So, I've been thinking about running a Lord of the Rings game. LotR is my favorite fantasy story, and it would be really nice to be able to play it with my favorite system (that being EotE). The main hurdles I need to overcome is the Careers/Specializations, Skills, and Species.

My plan is to keep most of the Careers the same and just change the names to fit LotR. Some of the Skills will need new names (Astrogation, Computers, Mechanics, both Pilotings, and the Combat/Knowledge Skills), but the main issues will be Astrogation and Computers (Mechanics=Engineering, Piloting=Animal & Vehicle Riding, the rest correspond to the time period). Also, the Species will need to both reflect the actual race while not being too debilitating or strengthening: Elves, for example, are perfect in terms of everything.

I will post my work so far later on. For now, I just wanted to see if anyone would be interested in helping me out a bit.

I'm working with a friend on a Romans-at-Hadrian's-Wall setting using EotE mechanics, so I imagine there would be some crossover. We're considering adding in a bit of shamanistic magic, and the F&D rules fit perfectly because they are fairly tame compared to most magic systems.

In general, other than renaming the skills (Astrogation = Navigation, etc) there isn't much that needs doing. However, I would modify the combat skills:

Brawl -> remains

Melee -> remains, but add possibility of weapon specialization for 10XP (adds a single boost die to a weapon type)

Ranged (Light) -> bows (Agility)

Ranged (Heavy) -> throwing weapons (Agility for hit, Brawn for damage)

Gunnery -> siege weapons

Many of the specs can be copied outright. If you're interested, below is from an email I sent my friend as a summary:

Just some thoughts about suitable career/specs matching yours from the EotE book, with handy page references so you can find it easily.

I'm all for a decent conversion of this FFG system to other settings but if your not familiar with the CODA LotR RPG from about 10 years ago you should check it out. It wasn't much of a system but it had a similar narrative idea and some good material to work from. I'd at the very least look at it for skills, classes, magic and such.

http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Roleplaying-Game-Core/dp/1582369518

I'm all for a decent conversion of this FFG system to other settings but if your not familiar with the CODA LotR RPG from about 10 years ago you should check it out. It wasn't much of a system but it had a similar narrative idea and some good material to work from. I'd at the very least look at it for skills, classes, magic and such.

http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Roleplaying-Game-Core/dp/1582369518

or the One Ring RPG

I'd say EotE by itself translates best to a pulp adventure, "weird west", or Pirates of the Caribbean type setting--something where magic/the supernatural is a bit more on the periphery than LotR.

Though come to think of it, aside from the occasional magic artifact and a tiny handful of wizards, magic isn't as inherent to the LotR universe as it is other fantasy worlds.

Having a ready game system I'd go for One Ring, but if you love FFG's mechanics, I can't blame you . Regarding combat skills I'd switch melee and ranged focus. In EotE the assumption is that most people use ranged weapons, hence two skills, to add variety and options. In your game I think focus will be on melee, so I'd have melee (light) and melee (heavy), plus one skill for ranged weapons. Melee light would include one-handed weapons, heavy - two-handed.

It's always good to see this system converted for other genres.

But for LotR, I really cannot recommend 'One Ring' enough. It really captures the feel and themes of Tolkien's works.

I've been converting EotE into a Firefly tabletop. In most regards it's similar, but the main things I've noticed that you'll need to change are:

Skills: Astrogation, weapons, piloting, etc.

These need to be modified for the specific setting. For Firefly, I simply took out Astrogation and combined it into piloting(space). For LotR, navigation could be ok, but there's only 1 real ocean.

Talents: Each needs to be reworked as it contradicts the rules as written.

Gear: This is where I feel the real flavor to the players comes in. They need to see what each item translates to in terms of your game. Most of Star Wars is ranged attacks, which doesn't relate to anything pre-gunpowder as far as the weapons listed in the core book. This is where I think most of your real micromanaging of changes will come in. In my Firefly game, I changed most of the guns to modern style guns as far as the ranged damage is concerned. In a LotR/non ranged game, I'd say you would need to come up with a fairly detailed list of melee weapons and the differences between them.

If you have the extra money you might consider picking up FFG's Warhammer? You don't need to buy the expensive box set, just the books and dice. It's a 1.0 dark fantasy version of the 2.0 Star Wars system you are now using. Argument against is it IS 1.0, I like this version of FFG's narrative system much better.

It's always good to see this system converted for other genres.

I was making notes for a modern world apocalyptic sourcebook (zombies, nuclear war, fall of technology, alien invasion, anything), but shelved the idea when FFG came out with, "The End of the Word" RPG. I had hopes it would be so outstanding FFG would get interested and thus justify to my wife my years of RPG purchases and infatuation.

I've heard of The One Ring, and will probably end up getting it... eventually. The issue is that I recently got a cat (the most amazing animal to exist), and it takes quite a bit to keep up with its litter and food, especially considering my lower than average income (10-16 dollars a week in allowance). I'll definitely be putting it on my Christmas list, especially since it will include some much appreciated background info (I like LotR, but I've only seen the movies and red the Hobbit, so my overall knowledge is less than substantial).

Thanks for the advice, by the way. I decided that it would be best to create the core species (Elf, Dwarf, Human, Hobbit), then convert a few Careers and Specs into pre-made characters for the players to modify as they wish. It will be a bit more limited, but also easier, since I plan to do this with new players.