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Old 08-24-2003, 12:34 PM   #29
piosenniel
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Sting

A. Initial period of growing distrust and suspicion. (3 weeks real time)

1. Rangers bring notice about the bandits and the meeting: folk give their initial reactions in their first posts.

2. Conduct of the meeting: Acrimony, argument and inability to agree on anything; Evidence of discord even among the Rangers.

3. Andreth attempts to start an afternoon school for the children to help bridge the gap between the communities.

4. Step #3 above encounters disaster: anyone have ideas on this? There should be some sort of event which epitomizes the distrust of the two communities and shows them at their nadir.

I have a character I’m working up – 14 y/o son of one of the local pig farmers in Bree. Punky, pimply faced guy. Perhaps I can have him think of something that he and his little gang does, then switches the blame for it to the Hobbit children – pigs gone missing, or killed?!
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B. The tide slowly turns: Steps towards rapprochement. (three weeks real time)

1. Perhaps some kind of a crisis where the communities are forced to come together; Annunfuiniel's suggestion about saving the children from a fire might be a good one.

Instead of a fire in the school....how about a forest fire... ? We said there was drought. Perhaps the hobbit children run off into the woods for a holiday and the Big Children follow along in order to tease/torment them---only they all get caught behind the fire lines.

Anyone have any knowledge of fighting forest fires?

Unfortunately, at this point in history – there would be no effective method for fighting a forest fire, except to let it burn itself out, and hope for the best that it doesn’t head toward town where the bucket brigade would have to deal with it. How about a fire at an Old Mill (would have to be a wind-powered one)? The Hobbit children use the upper story as a clubhouse (pretend it’s a castle, something like that). The Big folk kids go there to harass them, sneak up the stairs, and in doing so knock over a lantern on the first floor (should be night for this) – starting a fire that traps them in the upper stories.

2. Several joint missions/projects by Big and Little Folk to prepare for the onslaught.

---spying on the bandits in their lair?

---rebuilding the dyke and wall?

---rounding up the "refugees" from outlying hobbit communities and persuading them to come inside the big fence

---anything else?

Gathering up suitable arms for all. Chance for the Big Folk here to make a gesture with offers of smaller sized bows, long knives, etc that their Hobbit compatriots can use. Hobbit smithy can be volunteered to turn out the needed arrowheads and spearheads while the Mannish smithy works on the swords and fitting of blades on the cudgels. I’m sure the players can think of more such stuff.
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C. The Successful Defense (two weeks)

I need help here! I am no expert in battles....

Let’s all plan the battle once we get nearer to it.

1. Possibly an initial scene where the bandits launch a siege attack against the town and the Breelanders defend themselves on their city walls?

There also needs to be defenses set up on the top of Bree-hill to defray any bandits from sneaking in that way. How many bandits, total, are in this party, by the way?

2. Possibly some sort of a party sneaks out of the city by night and tries to set up an ambush to encounter the bandits outside the walls?

After any bandits who try sneaking up to the top of the Hill are taken care of, The combined forces of Bree can send a contingent of armed Men and Hobbits out that same way to circle round behind the other bandits who are attempting to breech the wall.

3. Some sort of post victory celebration.

Woo hoo!!! Party!!
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Questions:

1. We need to have a few folk pushing for reconciliation even in stage A. From the profiles, it almost sounds as if the hobbit ranger would be the one on the Little Folk's side, and Andreth on the big folks.... What do others think?

Berilac would be happy to promote this, and will drag his brother in on it.

Any chance of setting up a sparring type of friendship between Andreth and the human Ranger? Their differing views might make this interesting.

This would be a good idea.

2. If the children are going to play a critical role in the school and fire scenes, how will we manage that with our characters? I am wondering if everyone who plays an adult human or hobbit should also be explicitly told to have a "secondary" child, son or daughter, to participate in these scenes? Otherwise, these posters will be sitting around and getting "bored" while the action is going on with the children.

I do think all the adults should have a carry-along child character. Not someone who has to have a fully fleshed out character bio – but just a name, age, race, and a VERY brief history of where they live, what they’ve been taught about the ‘other’ race, and what their thoughts on it are. The player’s main character can be the parent for this child, or even a couple of children if the writer wished to write for a sibling group. Does this sound doable?

So far, we have Nuru with Edmund, me with Kali, and Mausi with the rest of her children...

And you will have Willem ‘Will’ Farrowman, the 14 y/o disaffected teenager from me. That is - if you agree to him.

3. Do you think we have the right number of characters? You don't want too few....if you lose someone then, you're in big trouble. But too many is not good either....people tend to get lost in the plotline, and to feel less of a connection to the game.

I would think 3 maximum 4 each of the Big and Little Folk might be enough – considering they will also be doing carry-along child characters. That gives the game 6 to 8 players, plus all the dedicated players (Cami, Annun, Beren, Pio, Nuru) and 2 bandits. That makes 13 to 14 players if we cut down the number of Big and Little folk. What do you think?
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