Are you gaming against Canon and if so how?

[sageryne]

Hi all,

I got Southron's message. For anyone else who is interested, I partially completed the Tharbad location, complete enough for my own campaign. We played through the area and then moved on. Once we passed the area, I was busy working on new locations for my players, so I never got around to "fully" completing the article. I am planning on sending the partially complete article to Southron. If anyone else is interested, send me a PM with your e-mail address and I will send you a copy as well.

I have not been on the site in a couple of years, because we finished up our One Ring campaign and moved on to other games. However, I still love The One Ring and the Tolkien universe, so if there is enough interest, I might be willing to finish up Tharbad and a few other locations over the next winter.

Thanks

Sageryne

[Otaku-sempai]

What I think Otaku-sempai meant is that it will be Rich that gets a notification that someone quoted him. Not Sageryne. And it's Sageryne you want, so you should have quoted him instead of Rich.

Yes, that is exactly what I meant.

I'm glad to hear that Southron was able to reach sagerynemore directly.

[Vartholkur]

I know this is an old thread but Canon feels like a straitjacket to me!

I am playing the hell out of the modules TOR produced and loving the setting books. I feel like this game hit the right tone for Tolkien and I love it. But I add a lot of other stuff to actual play.

When I add things to the setting I am shooting for what I think Tolkien was aiming it in that essay about Faery. So I have a lot of elements that were never mentioned in the story, but that fit a faery tale kind of logic. I have used some Russian fairy tale motifs b/c they are a little less familiar to my players, but still hit the right tone (at least I think they do). So far we have played much of the Tales of Wilderland (the fight at the bridge in Celduin was fantastic - we busted out the minis and spent two nights on it).

My version of Eriador is more populated than the official version - there are hidden Dunedain communities and more towns like Bree. I am not sure if this canon or not. It's still pretty sparse, and its wilderness east of Bree, but it's not uninhabited. These communities are watched by Rangers, visited by wandering tinker dwarves and threatened by the Shadow. I dug out my MERP material (I have lots of it moldering in the attic) and used the Last Bridge Inn as a sanctuary - it's a great example of this kind of small community. Further south towards Rohan and Dunland the towns are a little bigger. I really liked the wagon train in Ruins of the North and I have used it several times, as it visits the towns of the North.

Anyway here's a couple of examples of clearly not using canon - and I'd really love to hear other people's versions!

There are many lesser wickednesses in my Middle Earth, currently, my PC's are up against the Morthbrood a secret society of witches living secretly among and threatening the human communities of Eriador. This nasty group of humans, fairy creatures, and goblins are unrelated to Sauron at all. The PC's get ongoing help from the Rangers who have long opposed the group.

I recently ran an adventure where a sinister Leshy called the Starling King kidnaps children from one of these villages during a harvest festival. The strange being hangs the kids in a birdcage forcing them to sing for him in his giant tree home. The players have to free the children through trickery or (dangerous) combat.

I don't have tons of time to write my own new adventures so I have sometimes stolen pretty liberally from 4th edition Pendragon which I think is a goldmine of Tolkienish adventure (although it often needs significant adaptation).

[Mim]

I love some of your ideas!

You're going to laugh, however, when you read this because I also am writing a story-line about some servants of the Enemy who surreptitiously slip into the North and attempt to establish themselves in the time leading up to the War of the Ring and they're named -- wait for it -- the Morthbrood!

Hmm. It appears that we're both Alan Garner fans.

[Vartholkur]

Mim that is really cool!!

Shapechanging witches, Paulug Cats, and Svart Alfar totally fit in! Sauron would love them!

[Otaku-sempai]

My version of Eriador is more populated than the official version - there are hidden Dunedain communities and more towns like Bree. I am not sure if this canon or not. It's still pretty sparse, and its wilderness east of Bree, but it's not uninhabited. These communities are watched by Rangers, visited by wandering tinker dwarves and threatened by the Shadow. I dug out my MERP material (I have lots of it moldering in the attic) and used the Last Bridge Inn as a sanctuary - its a great example of this kind of small community. Further south towards Rohan and Dunland the towns are a little bigger. I really liked the wagon train in Ruins of the North and I have used it several times, as it visits the towns of the North.

Well even within Tolkien's legendarium, Bree is only one of the four villages that comprise Bree-land, the others being Archet, Staddle and Combe. But, yes, canon would have it that there are no other surviving settlements between Bree-land and Rivendell unless you count the secret enclaves of the Dúnedain. And there is no civilization to the south until you reach Dunland other than scattered tribes of Wild Men (relatives of the Dunlendings in Eryn Vorn, and kinsmen of the Woses in Enedwaith near the mouths of the Greyflood and Isen). I think that MERP made Tharbad the former capitol of Cardolan, but I suspect that Cardolan's capitol city was actually somewhere between the Barrow-downs and the place where the Old North-South Road forks. It's not unreasonable though to imagine some Eriadorians attempting to expand back into the abandoned lands, especially along the existing roads near reliable water sources. Such a community might spring up next to the Brandywine at Sarn Ford. I know that in some Loremasters' games, Tharbad never fell (or not completely).

Anyway here's a couple of examples of clearly not using canon - and I'd really love to hear other people's versions!

There are many lesser wickednesses in my Middle Earth, currently, my PC's are up against the Morthbrood a secret society of witches living secretly among and threatening the human communities of Eriador. This nasty group of humans, fairy creatures, and goblins are unrelated to Sauron at all. The PC's get ongoing help from the Rangers who have long opposed the group.

I recently ran an adventure where a sinister Leshy called the Starling King kidnaps children from one of these villages during a harvest festival. The strange being hangs the kids in a birdcage forcing them to sing for him in his giant tree home. The players have to free the children through trickery or (dangerous) combat.

I don't have tons of time to write my own new adventures so I have sometimes stolen pretty liberally from 4th edition Pendragon which I think is a goldmine of Tolkienish adventure (although it often needs significant adaptation).

I can see the influence of Slavic folk-tales just by your description. A region that might work particularly well with Pendragon is Dol Amroth, which might best represent the ideals of Gondor at its height.

[torus]

Well even within Tolkien's legendarium, Bree is only one of the four villages that comprise Bree-land, the others being Archet, Staddle and Combe. But, yes, canon would have it that there are no other surviving settlements between Bree-land and Rivendell unless you count the secret enclaves of the Dúnedain. And there is no civilization to the south until you reach Dunland other than scattered tribes of Wild Men (relatives of the Dunlendings in Eryn Vorn, and kinsmen of the Woses in Enedwaith near the mouths of the Greyflood and Isen).

This - the desertedness of Eriador and elsewhere - is one of the areas where canon, or what passes for canon, strains both credibility and playability for me. I tend to the view that there must have been small settlements dotted throughout Eriador even in the late TA, which make no appearance in FotR because Strider chose to avoid them. There were Dunedain communities in the Angle, and we know people are travelling along the Greenway and the East Road regularly and passing through Bree. I think there must have been places for them to go to and from besides Breeland and the Ered Luin.

[Mim]

Mim that is really cool!!

Shapechanging witches, Paulug Cats, and Svart Alfar totally fit in! Sauron would love them!

Thanks! I've lived in England and explored The Edge more than once, ssooo I've kinda transported it to the Bree-land, and it rises on the northern skirts of the Chetwood. Gorlanc and his followers (from the book Bree) slip in to the area for their nefarious deeds. Zimraphel, the Sorceress of Mirkwood, has worked her way northward and more or less rules the Morthbrood with an iron hand, dispatching her Palugs as her eyes and ears. She is, after all (in my chronicle), the descendant of Queen Berúthiel...

[Halbarad]

The canon actually supports the existence of villages near the Trollshaws. In ‘Roast Mutton’ the Trolls discuss that they have devoured a village and a half since descending from the mountains. Were these the secret settlements of the Dúnedain? I like to think not. I feel that the Rangers would have gathered in numbers to destroy the Trolls before they would consume so many of their kinfolk. In my mind, the mountains they have descended from are the Coldfells and I use their conversation to justify the existence of non Dúnedain communities in the Trollshaws and the upper valley of Mitheithel.

C7 have included a little community on the Greenway named Road’s End in an adventure in Ruins of the North.

[Glorelendil]

...

When I add things to the setting I am shooting for what I think Tolkien was aiming it in that essay about Faery. So I have a lot of elements that were never mentioned in the story, but that fit a faery tale kind of logic.

...

My version of Eriador is more populated than the official version - there are hidden Dunedain communities and more towns like Bree. I am not sure if this canon or not. It's still pretty sparse, and its wilderness east of Bree, but it's not uninhabited.

...

I very much like this. I, too, have never liked the image of Eriador as being as empty as all that. (And great textual support, Halbarad!)

In many fairy tales...and, yes, in Arthurian stories...a story gets introduced and it takes place in "a kingdom" and it involves a king and/or queen, or maybe a princess or prince, and perhaps there are counsellors or villagers or perhaps not. But the story never bothers to say where this kingdom is, or how big it is, or who its neighbors are, or what it trades with other kingdoms such that the king has enough wealth to live in an opulent castle. It's just a kingdom. Somewhere. And, judging by the sheer quantity of tales, there are a lot of these kingdoms sprinkled about.

I'm fine with that. Because, as Vartholkur says, it all takes place in Faerie.

So, yeah, there's this village. It's somewhere in Eriador. The mayor is in league with the Shadow. But usually not. And some children are missing. I mean, the mayor's daughter is. Or maybe a beast or troll or shadow or pack of wolves or goblins have been terrorizing them. But all the villagers are good, honest, hardworking, folk. Except those who are not.

Whatever. If you need a village, there's one right where you need it.