Thanks for that Lancelot...now I want to play this game even more.
It's a good game, but it's not for the faint-of-heart.
Some people think of Lord of the Rings as fighting balrogs, slaughtering orcs on the battlefield, and romancing elf maidens. They quibble about whether Gandalf was actually only a 6th level wizard, and whether Aragorn is a ranger or a fighter or even a paladin, while missing the whole point.
This is what LotR is all about: the "hero" goes on a grueling journey where he achieves no victory in battle, suffers continual misery and weariness, never meets a romantic interest, incurs terrible wounds that will plague him for the rest of his life, never turns out to be of special lineage, doesn't ride or befriend a dragon, goes back home to a nation/people that don't even understand or value his accomplishments, and ultimately... wearying of life... departs from most of his friends forever. Plenty has been written about it being an allegory for the World War I experience (the terrible losses, horror of combat, industrialization of warfare, disconnection when returning home after months or years away).
AiME captures that vibe pretty well. Journeys are often grim affairs. You have to be playing with a group who accept that some sessions they'll be playing with disadvantage on all their skill checks (and maybe even attack rolls) due to exhaustion. They also have to accept that accumulated bad weather, rough terrain and frightening encounters could break or even kill their characters through corruption.
Combats are not to be sought out, and bodies aren't meant to be looted. How many times in the LotR books or movies can you recall the heroes actively trying to attack foes? They're mostly playing defense, or being forced into confrontation when there is no other option. From memory: hobbits flee black riders, party hides from crows, party flees from watcher-in-water, party forced to fight attackers at Balin's tomb, party flees goblin reinforcements, Gandalf fights rearguard action against balrog, party flees Moria, party tries to flee orcs on Amon Hen, etc.
Some creatures are literally unkillable. In the Mirkwood campaign, there are creatures that you simply *cannot* beat by normal means. And, without getting into spoilers, the general theme of the official campaign is:
"Things are bad... then they get worse". When I read the final adventure in the Mirkwood campaign book, I was slightly stunned at how audacious it is. There's... hmm... it's not about fighting and defeating Demogorgon or Strahd von Zarovich (or Sauron, or a dragon, for that matter). Can't really say more, but it's absolutely not the typical D&D campaign ending.
A number of the official adventures feature foes that are intentionally not level-balanced. The players need to quickly figure out what is beatable, and what isn't. If they get into some fights, they're absolutely going to die.
There are virtually no magic items, and little way to spend gold - so no real motivation for looting and spelunking either. The true motivation is to hold back the Shadow, save your friends, try and keep the islands of light (towns, villages) alive as long as possible in the face of overwhelming darkness. And the darkness IS overwhelming. You're keeping the lights going as long as possible, but they WILL fail. Friends WILL die, and allied towns WILL fall. The best outcome is simply to limit the losses.
Now, that's all very attractive to me as a DM (...as a break for "regular" D&D, which I also thoroughly enjoy). But my players have a hard time with it. The player who gained 8 Shadow points in one session was shaking his head at the end. I have another player who is still looting every body they come across, and is continually surprised that random bandits aren't carrying gold. Two of them complained that a troll was so hard to kill (and managed to kill one of their characters in return), and how it was level-inappropriate for the party.
They're slowly coming around to how the game and the setting works, but I personally think it's only a matter of time before they mutiny and we're back to D&D. If nothing else, some of the later modules in either the Mirkwood Campaign or Wilderlands Adventures will probably break them. The rules and the setting are *not* simply a down-powered version of D&D; they subvert many of the core expectations of D&D. And, in some ways, it can be tough for a regular D&D group to adapt.
I'm loving it as a change-of-pace, though. It models the setting very well indeed (kudos to Cubicle 7), and much better than most of those 3e re-skins that were prevalent back in the early days of the OGL. This isn't just a lazy collection of new classes and cultures that are vaguely Tolkien-like; AiME is a more fundamental change to the underlying way the game is played.
Or, at least, it is if you're playing it according to the DM guidance and the setting-specific rules. If you decide to house-rule it so that long rests are easily achievable, corruption is less prevalent, and goblins carry a handful of silver each... then you can make the official modules play much more like regular D&D. And if that works better for your table, go for it.
