Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

A couple of people in Kid_Kyoto's 'Modest Suggestions' post have mentioned the possibilty, or not, of GW abandoning the LotR system. I was browsing the GW UK site and found this.

Putting material from existing products online. Fanatic, anyone? This may be a sign that LotR is going the way of the good games GW has produced.

It could also just be a sign that rulebook sales are slow, so they're trying to push the miniatures a little more by offering free rules for them.

Interesting - although with all the new models coming out, I think insaniak is probably right. I could see LotR dying as a game (if anyone ever played it at all) and GW just being the official miniatures line for LotR nerds, with rules online for anyone who gets bored and wants to play it again.

But given how long the game has been around, it's about time for GW to kill it off.

GW isn't going to kill it off anytime soon. It is their third core game and they even recently penned a new contract granting them access to some of the stories from the Simirillion as well as the Unfinished tales. Additionally, they are still regularly releasing new miniatures, new boxed sets and new rules for the system. Despite Kirby & Co's repeated bleatings that the LotR bubble is the cause of all their financial woes, their actions (namely the aforementioned, as well as keeping their best sculptors and artists working on new LotR product) directly contradict any suggestions that LotR will be dumped anytime soon.

Sorry. It just ain't gonna happen. It'd be stupid to happen too, as LotR is probably what has been keeping GW afloat. Keep in mind that the Tolkien/LotR fanbase is much, much larger than the wargaming fan base and full of people who don't traditionally "wargame" and will be just as happy to glue the figures together and play without even thinking to paint them up. LotR is also being sold through vastly wider retail channels (ie: big mainstream stores like Barnes & Noble and similar) than the remainder of their products. Lastly, GW has put plenty of material from existing WHFB and 40k products online, yet nobody has ever suggested either of those game systems are going the way of the dodo.

Obviously GW pay for a licence to produce the LoTR stuff. They would have to stop when that expired, but as long as the line is profitable they will seek to renew the licence. The Tolkien estate (or New Line Cinema or whoever owns the rights) would find it hard to find another company now that GW have mined the best of the licence. So it seems like it's theirs as lonmg as they want it.