Moria Forgotten

[Tessar]

Wondering if there would be any interest in an RPG set forward in Middle Earth history. We would jump forward to a setting somewhat similar to Industrial Revolution (Think Legend of Korra) with pistols and some technology (basic telephone, simple motor cars, etc.)

I'd need to do some digging to figure out historically how far forward we would jump, but the idea being that things have leveled out somewhat... Hobbits/Dwarves are much more human-like now with very few throwbacks to their ancient heritage, elves are all gone, most of the history of the rings is considered the way we would think about The Odyssey or Iliad... too far fetched and fantastic to be entirely real.

A company wants to start mining in Moria, which has been largely forgotten from history (and most of that is considered myth). The remaining evil in Moria has dug deep in, so most thrill seekers who try to climb the mountain or who somehow enter the mountain are unhurt and never see a thing... anyone who does see something and lives to tell is dismissed as a lunatic. But a deeper exploration would unearth something much darker...

I think a lot of character types could be used here. We could even have historians and museum curator types coming along to explore for artifacts, paying to tag along with the company, we could have police/military types as hired security, miners as subject experts, administrative office types sent to keep an eye on things... I see lots of possibilities.

Any thoughts?