Adventures in Middle-Earth represents one approach to handling magic in Middle-earth which has been popular. The game system released by Cubicle 7 in 2016 and now unfortunately out of print is built using the 5e combat mechanic and under the premise that magic, particularly "spell magic", is beyond the reach of player characters to access during play. As a "low magic/ no magic" version of 5e set in a Tolkien world, it succeeds admirably - but I will argue that no magic is not the only way to play in Middle-earth.
From its publication in 1974 on, hobbyists (including myself) have attempted to play their favorite FRP game featuring a version of Middle-earth - often while using one edition or another of The World's Most Popular Role-Playing Game. Many have decried their frustration, especially with the game's "Vancian" magic system, and have abandoned the effort to make the game, this game in particular, feel like Middle-earth. The original edition game seems a better fit for me than for many, however, and that is perhaps due to my personal views on Middle-earth.
As I read about Middle-earth in the published works of its creator, J.R.R. Tolkien, I find the fictional setting to be full of magic...and also a bit scary! Middle-earth, or Arda as the world is sometimes called, is brought into being through the magic of song - angelic song. Evil is introduced through the discordant voice of the powerful "angel" Morgath. In the fiction, Middle-earth seems to have been created using a form of "magic" - or rather perhaps a "technology" beyond comprehension and therefore indistinguishable from magic!
The world of Arda seems wonderous and very different from our own. There is the light of the lamps and later of the trees, the awakening of the sentient beings including dwarves, elves and men, the presence of various divine immortal beings (Valar, Maia, etc.) who visit Middle-earth, and for a time use their supernatural powers to work wonders while traveling or dwelling among mortal men who stand in awe of such "magic", all this, and still more, seems to me to impart a magical nature to Middle-earth. Add to the context of Middle-earth various and sundry magical items, silmarils, rings, swords, etc. and creatures from legend and myth (werewolves and vampires) and I am feeling the "magic" in Middle-earth.
To be sure, Professor Tolkien avoids the use of flashy spell magic as is most commonly used in The World's Most Popular Role-Playing Game - there are no "fire-balls" or lightning bolts, but healing magics are used by more than one character. Necromancy, undeath, and spirits who walk about breathing death on mortals who get too close, all certainly play a part even in The Lord of the Rings - arguably the least "magical" of J.R.R. Tolkien's several works centered on Middle-earth.
In The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, Professor Tolkien shows us much regarding his fictional world of Arda, and in The Silmarillion and other unfinished works, he describes how much of Arda and its inhabitants came to be. The novels are written as from the point of view of hobbit folk - perhaps the least "magical" of Middle-earth's peoples. They see much that causes them wonder and astonishment - and not a little fear when the shadow is involved. As much as I feel like I know about Middle-earth, there remains many questions - spaces I think the good professor intentionally left blank that we might fill in some of the missing details using our own imagination.
Take Tom Bombadil for example. Who or what is he? It seems he predates Arda - or does he? What is the nature and history of his good wife Goldberry? Exactly how do the Doors of Durin at the gate to Moria work? What is the secret to ring-making? Middle-earth is full of unexplained mystery... And that is precisely how I like my fictional world to be.
I like to postulate beyond what is written (making me a Middle-earth "heretic" to some). I ask questions to which there are no answers.
Questions like:
What happened to the blue wizards? Did they perhaps take on pupils and teach them magic?
What about the witch king of Angmar? How much magic did he control and does he take on apprentices?
Saruman and Wormtongue - what is the nature of their relationship? Did it involve magic?
The Numenoreans who entertained Sauron, did they perhaps learn a few magic spells from the dark master during his "captivity"?
I like to think that the answer to all these questions about magic in Middle-earth is; Yes, they did and the hobbits just didn't know about it and therefore didn't write it down in their books that have come down to us as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
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