Friends of Nimrodel: Tapestry of Dreams - Discussion

[mark12_30]

I've also been thinking whether we want to compress time. I lean away from this in general, but in a game where this much distance is covered I felt I should think it over. I came up with a few ideas.

The obvious one is the old "And then after a whole month had gone by, our heroes found themselves at such and such a place." I grant that sometimes this approach is very neccessary, especially for games with a tight time-limit. I suppose it'll do in a pinch... However, as a writer, I've never cared for it.

But another option would be, when we reach a section of the journey where we want to really make tracks, each writer could describe one full day of travel, as briefly or as detailed as you like. I confess I like this option a great deal.

For an extreme moment, let's imagine the game from here on out as as Amroth's entire 2000-mile journey. Let's say he *just * started out. On horseback (good old Echo!) and guessing 25 miles/ day, that averages out to 80 days, or a little under three months real-time.

Amroth is combing river banks and searching hard, whereas Ravion's group is just trying to find Mellon-Amroth. So even if they are on foot, they can take certain short-cuts. And they may not be on foot for very long depending on the generosity of Rohan's East Emnet.

Gondor games have no set time limit. If we want to, we can cover the entire 2000-mile journey, both groups, in hour-by-hour detail, and take as long as we want to do it. That's up to us as a team. We can stretch this out for nine months if we want to. (Yes, once I was in a game from February to November. And I was the short-timer rookie in that game. Others were in it for much longer.)

I say all this mostly because the idea of a game that went on forever was stressing me out! But if we shoot for a day per day (so to speak) we're still looking at about three months from now. If we want more detail, fine. But we've got other options than the "disappearing month syndrome."

Thoughts and comments?

[Imladris]

Hmm...travel is such a bother. I'm not really sure if there is a good way to do it.

For an extreme moment, let's imagine the game from here on out as as Amroth's entire 2000-mile journey. Let's say he *just * started out. On horseback (good old Echo!) and guessing 25 miles/ day, that averages out to 80 days, or a little under three months real-time.

Does that mean a day of travel corresponds with a day of real time? If so (and I could be misunderstanding you), wouldn't that be a little tedious?

Wouldn't it be easier if we kept the the time hazy and not go into detail about it? Or would that not be up to Gondorian quality of games? I could be wrong here (it's been awhile since I've read LotR), but wasn't Tolkien himself kind of hazy about the travel time and how long it took them to get place to place?

That's my inexpert opinion at least.

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by Imladris

Does that mean a day of travel corresponds with a day of real time? If so (and I could be misunderstanding you), wouldn't that be a little tedious?

Certainly, if we made it a law and beat each other up about it, it would be awful. (Bleah!!) However, we could just use it as a heplful rule of thumb to guess how long the game will take (For instance, "Gee, we seem to be taking about three writing days to write one game-day, this could end up taking nine months!")

Wouldn't it be easier if we kept the the time hazy and not go into detail about it? Or would that not be up to Gondorian quality of games?

If the time gets TOO hazy, then That actually makes things harder in a complex game. We've always had a calendar-keeper (in our long game it was Pio) who kept us all sane and on-track.

I could be wrong here (it's been awhile since I've read LotR), but wasn't Tolkien himself kind of hazy about the travel time and how long it took them to get place to place?

If you check out the appendices (The Tlae Of Years) he was *incredibly * specific. He kept track of things like the phases of the moon, and where Aragorn was in Rohan while Sam and Frodo were in Ithilien. He made sure that all the various characters in all the different places were matched up and in sync. So he was actually quite "fanatical" about the times. He had to be; he had to have the Morannon battle at the same time as the destruction of the Ring. He timed it down to hours, and in the end, minutes.

It'll be easier for us, though, because we're going to meet up before the end...

(edit) The other reason to be careful about travel time is simple credibility. You avoid making mistakes like, "The wondrously athletic elf-maiden swam upriver all night long and finally reached the source of the river by dawn..." But oh by the way, THAT river is over 150 miles long from spring to ocean. So-- swimming upriver, she would get there before Shadowfax travelling on land? Hard to imagine and harder to believe.

[mark12_30]

Blessed Good Friday and Happy Easter, everyone!

Just a quick clarification for tonight, and tomorrow I'll try to detail a timeline:

Ravion was in Rohan, and heard that the crazy blacksmith had gone north alone and on foot. Then he headed to Minas Tirith. Between the time he heard about Mellon-Amroth's departure from Edoras, and telling Mellonin about it, a full week went by.

Ravion sets out from Minas Tirith a full week after Mellon-Amroth sets out from Edoras. So Mellon-Amroth has a week's head start on Ravion.

However, right now, Ravion is one day away from Minas Tirith, and Mellon-Amroth is two or three days away from Edoras. So the journey is uneven, timewise.

Tomorrow morning I will make a timeline that corresponds to the map I drew. Don't let that stop you from posting! Just keep travelling for now; we're not about to meet up anyway. That'll be a bit further on down the road. So we can still have plenty of character interaction as we eat up the days.

Since today was Good Friday I saw "Passion" again. Tomorrow's the first day of fishing season, so my husband will be out near the water. I'll be watching ROTK with a friend.

Happy Easter!

Grace and peace, --mark12_30

[Nurumaiel]

Lovely, lovely, littlemanpoet! You've given Liornung the perfect opportunity to talk about his family, the pride of his life, dearer to him than his fiddle. I will be rather busy as can be imagined until about Tuesday, so if I can't come up with something before the game moves on I'm sure you'd have no objection if I PMed my post to you when it's done and you can put it below yours?

Have a lovely and blessed Easter, everyone!

[littlemanpoet]

I can do that, most certainly, Nurumaiel.

After I posted that up, I noticed my unintentional rhyme within Ædegard's own dialogue. I decided to leave it in as an interior joke. Enjoy my embarrassment!

[mark12_30]

Imladris, Aylwen & lmp: great posts!

Sorry I have yet to post a timeline. Busier day than I had planned.

Roughly:
The game begins in the late Autumn/ Early winter. Mellon dreams of Nimrodel, and Amroth's dreams and purpose take over, and he heads Northwest, but veers west and ends up at Edoras about two weeks after he left Minas Tirith. At Edoras he grows feverish and convalesces several days.

Four days after Mellondu disappears, Mellonin begins work at the Seventh Star. (She is joined by Raefindan during her first couple of days.) She is there a week and a half, and then she also takes fever and is sick, dreaming deliriously, for the same three days.

Mellonin and Mellondu recover at the same time, and Mellon-Amroth heads north from Edoras. Ravion departs from Rohan for Minas Tirith. Mellon-Amroth walks a day and sleeps one night before Ædegard, Liornung and Bellyn catch up to him.

A week later Ravion arrives in Minas Tirith, speaks with Mellonin, and they leave that night. (No rest for Ravion!)

Now, should we use a Middle-Earth months, or January, Feburary, etc? Personally, since Tolkien translated LOTR into English months, I have no problem using them, and I think it would be easier on all of us to do so. If anyone is passionate about using the elvish months, let me know & I'll edit the timeline to indicate that.

So let's say Mellondu disappeared in late November; how about Nov 21.

Here's a start on the timeline:

Nov 21: Mellondu disappears from Minas Tirith.
Nov 24: Mellonin hired on at the Seventh Star.
Dec 5: Mellonin and Mellondu both sick of a fever, & dreaming.
Dec 8: they recover. Mellon-Amroth walks northward from Edoras.
Dec 9: Ædegard, Bellyn, Liornung catch up with Mellon-Amroth. Ravion departs for Minas Tirith.

Right now, writers' time, Ædegard's Rohan group is on Dec 10 or 11: current time frame for Ædegard, Mellon-Amroth, Liornung, Bellyn. This team can post and travel with abandon, since Ravion is already pushing Dec 17.


Dec 15: Ravion arrives in Minas Tirith.
Dec 16: Ravion awakens with hangover, & speaks with Mellonin. They depart that evening. Mellon-Amroth arrives where the Nimrodel meets the edge of Lorien and is met there by Erebemlin.


Dec 17th: Ravion's group is heading northward for Rohan, a bit westward from the Anduin.

Once Ædegard's group catches up to Ravion's group on Game-Time Dec 17, they will have arrived at Lorien, met Erebemlin, and be heading southward along the Anduin. I'm imagining that Ravion will catch Mellon-Amroth's trail, or rumor of their passing, in the East Emnet at or above the Sarn Gebir. (See map.)

At this point, Ravion's troop needs horses or boats or something. If they travel on foot, the horses of Rohan will leave them far behind!
...More to follow later.

[mark12_30]

...and I hope you feel better very soon. Get some sleep...?