In a 1996 readers poll taken by "Arcane" magazine to determine the 50 most popular roleplaying games of all time, "Middle-earth Role Playing" was ranked 11th. Editor Paul Pettengale commented: "The popularity of the books, we would suggest, explains why the game based on Tolkien's world is so popular. The system is overly complicated (being based on the complex "Rolemaster" system - see number 15), and it suffers from the problem of timing. For example, at which time do you set your campaign? Set it before "The Lord of the Rings" and everyone knows what's going to happen, set it after "The Lord of the Rings" and you've got to make a whole load of stuff up. Still, the supplements are all good, if you get off on bucketfuls of detail and polished prose. Not for everyone, sure, but die-hard Tolkien fans should check it out."