Like many of you, I have tried unsuccessfully to run a game that felt Tolkienesque in a variety of game systems. Here is how it would work perfectly in Fictive Hack. (And here’s a new template. Dhengellin)
DM: Okay, so let’s make some characters and do this thing. What do you want to make, and what do you want for an adventuring goal?
Hank: I want to be a bad-ass old wizard with a magic elf ring that lets me live forever.
DM: …okay, sure. So everybody else will get something really cool too. ::Hands Hank the wizard template.::
Carl: Awesome, Hank! You scored us mad starting loot! ::Awards Awesome Point::
Laura: Yeah! ::Awards Awesome Point:: And Carl, good reminder. ::Awards Awesome Point:: Now, I want to play a Viking dwarf.
DM: Great. ::Hands Laura the stonach template:: How about a name?
Laura: Thor!
::Hank laughs and hands over an Awesome Point::
DM: Whatever. Hank, you think of a name?
Hank: Gandalf the Bad-Ass.
DM: Okay, Gandalf. Carl, what do you want to play?
Carl: So all these characters can fight and stuff, right? I mean, nobody is all like, “I can’t figure out how to use a sword!”
DM: Right. All the characters have the same rules for fighting, but talents can improve your options.
Carl: I want to play a little fat bastard.
DM: You can make your character look any way you want.
Carl: I want to play a midget.
DM: Okay, you can make a midget out of any of these templates.
Carl: Is there a midget template?
DM: ::Wordlessly hands Carl the Dhengellin template::
Hank: “Midget template.” You rule. ::Awards Awesome Point::
Laura: I want to be a king. I want a dwarf kingdom.
DM: A kingdom of dwarf Vikings.
Laura: Yeah!
DM: Tell you what. You can have 1d10 dwarf minions traveling with you. How is that?
Laura: Okay. And I can add more any time, right? Any time we find dwarves, they’ll be my followers?
DM: Okay, yeah. Roll it.
Laura: Ten!
DM: …and you have to name them.
Hank: Okay I did my rolls. I want the “Menace” talent. Can I make people pee themselves?
DM: If you spend an Awesome Point, sure.
Hank: But does that mean I can’t, like, attack with magic? Even though I’m a wizard?
DM: Sure you can, for 3 Awesome Points. If your attack is awesome enough, the other players might give you more Awesome Points for doing it.
Hank: Like if I make a pine-cone grenade? Dude, can I make a pine-cone grenade?
DM: Yes. You might have to toss in another couple Awesome Points to make your magic attack do something cool.
Hank: Can I shoot out of my mouth and eyes?
DM: It can look however you want. Carl, how are you doing? Did you figure out what cool extra thing you wanted for your character?
Carl: Hah! My little dude can totally sense magical stuff. I’m going to get the best loot.
DM: So what do you want to start with?
Carl: I don’t know yet, I’m still figuring this guy out.
DM: Got a name?
Carl: Yeah. Dildo Bagsack.
Everyone: …
DM: Well… you can name him that, but all the monsters will attack him first.
Hank: Dude, just rearrange it. Like Bilbo Dagdack.
Laura: Or Dong Baggins. We’ll know what you mean. You’re playing a midget tool.
::everyone laughs and gives Laura an Awesome Point::
Carl: Bilbo Baggins it is.
Laura: My character needs a good last name. I’m thinking “Inthethaddle.”
DM: “Thor in the thaddle?” Really?
Laura: “Thorin” for short.
::Awesome Points clatter to her.::
DM: Don’t give it all here. You still have ten dwarves to name.
Hank: I don’t need no stinking backpack. I do want a reach weapon. Like a magic staff!
DM: Would you rather have a magic staff than an elf ring that lets you live forever?
Hank: Hell no.
DM: Well, maybe a magic staff could be your adventuring motive.
Hank: Uh, I’ve got a busy month coming up. I’m not going to be able to make it all the time. Is that cool?
DM: We’ll work you in and out.
Laura: My adventuring motive is to kill a dragon and take its loot. With my army of dwarves.
DM: That’s very ambitious of you. The dragon is actually sitting in your mountain kingdom on all your stuff. Your bigger-than-I-expected band is the last of your subjects.
Laura: Scaly bastard.
DM: Apparently dwarves are fattening. The dragon is sleeping it off on your family loot.
Carl: My adventuring motive is to get a gem the size of my head! But I’m like this humdrum guy, this midget dude who likes his food and his house and doesn’t really want to go adventuring. ::thinks:: Actually, my adventuring goal is to get home alive.
DM: Noted. How about you, Hank?
Hank: Ride a giant eagle.
DM: Good one!
::Awesome Points slide to Hank as people laugh::
DM: Everybody got your attributes rolled? Picked out your starting talent? Got your starting gear?
::general agreement::
DM: Okay. Bilbo, you’re sitting in your house in Bag End.
Carl: Nice. Oh, wait. What about my super-cool thing?
DM: Do you want to get it later in the adventure?
Carl: Only if it’s cooler than everyone else’s.
DM: Yeah, I can work with that. You’ll get the coolest magic thing, and it will be later in the adventure. We ready to get started?
Fictive Fantasies 
All games should start like that!
Glad you liked it. =)
I agree, OSH/FH seem like the easiest way to meld Tolkien into a game. I remember the crazy arguments about what level Magic User Gandalf was, as old school D&D was simply too restrictive to make it plausible. 4E doesn’t even seem right to contemplate making a Tolkienesque campaign…
But with this system, I think it might just work.
I loved how Gandalf used a bad-ass magic sword. Not until 3E could you do that in D&D, and even then you had to take a feat. Then I found Warhammer. =)
There are lots of entertaining theories about what LotR characters are what D&D class and level and why. Fun, perhaps, but also exhausting; the systems just weren’t made to contort around to fit such a different paradigm.
I think one of the great things OSH/FH has to offer is paying APs to use talents you haven’t bought. I mean, why would Gandalf throw magic pine cone grenades in one scene, but not any more? If he’s entitled to that magic, like D&D, then he’s holding back for some reason. If he has to go out of his way to use a fringe ability, that makes more sense.