ToME WikiBurbLulls: What if the town you start in changes depending on your character? Common humans and hobbits would start in Bree, Elves of all sorts in Lothlorien, with some High-Elves in Gondolin, Dunadan and Rohan Knights in Minas Anor (Seeing as Edoras is only in Theme) and so on. If this idea was accepted there would need to be a suitable town for races like Orcs and Trolls, which could be expanded into another idea that there are towns that are actively hostile against certain races.
There would be some problems with Dwarves starting in Khazad-Dum however...
MayLith: LOL!!! I was reading along, nodding and thinking, hey, sounds fun! Then I came to your line about Dwarves and burst out laughing.
OTOH, some of the bigger cities were known to have Dwarves as well as men...
BurbLulls: I may make a specific guide to where the races would start, but I'm too tired at the moment. I've noticed that the house quests would have to be altered...
- Lothlorien: To make it easier, have jackals and 1-2 wolves. Harder; have blink dogs/Hellhounds.
- Bree: Can't make it easier :). Harder, add grand master thieves and their ilk.
- Minas Anor: Have only Poltergiests to make it easier (Blinking and invisible, but they can't actually hurt you) Harder; all sorts of nasty Dreads, maybe even a Druj.
- Gondolin: Simple, tweak the dragons accordingly. Maybe even dragon worms.
- Khazad-Dum: For starting Dwarves there, have only things like Manes or Quasits. Tougher... you're kidding, right?
Also, Dwarves starting there could have an exclusive exit out to the right of the Misty Mountains.
MayLith: (Going along with it...) But only if, say, you were a Human and started in Bree. The Lothlorien house quest should be the same one as it is currently. Etc. Otherwise all the house quests are pathetically easy. Also, Dwarves would have a very high mortality rate, since if they take the stairs instead of exiting the mountains, they wind up having brunch with Durin's Bane....
BurbLulls: Moria has a level restriction on it, doesn't it? In retrospect, I think that once through Moria all characters should have an easy way in and out of Khazad-Dum. The tricksy where-to-recall issue for not having to trudge through Moria again backwards isn't so much a challenge as a chore.
kfoelsch: I like this idea 
One of the reasons I like Theme is that there are more towns around... perhaps this could be an excuse to add a few more?
NeilStevens: This was the kind of I had in mind for Arda: bigger map, more towns, more town diversity, more racial diversity. Starting dwarves in a dead town doesn't make sense to me, though. I was going to start them in the Iron Hills.
MayLith: That's vaguely near Laketown, right? That's what I was trying to recall -- I remembered something about dwarves being a not-uncommon sight in Laketown since there was a fair amount of trade with the Iron Hills. Anyway, I like the idea of a bigger map & more diversity.
NeilStevens: Yes, the Iron Hills are north of Erebor, where Dain's people are.
RedNaga: I was thinking almost the same thing few times ago. It sound nice (as well as the suggestion to add some more towns) but wouldn't you need some more starter dungeons as well? I mean, the Bree-starters would have no problem, but others would have to do quite some wilderness travel to get to Barrow-Downs, and this may be a big problem right after starting, with little or no equipment, lights, food (or whatever). Vampires would not even get a chance to get there!
What about adding a new starter dungeon that is accessible from any town (Sewers?). It could be just 4-5 levels, just to build up enough money to be able to survive the travel, and it could either be counted as a 'secondary' dungeon (no random quests) or as a split-up from it (i.e.: level 1-5 of the main dungeon are there, level 5-10 are Barrow-Down, or any similar adjustment). It would still be a problem for vampires though...
MayLith: Sewers would work. But (again, this has been in the back of my head) why is this sounding more and more like Exile? 
NerdanelVampire: Of course, for sewers to be realistic, the town in question needs to be able to plausibly have them. Sewers make sense in places like Minas Tirith and Gondolin but not in something like Bree, Lothlórien, or Edoras.
SimonSorc: I think Khazad-Dum needs a side quest/dungeon to make a tunnel or mountain passage. It can have nasty monsters in it and maybe a unique level full of leveled orcs, but should be a one to three levels dungeon with nasties to watch for. Not a back-thru-Moria drudge.
Didn't the movie show there was an alternative to going thru moria (as I remember they were up against snow avalanches)?
BurbLulls: That's Caradhras, and I'd really like it to be a dungeon. It could be tough, but a way of getting over the mountains.
The mountain way quest dungeon could feature nasty things like needing the climb mountain ability because of the occasional spot of mountain in corridors made out of permanent walls. And the rare 1d100 ice damage from the dungeon itself to simulate avalanches instead of the constant small damage of other dungeons who damage players.
We could force the player to go thru Moria once because while Durin's bane lives the avalanches are unpassable. Being an ancient balrog unique does have a few magical perks...
In any case I'm against a map alteration unique to dwarves. What we need is either another town or an exile from Khazad-Dum backstory for dwarves.
OutoLumo: While at it, why not make towns for ents and woodeelves? In Fangorn and Northern Mirkwood, of course. For some of the dark races we could take towns from Misty Mountains (it was mentioned, that number of orcs in them had grown) and e.g. Minas Morgul... I think other places in Mordor would do as well. Also there's space to go to the east (the Easterlings)... between Southern Gondor is not empty... Places between Gondor and Arnor, places in ancient Angmar, Rivendell, Gray Havens etc. Just to speak about the Third Age...
I think what we would need more is polarizing the races world - elves vs. dwarfs (not welcome) Elves and Dunedain against Morgoth and Sauron etc. Or: gods, races and alignments opposed to each other.