“The Great Caravan” Discussion Thread

[Merrymatt]

The Great Caravan Discussion Thread

Historical Background: This story is set on the year of Bilbo Bagginses eleventy-first birthday, when an incredible order of toys and gifts has been purchased from the Shire.

All players should be familiar with The Hobbit and “A Long-Expected Party” from the Fellowship of the Ring.

Basic Storyline:

An gigantic order swept through the ears and toyshops of Dale, a order that is connected all the way back to the Shire; land of the Hobbits. Bilbo Baggins is celebrating his eleventy-first birthday and has decided upon giving his fellow friends presents crafted by the finest toysmiths in both Dale and Erebor. Upon hearing the request from an acclaimed and respected hobbit, a caravan was created by both King Dain Ironfoot and King Bard. This caravan carries trinkets and toys beyond any child’s dreams; baubles of different hues or colors,dolls covered with various gems, and much much more. However the two kings have issued many to protect this caravan, for the road to Shire is a deadly one.

[Merrymatt]

The purpose of this story is to: Deliver Bilbo’s order without disarray or mishap

The time the story ends: When we reach Bag-End, meet up with Bilbo and Gandalf to deliver their order.

Additional story points: During the Caravan’s journey, the Guards will be issued to not ignite or leave flame against the multicolored flasks on the wagon; for these flasks contain the rare fireworks made by Gandalf The Grey. Harming one of these fireworks will get a swift punishment by both Toysmiths and Wizard alike.
Reaching the forests of Mirkwood, the caravan riders will encounter the Wood-Elves and must ask for passage from their lord, Thranduil. The riders will have to enter the forest realm and into the wooden halls for Thranduils grant of passage. However once they are allowed to go, a swarm of black furry spiders begin attacking the group. Take up your arms and assist the Elves in defending the caravan and leaving upon a hidden road in Mirkwood.

Dangers encountered: During the journey; the Caravan will encounter trouble will packs of wild wargs, Mirkwood spiders, and goblin bands. Also there maybe a Beorning that will demand a high toll or face their wrath, it’s best to not try to anger them.

[Merrymatt]

Character Types

Dwarves/Men/Elves (Main Characters), Orcs/Spiders (Secondary characters)

Supporting Characters
King Bain (Only used in the first scene)
King Dáin (Same as Bain)
Gandalf The Grey (Pre-War Of The Ring, right before the start of the birthday)
Beornings (If paid a hefty toll or dealt positively, they will not cause any uproar if necessary. Although it’s best to not stiff them on their deal, if one wants to survive the journey unprotected.)
Bilbo (Mentioned in a few moments)
Thranduil (Will be met in Mirkwood)

Character types that do not belong: No hybrids, superheroes, non-tolkien creatures, and any race/person that is not mentioned above!

[Huinesoron]

I'm not much of a one for RPing, mostly because I'm very bad at staying focussed. But I thought I'd at least consider contributing. (Also, hi! Welcome to the Downs.)

I gather that Barrowdowns RPing consists of long-form narrative writing, with the usual 'no godmodding' rules. It looks like they're fairly flexible on whether the game creator takes a heavy hand in keeping the story moving, or lets the players carry it at their own pace; I'm not sure whether the creator is expected to have a character in play.

I'd like to hear more about how you plan to play this. Given the fairly low rate of contribution on the Downs these days, are you expecting people to play multiple characters? And are the enemy characters expected to be players, or will you be masterminding the whole array of them?

I also see that you have elves present, and the logical route from Dale to the Shire would be by the Forest Road; are the elves going to be late-joiners who sign up in the Woodland Realm (and if so, will you be paying Thranduil's Halls a visit)?

And finally, the inevitable nitpick: by this time, Bard has sadly gone to the halls of his fathers, no doubt to incessantly pick on Girion for being unable to kill a single dragon. Bain is king in Dale by now.

hS

PS: How do you feel about dwarf women? They canonically stayed mostly in their halls, but the fact that Erebor is made up of recent migrants from the Iron Hills and - especially - the Blue Mountains makes it not impossible that some might hitch a ride on the caravan to visit their kin in the west. Permissible or not? ~hS

[Merrymatt]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

I'm not much of a one for RPing, mostly because I'm very bad at staying focussed. But I thought I'd at least consider contributing. (Also, hi! Welcome to the Downs.)

I gather that Barrowdowns RPing consists of long-form narrative writing, with the usual 'no godmodding' rules. It looks like they're fairly flexible on whether the game creator takes a heavy hand in keeping the story moving, or lets the players carry it at their own pace; I'm not sure whether the creator is expected to have a character in play.

I'd like to hear more about how you plan to play this. Given the fairly low rate of contribution on the Downs these days, are you expecting people to play multiple characters? And are the enemy characters expected to be players, or will you be masterminding the whole array of them?

I also see that you have elves present, and the logical route from Dale to the Shire would be by the Forest Road; are the elves going to be late-joiners who sign up in the Woodland Realm (and if so, will you be paying Thranduil's Halls a visit)?

And finally, the inevitable nitpick: by this time, Bard has sadly gone to the halls of his fathers, no doubt to incessantly pick on Girion for being unable to kill a single dragon. Bain is king in Dale by now.

hS

PS: How do you feel about dwarf women? They canonically stayed mostly in their halls, but the fact that Erebor is made up of recent migrants from the Iron Hills and - especially - the Blue Mountains makes it not impossible that some might hitch a ride on the caravan to visit their kin in the west. Permissible or not? ~hS

I’ve planned for the amount of characters to be small, a few main characters will be involved but the main caravan group and their antagonists are center in this story. In terms of contributions, this story will be team-based and the group will have to compromise their differences to deliver the order. While the antagonists will go to the extremes to ransack the wealthy stores and flasks for the Erebor treasures.

Permissible, I’m always open for new characters joining and sharing the journey through the wildlands.

[Merrymatt]

Dwarves: 2 or 8 at the most (Any gender or age the players choose, although a few of the female dwarves may join the caravan during the journey)

Elves: 1 or 3 at the most (Any gender the player chooses)

Men: 1 or 2 at the most (any gender or age the player chooses, however one or the other must be from Dale)

Beornings: 1 (Since one skin-changer enough can be a problem for a traveling caravan, their tolls are steep as a cliffside.)

Orcs: 1 Orc Captain and 4 minions (The minions can be played as secondary characters by the players if they want)

Spiders: (Owner NPC’s)

[Merrymatt]

Characters Needed: Thranduil, Gandalf The Grey.

The game requires the time commitment of four weeks (Not counting this week)

If your character ends up good, dead, or buried by the near end of the story, you’re done with the game.

[Merrymatt]

Owners Starting Post for the game:

Fior gritted his teeth as mustered all his strength into one shove, the metallic door upon the great furnace closed and it’s metallic lock clanged in place. The hardened dwarf had finally ended a nights work of toy making and the mending of great weapons; a typical job for workers like Fior. His many apprentices had completed their work and begun to pack up their tools, before leaving the shop into the snowy midnight. ‘Tonight was plentiful,yet i feel like our work was left untouched’ muttered Fior, the craftsman was the only one left in the building. He produced a white rag from within his coat and wiped away the grease on his red beard and face.

‘Maybe tomorrow we’ll get more orders than this one’ said the dwarf as he started to walk towards the shop door, clothing his shirtless chest with a furry mailcoat with a black hood. Reaching his hands into his pockets, Fior produced a silver key and a crumpled order letter, the letter was given to him by a frequent customer who was known to over-order his toys and still leave more inside the shop unwanted. Fior chucked the crumpled old paper into the wastebin and began to close shop until a sharp rap went against the oak door.

‘The Shop is closed at Midnight, comeback in the morning if you want to order!’ Said Fior as he opened, only to find another dwarve in front of him. Dressed in an armored coat and lugging a small satchel on his side; Fior was in the present of one Dale’s many messengers, dwarfs that delivered messages from the highest of purchasers.

‘Please do not close up this instant!, we’ve an order from a very close ally to our Kingdom’ said the messenger, his breath was billowing from the icy wind and his black beard. ‘We have a special order from Bilbo Baggins of the Shire...”, Fior eyes widened from the sentence. Bilbo Baggins was a burglar and hobbit that helped defeat the dragon, Smaug The Golden and released the kingdom of Erebor from ruination. The hobbit is held in permanent regard for this justice and an order from him was as valuable as a Mithril armor set.

‘What’s the order for?’ Asked Fior, the messenger dug into his satchel and produced a red folded paper, his gnarled hands giving it to the toysmith. ‘He orders for a high amount of toys and gifts from all the smiths in the city, this includes you as well’, Fior listened to the wizened dwarf as he read the paper. A look of shock went across Fior’s face, he was never shocked from many things, except that one time his second apprentice accidentally set an order on fire. ‘He wants us to deliver them as well?’ Asked the smith, the messenger nodded in agreement. The letter mentioned that a caravan will be provided by a wizard, a friend of Bilbo that will support us in the delivery.

‘So do you want to take the order?’

Fior thought for a moment as the snowy winds became slow, the thought of riding and delivering to one of Erebor’s most famous burglars was a hefty feat, yet he felt like he could conquer it like any other delivery. His mind decided an stared upon the mailcoated messenger...

‘Yes’

[Mithadan]

Welcome to the Barrow-Downs, Merrymatt!

I truly wish you luck in getting an RPG off the ground. When I revised the rules of this forum several years ago to make RPGs more user friendly, there appeared to still be interest in gaming, but little has happened since.

RPGs are a great exercise in creativity and cooperative writing. Your premise is very interesting. Tracking a caravan from the Lonely Mountain and Dale to the Shire at a time when things were just beginning to get dark could be fun. Imagine negotiating tariffs with the Beornings. Dealing with the Elves and the spiders (assuming they had not been driven off or were returning) in Mirkwood. Crossing the Anduin, a matter that JRRT avoided in the Hobbit by using the eagles. Traversing the Misty Mountains. Lots of room for creativity here.

I hope that you can generate some interest.

[piosenniel]

Game moved to Elvenhome

It can be brought back for play at the Game-owner's request

~*~ Pio