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

[Child of the 7th Age]

UPDATE ON LOCATION AND WHERE WE ARE GOING:

I've gone ahead and edited the proposal and all posts (both discussion and game thread) so that the slaves are all leaving from the foothills of the southern mountain range (and this is where the Fellowship will initially go.) The escape party will head to the western corner of the Sea of Núrnen and then north across the Ash Plain (as stated in the letter to Elessar), a trip of some 200 miles (assuming they are on the western side of the Sea) .

As far as the location of the original plantation goes, it's likely this won't figure much in the story unless someone describes their exact escape route. My guess is that it was to the west of the Sea, but I can live with anything. (This was never mentioned in the proposal itself or the posts that have gone up so far.)
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Pio,

Great minds think alike....

Yes, I 've sent a draft of my post to Tevildo and Hilde (because I've used their characters at one point) and this is the route I had the fellowship travel: down the Anduin to Pelargir by boat and then on horseback across the mountain pass near the mouth of the Poros River. Then they go south and slightly east to the mountain range.

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Re non-playing characters:

Nogrod,

You raise a good point -- that we have to remember this is a larger group (65 slaves of various types, about 15 orcs, and the 7 members of the fellowship). If we talk about the larger group, we'll need to be careful not to contradict each other concerning all these folk who do not have individual posters. However, my preference is to keep things flexible---not to try and define each subgroup and each leader prior to the actual game starting.

We've had a lot of stories that involve the migrations of large groups (especially hobbits in the Shire) and this approach has worked well. Sometimes when we need an extra speaking character or two, we invent "carry-along characters" in the middle of the game: minor characters for whom we put up a bio on the discussion thread. (Tevildo did this by inventing the healer Leod in the middle of the recent Flames game in the Shire..... ) Sometimes we just refer to other families or individuals in very general terms without naming names. You can definitely refer to other people or groups by name in your posts.....just don't have them speak or take an active role unless you put up a bio.

You never know where a game is going or where it will lead. It's good to leave some things undefined to build in a measure of flexibility that can be used to back up the plot as it develops. Plus, learning to coordinate this kind of thing as the story develops post by post is a mark of a well run game.