MERPS. (Franks Personal Roleplay History)
M.E.R.P.S. you say?
Yep, M.E.R.P.S.
For those of you who don't know (and as I don't know everybody who reads my blog, that might be many of you) M.E.R.P.S. was the acronym for Middle Earth RolePlaying System.
It was a little game developed by a company by the name of Iron Crown Enterprises.
It was also my introduction into r.p.g's.
But before I get into that, a brief history (and I mean brief) of Iron Crown Enterprises, which is still in business.
Another one of these plucky small role playing companies that managed to stay steady after the rise and fall of T.S.R. and the rise and domination of Wizards of the Coast (more on these folkes another time)?
Not quite true.
I.C.E. was founded back in the mid eighties.
The main systems it supported were Rolemaster and Spacemaster, with the M.E.R.P.S. rules being based off the RoleMasters rules.
The company maintained itself until the interest in r.p.g's dropped off in the mid-nineties, and they finally declared bankruptcy in 2000.
Don't fear though, they are still around. The company was purchased again byAurigas Aldebaron LLC, and is still making games.
Though sadly M.E.R.P.S. isn't one of them.
(To be expected after all the hoopla from the movies i suppose. There is still a middle earth system out there though. Roughly based on the D20 system that is so popular now adays).
So, as I was saying Middle Earth Roleplaying was my firs r.p.g.
And I discovered it, and the world of geekdom, quite accidently.
I played in band.
Ok. I admit I was already a band geek.
But in my seventh grade year we journeyed to the great town of Provo Utah.
There, after our band event, we went to the University mall, where I wandered into a game store.
I was sheltered in Roosevelt, not intentionally, but because there simply weren't many places to go out there, and I was enthralled.
I couldn't make heads or tales out of most of the stuff, but what did catch my eye were books.
Fantastic books.
Books right up my alley on monsters and dragons, and knights.
At least thats what the covers indicated.
So I started flipping through some.
Confused at all the numbers and charts I encountered, i finally found one that said "Beasts of Middle Earth".
This one, too had a bunch of stuff I didn't get, but I didn't care, it had something even better than that.
Descriptions.
Lots of discriptions of different creatures from Tolkiens Lord of the Ring books (and all his other books too set in Middle Earth, though I didn't know at the time).
I poured through it quickly, then bought it with the money I had left over after lunch.
On the bus I was asked if I gamed.
I thought that was a dumb question (because I didn't know what the hell he was talking about), and replied: "No, why?
I was then told that the book I had was a roleplaying book.
I wondered at that.
After all I didn't know what roleplaying was, and I wouldn't really know for another year.
Until then I heard rumors of dnd, and unlike the rumors most people hear, you know the santanic, if you play it your going to hurt yourself ones. these ones were cool.
I could play a knight, or a wizard, or a dwarf.
That sounded fun, though I wasn't quite sure how it worked.
Then, that summer, in a store in a mall in salt lake, i bought the M.E.R.P.S box set.
I knew then what it was, and I thought that it was obvious that this was the system to play in.
I poured through the rule books.
Finally made heads and tails out of the tables and rules (and boy does it have tables) .
Then employed my nephews to make characters so we could start playing.
From there... well you know the rest.
Our first adventures were cumbersome fares at best.
Actually all of them were in that system.
Too many tables, especcially for a 14 year old with poor math skills, a ten, a nine and an eight year old to keep track of.
It did turn my nephews on to roleplaying though.
All except the ten year old, Josh, he played, but wasn't as into it as T.J. or Bo.
They still play if I'm around, well Bo plays now in the marines when he can.
The military folks are notorious roleplayers, in fact I'm the only male in my saturday night game that wasn't in the military, but I digress.
I still have the M.E.R.P.S books. I think it would be fun to run a campaign in it again.
Who knows maybe I will in time.
As for I.C.E, well they're still around, here's the link if anybody is interested, check them out.
www.ironcrown.com
posted by F.G. Shaw @ 11:59 PM
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