The Lord of the Rings Mod is a huge mod that adds the realm of Middle Earth to Minecraft as a new dimension. The new dimension is accessed by throwing a Gold Ring (made out of 9 Gold Nuggets) into any source of fire, such as lava or something that is burning. This will blow up the surrounding blocks and open the Ring Portal, which you then have to step into to get to Middle Earth.
Middle Earth is a huge place, with many new mobs, items, weapons, armors, beasts, and factions! Walking around will take a long time, so will using a horse, but thankfully, there is a fast-travel system in place. Simple upon up the mod interface/map by pressing ‘L’ (default), choose where to go, and then press ‘M’ (default) to teleport there.
The mod is pretty massive and has a lot of things to offer. Some of them are implemented, some of them are coming, but the things already there looks awesome and works fine already. Achievements are implemented, factions are implemented, tons of items, weapons, and armor are implemented, and the map is there and pretty large. Iconic buildings are not entirely there yet, so some of the world does feel pretty empty, or pretty random.
Important: the Lord of the Rings Mod requires Minecraft Forge.
If you’re playing in creative, you can easily spawn your own buildings though, as that is implemented as well. Put up a Haradrim village in seconds if you like, and then maybe their mortal enemies right next to them for some fun times. Factions are pretty much friendly at first, but they will attack each other at times, such as when orcs encounter elves, or orcs encounter humans, or orcs encounter other different orcs (orcs generally don’t like much else).
Here is a list of the main features of the Lord of the Rings Mod:
- A whole new dimension, based on Middle-Eart.
- 100+ new biomes, sub-biomes, and new biome variants. They all have their own unique structures, and resources.
- New biomes are generated according to Tolkien’s map of Middle-Earth.
- Featuring never before seen lands of Rhûn and Harad.
- Features a terrifying dungeon dimension, the Ancient Pits of Utumno, which is full of Morgoth’s most evil creatures.
- A ton of new blocks, ores, items, tools, food, weapon, and armor.
- Races, people, and factions known from the Lord of the Rings universe.
- A new alignment system, your actions have consequences and can improved or harm your reputation with one or more of the many new independent factions.
- New gameplay features that are dependant on the players alignment, such as trading, hiring units, and an expanded achievement system.
- The Red Book featuring randomly generated mini-quests.
- All areas of the mod feature seamless multiplayer integration!
As you can see, the Lord of the Rings Mod is very expansive and full of new features already, but it is still a beta so a lot more is to come! So far it is a lot of fun though, and it works very well. Any fan of the Lord of the Rings should definitively check it out, as should any fan of fantasy, RPGs, or medieval settings, really.
Some of the other features the creator want to implement are:
- More items, blocks, and races from Middle-Earth.
- More complex, larger, and pre-written quests, from minor side-quests to epic adventures.
- Iconic characters, locations, and structures known from the Lord of the Rings story-line.
- New exciting boss battles
- The possibility of other realms from Tolkien, such as Valinor.
For more information, crafting recipes, and more, check out the offical wiki of the mod.
How to install the Lord of the Rings Mod for Minecraft:
- Download the mod.
- Make sure Minecraft Forge is installed.
- Open your Minecraft folder (in Windows: Start -> Run -> “%appdata%\.minecraft”).
- Copy the mod .jar file(s) you downloaded to the “mods” folder, found inside the .minecraft folder.
- Done! The Lord of the Rings Mod should now be installed, so craft a Gold Ring, throw it in the fire, and go on an adventure!
Here is a Let’s Play of the mod, courtesy of paulsoresjr, check it out for a more in-depth look at the mod: