I’d love to help with a Tolkienesque style of LARP, but it would have to be really, really good.
Magic in Tolkien’s world was not unique to races and cultures, it was used by the very powerful and wielded through magic items, such as rings.
I was thinking, a great way to represent the Palantiri would be through cellphones inside black orbs.
A really good setting for a Middle Earth LARP game would be in Mirkwood. Mirkwood, yesss… Elves from King Thranduril’s halls, Men from Dale and Laketown. Goblins from the Misty Mountains, Orcs and Nazgul from Dol Guldur. And, just for fun, people in spider-suits. Think of the fun you could have with stringing ropes between trees, and giving them ‘sticky’ properties.
Mounted races such as the Rohirrim or the Wain Riders would be really hard to pull off, so I’d suggest staying away from them. But some stories of the Mark don’t involve many horses, such as the story of Helm Hammerhand, in Helm’s Deep. That would be cool.
And the Dunedain Rangers of the North would be fantastic.
I’m picturing more open forests than the location of ‘Black Woods’, does anyone know Woodhills Forest? Something similar to that, but closer for everyone to get to.