In the vast and hugely marketed world of source books and scripts, Middle Earth is a prime place for adventure that is still fresh and unknown to many seasoned gamers. Not only did this entire campaign happen in Middle Earth, it began simply in Mordor. Thats right friends, Evil Roleplaying was happening from the start.
Using 3.0 Dungeons & Dragons core rules and various Middle Earth media, I shaped a dark land called Mordor into a the prime ground for evil roleplay. My name is Jerry Wargate, and I will take you on a crash course into my campaign (of Evil!). I made this campaign because I was told it could not be done, that it wouldn't be fun, that Middle Earth was played out. Most importantly, I made it out of a long love for Middle Earth.
The long and murderous campaign is now over, leaving in its wake a long list of dead PC's, permanently disfigured characters, as well as over half the party ending the game at level 1. As DM and responsible master of this campaign, I wish to explain (and even encourage) this state of roleplay that is Mordor.
I started this campaign with the long time dream of simply playing the servants of Mordor, but I little expected the full blunt and hard hitting truths about such servants and the way of life that comes with being employed by the Dark Lord. I opened with a talk to my players about what we all expected and tolerated in advance, but no one had any real clue of the madness they were entering. I expected quarreling and tribal leaderships. I tolerated most all PC interaction: be it fighting, stealing, cannibalism, ect.
Evil Roleplaying in fantasy seems to be frowned upon by alot of gamers. Myself I always root for the bad guy - the villian or henchman. They are always more interesting and human than the heroes. All rp gamers should experience evil roleplay once. Its a great change-up of speed and makes for a lot of interesting roleplay. A lot
of players tend to become set on a certain character or class that is constantly re-rolled for every campaign and session. This can make the gaming stale.
Murder and Robbery were constant! No loot was really looted correctly until someone died over it. Only one magical item ever came into the groups' possession. 4 murders over many weekends, and all for a +1 sword. I kept the magical loot scarce to increase tensions, and I think it did well. PC's robbing other PC's became a daily routine.
I give a 5 star rating to the group for actual roleplay! I saw alot of players realing making a good hard push to perform in-character roleplay, and somehow being a badguy is easy roleplay for our group.
I allowed the dead to reroll characters and return to the group at level 1 a few times (more than 10 times). I believe only 2 deaths were from actual monster or questing play.
Everyone was pleased with that. The group lost three different leaders (bosses) during the length of the campaign. All in all this was an awesome campaign I enjoyed it, my players enjoyed it, and I hope others will delve into this experience.
Additional Notes
Character Creation
I limited everyone to the Half-Orc race, followed with the class choices of Fighter, Rogue, Barbarian. Simple and elegant, Middle Earth allowed no orc wizards, orc bards, or orc clerics. With game integrity in mind, I wanted no magic users or heavy healers, as no over skilled orc ever existed. I allowed virtually nothing as far as gear and items went, this was done to further the fact orcs are many and never well equiped often.
Player Disclaimer
The first night of play I left my PC's know what I expected and would tolerate. Backstabbing, robbing, murdering, conspiracy, mutiny, cannibalism, lying, ect. is totally expected and tolerated. I wanted an orc mob that was by the books. Evil turns on evil often, so why not let us delve into the darkness and depravity?
Game Play
In game the Dark lord musters his forces to train as a military force. Our PC's were forged into a war party through their trials and tribulations. Over the period of many weeks and many adventures we ended with 3 of 10 players surviving to level 3, all other players who died were allowed rerolls new characters as raw recruits.
DM Notes
I never could have expected so much murder and thievery, even out of a band of orcs. The PC's seemed to enjoy the gameplay as much as I did! No weekend went without some excitement or wild happenings. Murder and mutiny, thievery and swindling! It had it all. Over 12 deaths occured... 90% were Player Killings!
I was also glad everyone roleplayed and then afterwards had no hard feelings on the game. This was a game to be played and explored, and I think it was worthy. Absolutely not one named character from the book interacted with our PC's, no ring was ever found, and only the dead ones were the lucky ones. Mordor forced some of the best roleplay Ive seen our club do in a while.
I think also this idealism has allowed my PC's to experience death on an epic game level. Making a 3.0 character sheet is easy for everyone now! And it has also taught the lesson. Its just a game and I can have fun at level one, roleplaying, with absolutely nothing but my character. I appreciate everyone who played, and I hope soon we can return to Mordor for more of this awesome gameplay.
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