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Hello all.
I would love some thoughts and feedback on this one.
So I've just begun rereading Lord of the Rings after many years and, unsurprisingly, have got immediately stuck back into Mythgard and Corey Olsen and all things Middle Earth. I am also a tabletop rpg player but have only played a Star Wars game and DnD. Neither of which properly scratch my storytelling itch. They are fun but not worlds I truly want to explore.
If I ever do run a game of my own, I would set it in Middle Earth with players who get the feel of Tolkien's world and want to approach characterisation and world building with those sensibilities.
Anyway, enough preamble. What I am saying is this. I did some research. And I found year within the history of Middle Earth which I feel has some huge dramatic story-telling set pieces while at the same time all setting up lots of familiar elements of the books that even a passing film fan would recognise and could thus engage with.
I am not necessarily in any position to run this game soon. In fact, the reason I am not committing this as a long fan-fic project is just a lack of time.
However, I've come up with a set-up pitch that would drop players into the world and the narrative starting point.
I would love to know all your thoughts on a few things, largely about whether it matches up to what we know of Tolkien's world.
a.) Is the timeline correct?
b.) Does anything characteristically feel off?
c.) Is it interesting? Much like SilmFilm, I also want to prioritise good storytelling, without being bogged down by whether these events have literally been mentioned, rather COULD they happen. Do they make sense within the world we know.
d.) Is there anything happening in Middle Earth at this time which I’ve not included but you feel I should?
Without further ado, here is the set up for what I would call The Long Winter.
As I say, thoughts and general feedback are very welcome.
I would love some thoughts and feedback on this one.
So I've just begun rereading Lord of the Rings after many years and, unsurprisingly, have got immediately stuck back into Mythgard and Corey Olsen and all things Middle Earth. I am also a tabletop rpg player but have only played a Star Wars game and DnD. Neither of which properly scratch my storytelling itch. They are fun but not worlds I truly want to explore.
If I ever do run a game of my own, I would set it in Middle Earth with players who get the feel of Tolkien's world and want to approach characterisation and world building with those sensibilities.
Anyway, enough preamble. What I am saying is this. I did some research. And I found year within the history of Middle Earth which I feel has some huge dramatic story-telling set pieces while at the same time all setting up lots of familiar elements of the books that even a passing film fan would recognise and could thus engage with.
I am not necessarily in any position to run this game soon. In fact, the reason I am not committing this as a long fan-fic project is just a lack of time.
However, I've come up with a set-up pitch that would drop players into the world and the narrative starting point.
I would love to know all your thoughts on a few things, largely about whether it matches up to what we know of Tolkien's world.
a.) Is the timeline correct?
b.) Does anything characteristically feel off?
c.) Is it interesting? Much like SilmFilm, I also want to prioritise good storytelling, without being bogged down by whether these events have literally been mentioned, rather COULD they happen. Do they make sense within the world we know.
d.) Is there anything happening in Middle Earth at this time which I’ve not included but you feel I should?
Without further ado, here is the set up for what I would call The Long Winter.
It is the year of the Third Age of Middle Earth, 2759.
Two hundred years before, the kingdom of Rohan was established and an oath sworn between it and the kingdom of Gondor that they should ever come to the aid of the other, if need arise.
Eleven years ago, goblin invaders entered the Shire but were defeated and driven back by the mighty Bullroarer Took. This is the only known battle to have ever taken place in the Shire.
Five years ago, Freca, king of Dunland, rode to Rohan with his men to intimidate Rohan’s king Helm Hammerhand into forcing a marriage between Freca’s own son, Wulf, and Helm’s daughter. In response, Helm mocked Freca before killing him with a single blow of his fist, forcing Wulf and the rest of the Dunlendings to flee back to their lands.
Last year, Wulf returned to Rohan in force. His forces drove the Rohirrim to take refuge in the mountain fortress of the Hornburg, placing himself upon the throne at Edoras as the new king of Rohan. His forces continue to beseige the Hornburg and the vanquished king within.
At that time, the slavers of Umbar have united with their kinsmen in Harad and Wulf of Dunland in a combind assault upon the Southern Kingdoms. Corsair ships hailing from Umbar have assaulted Gondor along its coasts, their attacks making it as far North as the mouth of the River Isen. They intend to travel upstream and attack Gondor from the North, via the fortified position of Isengard. King Beren of Gondor has commissioned his son, the valiant captain Beregond, with driving off the invaders.
With both kingdoms under attack, neither can turn to the other for help. However, in Gondor’s capital of Minas Tirith, the wizard Saruman has been deep in study of history and lore; his purposes known only to himself. Now however, Gondor may truly have call for his aid. Only then, with their own enemies vanquished, have they any hope of answering the horns of Rohan.
In the Wilderland, there are rumours of an old man, stooped and hooded in white, wandering abroad. Whispers of his passing are spoken of in Bree and many ask what dark purposes he holds and what it is he seeks.
They also tell tall tales of the creeping shadow of Mirkwood to the East, though few of them have ever been so far. There is darkness that way, and none dare cross over the Misty Mountains for fear of the rumoured priest-king Azog and other terrors that dwell within.
Across the lands, the Long Winter has fallen. From the far North all the way down to Rohan itself, all has been covered in ice and snow. In the Easterfathering of the Shire, the Brandywine shows signs of freezing over. Should that happen, who knows what may cross their borders out of the wilds beyond.
As the blight continues, resources run low. It won’t be long before the grain stores are bare, the pantries are barren and every barrel at the Green Dragon is drunk dry.
In the Westfarthing, the Thain is dead.
The head of the Took clan holds little true power in practice but in law forms part of the governance of the Shire.
When a Thain dies, Thainship passes to son. Isumbras II had two. The elder, and his inheritor, Ferumbras, was a quiet hobbit of little reknown, ever eclipsed by the shadow of his younger brother: the hero of the Battle of Gladden Fields, one Bandobras ‘Bullroarer’ Took.
There has never been a murder in the Shire. As such, there is no need for law enforcement. The Watch itself consists only of the Bounders, who keep a close eye on visiting Outsiders, and twelve Shirrifs to cover all three Farthings; a part time occupation that requires little more than a literal feather in one’s cap and spending time dealing with wayward beasts.
But there is something untoward about the way in which old Isumbras was found. Something that, to any Outsider perhaps, may appear to be signs of a struggle. Suspicious, some might say.
The Mayor of Michel Delving has ordered that the First Shirrif keep the matter quiet, but the three hobbit shirrifs of the Westfarthing have now been tasked with getting to the bottom of it.
All the while, the world beyond their borders rages, shadows creep ever nearer and the Long Winter draws on.
Two hundred years before, the kingdom of Rohan was established and an oath sworn between it and the kingdom of Gondor that they should ever come to the aid of the other, if need arise.
Eleven years ago, goblin invaders entered the Shire but were defeated and driven back by the mighty Bullroarer Took. This is the only known battle to have ever taken place in the Shire.
Five years ago, Freca, king of Dunland, rode to Rohan with his men to intimidate Rohan’s king Helm Hammerhand into forcing a marriage between Freca’s own son, Wulf, and Helm’s daughter. In response, Helm mocked Freca before killing him with a single blow of his fist, forcing Wulf and the rest of the Dunlendings to flee back to their lands.
Last year, Wulf returned to Rohan in force. His forces drove the Rohirrim to take refuge in the mountain fortress of the Hornburg, placing himself upon the throne at Edoras as the new king of Rohan. His forces continue to beseige the Hornburg and the vanquished king within.
At that time, the slavers of Umbar have united with their kinsmen in Harad and Wulf of Dunland in a combind assault upon the Southern Kingdoms. Corsair ships hailing from Umbar have assaulted Gondor along its coasts, their attacks making it as far North as the mouth of the River Isen. They intend to travel upstream and attack Gondor from the North, via the fortified position of Isengard. King Beren of Gondor has commissioned his son, the valiant captain Beregond, with driving off the invaders.
With both kingdoms under attack, neither can turn to the other for help. However, in Gondor’s capital of Minas Tirith, the wizard Saruman has been deep in study of history and lore; his purposes known only to himself. Now however, Gondor may truly have call for his aid. Only then, with their own enemies vanquished, have they any hope of answering the horns of Rohan.
In the Wilderland, there are rumours of an old man, stooped and hooded in white, wandering abroad. Whispers of his passing are spoken of in Bree and many ask what dark purposes he holds and what it is he seeks.
They also tell tall tales of the creeping shadow of Mirkwood to the East, though few of them have ever been so far. There is darkness that way, and none dare cross over the Misty Mountains for fear of the rumoured priest-king Azog and other terrors that dwell within.
Across the lands, the Long Winter has fallen. From the far North all the way down to Rohan itself, all has been covered in ice and snow. In the Easterfathering of the Shire, the Brandywine shows signs of freezing over. Should that happen, who knows what may cross their borders out of the wilds beyond.
As the blight continues, resources run low. It won’t be long before the grain stores are bare, the pantries are barren and every barrel at the Green Dragon is drunk dry.
In the Westfarthing, the Thain is dead.
The head of the Took clan holds little true power in practice but in law forms part of the governance of the Shire.
When a Thain dies, Thainship passes to son. Isumbras II had two. The elder, and his inheritor, Ferumbras, was a quiet hobbit of little reknown, ever eclipsed by the shadow of his younger brother: the hero of the Battle of Gladden Fields, one Bandobras ‘Bullroarer’ Took.
There has never been a murder in the Shire. As such, there is no need for law enforcement. The Watch itself consists only of the Bounders, who keep a close eye on visiting Outsiders, and twelve Shirrifs to cover all three Farthings; a part time occupation that requires little more than a literal feather in one’s cap and spending time dealing with wayward beasts.
But there is something untoward about the way in which old Isumbras was found. Something that, to any Outsider perhaps, may appear to be signs of a struggle. Suspicious, some might say.
The Mayor of Michel Delving has ordered that the First Shirrif keep the matter quiet, but the three hobbit shirrifs of the Westfarthing have now been tasked with getting to the bottom of it.
All the while, the world beyond their borders rages, shadows creep ever nearer and the Long Winter draws on.
As I say, thoughts and general feedback are very welcome.
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