Bartlebad

This is the exact same thing they’ve done for the past couple editions, so Legends as a thing isn’t new. I see this more as, hey, these models are old as hell, aren’t made anymore and we don’t want to spend time making sure they’re balanced for tournament play, so here’s rules for you to play them in casual/Crusade games, have fun.

If you’re looking for something in the same vein as Dwarf Fortress, there’s Rimworld. It’s the game I hit 1000 hrs played the fastest, thanks to the ridiculous amount of mods available on the workshop.

Return to Moria does look interesting. I’ll be watching to see how it shapes up.

Agree on stealthy Gollum gameplay possibly being interesting in another game. It just doesn’t feel like a strong enough premise to shoulder an entire game. Let alone one with a $50 price tag.

LotR: Gollum was a bad step towards this, but we’ll see how the new Magic: the Gathering set coming out in the next week does to push this along. One thing that they’re lacking in the world of tabletop is a strong RPG presence. There’s a new one that JUST came out last month, but I’ve not heard much demand (if any at all) for it, and I run a decent sized FLGS in SoCal.