part since I was an heir of Elendil). However, I must also add, that I've played some fairly so-so games with him. The longer I've known the better the role-playing has become and I think this lies at the heart of the matter.
To capture the feel of Tolkien's world there must be a lot of emphasis on characters and in particular on the effect upon characters of being involved in large scale (epic) events. For this to be really successful you need a group of players who know each other and the GM well and you need a GM who works with rather than against the players giving them opportunities for character development. I have been very lucky in this respect.
Mordulin, Princess of Gondor
a.k.a Louise Dennis
Note: This article owes a lot to the aforementioned Chris Seeman and views expressed by both himself in the Tolkien Roleplaying Fanzine 'Other Hands' including - Brian T. Murphy, Eric Rauscher, Glenn Kuring, Andrew Butler, Anders Blixt and Andrew McMurray. Also to views and opinions expressed in Tolkien Society Magazines such as Amon Hen and Mallorn.