Tara, Annun, Pio,
First, regarding the bandits....I hacked a version of this post out early this morning, went away to work and had serious second thoughts by the time I returned. So I am going to re-edit and repost.
BTW, whatever course we chose, I don't see these outlaws as professional "soldiers"---rather they are ordinary folk gone bad under the press of circumstances and because of their own poor choices. However, in a time when danger lurks around every corner, even ordinary villagers who live close to the earth, at least the adult men, would know how to wield a bow and some sort of weapon for hand-to-hand combat.
Here are two broad ways of approaching the bandits. We can choose one of these, or make up some variant on it. Let me also say that my personal preference is Door #2. It is more believable to me and also more interesting.
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Door #1: This version totally eliminates the women and children.
When the villages were destroyed, virtually all of the women and children were massacred in their sleep. The only ones to escape were those men who'd been out on some kind of large-scale organized hunting parties, the strongest and best fighters in the community. They return to the village to find it destroyed and their kin dead.
(I don't put it past the Witch-king to time his attack to coincide with a time when those who could defend the villages were absent.)
They are now heading west on a rampage and are living as outlaws, both by necessity and choice.
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Door #2: This version focuses on a small advance party made up of 8-10 scouts, but the larger migration group does include women and children.
This came to mind after reading Pio's suggestion on the fire:
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The 'desperados', the displaced men from the far north and east of Bree can be situated in the Weather Hills and possibly have sent out a small group to see how the pickings were in Bree-land and how easy it might be to get into the town of Bree itself. They can have a small camp in the wooded area that the children go to, from which they are trying to determine how easy it would be to get in the North Gate.
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I think we can apply this more broadly to the entire RPG and not just the fire scene.
After the villages were wiped out by the Hillmen and Orcs (with many residents slaughtered), the remaining population began to migrate westward. So there would have been some women and children in this larger group as well as men and skilled fighters. This large group would be camped out in the Weather Hills. Gradually, more and more refugees who'd been driven will join up with them, filtering in with small bands. They will have a maximum of maybe 200 people. (Is this too large?)
This development will not figure directly in our story. It will simply be established as fact in the first post by Tara.
These displaced villagers in the Weather Hills have sent out an advance posse to scout the land and see what might be feasible. This would be the group of men we are dealing with through most of the story: the advance posse. They are the better fighters and leaders, but definitely not "professional" warriors. Some have families that have been murdered, while others do have wife or children back in the main encampment near Weathertop waiting for them. Tara's character is the leader of this band.
The advance posse of men is at first split on the advisability of attacking Bree, and whether the main goal of their attack is to loot and gather wealth, or to take over the town physically. Perhaps, they make those decisions in the course of the story.
They will definitely decide to attack and must then call back and tell the large group to come forward on the road. This is why there is a delay since a small party of 7-8 men could obviously not launch an attack.
It will take several weeks for the scouts to make their recommendation. Then it would take at least a week for 200 people to get ready to leave. Another week on the road to get close to Bree (Many are on foot.) Finally, some time to train and organize their attack. This would easily accomodate 5 weeks of game time.
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A third option is possible: having the entire party camped not too far from Bree, including women and children. I rejected this as being less believable and too complicated.
The Breelanders will find it hard to track down 8 scouts even if they try. A part of 200 people (or even 60-100) can not escape detection. Plus it's too much action to cover in just 9-10 weeks.
What do people think of Door #2? Do you think 200 outlaw refugees is too many (or too few)? Is occupation a realistic objective or should the outlaws confine themselves to looting and pillage.
At the time of LotR, Bree had 100 houses. It was probably larger in 1305. Maybe 150 buildings?
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Concerning Bree's defenses.
There was no wall--just a hedge and dyke and two gates (north and south). I'll need to look at the proposal and see how I worded that. The hedge and dike were both broken down. Presumably parts of the hedge had died with the drought so only brown limbs are left in sections with no life.
Ahem.....I know this can happen. It happened to my own hedge in front of my house.
(BTW, how do you "repair" a hedge????) I guess the main thing would be to dig the ditch deeper and reinforce the three gates, perhaps put up a temporary board or two as an obstruction where the hedge had collapsed??? Perhaps even throw their trash out there and such. The kids would love a job like that!
Note: Pio, we cross posted. I like the interlaced tree branches. I also like the trash. They actually did this kind of things in the street barracades in France during its myriad of revolutions and door-to-door fighting.
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Annun, Pio,
The fire scene sounds fine. We'll need to play this out in the story line itself.
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I'll try to get up a revised outline later today so we can see where we are.
Cami
[ August 28, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]