OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE OOTHERTHER MMINDSINDS The Unofficial Role-Playing Magazine for J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Middle-earth and beyond Other Minds Content Magazine Main Features Issue 1 2 Editorial: Here we are! July 2007 3 Opinion: The Acroteriasm of Other Hands Hawke Robinson Publisher 6 The Battle over Role Playing Gaming Other Minds Volunteers Hawke Robinson Editors Assistant Editors 9 Mapping Arda Hawke Robinson Chris Seeman Thomas Morwinsky,Stéphane Hœrlé, Gabriele Thomas Morwinsky Chris Wade Quaglia, Oliver Schick, Christian Schröder 21 Of Barrow-wights Art Director Neville Percy Hawke Robinson 28 Magic in Middle-earth Production Staff Chris Seeman Thomas Morwinsky Hawke Robinson 31 Thoughts on Imladris Thomas Morwinsky Other Features 37 Fineprint 38 Creative Commons license Appendix: Maps of Arda For use with “Mapping Arda” Next Issue’s featured theme will be: Númenor Unless otherwise noted, every contribution in this magazine is published under the CreaticeCommons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license (b n a) The exact license of a given contribution can be found at the beginning of each contribution. OTHER MINDS MAGAZINE you want to see your adventure, realm de- scription, or whatever else in print – you know whom to look for! We are especially in need of good artists Editorial and images to enhance the magazine with original art. If you submit someone else’s art, please add a written approval from the artist. the Tolkien-related content of course). More Here we are! Now, for the actual content of this inaugu- of the team will be introduced in later issues. Perhaps you know the famous Fantasy ral issue: First we have an insightful essay in movie in whose title track this line is the 1 the category “Opinion” by Hawke Robinson, opener – and how it continued. We do not in which he details the development of the claim such honors as in the next lines of this Middle-earth gaming license since the advent track, though they create a powerful image in- of the Peter Jackson movies. If you were ever deed. But everything in due order: interested in such “behind-the-scenes” issues, Since the demise of Other Hands magazine this article is for you! in 2001 there was a distinct lack of a gaming The second is from Hawke as well and fanzine that addressed specifically the Middle- deals with the image of RPG’s in the general earth gaming community on a broad basis. public and media and how this is handled. This went on for some years, despite several The third contribution is the main feature community-based efforts like the fan- 2 to be sure: A fully-fledged essay on the prob- sourcebooks project. lems and possible solutions when mapping Nearly two years after the introduction of Middle-earth on a global scale authored by Decipher’s Lord of the Rings Role Playing Game Thomas Morwinsky, Stéphane Hœrlé, Gab- (LotRRPG) in 2002, the Online Fanzine The riele Quaglia, Oliver Schick and Christian Hall of Fire (http://www.halloffire.org) Schröder. It has been developed with the high- opened its doors in December 2003 to sup- est priority on Tolkien sources and RPG port this game. One might wonder why an- sources as a secondary need when it did not other magazine should be needed if there is al- contradict Tolkien. This is capped with several ready one which does a pretty good job. The Hawke Robinson maps to match the essay. They depict Arda answer is that the Hall of Fire is focused on throughout the Ages. And all this in a resolu- providing LotRRPG-only material plus supple- tion sufficient for a printed-out wallpaper! We ments for the specific timeframe of this game. hope that it will be useful for your game and a This focus leaves everything else out. Other suitable base for further articles. Minds strives to fill this gap. It is open to sug- Neville Percy provides us with an excellent gestions for any game system, though we will essay on the Barrow-wights. Here you can see provide our own generic system of describing all the relevant facts a'ssembled together with character and creature abilities to make con- a well-based interpretation of what these crea- versions easier if your system of choice is not tures might be – and what not. Stuff for ad- mentioned in a specific article. This system justing the standard Undead-cliché for sure! will be published on the Other Minds website Chris Seeman gave us permission to publish (http://www.othermindsmagazine.com) as his excellent summary on the manifestations of well as in the next issue. magic in Middle-earth. As is to be expected, Providing a platform for any Middle-earth you’ll not be disappointed. gaming related issue is the central and pivotal Finally we provide you with an interesting raison d’être for this magazine. essay on the nature of Imladris. Tolkien’s Thus we see Other Minds not in competition many hints are summarized and set into con- to the Hall of Fire, but rather as a complement text with the professional RPG products. Dis- due to the different foci of both publications. cover some fascinating facets here! The photos to the right show the guys most Thomas Morwinsky So much for now, we hope to greet you again next January for the second issue. responsible for Other Minds. The first one is We hope that you will find as much joy in Hawke Robinson, long-time manager of the reading this first issue of Other Minds as as we Hawke Robinson Merp mailing list and organizer of MERPCON. had in making it happen! Thomas Morwinsky The second you might know from Other Hands’ This leads us already to the last subject in July 2007 times; it is Thomas Morwinsky who has con- this context: If you want to see Other Minds tributed a number of articles to this magazine 1 endure for any length of time, please submit As a hint, this movie does not deal with as well as some online-essays and maps. contributions. For details how to submit, Tolkien and it was released quite long ago. The team of Other Minds is much bigger of 2 see page 37 We have material assembled by http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ course (proofreaders, contributors etc.) This ourselves, but to achieve a viable long-term fan-modules great voluntary effort of so many people is survivability, we need your contributions. If what makes this whole project so good (beside 2 ISSUE 1, JULY 2007 He was very frustrated by the majority of submissions not seeming to “get” his vision, and referred to the poor quality fan fiction at- tempts as “tripe” (Letters, #292, p.371). He was not particularly impressed with Opinion large corporate art resources either, especially from the United States. Whereas he was po- tentially open to individual artists themselves, he had “Opinion” is a section of Other Minds devoted to personal views of individual authors about topics related to roleplaying in Midlle-earth. Even more so than the other sections, it ... a “heartfelt loathing” for “any- is a highly subjective forum for which the caveats mentioned in the Disclaimer on page 37 thing from or influenced by the Disney are especially stressed. studios” Letters #13, p 17 We encourage anyone to submit follow-up(s) to topics mentioned in “Opinion”, thus allowing for different points of view on a certain subject. In 1966 J.R.R. Tolkien sold the film, stage and merchandise rights to United Artists. When he died those rights reverted to the The Acroteriasm of The Creator family. The family, represented by The J.R.R. Tolkien wrote prolifically during his Tolkien Estate, sold the rights to Saul Zaentz Other Hands 81 years of life. He loved languages, studying who established the business entity Tolkien many, and he even created more than a dozen The Tolkien Legacy, The Tolkien Estate, Tol- Enterprises to manage the intellectual prop- of his own languages. Tolkien was a world re- kien Enterprises, and “Other Hands” erty licensing and legal enforcement. Tolki- nowned philologist, and translated a number © 2007 by W. A. Hawke Robinson en Enterprises has taken a very commercial, of famous works. He was Professor of Anglo- ([email protected]) per the terms rather than literary, view of the works, and Saxon and English, and later Professor of Eng- b n a 1 has been very aggressive in using IP (Intellec- under CC license: lish language and literature for Oxford Uni- tual Property) laws to enforce the rights it ac- versity in England. Outside of the purely aca- quired though never created. The Tolkien Estate sold the film, stage and mer- demic world, he is most famous for his crea- Tolkien Enterprises’ imperious enforce- chandise related rights for the Lord of the Rings and tion of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as ment has led to many authors, artists, musi- The Hobbit to Saul Zaentz who then created well as The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, Book(s) Tolkien Enterprises. cians and publications having their works of Lost Tales, History of Middle-earth series, and J.R.R. Tokien indicated in some of his letters forcefully removed from the public venue. other works published posthumously by his that he wanted others to build upon his legacy, espe- Some artists’ lives have been dramatically im- son Christopher Tolkien including the recent cially in the areas of visual arts and music, as well pacted by Tolkien Enterprises, having their li- 2007 release of The Children of Húrin. as quality derivative written works.