“I was influenced greatly by the writings of Tolkien and was led
into the world of fantasy by the inhabitants of the Shire. For this
reason I prefer as player characters elves and dwarves. I feel that the
‘roll three dice method’ of determining the prime requisites of the players
is fair and equitable for humans but is ultimately unfair to the nonhumans.”
. . .“ I feel it is only fair to these non-human beings to make
a concession as follows: For elves roll three dice but put a limit of no
less than 12 for strength and 15 for intelligence as minimums so if less is
rolled the minimum automatically applies. The dwarves as a people are
a race of miners and smiths, therefore a strength of less than 14 would
be almost unheard of.” . . . “In Tolkien the elves made some of the
most powerful offensive weapons . . . I realize that the many varied enchanted
blades could not be forged by mere warlocks but feel that one
could be enchanted to a mere +1 by six months of hard work.”

One might say that I am knit-picking without reason in presenting
this letter. I for one believe that this may be a minor problem in the D &
D field but it, along with other disorganized ideas about the actual way
(or the right way) of playing D & D create a noticeable dividing line between
the way we at TSR play the game and the way we intended it to
be played. Individualism within the game itself is stressed and we do
not actively go out of our way to remonstrate people for exercising their
imagination within their campaign. We also hope that those people will
respect the way we play for we think the designers know best.

The game was designed stressing the human aspect of play,
humans being ultimately the strongest and predominant race on any
earth. With a few exceptions most worlds of Fantasy and Swords &
Sorcery writers are predominantly inhabited by humans. Elves,
dwarves and hobbits were the minority races on Middle-Earth and were
never in the spotlight for long time periods. Furthermore, D & D was
not written to recreate or in any collective way simulate Professor Tolkien’s
world or beings. A few were included such as Balrogs, Orcs etc.
for it was recognized that Tolkien made some impressions upon the
Fantasy literary world which were worth including in D & D, but not to
the extent of basing the game system around them. That is left up to separate
judges — but in doing so they excommunicate themselves from
the actual D & D system. As I stated earlier we support creative imagination
but we also support the premise of D & D. Those who base their
games around a single work such as LOT are playing a campaign based
around Middle-Earth and since D & D was not written to create a basis
for one world, it is thus not strict D & D. Players must remember also
that elves, dwarves and similar creatures were around before Tolkien
took to the field and determinations of advancement etc. are left to the
separate authors or judges as the case may arise. Tolkien’s elves may
have been on the average better than a human of his world but in D & D
it can be quite the opposite. On the other side of the coin, though elves
and dwarves are limited to the level they may attain they gain early ad-
vantage (noticing secret doors, sloping passages etc.) which partially
makes up for their lower levels later on.

One might say that I am knit-picking without reason in presenting
this letter. I for one believe that this may be a minor problem in the D &
D field but it, along with other disorganized ideas about the actual way
(or the right way) of playing D & D create a noticeable dividing line between
the way we at TSR play the game and the way we intended it to
be played. Individualism within the game itself is stressed and we do
not actively go out of our way to remonstrate people for exercising their
imagination within their campaign. We also hope that those people will
respect the way we play for we think the designers know best.

The game was designed stressing the human aspect of play,
humans being ultimately the strongest and predominant race on any
earth. With a few exceptions most worlds of Fantasy and Swords &
Sorcery writers are predominantly inhabited by humans. Elves,
dwarves and hobbits were the minority races on Middle-Earth and were
never in the spotlight for long time periods. Furthermore, D & D was
not written to recreate or in any collective way simulate Professor Tolkien’s
world or beings. A few were included such as Balrogs, Orcs etc.
for it was recognized that Tolkien made some impressions upon the
Fantasy literary world which were worth including in D & D, but not to
the extent of basing the game system around them. That is left up to separate
judges — but in doing so they excommunicate themselves from
the actual D & D system. As I stated earlier we support creative imagination
but we also support the premise of D & D. Those who base their
games around a single work such as LOT are playing a campaign based
around Middle-Earth and since D & D was not written to create a basis
for one world, it is thus not strict D & D. Players must remember also
that elves, dwarves and similar creatures were around before Tolkien
took to the field and determinations of advancement etc. are left to the
separate authors or judges as the case may arise. Tolkien’s elves may
have been on the average better than a human of his world but in D & D
it can be quite the opposite. On the other side of the coin, though elves
and dwarves are limited to the level they may attain they gain early ad-
vantage (noticing secret doors, sloping passages etc.) which partially
makes up for their lower levels later on.

One must also remember that this system works with the worlds of
R.E. Howard, Fritz Leiber and L.S. de Camp and Fletcher Pratt much
better than that of Tolkien. If one is to branch away from the D & D
system, let’s say towards Tolkien’s world, he will be disappointed to
find that most spells, characters etc. do not function well within the
epic world of Tolkien’s design. The Professor was concerned with presenting
a well-told tale of sheer magnitude and greatness culminating
with the end of the story, end of the characters, end of the world for all
it was worth, for what more was there actually to do? There was not a
continuing story line possible, for the story itself was in fact based
around the destruction of the Ring and all those events which were
spawned from it. As we would say at TSR “END OF ADVENTURE”.

What I am saying is that for a role-playing, continuous adventuring
world, Tolkien’s does not fit well within the D & D game style.
Thus, difficulties will always be found when one attempts to combine D
& D and Tolkien’s Middle-Earth into one. One last piece of information
which might help those people out there who are confused about
which “light” Dungeons & Dragons should be taken in or how the
game was inspired; I suggest you read the following. This is an excerpt
taken from the foreword to Dungeons and Dragons, written by Gary
Gygax.

“These rules are strictly fantasy. Those wargamers who lack imagination,
those who don’t care for Burroughs’ Martian adventures
where John Carter is groping through black pits, who feel no thrill
upon reading Howards’ Conan saga, who do not enjoy the de Camp &
Pratt fantasies or Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser pitting
their swords against evil sorceries will not be likely to find Dungeons
and Dragons to their taste.”

May you never be caught in a dead end by an iron golem!