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A few years ago a younger friend of mine started with 5e and then was introduced to AW and was really taken with it. So it happens. I'd say that AW's influence these days is more just through the many PbtA hacks of it. Which from every indication from Vincent Baker he's fine with. He even...

I don't mind Rolemaster either, too crunchy for my tastes but solid, just not a fit for LotR.

LotR is much lighter, even sentimental, than the sagas. This was a big part of Moorcock's critique of Tolkien that many pass over. Notably absent for instance in the main text of LotR is any romance let alone sex or passion, whereas those are very prominent in the sagas. The Silmarillion...

The MERP LotR supplements were pretty cool. I'd be interested in mining them for another system.

Yes, the ability of the GM to pretty much invent nearly anything in-game has made the tough guy posturing of some 'killer' GMs hilarious to me. You can kill the PCs? Well you can decide almost anything in the game, congrats asshole!

I'd disagree that D&D was ever broad or flexible. One of the biggest issues for a long time in the hobby was trying to use D&D to do everything no matter how ill suited it was to that setting or genre. Seeing parts of the OSR attempt it all over again is kinda odd.

Not great but a bit better than Gygax's hilarious recommendation to send Astral Mummies or actual Bolts from the Blue against the PC of a player who is giving your grief!

It's taken from the title of Henry Rollins' classic tour diary from his years in Black Flag.

Yeah I'm familiar with the darker non-LotR writing from Tolkien but although violent and dark it isn't even close to the 80s horror comedy splatter of the MERP critical tables which are thoroughly silly. Like crossing Tolkien with Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

This looks cool, the designer also did the fun Dead Mall rpg: https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/products/get-in-the-van-pdf https://dystopianpublishing.itch.io/get-in-the-van Discussed on the Vintage RPG podcast: https://www.vintagerpg.com/2024/04/get-in-the-van/

An insane movie, love it.

I like the subclasses in 5e. Much better than multi-classing imo or the nightmare of prestige classes and the like.

I prefer the optional skill/backgrounds option in the 5e DMG that nicks the system from 13th Age where the PC's background gives them a proficency bonus on actions their background suggests they would have. So a PC with a sailor background would know how to sail, etc. Simple and clean although...

They mean Alice is Missing, the storygame discussed a few posts earlier.

Let's not go too far. The critical injuries tables in MERP are good for a laugh but have no business in an rpg based on LotR and as I recall the magic system is also a poor fit.

And let's not forget that the current OSR darling, B/X, was near impossible to convince others to play in the early 90s. I know that from RL experience. The rpg audience can often be fickle. Imo, something like Beyond the Wall is kinda the Velvet Underground of the OSR: brilliant but overlooked...

It's a good game but I'm happy with what I have in pdf from Bundle of Holding.

Yeah to me the premise seems to be that if a game isn't being jawed to death online that means no one is playing it, a flawed assumption imo, and that every game is intended for extended play, which I also think is a flawed assumption.