Hi folks!

Inspired by Chris Seeman's "The Inland Sea" (a module for MERP that alas was never published), I thought that the Men of Doriwion would make a good addition to the TOR setting. Below my template. I'd be glad to hear some feedback, especially concerning the game mechanics side of it (Virtues, Rewards, etc.).

Men of Dorwinion
“It must be a potent wine to make a wood-elf drowsy; but this wine, it would seem, was the heady vintage of the great gardens of Dorwinion, not meant for his soldiers or his servants, but for the king’s feast only, and for smaller bowls not for the butler’s great flagons.”

DESCRIPTION
The Men of Dorwinion are a mixed people, descending from Northmen and Easterlings alike. Consequently, they are of average height, often with a darker skin and dark brown or black hairs, very often curly. Men keep well-groomed mustaches and beards. When abroad, their clothes are well-crafted but simple; they are fond of jewellery but tend not to display it outside their own homes. They favour earth-tones, bright tans and orange-yellows contrasted by deep navy, burgundy, brown and green.

STANDARD OF LIVING
The Men of Dorwinion are great traders; their wines in particular are drunk at the high tables across Middle-earth. It is only through their cunning negotiations that their realm, poised precariously between Western and Eastern cultures, was able to survive. Men of Dorwinion are considered a Prosperous folk.

MEN OF DORWINION ADVENTURERS
As merchants, the Men of Dorwinion wander far and wide, and speak to many peoples. They are not a martial culture and do not seek war, yet history has taught them to be ready when it comes to protecting their own fields and homesteads.
Suggested Callings: Wanderer, Warden. These callings reflect best the two major dispositions of the Men of Dorwinion: they either strive far and wide across the land in search of new trade routes, or they stay at home, generally open to strangers, but at the same time carefully protective of their customs and holy places.
Unusual Callings: Slayer. Living in the midst of a range of aggressive cultures, the Men of Dorwinion have learnt other ways to survive and thrive.

WHAT THE REALM-MASTER SAYS
• Men of Dorwinion: Blessed by the Earth-maidens, our people are prosperous. But like them, we have to be able to bend like a willow and be strong like an oak-tree in order to survive these tumultuous years.
• Bardings: It is good to see that the old markets in the West are opening up again. Let us hope that our relationship will be one of mutual trade and enrichment, and not one of envy and war.
• Beornings: They are a grim people, and overly rigid in their principles of trade. And yet we also have a lot in common: our free life-style and our desire to protect it. And their honey-bread is excellent! I would pay dearly for the recipe…
• Dwarves of the Lonely Mountains: An excellent source for high-quality metals and finely-wrought tools. A bit too fond of gold for gold’s sake, if you ask me.
• Elves of Mirkwood: We have not had much dealings with the fair folk of the woods. We hear that they buy our wines on the markets of Esgaroth. Maybe we can strike a better deal with them directly?
• Hobbits of the Shire: A folk of small people in the Far West you say? How curious? Their lands as you describe them would have been pleasurable to the Earth-maidens.
• Woodmen of Wilderland: Their life is a hard one, under the eaves of the Great Wood. I have seen some of their woodcarvings: very fine work indeed!

WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT THE MEN OF DORWINION
• King Bard: They are peaceful – but do not be fooled: in trade, they are maybe even more cunning than the Dwarves! But we are glad to have them as our neighbours, though long leagues of empty lands divide us.
• Beorn: Haven’t heard much of them. Traders, hm? Well, let them come and trade, as long as they pay the tolls!
• King Dain: We have heard about this land to the east. It is not so far from my old mansions in the Iron Mountains after all! I am sure they are in need of quality metals and our magic dwarven toys! A bit too slippery though for my taste.
• The Elven-king: I am very partial to their wine, though I must say that after that little incident with the Bilbo the hobbit and the 13 dwarves, I have come to think that it also has some dangerous qualities…
• Bilbo: Ah, if I could wander to the far lands of Dorwinion! Their wine helped us a lot in the Elven-king’s prison.
• Radagast: They treat their lands gently, and pay respect to beast and plant. More than you can say about many other men!

CULTURAL BLESSINGS
Born on Legs
The Men of Dorwinion are born travellers, and their culture lives on the interchange between other cultures. Every Man of Dorwinion is so used to journeying and its perils that he can fulfil two roles during the travel phase if necessary (e.g. he can be both Hunter and Scout). At the same time, his unfailing sense of direction and knowledge about routes lets him add his Attribute to every Lore roll when preparing a journey.

STARTING SKILL SCORES
Common Skills
Awe 0 Inspire 0 Persuade 3
Athletics 1 Travel 3 Stealth 0
Awareness 1 Insight 2 Search 0
Explore 2 Healing 2 Hunting 0
Song 1 Courtesy 2 Riddle 1
Craft 1 Battle 0 Lore 1

Weapon Skills
1) (Bows) 2, Sword 1, Dagger 1
2) Spear 2, Sword 1, Dagger 1

SPECIALTIES
Choose two Traits from:
Boating, Folk-lore, Leechcraft, Celduin-lore, Trading

BACKGROUNDS
1 – Wine Merchant
Your father took you on your first journey when you were five. In ten days on the road, you saw more than in your entire life until then. And at last, when you had reached your destination, you saw the boundless horizons, the greys, greens, and blues of the Inland Sea. After that, your path was set. You became a merchant, wandering across land and sea. And you have a matching temperament: an easy-going, friendly outward behaviour wrapped around an inner core of secret thoughts. If anything, it is the constant worry about profit that troubles you.
Basic Attributes
Body 3, Heart 5, Wits 6
Favoured Skill
Persuade
Distinctive Features
(choose two Traits from those listed)
Cautious, Clever, Cunning, Determined, Fair-spoken, Merry, Patient, Secretive

2 – To Guard and Protect
How proud your family was when you started training with the most elite force of Dorwinion, the Realm-Master’s guards. It is they who protect the important cities and sacred sites from the relentless onslaught of the Easterlings, they who defend the trade routes and therefore the veins and arteries of the realm. Now you are one of them: loyal, steadfast, strong. You enjoy the physical challenge of a fight, but are sober enough not to seek one yourself. You have become a good judge of character, and know that a few well-placed words can often do more than any application of force.
Basic Attributes
Body 6, Heart 5, Wits 3
Favoured Skill
Insight
Distinctive Features
(choose two Traits from those listed)
Bold, Cunning, Determined, Forthright, Hardy, Just, Steadfast, Wary

3 – On The Waves of the Inland Sea
You were orphaned at an early age by a particularly vicious pirate attack that left your little village by the sea in cinders. Fishers picked you up a couple of days later, the only survivor of a terrible massacre. Since then, the sea has become your home and the source of your livelihood. You know each port on your coast, but rarely stay for long: the sea always calls. And deep down, there is another urge that drags you back to your ship: the desire to find these pirates one of these days, and take revenge.
Basic Attributes
Body 4, Heart 6, Wits 4
Favoured Skill
Travel
Distinctive Features
(choose two Traits from those listed)
Adventurous, Curious, Eager, Gruff, Keen-eyed, Nimble, Reckless, Robust

4 – Envoy of the Healers
You have grown up in the spiritual heart of Dorwinion, in one of the protected cities high up in the mountains. These cities are full of life: there are gardens everywhere, gardens planted by the Earth-Maidens themselves. The rarest herbs and finest flowers can be found there. And they are a site of peace, for body and mind. You have always had a knack to give this peace to the people who come here. Therefore the Healers took you on as an apprentice at an early age. Now that you have completed your basic training, they have set you a new task. Since they never leave the sacred cities themselves, they need their eyes, ears, and hands about the land to gather and to spread knowledge. It is up to you know to roam the land and bring healing, peace, and understanding to all its people.
Basic Attributes
Body 2, Heart 6, Wits 6
Favoured Skill
Healing
Distinctive Features
(choose two Traits from those listed)
Cautious, Generous, Hardened, Honourable, Lordly, Merciful, Patient, True-hearted

5 – A Fierce Heart Among Traders
You are a fighter. Always have been. Even when you were little you got into innumerable brawls. You won most of them. Your hometown was a trading place for the Easterlings, and you were impressed at an early age by their culture, in which strength alone decides one’s place in society. Coming from a poor family, this held a natural appeal for you. However, this wilful fighting is frowned upon in Dorwinion. You have become a loner, haunting the seedier taverns and the alleyways at night. You are always willing to enter a good fight – ideally for a bit of gold. What most people do not realize though is that you are neither evil nor cruel. You simply see life as a struggle and have no aptitude to wriggle out of a tight spot. So you have to stand your ground and fight.
Basic Attributes
Body 6, Heart 6, Wits 2
Favoured Skill
Battle
Distinctive Features
Hardened, Fierce, Grim, Gruff, Reckless, Secretive, Vengeful, Wilful

6 – The Shadow of Gold
You have seen the lure of greed. You grew up in a family of prosperous merchants, always eager to expand their trade. Then the shadowy emissaries from the East arrived, promising gold for information and allegiance. Your family struck a bargain. Little did they suspect the consequences: step by step they were led down the path of treachery. At first they sold information on trade routes and rivals – gossip no more. But imperceptibly, this moved on to vital details about the city, and finally to questions of security of the realm itself. Of course they were found out. All your goods were confiscated, and many family members including your parents were banned from the realm. You were allowed to stay, but the shadow of suspicion has never left you since. And you yearn to find out more about the men who ruined your family
Basic Attributes
Body 5, Heart 3, Wits 6
Favoured Skill
Insight
Distinctive Features
Cautious, Determined, Forthright, Honourable, Patient, Proud, Secretive, Suspicious

MEN OF DORWINION NAMES
Male Names:
Female Names:
Adventuring Age: 16-30

CULTURAL VIRTUES – MEN OF DORWINION
Gift of the Earth-maidens
In a little soft grey pouch, you carry some precious sees with you, given to you by the priests of the Earth-maidens themselves. When put in the ground, they miraculously grow into any desired plant over night. Once per session, you can produce a single large plant or a number of smaller plants in one night. This allows you to grow a tree as well as feed your company with vegetables and fruits.

Wine of Dorwinion
Dorwinion’s famous vintage can serve two purposes. In small quantities, it fortifies body and mind: lower the difficulty of one Fear roll per session by one category OR gain 5 temporary points of Endurance for 10 rounds (also above your normal Endurance maximum). As demonstrate on the Elven-king’s butler, larger quantities of this wine act as a powerful sedative. Once per session, you can make a single humanoid creature fall in such a deep sleep that only the loudest of noise or direct violence can wake it – provided he can persuade it to drink the wine.

Merchant’s Eye
Having dealt with many cultures, you see easily into the heart of men. When testing Insight, roll the Feat die twice and keep the higher result.

Valorous Words
The Men of Dorwinion emphasize the importance of the community. When they fight, they fight for their fellow men, and they know the right words to inspire loyalty, valour, and steadfastness. When you successfully execute a Rally Comrades manoeuvre, you gain one additional success.

Travler’s Legs
Being used to the road, you tire less easily. Reduce the difficulty one Travel roll during a journey by one category.

CULTURAL REWARDS – MEN OF DORWINION
Sailor’s Bow (Bow or Great Bow)
These special bows made out of the horn of the Kine of Araw shoot further than any normal bow. Add 10 to each of the short, medium, and far range (Adventurers’ Book 115).

Traveling Armour
These sets of armour are said to be blessed by the priest of the Earth Maidens. They allow their wearer to move with unnatural agility through any natural surrounding (i.e. outside man-made structures). When making a roll of Athletics using Traveling Armour, roll the Feat die twice and keep the best result.

Guarding Shield
These large, tear-drop shaped shields have been developed as a special protection against the hit-and-run tactics of the mounted Easterling archers. Any called shot with a ranged weapon only succeeds with two sixes on the success dice.

Wow. The idea of wine merchants as adventurers never occured to me. I'm definitely intrigued... though I doubt I could convince one of my players to play one.
One thing I have noticed though is a mistake I made when I made my first culture: you haven't got a primary/secondary/tertiary attribute ranking. There are I believe 7 permutations (It was either Halbarad or Glorfindel who pointed this out to me, I forget, sorry) which are along the lines of 5-7 for the primary attribute, 4-6 for the secondary, and 2-4 for the tertiary. I think that's right... you can see them just by looking at the backgrounds for the existing cultures. Really this is down to personal preference, but I personally feel a breakdown of the attributes helps to reflect the lifestyle of the culture more. But YMMV as they say

Beleg

I actually thought about doing this myself a couple of weeks ago.

I like the cultural blessing. It's something totally different.

Not so sure on some of the rewards.

Will comment more when I have time.

Really interesting attempt at a Culture I'd never think of creating myself - well done!

Initial review I have just a handful of comments:

1) What's the favoured Common Skill in the starting skill scores section?

2) Regarding the Backgrounds - I believe each one should have a different Favoured Skill, assuming you go by how the RAW ones are put together, whereas you have both "To Guard and Protect" and "Shadow of Gold" with insight.

3) Agree with Beleg about the distribution of the attribute ratings.

4) Not sure about "Gift of the Earth Maidens" or "Travelling Armour". Not the ideas themselves, just the mechanical application of them. Maybe for 'Gift...' you could go with seeds that when eaten provide sustainance in some way and for '... Armour' it has a lower encumbrance than usual?

5) What are the Dorwinion's starting Endurance and Hope?

That's about it - maybe others may spring to mind, not sure. Really good stuff though!

Just wanted to mention that I stopped in "quickly" today on my way out the door so I haven't had the time to take a good look at this ATM. Hopefully I can do so in a day or two.

Looks very nice Lofar. As Beleg as already pointed out, you might consider reviewing your Attribute spreads. Likewise, you are a point too high in your Common Skills calculation. They should add up to 29 (where 1star costs 1point, 2stars cost 3 points and 3 stars costs 6 points). By my calculation, yours adds up to 30.

Some of the virtues and rewards are nice ideas. Not so sure about the Earth Maiden seeds though.

Duplicate post...oops

Thanks for the feedback! All very good points. Will review common skills, attributes and also post starting hope and endurance, as soon as I get a chance. The starting favoured skill is Travel by the way - didn't copy from my word document.

I guess "Gift of the Earth-maidens" is a question of taste. I was wondering if it was a bit 'high-powered', but still liked the overall feel of it. Something new, and not just something giving a bonus or a new roll or such.

If anyone is planning to play-test the culture, let me know. Would be curious to see how it works out in a game!

Then you'll need to change the "On The Waves of the Inland Sea" favoured skill to something else!

Very interesting.

A minor quibble: the Sailor's Bow is a very weak reward, since most LM treat the engagement range in abstract way. Maybe you can think about something on the lines of the elven bow (ie, longer range= an extra opening volley, or something like this).
By the way I know it's difficult to keep the rewards/virtues power in check

Ok, here some tweaks according to your suggestions. The way attributes are distributed in the Core book, it's something like this: Primary: 5-7, Secondary: 4-6, Tertiary: 2-4.

Common Skills (favourite: Travel)
Awe 0 Inspire 0 Persuade 3
Athletics 1 Travel 3 Stealth 0
Awareness 1 Insight 2 Search 0
Explore 2 Healing 2 Hunting 0
Song 0 Courtesy 2 Riddle 1
Craft 1 Battle 0 Lore 1


1 – Wine Merchant

Basic Attributes
Body 3, Heart 6, Wits 5
Favoured Skill
Persuade
Distinctive Features
(choose two Traits from those listed)
Cautious, Clever, Cunning, Determined, Fair-spoken, Merry, Patient, Secretive

2 – To Guard and Protect

Basic Attributes
Body 4, Heart 7, Wits 3
Favoured Skill
Awe
Distinctive Features
(choose two Traits from those listed)
Bold, Cunning, Determined, Forthright, Hardy, Just, Steadfast, Wary

3 – On The Waves of the Inland Sea

Basic Attributes
Body 4, Heart 6, Wits 4
Favoured Skill
Athletics
Distinctive Features
(choose two Traits from those listed)
Adventurous, Curious, Eager, Gruff, Keen-eyed, Nimble, Reckless, Robust

4 – Envoy of the Healers

Basic Attributes
Body 2, Heart 6, Wits 6
Favoured Skill
Healing
Distinctive Features
(choose two Traits from those listed)
Cautious, Generous, Hardened, Honourable, Lordly, Merciful, Patient, True-hearted

5 – A Fierce Heart Among Traders

Basic Attributes
Body 4, Heart 6, Wits 4
Favoured Skill
Battle
Distinctive Features
Hardened, Fierce, Grim, Gruff, Reckless, Secretive, Vengeful, Wilful

6 – The Shadow of Gold

Basic Attributes
Body 3, Heart 6, Wits 5
Favoured Skill
Insight
Distinctive Features
Cautious, Determined, Forthright, Honourable, Patient, Proud, Secretive, Suspicious

Sailor’s Bow (Bow or Great Bow)
These special bows made out of the horn of the Kine of Araw. They are perfect for travelling: small, powerful, easy to handle. The character only needs to be protected by one companion in order to assume a Rearward stance. Additionally, called shots are also successful if any of the success dice show a 5.

Endurance: 24+Heart
Hope: 8+Heart

To Guard and to Protect should actually be:

Body 4, Heart 6, Wits 4

Now I think you've gone too far with the bow. They are both really good abilities. I think one or the other would fit (the first I reckon) but not both. Otherwise I think it would be too good.

Also how can you have a small great bow?

I'd also rename it to: Kine Bow or something.

I'd then rename the Travelling Armour to Sailor's Armour (and restrict it to leather shirt and corslet).

I think the Guarding Shield needs a better name as well. Not sure what though.

Looking very good.

Just a few flavour things that I'd like to suggest. The Dorwinrim(?) are of mixed Northman and Easterling stock. I can happily go along with that. One background is penned to give a more 'Easterling' flavour. Perhaps there should also be one that identifies with the Northman influence?

Also, I would suggest that a new description might be required for the background about the city guardians. It's slightly limiting as it sounds like these guys probably don't have much free time for adventuring( and it would b a pain in the butt trying to shoehorn reasons for these guys to be trekking around on normal adventures).
I would suggest that the characters father was one rather than the character himself.

Born on Legs - pretty good and different cultural blessing, but not a good name. Something like Travellers Boon perhaps?


Finally(for now ), do you envisage these guys as caravaneers as well as river traders?