tkdguy

Isn't that useful, if not required, on these boards?

How about law vs. chaos instead of good vs. evil? In Moorcock's books, they both have their benefits and drawbacks. Chaos is the force of creation, but it turns into destruction when it runs rampant. Law represents stability, but it leads to stagnation if left unchecked. This cosmic struggle was reflected in early D&D. The original game had the law-chaos axis but not the good-evil axis. Lawful could mean good, and chaotic could mean evil, but that wasn't necessarily be the case. The cosmic struggle was also the rationale for alignment languages.

Pariah hasn't noticed I changed my title a few months ago.

That quote of Tolkien has been made to argue that he consciously portrayed Asians as Orcs. Again, I dispute that, and I am speaking as someone who self-identifies as Asian. Orcs were described as not being a natural race. Keep min mind Tolkien's main story was about the good vs. evil struggle. And even the so called Free Peoples (notably elves and Dunedain) were themselves guilty of horrible crimes. This Wikipedia article discusses alleged racism and Orcs, and this article in Tolkien Gateway discusses racism in general. I know there are some fascist groups trying to pervert the meaning of Tolkien's works to fit their agenda, the same way they try to pervert Norse Mythology. Tolkien once told off the Nazis when they tried to use his works for their purposes.

L. Marcus made ABBA perform on empty stomachs.

Destruction

"I hate you! You always make me look bad." "It's not my fault you suck."

Of pickled peppers?

How about this? Base your human culture on Ancient China, specifically based on this novel. Base your elves on the depictions of the Hobbit cartoon.

1975 was an eventful year, both in Middle-earth and in the real world.

Burroughs was one source of inspiration for Geoffrey McKinney's Carcosa setting. All PCs are human, but what kind of human? They come in all sorts of colors, including imaginary colors from the novel A Voyage to Arcturus and even Bone Men (think Nehwon ghouls). Having said that, there's not much that separates the different human races in terms of game mechanics. They are unable to interbreed with one another or with visitors from Earth. Their origin is also different from ours: They were created by the now extinct Snake Men for use as ingredients in sorcerous rituals. GMs may allow aliens (Grays) as PCs, but all Lovecraftian races are monsters or NPCs.

Cool! I've been running MERP on TTS for a couple of friends. Anybody want to join?

All excellent points. But should we begin a new thread to avoid going off-topic here?