Well,
Imladris, my friend, I guess we will have to agree to disagree!
I'm going to commit a bit of heresy here... While it is well known that Prof. Tolkein wrote LotR,
et al, as a mythology for England, the fact is that it is not the mythology for England. The mythology for England has been lost. Prof. Tolkein's work, while being of exceptional quality and detail, is a relatively contemporary work of fiction that finds its roots in the folkloric traditions of Scandinavia and to a much smaller degree, Russia. As a product of 20th Century England, Tolkein had hundreds of years of European history to draw upon and, as I have noted farther up in the thread, made liberal use of it, hence creating the time-warp effect that made me open this thread to begin with.
Let me reiterate, though - I am not calling you lazy! All I was trying to say is that detail is useful for bringing life to a story. Honestly, I do understand the thoughts you are trying to express here. I just don't happen to agree with them. And you don't happen to agree with me. That's fine! As long as we can agree to that much, we can both go away happy and get a good night's sleep, eh?
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Bethberry -
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I don't really see any reason why there has to be one definitive form of, say, Middle-earth ship, or wagon, or sword, or armament. What is important is consistency within each game, but I don't think we have to say that all games need to use the same terms of reference for styles.
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Oh, I agree with you completely there! As I said above, it was never my intention to try to create a definitive list of what is and is not used by the folks in Middle Earth. My original purpose in opening this thread was that I had noticed the wide cultural differences that exist between the various regions of Middle Earth, everything from the "modern" Edwardian-style Shire, to the more Iron Age feel of the Mark, and was wondering how other folks had responded to this over the course of their readings. From there, it occurred to me that perhaps the element tying the different "ages" together into the coherent whole of Third Age Middle Earth was the fact that they all shared a common level of technology. I still believe that in a rather nebulous sort of way and am still seeking to define to my own satisfaction what exactly that level of technology may be within Tolkein's work.
As far as RPG's go, I also agree completely with your statement:
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the defining issue is "does this inspire in me a sense of the values which Middle-earth represents?" If no, why not and how can that be accomodated? If yes, then, what is it that creates such a sense? Sometimes it might be the writer's skill at evoking in the reader's mind an idea; sometimes it might be the writer's skill at taking one aspect of Tolkien and extrapolating it; sometimes it might be the writer's skill at catching the very flavour and tone of Tolkien's world.
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But ...hmmm.... a U-boat RPG? Sounds like fun!
