General Discussion (HitC)

Hi, @emsquared,@testlum,@Sixkiller,@Joe_Blivion …

Here's where we'll discuss the game at a meta level.

The general idea I have is what's in the recruitment thread: you're simple folk of northern Enedwaith / south Hollin (the border's indefinite) and you're hearing rumors about war between the king of Enedwaith and the earl of Hollin. Meanwhile, other stuff is happening too: raiding goblins, lurking trolls, bad-mannered Southerners, bad weather, drunk and boisterous hobbits, drunk and greedy dwarves, a murder mystery, rumors of fey and somewhat scary elves, a harvest fair …

Do our characters begin play having already formed a company?

That's a great question. Let's say "YES", you know each other. So as part of making your characters, in each OTHER character's thread please mention one thing that YOUR character knows about them. This is a little bit of cooperative character-making and you're each free to MODIFY anything another player proposes that you don't like.

Here is testlum's character sheet. It's a good format for me:

Fairly simple, here's the bbcode.

Thanks. Character sheet looks good.

Could you clarify the lore behind the setting a bit more, please? When it says the setting is based off the world established in the Hobbit does that mean we are ignoring the more established Lord of the Rings history/lore and, kind of, establishing our own lore or is it a more whimsical take on the Lord of the Rings lore?

For example, Tolkien Gateway seems to portray Enedwaith as a sparsely populated wilderness.

I'm happy either way but trying to pick a background appropriate to Enedwaith/Hollin.

I quite like the Lord of the Rings Online adaptation of Enedwaith with a village of Stoor Hobbits and a dwarven settlement in the Misty Mountains to the east of the region.

The 1937 Hobbit left a lot of open space to populate by whim. I'm thinking of Enedwaith as a mostly human kingdom, kind of lower-mid-wealth, with a village or two of hobbits who emigrated the Shire, and maybe some tinker dwarfs and more skilled / wealthy dwarfs who travel to and fro with their ponies and such. And elves who wander about, too. Hollin I think of as a more hardscrabble hillfolk type of earldom, again mostly human with some dwarfs and a bit afraid of what might come out of Moria. Goblins do come out of Moria and raid, and there might be some encamped at any random time not so far from any random place in this part of the land.

@testlum,@Sixkiller,@Joe_Blivion we have the first three characters.

Keeping in mind that all of you know each other: each of you, now, please post in the others' character threads 1 thing that your character believes about their character.

We're going to begin in a village of 300 souls near the Glanduin river (the one that runs from near Moriagate westward down into the marsh by Tharbad). This is your "home" to extent that each of you has one (I'm thinking of Mimnern as particularly a wanderer). You all know each other here. One of you please name the village!

Skimming our characters, it looks like we've all likely come late to the village rather than being local.

How about Rusling?

I am all for filling the blank spots that Tolkien left, but I will say that having a whole, proper kingdom right outside the west gate of Moria is quite a significant departure that makes my head hurt a bit lol

Is it a part of your vision tibbius that it is, like... a "real" kingdom? Like with a kingly/Numenorean bloodline? (Because I feel like no kingdom would have been tolerated here that wasn't Arnorian in origin when Arnor was still around, and/but those were all supposedly wiped out by the Witch-King.) A remainder of Arnor? Or is it just kind of a kingdom-in-name-only with a self-styled "king" that is more just a wealthy person that was able to consolidate enough might to say these things, and no Numenorean blood is around to care (except the Dunedain, but they don't care for some reason either)?

Ultimately, I'm good to go along with whatever, but it's really hard to imagine a proper kingdom fitting in this "blank spot".

EDIT: Just trying to understand how I should be thinking about this place and these people.

I think of the LotR as like the Numenorean version of events that leaves out a lot of little people who didn't happen to be of the chosen race. Such as the folk of Minhiriath and Enedwaith, who are just simple hillfolk farmers, more alike in spirit to the hobbits than to the noble warriors of Gondor etc. They aren't mentioned in LotR because they don't play a part, but they still exist apart from the big events. So yes, their king and earl are "just" wealthy warriors who have gathered power over generations, by popular acclaim instead of being gods-chosen.

@emsquared … more to the point of "blank spots", they aren't canonically so in the Hobbit. Rather, they're named places with a couple of cities between them: Tharbad and Lond Daer. Further, even in the LotR there is mention of trade between these places and the Shire (along the Greenway, actually). So I hope it doesn't hurt your head too much to use these as a playground.

Cool, I like that, that helps me, thank you!

Everybody, as I look at the characters I think that as the chapter develops we have a couple of options to be pursued:

1. a murder mystery
2. a missing person

I had thought about

3. a marsh hog hunt

but that doesn't seem like a good fit for most of your characters. (It might be a quick side quest for Gunder and Jane to try out the mechanics for us all.)

What's the preferences for story? Any other ideas that interest you each?

I like emergent stories, so I'm happy to go wherever the game leads by reacting to the world. Any of the above sound fine!

Can I request that you pin the active gameplay thread, @tibbius?

Same here. Happy to follow where the narrative leads.

Seems like there's more "meat on the bones" in something like 1 or 2, but I can find something for Posco to contribute even if it's 3.

And sunce I know, when I GM, if I ask for input I appreciate receiving direct/meaningful responses, I will say that 2 seems the most natural fit for a "Tolkienesque" tale to me.

But would be excited to inhabit this world in any capacity, if the interest of others takes us elsewhere.

I think maybe we'll divert to the marsh hog hunt, with perhaps the following challenges:
• Gunder and Jane: tracking
• Posco: herbalism
• Mimnern: animal kinship
• Snori: repairing

If this seems ok, I'll work it into the narrative over the next few days. Then we'll continue to the missing person.

Ha, ya read my mind! (see the story thread)