This is the next in the series of articles giving an overview of a specific Tolkien Collecting area. It is not a completest list of everything to do with the area (see the Visual Collecting Guides for that), but an introduction to the area to give people an idea of what the area is about.
Size of the Area
Roleplaying and Wargaming is a very large sized Tolkien area to collect, there are 17 series within it, and a few of these are large in themseleves.
Overview, History and Scope
One of the first things to establish within any area is the scope. This is not meant to specifically set boundaries to any individual collection, but purely to define the scope of what is covered within this article and, to a lesser extent, what I consider that area includes.
Early Rules - these are mainly expansions/supplements to existing Wargaming frameworks such as NEWA, Chainmail, SELWG. They are often not very professionally produced.
Early Figures - these are either very small series or individual Tolkien figures within other series produced by independent manafactureres, often unofficial, during the 1960s and 70s. They are normally metal.
I.C.E. MERP Rules - this is a large series of roleplaying rules and supporting material. It consists of approximately 100 boxed systems, rules, campaigns, scenarios, guides and map books.
I.C.E. Lord of the Rings Adventure Game System - this is a very small cut down version of the main ICE MERP system. There is only a boxed set and 2 scenario books.
Mithril Figures - this is a very large series of figures and consists of boxed sets, blister packs and an assortment of special/limited editions. It is the longest running series of Tolkien figures. https://mithril.ie/ Harlequin Figures - this is a small series of figures, boxed sets and blisters packs.
Games Workshop Middle Earth System - this is a huge series, it includes rules, scenarios and figures based on the Jackson Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. The series started branded as Lord of the Rings, was changed to Strategy Battle Game and is currently Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_Strategy_Battle_Game
Games Workshop Battle of Five Armies System - this is a small stand-alone system consisting of rules and small number of figures. These figures are of a smaller scale than usual.
Combat Hex System - this is a medium sized series of rules and figures based on the Jackson Lord of the Rings movies. The figures are plastic with an inbuilt scoring system in the base. The figures were sold in blind boxes. There are also some large figures and map sets. http://softbug.free.fr/sabertooth/combathex.html Heroclix System - this is a small sized series of rules and figures based on the Jackson Lord of the Rings movies. The figures are plastic with an inbuilt scoring system in the base. The figures were sold in blind boxes.
Decipher Lord of the Rings Adventure Game System - theses are a very small, 2 boxed sets only, of simplistic rules and cardboard figures, it is cut down rules from the full Decipher series and is also based on the Jackson Lord of the Rings movies.
Overlaps with other Areas
Magazines - there are a lot of Magazines featuring Tolkien Roleplaying and Wargaming either specifically dedicated to one of the series detailed above or just featuring specific covers and/or articles. Miniature Wargames Magazine published various Tolkien Battle scenarios. Games Workshops White Dwarf magazine featured various early Tolkien related covers and articles.
and then more recently, had extensive coverage of its own Middle Earth Strategy Battle Games series.
Battle Games in Middle Earth magazine was a bi-monthly magazine published by De-Agastini containing Games Workshop miniatures (from the normal figure releases).
Harlequin published a very small series of magazines “One Ring” (6 issues).
Board Games - there is a very small cross over with Board Games in that a few products have a more limited playing area e.g. Games Workshop Wizards duel Mini-Game.
Cards - there is a very small cross over with Cards, the Games Workshop series has a small set of Profile Card Packs.
Out of Scope
Hex board Board Games, although having quite a few of the same characteristics as Roleplaying games, they have a limited and defined playing area and more specific rules and are therefore definitely part of the Board Games area.
Promotional
There are a few promotional items, particularly from the later series. These includes posters, flyers, bags etc.
Away from the Normal
Before computers were available, long distance Roleplaying and Wargaming was played via traditional mail. There were various publications specific to this and some of which featured the Tolkien systems or scenarios.
In most of the systems the figures come unpainted and it is a big part of the Roleplaying and Wargamming hobby to paint the figures, and the painted figures can be very collectable. There are even people who paint figures professionally.
Specialisations
There is a lot you can specialise in within this area.
You can specialise on one specific series, even some of these can still be very big. You can also specialise on a specific movie series within some of the bigger series.
Another idea is to collect all figures of a specific character, either from any series or within a specific series.
High End
There is not really any ‘high end’ or expensive series within this area, although a lot of items have become expensive and hard to get hold of.
Rare, Unusual and Interesting Items
Roleplaying and Wargamming is a big area and there are a lot of interesting and hard to find items within it, you really need to be a specialist to know some of the more obscure of these, particularly within the Early Rules and Figures and within the huge Games Workshop series. The following are a few of the rarer, unusual and interesting items to be found within the area.
Heritage Diarama Boxed Set
The 2 large diarama boxed sets of the Heritage series are very hard to find and are very collectable.
MERP Campaign Books
The campaign books from the MERP series have become very collectable and some of them are now quite expensive to buy, although most can be found if you hunt around.
GW Large Boxed Set
The very large boxed sets from the Games Workshop series were very expensive and not readily available when released and are therefore very hard to find today.
GW Minus Tirith
The Games Workshop Minas Tirith has become very popolar and quite expensive to buy, although they can be found quite easily.
GW Battle of Five Armies Figures
The additional mini figures from the Games Workshop Battle of Five Armies game are hard to find, although not impossible, and are now very expensive.
Combat Hex Witch King Nazgul
This was a special edition of the normal Nazgul Figure but with a Witch King figure, instead of a normal Nazgul. These figures were at the end of the series anyway and not readily available and the special edition is very rare and hard to find.
What to watch out forWargamming and Roleplaying figures can be either metal or plastic, metal figures are a lot more expensive and more collectable.
As with a lot of collecting there is always the ‘Packaged’ vs ‘Loose’ consideration.
When considering ‘Packaged’ items, the quality of the packaging is important. Any damaged packaging will impact on the collectability of the item. Although, in my opinion, it is better to have an imperfect item than not have the item at all, so long as you don’t overpay for it.
When considering ‘Loose’ items, it is important that all the parts are there.
The quality of painted figures is a big consideration and can vary from very amateur to professional and is a big factor in collecting painted figures.
Storage and Display
These series are mostly in relatively small packaging making it fairly easy to store, however the size of some of the series is very big so storage of larger collections can get to be a problem.
Specialist storage cases are available for loose figures.
Painted loose figures are very nice to display, particularly if professionally painted, and dioramas of figures and scenes make excellant displays.
What makes this area Interesting?
Roleplaying and Wargamming has always been very popular and collectable. The figures are a great visualisation of the characters from the books and the films, and painting them is very rewarding. The games themselves are an excellant hobby over and above the collecting.
There is a wide verietly of items to collect, although, being a very large area it is better to specialise.
It is however a very hard area to be a completest in as some of the series are very extensive.
Resources
As well as the references given above, the following resources have a lot more details about Tolkien Roleplaying and Wargamming.
Visual Collecting Guide - Roleplaying and Wargaming Part 1, 2, 3.
Lost Minis Wiki
