Topic: RM2 races in Middle Earth

[Ginger McMurray]

How do the races of MERP match the races in character law and RMC I?

For example, are the Dunedain high men? What about Dunlendings, Easterling, etc.?

Is there a chart somewhere?

[Hurin]

The High Men were modelled on the Dunedain I think personally; you could definitely use them as such.

Rolemaster Companion I added a bunch of new races too.

[Majyk]

Yup, RoCoI with a bunch of Mannish races: Mixed Men, etc.

RoCo VI or VII statted every monster and race found in C&M so if you wanted to play a Minotaur or a Brownie, you could.

[Ginger McMurray]

I know where the races are. I'm wondering if they ever matched them up with their middle earth counterparts.

For example, I picture Easterlings as dark tribe.

[intothatdarkness]

RoCo I was I think pulling races specifically from one of the writers' campaign settings. They were never clearly defined as being "of" Middle Earth in any real way.

ChL, on the other hand, is far easier.

[Ginger McMurray]

Since one didn't seem to exist, I created it. These are based on the MERP race descriptions.

Umli: Half-dwarf
Noldor: Fair elf. This could also have mapped to high elf.
Sindar: Grey elf
Silvan: Wood elf
Peredhil: Half-elf (standard, not a RoCoI variant)
Hobbit: Halfling (standard, not a RoCoI variant)
Beorning: Bear Tribe
Black Numenorean: High Man
Dunedain: Mixed Men
Corsair, Dunlending, Eriadorian, Gondorian: Common Man
Easterling, Haradrim, Variag: Dark Tribe
Lossuth: Arctic Men
Rohirrim, Wood Men: Northmen

I didn't include Woses or any of the twisted races since I don't use those as PC options in my campaign. Everything but Woses should be fairly straightforward.

[Hurin]

Good list. My only change would be making Dunedain also high men. If Black Numenoreans are high men, i think it would make sense to make Dunedain high men too.

[Ginger McMurray]

That makes sense. MERP says there are physiological differences, which is the only reason I split them.

[Frabby]

The race descriptions in RMFRP match the wording in MERP 2 verbatim, you can easily tell what’s what. A few MERP races are missing though and some details were changed, especially language skills.

MERP treated Black Numenoreans, Corsairs, and Gondorians as regular men, stat-wise. Only the Dunedain got special stats, something like half half (quarter?) elves.
It's a completely different question if any of that jives with the original source material.

[Ginger McMurray]

It's interesting that black Numenoreans were treated the same. Apparently (according to Google) the two (Dunedain and Numenorean) were interchangeable in the Silmarillon. MERP definitely treats them differently from common men.

[Jenkyna]

Since one didn't seem to exist, I created it. These are based on the MERP race descriptions.


Noldor: Fair elf. This could also have mapped to high elf.

Fair elves with their blond hair and aptitude for music would be the equivalent of the Vanyar Elves who never left Aman; save to fight in the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age. Galdriel's lineage traces through Finarfin to Indis, the Vanyar Elf who became the second wife of Finwë, and that is why she has blond hair. The name Vanyar means 'Fair-ones' in Quenya.

Noldor with their dark hair, and skill in crafts, are equivalent to High Elves.

[Frabby]

It's interesting that black Numenoreans were treated the same. Apparently (according to Google) the two (Dunedain and Numenorean) were interchangeable in the Silmarillon. MERP definitely treats them differently from common men.

As Bilbo explains to Frodo in Rivendell in reference to Aragorn, Dunadan (pl. Dunedain) means "man of the West", which refers to the Numenoreans, more precisely their descendants who founded and lived in Arnor and Gondor. "Black Numenoreans" are the Numenorean settlers of other realms to the south. Unlike the Dunedain, they weren't "good" Numenoreans but those latter day ones who followed Sauron. They lack the blessing and "half-elven-ness" of the Dunedain and Gondorian nobility, and are thus statted as regular men. Same about the Corsairs, who were essentially "bad" Gondorians.

[Hurin]

In The Return of the King, it says that the King's Men, who were Numenoreans from Numenor, were afterwards called the Black Numenoreans. So I am not convinced there really should be any racial distinctions between Numenoreans, at least if you are talking about late second or early third age. It seems primarily a political split.

[Jenkyna]

In The Return of the King, it says that the King's Men, who were Numenoreans from Numenor, were afterwards called the Black Numenoreans. So I am not convinced there really should be any racial distinctions between Numenoreans, at least if you are talking about late second or early third age. It seems primarily a political split.

As far as I can remember, your interpretation seems to fit the ICE material.