I have an idea for a campaign in which all the PCs are woodmen; they would begin with Rhosgobel as sanctuary and Radagast as patron, and I was going to use "Words of the Wise" as the first adventure.

I think that with backgrounds, callings, and open skill choices, there is plenty of room for variation, even with everyone playing the same culture.

I just thought it would be an interesting idea: there is an instant bond, even though they are individuals, and to a great extent, they will care about the same things. They would range through Mirkwood and environs, fighting Sauron's agents and attempting to rally free people.

Thoughts?

I think having a culturally diverse group in this game is somewhat overrated, although it is the assumed default.

The only issue with a homogenous culture group is that the backgrounds don't lend themselves to duplication ("what, you were healed as a child by a mysterious woman too?"), so you may consider cranking out a few more so there is enough variety.

Rhosgobel and Radagast
I'd suggest letting the members of the Fellowship be from / be hanging out around / have recently arrived in Rhosgobel, and maybe be known to Radagast, but not necessarily with full-on 'access all areas' Sanctuary status, and the attention and trust of the Wizard as a full Patron right at the start. If they can gain those during play (even if you have to give them bonus Undertakings in a couple of their first Fellowship Phases) it'll give them more of a sense of progress and achievement than otherwise.

Variation within the Fellowship
I ran a Middle-earth game a couple of years back where the entire Company were dwarves -- all Longbeards except one culturally very similar Firebeard -- for many of the same reasons you cite for your all-Woodmen concept. It took me some time running this Company to realise the home truth that most of the point of being dwarf in an RPG is being 'the' dwarf amongst a bunch of other people, playing off the differences, and having an instant niche in which your dwarven special abilities give you abilities the others don't share.
Lacking any contrasts within the Company, the dwarvenness can almost start to fade out from the front of people's minds a lot of the time... :/

I think that, ironically, one of the best things about a single-culture group is that as the game runs on -- especially a deliberately generational game -- people retiring their first characters can have the consolation prize of getting to play something different from everyone else. (Ideally someone picked up on the Fellowship's travels, so that their identity underlines the unfolding of the story e.g. if someone introduces an Elf at the same time as the Fellowship unlocks the Halls of the Woodland King as a Sanctuary.)

Like doctheweasel, I think that the 'default' culturally diverse Fellowship is an artificial RPG cliché, and that groups which are all (or predominantly) from a single culture ought to be more of the norm. But like they say: there is a reason it's a cliché!

Variation of the Skills within the Fellowship
TOR's simple approach to the Common Skills for a culture assumes Fellowships will include diversity by having members of several different cultures.
When I ported my previous game into TOR and ran a slightly reworked version of The Marsh Bell, three of the six continuining players converted their existing (previously HârnMaster) dwarf PCs to TOR, and it rapidly became a bit boring having three experts in Craft, Search and Travel.
I think the way TOR gives Woodmen expertise in Explore and especially Healing definitely belongs to that assumption of a multi-cultural Fellowship. Since you need to cover the bases and have diversity from a monoculture Fellowship, I would definitely introduce a bit more variation. Keep the broad outline of the skills distribution because it's crucial to their identity as being of the Woodman culture -- but let them drop 1 point off any skill listed in the table and reassign the point(s) 'saved' when they come to the Previous Experience step of character generation (p.75).


I think it's a great idea, and look forward to hearing all about their adventures! I do expect the forthcoming 'Darkening of Mirkwood' campaign to suit them beautifully. (The dwarfocentric Fellowship I have in my own game might have to be a bit forced to end up following a whole campaign focussed mostly on the forest!)

Cheers!
--Os.

forgottenking,
The campaign should be viable provided that extra effort is spent during character creation to generate unique personas. This will require more detail about how and why one skill, trait or reward is chosen over another. I would suggest specifically telling the players that they will need to put in this extra effort to prevent lackluster characters. Solo starting adventures might be a good idea in this instance, particularly something highly focused on the generated character's chosen skills and such.


doctheweasel
Some players may produce a generic character, with no real intention of creating a unique persona while playing. Given the opportunity though, and a bit of prompting, most players will rise to the challenge. Particularly if you make a point of asking them why they choose one option over another.


Osric,
The idea that the solitary taciturn dwarf would become commonplace, is a bit mind-boggling. Made more so when you consider that the average human, hobbit or elf when added into the mix is going to steal the spotlight simply due to diversity.