Friends of Nimrodel: Tapestry of Dreams - Discussion

[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.