Adventures in Middle-earth vs Blue Rose
Compare Adventures in Middle-earth and Blue Rose side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Adventures in Middle-earth | Blue Rose | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Journey, Corruption, Licensed IP, Low-Fantasy, Lore-Heavy, Social Intrigue, Character Building | Character-Driven, Corruption, Tactical, Crunchy, Social Intrigue, Strong GM Support, High-Fantasy, Lore-Heavy, Heroic, Roleplay-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Uses the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition engine: roll a d20, add an ability modifier and proficiency, and compare the total to a difficulty number. Advantage and disadvantage, rolling two d20s and keeping the higher or lower, are the main swing on that roll. | Roll d20 and add the relevant ability, skill, or arcanum modifier against a Difficulty set by the Narrator. Attacks use the same procedure against Defense. Successful damage forces a Toughness save that moves the target along an injury track instead of reducing hit points. |
| Dice | d20 | d20 |
| Complexity | High | High |
| Availability | Out of print | Paid |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 5 of 5 book tools |
| License | OGL 1.0a; Middle-earth Enterprises license | Open Game License Version 1.0a |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Commercial publishing allowed — Open Game License v1.0a |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Cubicle 7 | Green Ronin Publishing, LLC |
| Year | 2016 | 2005 |
| Languages | English | English, Italian |
| Best For | Groups who already know 5th Edition D&D and want a low-magic, Tolkien-faithful campaign built around travel, reputation among the Free Peoples, and slow-burn corruption instead of spellcasting and dungeon loot. It suits a long campaign that plays out the Journey and Fellowship Phase cycle across in-game years more than a single one-shot. | Groups who want hopeful romantic fantasy campaigns where personal motivations, political intrigue, and heroic service matter alongside tactical conflict. |
| Highlights | The Journey subsystem resolves overland travel through assigned companion roles and branching event tables, so a trek across Wilderland produces its own hazards and pacing rather than being skipped over. Shadow points replace alignment with a tracked corruption economy that climbs from the Miserable condition to permanent madness, giving each character a mechanical moral pressure tied to their class. Audiences resolve encounters with lords and elders through an eleven-culture attitude chart and an introduction check, so a hero's standing among the Free Peoples is a concrete mechanical fact rather than pure GM judgment. | Acting on a Calling and either nature restores Conviction, turning personal motives into a renewable resource. Reputation and Influence give past deeds and changing attitudes mechanical weight in social scenes. Sorcery risks Corruption that erodes abilities and can culminate in madness or unlife, making forbidden magic a sustained consequence rather than a binary choice. |
| Considerations | None of the six classes cast spells, so a group wanting a traditional wizard or cleric has to import one from another 5e game. Combat is essentially unmodified 5th Edition, so groups already tired of standard tactical D&D combat will find the same core fight rules here. Shadow adds a second per-character failure economy alongside hit points, with permanent points that never heal and must be tracked across an entire campaign. | Character creation combines a background and role with several layers of customization, requiring choices across multiple chapters. Combat tracks actions, modifiers, saving throws, and damage conditions instead of a single hit-point total. Sorcery's Corruption rules attach moral consequences to forbidden magic, so groups must engage with the setting's Light and Shadow framework. |