So, one of my players is going to create a new character, and I want to present her with all the options. And since the Lake-Town Sourcebook includes a new culture, it would be great if someone who's already got the book to share a bit of info about this one.

So, what's the general feel of the new culture?
What kind of Backgrounds is available to it? Could you name all six?
What kind of Virtues is available? Any fun ones? For some reason all my players always choose 2 in Wisdom for new characters. Guess Virtues are more fun that Rewards then?

Anything else I could use to present the new culture to the player while waiting for the book to arrive to me here in Norway?

Thanks in advance,

-Eirik

I'd describe the Men of the Lake as Bardings who are less warlike and more mercantile; they're a slightly more civilized sub-culture of the Dale-men, really.

Their Cultural Blessing is "Tenacious", and their six Backgrounds are named "Legends spring to life", "Restless pupil", "Masterful fingers", "Lordling", "Watchman", and "Innocence lost". Cultural Virtues are "Bowman of the Guild", "Merchant Prince", "Shield-Fighting", "Trader's Savvy", and "Water Legs", and cultural Rewards are "Brazen Armour (mail armour)", "Keening Bog-stone", and "Serpent Scimitar (sword)".

I don't want to post any details here, but I hope the names help you get some of the flavour that you're looking for.

While it is true that the Lake-men are a subdivision of the Bardings (so to speak) they are very much a different culture for their look and feel, and for the way they play. To grasp how different two cultures that lived in the same place for centuries could be, think about any modern city with a substantial cultural minority - differences are very evident in the way people dress or speak, or by the occupations they tend to choose for a living. I concur with the assessment that Lake-men can be considered more 'civilised', but maybe I would have said more 'modern' or 'sophisticated' - in the words of C7 art director Jon Hodgson, the Bardings are all about furs and solid gold jewels, where the Lake-men favour expensive fabrics and elaborated jewelry.
Their virtues and rewards enforce the same principle - where Bardings might be described as doom-laden warriors of noble blood, the Men of the Lake are rich, entrepreneurial adventurer-princes.

Francesco

Unsurprisingly, Francesco said it better than I could. :-)

Interesting. Looking forward to getting the book and the screen. I live in Norway, so it might take some time?

The new player, to my big surprise, made a Beorning, which is not her style at all. Maybe she made the character just for those twice baked honey cakes (quite popular in my campaigns)

-E.

But... uh... the Bardings are Lake-men who moved to Dale after the Battle of Five Armies. As time goes on the Bardings also include other men who come from other places, but the base of the culture is solidly Lake-man. The Bardings of the game are not the same culture as the men of Dale before the dragon.

That's not to say that the Bardings and the Lake-men don't have their differences, but the one is directly derived from the other, so the differences won't be all that great.

The concept is that the current Bardings are initially formed by descendants of the survivors of the destruction of Dale who repaired in Lake-town, but kept their own traditions distinct from those of the Lake-men.

Remember, Rhovanion is settled by pre-Edain who stopped here, never getting any farther west (so they're a kind of Gray Men). Others went on, became true Edain and returned back here, finding "long-lost cousins" with similar language and cultures. These returning Edain Northmen probably dominated their lesser cousins, but to a certain degree their cultures would merge as there are so many points of similarity.

I think the Men of Dale were a separate culture from the other Northmen cultures in the Rhovanion area. Related and very close in cultural details, but different. With the sacking of the city during the arrival of Smaug, survivors fled wherever they could. The majority would likely go to Laketown (they are, after all, city-dwellers).

I'm sure there were any number who moved farther away, out to the countryside, as they were more worried about further attacks from the dragon rather than convenience. So a small portion of the current Bardings are actually pure Dale-men stock who are returning to their ancestral home, or any number of individuals of mixed heritage. These mixed people all share common genetics, so effectively there is little or no difference in abilities really. It would just be the cultural details that differ (ie, same holidays, but observed differently; similar art motifs, but different emphasis).

Hello fellow Norwegian.

If you want to get your hands on this book as fast as possible (who wouldn't), I would advise you to wait for it to show up at leisuregames.com. Once they have it in stock, it will probably take you about a week until you have it in your hands.

I used this approach when I ordered Tales from Wilderland, and I had it earlier than people I know who preordered it directly from C7.

Yeah, I'm using Leisure Games now and then, but I've experienced some severe delays in their shipment sometimes. Anyway, I actually pre-ordered then GenCon special, and had it changed to the GM screen. So I guess I'll have to wait for C7 to mail it to me.

So another Norwegian? Where in Norway are you located?

-Eirik

Hm. I've ordered from them many times and I've never noticed any delays. The longest it took me for any order was two weeks, but that was just before Christmas and thus understandable. It sure as hell is quicker than our domestic Outland-webshop, that's for sure. But to each their own, I guess.

I'm from Tromsø by the way. Me and our group have just made our first tentative steps into Middle Earth via The One Ring. (And it has been spectacular so far!) You?

Well, I recently rediscovered that Amazon has an English branch, and at least there I can decide how quickly it will arrive.

I'm in our grand capital of Oslo.

-Eirik