The Song of Arda is a Middle Earth role playing game which seeks to model the mythical and moral aspects of JRR Tolkien's stories such as The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. The stories told in Middle Earth are myths, full of symbolism and characters rising to moral challenges. Despite this, Tolkien's world has often been interpreted as just another physical setting for games and I have always found these games to fall short.
Some of the questions that have arisen in my mind while playing other Middle Earth role-playing games are:
• How could Sam, a simple gardener, have defeated Shelob?
• If Gandalf could fly or perform other kinds of standard RPG magic, why did he not leave Orthanc on his own?
• Why did Gandalf need saving by the Eagles from the fix in the trees in The Hobbit?
• How could Frodo manage to carry the One Ring all the way through Mordor when other, mightier characters such as Boromir fell to its power?
• Did Aragorn have spell lists that he just never used?
• Where is the heroism of the stories to be found in the mechanics of the game?
• Why do I have to fight the rules to capture the feel of Middle Earth?
Satisfactory answers to these and many other questions always seemed to elude the writers of RPGs for Tolkien's world, and I hope that in Song of Arda, I have gotten closer to the mark.
