Scarburg Meadhall Discussion Thread

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Gwathagor

Fantastic post, Folwren and Fea!

Thanks. I deflect all praise to Folwren: she initiated it, and she wrote all the best parts.

[Nogrod]

Have you any ideas how we should write the games? I mean if everyone writes their personal viewpoint to every game - possibly a few posts even - we will still be writing these games on 2009...

But if it's fun then why not?

And if it feels at some point they take too much room we can always skip a few or write them in a more streamlined way then.

So maybe we just start writing them all the participants just going for it and possibly having some discussion about the general outcome or possible events within the race either here or by PM?


PS. Just agreeing with all the others: great post Foley & Fea!

[Groin Redbeard]

Good point, Nogrod. We could set a deadline for everyone to post for the games, and then decide who won in this thread. PM'ing everyone about the games is also a good idea.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

There is also the difference in writing between scene and summary. A scene is a significant moment which develops characters and furthers the plot of your story. Scenes are expanded, and include much more detail. He said, she said, it looked like this, they acted like that, and the sky was blue. Summary is what takes place in between, and which is not as significant to the interaction between characters, though is still significant enough to mention. Scene is a specific moment; summary is what connects it to other moments, and enriches it.

Example: Bilbo's birthday was a scene. The passage of seventeen years was summary.

It's not necessary to write every detail if we can agree on a few main points that we'd rather concentrate on.

One specific moment Foley and I would like to have involves the horse race. So that would be a scene. Riddles would make a great scene because it's a throwback to The Hobbit. The three-legged race promises for amusement and interaction between characters who may not necessarily want to be that close to each other. Or who might. But the fire-building or rope climbing, for example, in which fewer are participating, might be prudent to skim over. "Also during the day's festivities were ______, and ______ came out victorious."

Or obviously we could just write everything.

[Folwren]

Rightho, Fea.

And speaking of horse racing, Groin, put Saeryn on the list. Also, you didn't get Javan into the Riddles list, will you see to that?

[Gwathagor]

Regarding the games - why don't we just assign one writer to write up a particular contest? That way everyone gets involved, but it won't take forever either.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Gwathagor

Regarding the games - why don't we just assign one writer to write up a particular contest? That way everyone gets involved, but it won't take forever either.

I'd stick to Fea's proposal. I mean some games will be offering opportunities to make nice interactions between the characters and are thus opportunities we should not lose eg. they should be written as scenes.

But regarding a few games we could do well with a summary and there we could just decide who makes the "narration" of them after first listening to the participants' writers about the outcome.

Like the horse-racing which seems to be the first one. Let's give the pareticipants a chance to make some fun out of it.


It might make some of us wait for a moment while the competants play their game out, but that should be no problem - and some people might still write what their characters do while a race is on. When myself and Lommy came to this one in the first place (to the Eorling Mead Hall to be exact) we waited about a month for the scene going on to end so that we could enter... So let's not be hasty either.

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

But the fire-building or rope climbing, for example, in which fewer are participating, might be prudent to skim over.

Can you imagine doing a scene for fire-making?

[Folwren]

Of course! If anyone wants to join in the horse race, then they are welcome! The more the merrier! So Fea and Gwath - welcome!

Fea, if you don't want to put in details, that's fine. That was just my idea to try to find out who it would be fair to allow to win. When I create a horse character, I know what it looks like and what it's qualities are, and I hoped that if others do the same thing, they would be able to describe their horse to me so we could figure out who was the likeliest to be the fastest.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Folwren

When I create a horse character, I know what it looks like and what it's qualities are, and I hoped that if others do the same thing, they would be able to describe their horse to me so we could figure out who was the likeliest to be the fastest.

I know what purpose the horses serve, and I know what they look like, but I rarely pause to do anything more than intuitively create one.

The horse that Degas originally had was left in Gondor with Farlen (Degas had just ridden in from the coast, and left immediately once he heard the news; the new horse was a gift from his future family, to get him home quickly). Consequently, Degas's mount right now is a spritely mare bred for endurance over long distances, but not necessarily for being the fastest in a short race. Also, Degas has been riding her the distance from Southern Gondor to Scarburg (and just got there this morning). So he might not even want to ride her in a race, since it's been a long haul. Though, like Rowenna, he might borrow somebody else's mount just to take part. Still, he's a lot more likely to win a marathon than a sprint; Degas has been traveling for years, but he's not the most competitive guy around unless he's got good reason to be (like defending somebody's honor, being victorious in an actual battle, or being irritated). He's tired, even if he's calm again, and even at his best he'd not win against somebody like Leof, and I've always thought of Saeryn as the more nimble rider of the two, though Degas - as I said - can crank out a journey better than most. It's all to do with who he is: they're Rohirrim, so they all can ride, and he's a man of Rohan, so he's really quite on top of this, but he's a traveling poet. Traveling poets have different expectations of their steeds than warriors and racers.

[Groin Redbeard]

Thanks for keeping the list updated, Elempi.

Originally Posted by Folwren

That was just my idea to try to find out who it would be fair to allow to win. When I create a horse character, I know what it looks like and what it's qualities are, and I hoped that if others do the same thing, they would be able to describe their horse to me so we could figure out who was the likeliest to be the fastest.

Ooh, this sounds like fun. Though I'm sure Erbrand's chances of winning are next to zero. His horse, Traveller, was bread for hauling things all over the place like carts full of wood or hides. He stands a little over 17 hands tall and is 19 years old. Traveller is what I always pictured as a Shire or Clydesdale breed.