[Amanaduial the archer]

All of this talk makes me realize one very important thing…this game, if many of the things I discussed become realities in this, most likely is going to take more time than I originally predicted, and thus more commitment. I don’t want to ask that of people unless they really want to commit so much of their time

Nonsense. As much time as you like from this corner, darlin', so long as you can put up with me.

Ok, I had plans basically to carry on what you started from the PM/email discussion Durelin and I had, as I'd like to enhance a few ideas, add a few new ones and just lay them all out, as a chance for everyone to see and comment, but not sure how far I'm gonna get on this because it's kinda late and I have church tomorrow. But then, never having been one to shy away from a bad idea...

I agree, Durelin - it's probably better that Elrond and Celebrimbor are NPCs - too much historical weightiness, major Tolkien characters, etc etc etc. However, they are important characters, and so the possibility is opened up that, instead of directly playing the characters themselves, players could take the roles of fictional characters close to the characters - friends, advisors etc - so several different players get the chance to carry-along and, to an extent, 'play' Celebrimbor and Elrond - for example, as Durelin said, a few of the elves could be part of Celebrimbor's. It means he becomes an active part of the game, and therefore his importance is emphasised.

Also along the lines of emphasising Celebrimbor's importance and the importance of the Elven ringsespecially - bearing in mind the whole game is based on him, this is probably going to be a rather important device in the game (I'm sorry if that's the wrong word for it, I'm rather tired, not that that's an excuse particularly). So onto how to do this: the idea of 'setting the scene' so to speak that Durelin mentioned is one that I like. An idea would be to have an introduction style passage about the forging of the rings, and then skip to the buildup to the invasion of Eregion, beginning (?) with the hiding of the rings - you know, go for the whole darkness and mystery as a start, it could be a rather intriguing start. And then build up to the invasion and then so on. It would just get us off to a rather flying start and make the RPG altogether a bit different. Thoughts? (And Durelin, I love the way you phrased that - "rather than him simply starting out in the RPG as simply some elf who, basically, made Sauron angry." )

However, I would say that we should probably get to the seige fairly sharpish after the initial, I don't know, call it the 'introductory period' of the ring-forging and the character responses to it (like that idea very much btw, Durelin) - the seige is really going to be the main beef of the game, it would seem, so the two options would be to have it as a real climax or to have it as the main bulk of the whole game - so that depends really on how long we spend on how long is spent on the introductory period. I would favour having a relatively short introductory period, so that the action is fairly quickly reached. But it does really allow us to be more exploratory plot-wise, and so I think it would be very important - so hey, extending it is no bad thing. What do you think?

However...during the seige period, the seige will probably not be the only thing going on - how about two or maybe more stories going on at once? Elrond's elves and the elves of Eriador could both be played seperately but at once. This idea of having two or more lines going on at once in one RPG has possible advantages and, of course, possible risks, but on the positive side, it means that when Elrond's elves finally do arrive at Eriador, it reaches a real climax in the game because all the characters suddenly come together - this could work very well. Having two games means having more characters, of course, and this could affect the length of the game again, which may be a problem for some people...

Another pointer on characters which I kinda ran past Durelin - the idea of having other 'perspectives' i.e. other than soldiers. This is a city: so maybe we could have other roles being played, such as a female elf/elves and/or a younger/non-fighting character. It just opens up to give more variety to the game by introducing someone who is not directly fighting but who is, of course, directly affected by it.

Um. Yes. Anyway. I feel my sense-making...thing...brain! Yes, that's it! I feel that my brain is having issues processing in any sensible fashion any more with such lo-ong paragraphs, so I shall sign off. All feedback on aforementioned ideas is...good...

Oh, and Durelin - about telling me to stop apologising...it's a RL habit that kinda seeps into the Internet as well. It's kinda an inferiority complex, mainly borne of being inferior. Which is, you know, fun. *shrugs*