"He who praises everybody, praises nobody" - Samuel Johnson
***
The DM of the Rings
"Lord of the Rings is more or less the foundation of modern D&D. The latter rose from the former, although the two are now so estranged that to reunite them would be an act of savage madness. Imagine a gaggle of modern hack-n-slash roleplayers who had somehow never been exposed to the original Tolkien mythos, and then imagine taking those players and trying to introduce them to Tolkien via a D&D campaign."
Some of the best parts so far (it's very long, so I'm only halfway through):
(In Bree)
Aragorn: Wait, I want to visit the Blacksmith. See if he has like, weapons or stuff for sale.
DM: You want to go shopping? But your quest has only just begun!
Aragorn: Have you seen my starting equipment? All I have is a broken sword!
DM: None of these humble blacksmiths are capable of re-forging NARSIL, the mighty blade of old...
Aragorn: Fine. What about a brothel? Does this town have a whorehouse or anything?
DM: Certainly not!
Aragorn: This town sucks!
Sam: Let's just leave.
DM: You have only just arrived in Bree, after several long days of travel!
Legolas: Pry it open?
DM: No gaps.
Legolas: Pour water around the door, let it seep into the cracks and freeze, thus cracking the door?
DM: It is well above freezing here.
...
Someone: "So we're agreed... You guys go find a big tree, cut it down, and haul the trunk back here. Dave and I will assemble the scaffolding, and Frank will tie all the ropes together. Now all we need is a pulley."
Gandalf (NPC): Oh for crying out loud! The password is Mellon, you lunatics!
DM: From deep within the tangled heart of Fangorn Forest, the White Wizard approaches!
Aragorn: This makes no sense. What would Saurman (sic) be doing here in the middle of the woods?
DM: As he appears, you are surrounded by a brilliant white light!
Legolas: Ahhh! JERK!
Aragorn: So he hiked all this way so he could cast "Flare" at us? Isn't that a Level 1 Spell?
Gimli: It's a cantrip actually. Level Zero.
Now let me see if I understand this:
The guy who is leading the invasion of these lands - the guy with the huge Orc army and the indestructivle Tower of Black Stone - this guy spends his time wandering around in the woods all by himself, pranking random travelers with low-level spells?
Does that seem right to you?
Also great: the extended hit-on sequence in Part LXIII:Overly Requited Love