[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Firefoot

I guess I don't really understand the push for a large time jump. I've been thinking about it quite a lot the last couple days and I feel like I could do three years. My biggest problem is with Scyld's development (and if I'm honest, the way his relationship was progressing with Rowenna) - that's something that's not going to remain stagnant for an incredibly lengthy amount of time, but I also can't write that development independently since it depends on another character's writer. To get to three years, I'm probably going to write in that he left for a while (and I have an idea to work that in), but five years is a long time. In some ways at least I think Scyld is on his way to being a very different person but I can't just gloss over that and skip to the end without it feeling totally contrived.

I think it's what G55 said, the "new" characters who had just acquired their personality, or characters who are already fairly established and are not currently growing, would benefit from longer time jump simply because it gives the chance to go fresher with them. It's like Bilbo Baggins has been introduced in the first chapter, then it's nice skipping over the trek through the Shire, Bree and most of the wilderness until we reach the trolls, because there isn't really much room for development. Obviously, the problem being that not everyone is on the same boat and just when we last left off, there were a few plots going on at the moment, involving basically three or four characters, one of which being Scyld, so it's logical from your perspective, it would even be logical to continue just at the very day we left off. And exactly, the same with others who are not present - the main problem I see with any longer time jumps is that there might be players who would like to continue writing their characters as they are, because there is material for growth here and now (although again, often upon thinking about it, a time-jump could serve better).

As a side note to the time jump, although I would not personally submit "creative license" to "realism", it would be more realistic if more shifting of lords didn't occur too quickly after each other (already we had the unusual case of Athanar being appointed to replace Eodwine, and then suddenly in a matter of weeks upon Eodwine's unexpected recovery the shift occuring again).

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

And Athanar leaving would create the same situation as Athanar coming, but in reverse, and potentially stir old grudges, but this time I think the grudges would be mild and brief, because 1) Athanar leaves in honour at the request of King Eomer to see to another challenging task, he's not just dismissed, 2) Athanar's men saw Eodwine in action and know he's a worthy man, 3) the two households have had time to begin respecting each other and cooperating, and they are above open quarrels for the most part, and 4) bringing up the old tensions is like chewing cud - it's boring to rehash the same story.

Yep, I think we should stay away from the "old lord/new lord/old people/new people" grudges and not touch them even with a ten-foot pole, only occassionally if it really sounded like it might be fun and there's a good reason for it. Heck, I even thought we technically got over it already in the game itself - the stuff was essentially getting settled, as far as I am concerned. And after several years of living together, I think we could more or less gloss over it.

Originally Posted by G55

I vote for open rebellion. Maybe even a justified rebellion - overall wrong, but not without cause. Maybe some of the lords would feel rightfully wronged by the eorl(s) or by their men, or there is some misunderstanding that ends in tragedy. That way they aren't just jerks either, and they may have the support of some of their people (otherwise the rebellion wouldn't be sustained unless they hired brigands or something). Thoughts?

Not an uninteresting idea, the question would exactly be how and why. Currently I don't have any ideas, but I'll think about it. Side note - I would not like, however, this to turn into a "war RPG" - I haven't been in Scarburg that long, but it always seemed to me rather on the peaceful side, and certainly I'd prefer it to be more like drama than to turn it into "Eodwine slashed the first soldier, then the second, then he killed four Orcs. Next post: Sixteen new orcs arrived and attacked him."

Originally Posted by G55

Another alternative drama could be the disappearance of some man/men. Just plain old disappearance. No one knows what happened or where they went. We may or may not know what happened or where they went. And that could lead to search parties and unwanted discoveries of... I dunno. Things.

Same as above. Sounds good, but whereas I like the "not knowing and planning on-the-go" part, I am very, very, very well aware of the pitfalls of that, because that easily turns to be "um... yeah... we've been writing for fifteen pages, searched the whole Rohan, and still have no idea what happened in the first place". I'd be for it, but we probably should have at least some idea, not necessarily even who or what did "it", but at least what we're trying to accomplish by that.

Originally Posted by G55

I've reread the last 3-4 pages of the thread, and there are a few notable subplots/details that I think deserve attention. Firstly, there is stuff brewing between Ginna and Harreld. Are they now happily married? What did her father say?

I think this is most of all the issue of their respective players. I think that's one thing we should figure out anyway (regardless of how far we timejump, even if we didn't timejump at all), try to check with players of previous characters, if they are still interested, if they have any vision for them, if we should rather quietly move them out of sight for the time being (exactly - "Ginna and Harreld settled for a time on a small farm nearby...") if the player isn't planning on returning now, just in case we don't do something they wouldn't consent to in case they wanted to come back later ("Ginna and Harreld both died in the terrible plague last winter - oops").

Originally Posted by G55

Then there is the dead body, which Rowenna and Scyld (well mostly Rowenna) decided to investigate. I can't see how this plot line can be suddenly reopened again after several years. Either we drop it or we flashback-narrate it.

Unless it somehow was never solved, swept under the rug, whatever, and it might serve as starting point for some later cases (e.g. the sudden disappearances [TM] - it will be revealed that it was the work of evil Sméagol, who has been lurking around and kidnapping poor villagers ever since, until he finally became too bold for his own good, kidnapped a few of people straight from the Mead Hall at once, and that started our new pursuit!). To be honest, I have no idea what it was supposed to be to begin with - Firefoot? Was there a specific idea behind that?

Anyway, generally speaking, to me, it really doesn't matter how long time jump we make. But I don't have anything against making it longer rather than shorter. Three years is decent already, in any case. But could be much more or even less.

Of course - random thought at the end - we could jump just a little ahead (a few years) and into the "Fell Winter" idea of Nogrod's with people dying left and right (happy, Ms. Plaguebearer?), and do something there. I think the main point of time-jump is though that there should be some time between Eodwine arriving and Athanar leaving, and between Athanar leaving and our start (at least some time so that the new routine has been established).