The Fellowship of the Fourth Age (Part 1): A New Beginning Discussion Thread

[Folwren]

Hilde, Athwen is with Carl and she did address him in my last post, but I'm leaving tomorrow and will not be able to post for her again, I don't think, until Friday, so just take her back to the others when Carl returns.

Tevildo and Child, you both know that you can do whatever with Kwell. Tevildo may use him and Athwen. Athwen I don't expect too much to be done with, but if you want to, you can do something with her, I guess. But with Kwell, I expect him to be doing lots of noticeable things while he's in the clutches of these bad guys. Don't write anything for him until after tomorrow morning. The latest I'll be writing for him is about 8:00 Eastern Time, so anytime after that, he's yours - until I return Friday. Have fun with him.

And I think that's all. Have fun everybody while I'm gone.

-- Folwren

[Durelin]

Okay, so anyone can respond to Khamir’s question, as pretty much anyone in the vicinity could have heard it. Feel free to bite his head off if you’d like. (Yes, I am asking you to.)

Oh, and Child and Pio - I now know the exact dates I will be gone: August 8th - 16th. I will supposedly be returning on the 16th, but with a long flight, and a timezone changes, I doubt I'll truly be 'back.'

I will know with a little more certainty if I'll have some internet access over that absence or not in the next few days, hopefully.

[Child of the 7th Age]

Nogrod,

I wanted to get back on several questions you raised. I'm hoping my answers will be helpful not just to you but others.

First, in regard to your concerns about the character of Granny Brenna. Since I don't know the context of the discussion you had with Undómë, it's impossible to address your specific point. I would strongly urge all posters to try and hammer out such individual matters by pm. Should you not hear anything back from a poster or encounter what you feel is a problem, just let one of the game founders know and we'll try to help iron things out. It's much better to handle specific concerns about individual characters or posters by pm rather than on the general discussion thread, especially if it involves character development.

As I understand it, this is the heart of your concern:

I don't know whether you are timid on this one, or I am too careless, but I think we need to name people in the big group - at least when it seems hard to contact other actual players becaue a being-away or anything. Writing just solitary monologues is not good gaming from my point of view (in which I surely can be wrong - but I wrote so many of them in my last game being the one to join the company so much afterwards... and getting badly wounded very soon -so that was not so much an interaction).

So I was just wondering, why I am (almost) the only one to come up with these characters that are being involved in the groups but are not played by anyone? Am I just so poor writer who can't make a monologue or hasn't the patience to wait for another poster to answer a challenge / co-operation plan for a week or two?

I don't think it's your carelessness or our timidity. Rather, the whole philosophy of Downs RPGs is to give posters as much freedom as they can handle. That's especially so in Rohan, which is our intermediate forum. Yes, there are certain rules and guidelines but beyond that we encourage people to make individual decisions within those rules. Thus, if some posters want to name people in the "big group" they can do that. If others don't feel the need, that's not a requirement for them.

The only exception would be if the game founders declared that all posters must do "X" thing, or if the posters themselves decided by general consensus that everyone needs to do a certain thing a certain way. My own preference--and this is personal--is not to fill in all the blank holes near the beginning of the game. So often, later on, we require flexiblity, and it's nice to have some of those blank spaces to fill in. You've done a great job naming and identifying people, but not everyone has to do that, unless we collectively decide that's important.

Regarding the question you raised about writing isolated "monologues".... No, we certainly don't want that. But the heart of an RPG is to write true to your own character and then address or involve other actual characters in the game (not carry-alongs). RPGs and fanfictions are different. RPGs are centered on a few characters, and each speaks with a different voice. RPGs present a tiny slice of the reality that occurred at a particular time from those character's point of view. Fanfiction paints with a wider brush with only one hand controlling all the moves, and there's potentially a much wider group of characters involved.

At least that's how I see it. If other posters want to add their own thoughts to this, they are welcome to do so. And Nogrod please don't let me discourage you from continuing to name a reasonable number of characters and encouraging others to do the same, since this is something important to you. But there's nothing wrong if one poster wants to do this, and another does not.

***************

Since I'm already wearing my game founder's hat, let me mention something else. Thanks to many who've told us by pm or on the thread that they are using someone else's character with their permission. It's always good to indicate that on the discussion thread so everyone knows what you're doing.

Just a reminder. If anyone feels uncomfortable with how some other poster has used their character, you are free to send them a polite pm requesting an edit.

We're off to a good start, and Durelin and I appreciate everyone's hard work. This is not easy with three different groups doing three different things! It should pull together once we're all on the same page.

[Durelin]

Oh dear, I did forget to note this (shame on me):

Nogrod - Please let me know if how Khamir 'solved' Hadith's problem is alright with you. It can be edited at any time. Also, I'd like to have Hadith and Khamir perhaps have a little talk...maybe Hadith would like to pester him after he's gone off to sulk about the fact that they're not going to be moving for a few days?

[piosenniel]

Child

Rôg's made an offer of his assistance to Aiwendil.

~*~ Pio

[Novnarwen]

Hi everyone.

I'm am SO sorry for not having posted earlier. I came home from Italy on Saturday evening, and was only able to read through the posts before I fell asleep on the couch. Then.. on Sunday I was forced to go out of town again to watch my cousins. Apparently their nanny called in sick, and since I don't work, or supposedly don't have anything to do, it was 'natural' for me to take care of them instead. I don't have computer access here, and the only reason for why I'm posting now is because I forced my cousins to go to the library with me. It's about half an hours drive from where I'm currently at, and they will absolutely refuse to go again.. So.. I will not be able to post again until I get home, which will be in a couple of days time. Again, I'm really sorry!

I will probably make a few edits to my post when I get home (I have limited of time, and my time is up shortly). There are a few errors, I know. Aedhild is, as expected perhaps, as confused as ever... Also, I have written another post (by hand) which I will type up when I get home to be inserted somewhere. This post will explain why Aedhild believes she had a fit, rather than being knocked unconscious by Eirnar.

Again, I can't stress how sorry I am.

Thanks for your patience,
Nova

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Durelin

Oh dear, I did forget to note this (shame on me):

Nogrod - Please let me know if how Khamir 'solved' Hadith's problem is alright with you. It can be edited at any time. Also, I'd like to have Hadith and Khamir perhaps have a little talk...maybe Hadith would like to pester him after he's gone off to sulk about the fact that they're not going to be moving for a few days?

The solution is alright. I'll try to have time to write something today.

Originally Posted by Child

Thanks to many who've told us by pm or on the thread that they are using someone else's character with their permission. It's always good to indicate that on the discussion thread so everyone knows what you're doing.

Almost all of the dialogue between Johari and Hadith has been co-written by Firefoot and myself via PM's.

And thanks Child. You have answered my concerns well enough.

[Regin Hardhammer]

My save for the orcs is filled. This was a tough post for me to write. I am a vegetarian, and it wasn't too much fun writing about roasting ponies, let alone other possible dishes that were even less palatable! Please feel free to respond to the suggestion at the end of the post.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Regin Hardhammer

My save for the orcs is filled. This was a tough post for me to write. I am a vegetarian, and it wasn't too much fun writing about roasting ponies, let alone other possible dishes that were even less palatable!

I could imagine it! Tough thing, this writing...

I have addressed Ishkur's worries. Hopefully I have interpreted his condition about rightly. If not, you'll surely inform me about it.