Eriador my way

[Falenthal]

Who was the Chief of the Rangers in that time period? Arathorn, the father of Aragorn, maybe?

Arathorn got killed in TA 2933 and Aragorn was revealed his ancestry in TA 2951 (by Elrond) and probably officially declared Chieftain of the Rangers. This is IMO implied by that passage, though it is not explicitly stated in that words.
However, durin the 18 years in-between, probably some senior Ranger (likely descended from a previous Chieftain in a cadet branch) was likely some kind of Steward until the young heir was ready to take office. And even after that, the Rangers needed a sufficiently capable corps of senior officers to organize and keep up the watch over Eriador. From TA 2957-80 Aragorn is out adventuring on his great errantries, probably being absent from Eriador for many years at a time. Likewise, the Rangers then needed a robust system of senior "officers" - and some kind of Steward - that keep the business in Eriador up and running.

Cheers
Tolwen

If we want to use a known name, maybe Halbarad would be a good choice. He certainly had a rank among the Rangers, as he commanded the group that travelled south to help Aragorn.

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Halbarad

[Tolwen]

If we want to use a known name, maybe Halbarad would be a good choice. He certainly had a rank among the Rangers, as he commanded the group that travelled south to help Aragorn.

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Halbarad

Yes, but that depends on the timeframe and the associated question of lifespan. If Halbarad was a close relative of Aragorn (e.g. a first cousin is the closest possible), his lifespan would probably be around 140 to 145 years (see OM6 for details how to obtain this number). If he were already a senior Ranger in TA 2933 to act as Steward, he would have to be born around TA 2890, making him ca. 130 years (the equivalent of a 80-year-old normal man) at the time of the War of the Ring. The description in the LotR seems more like a man in his full strength, and thus this seems unlikely.
OTOH, the era of Aragorn's errantries is a bit better. To act as Steward at the beginning, Halbarad would have to be born around TA 2920 (giving him an appropriate minimum age and experience to fill that position). That would make him about 100 years old at the War of the Ring (approximate equivalent to a 60-year-old normal man). Had he taken that office for only - say - the last 5 years of Aragorn's errantries (TA 2975-80), he would be around 85 in the LotR (ca. 50-55 y.o.-equivalent).

IMO, the last option is the only one halfway fitting the description in the LotR, and thus I would exclude Halbarad as a candidate for the "Steward" position for the first and most of the second era. Actually, personally I always envisaged him to be physically somewhere in his mid-30s to early 40s (e.g. similar to Aragorn), which would mean a real age of about 50 to 60 (roughly) according to the previous assumptions, resulting in a birthdate somewhere around TA 2970 to 2980.

Cheers
Tolwen

[Otaku-sempai]

"And many folk used to dwell away North, a hundred miles or more from here, at the far end of the Greenway: on the North Downs or by Lake Evendim."

"Up away by Deadman's Dike?" said Butterburr, looking even more dubious. "That's haunted land, they say. None but a robber would go there."

"The rangers go there," said Gandalf. "Deadman's Dike, you say. So it has been called for long years; but its right name, Barliman, is Fornost Erain, Norbury of Kings."

If the Rangers are befriended, it might qualify as Sanctuary and a Patron might be put there, in charge of the Ranger's activities. Who was the Chief of the Rangers in that time period? Arathorn, the father of Aragorn, maybe?

Even if the Rangers don't have a settlement at Fornost, we know that they at least patrol the area. Still, I'm not sure about the location becoming a possible Sanctuary.

I do suspect that the Dunedain might have kept one or more secret caches or drops in or near Bree--perhaps even a safe house. If Aragorn had had more time to prepare and act then he might have been able to take Frodo and his companions to such a location, away from the Prancing Pony.

[Angelalex242]

A location like that seems more like something that the Dunedain Reward

The Star of the Dúnedain
Raise your Standing score by 1. Moreover, while you are within the ancient boundaries of the realm of Arnor, you may make an Explore roll to find your way to one of these refuges. The quality of the success determines the distance to the nearest safe place: on a success, the refuge is within three days of march, on a great success within two days, on an extraordinary success the refuge can be reached within a few hours.

would use.

[PST]

Even if the Rangers don't have a settlement at Fornost, we know that they at least patrol the area. Still, I'm not sure about the location becoming a possible Sanctuary.

I do suspect that the Dunedain might have kept one or more secret caches or drops in or near Bree--perhaps even a safe house. If Aragorn had had more time to prepare and act then he might have been able to take Frodo and his companions to such a location, away from the Prancing Pony.

Agreed, for 'My Eriador', it's someplace the Rangers go, it's not someplace they live. There will almost certainly be desperate tomb-robbers (none but a robber go there) but probably not some great organised band that has infested the ruined city (food being an obvious reason why not). Possibly using an NPC my players have a love-hate with who'll just happen to have found something and would they mind helping him out etc.

[PST]

Bree (series of posts and thoughts/questions/ideas coming here).

Actually before I get started on Bree I wanted to divert into trade and money (because it related to Bree).

If you've not read it then Michael Martinez' article on trade and commerce in ME is excellent:

http://middle-earth.xenite.org/2011/08/ ... dle-earth/

So, in this period Bree needs to be somewhat self-sufficient. The hobbits trade food to the Dwarves of Ered Luin, there aren't enough travellers and trade coming through Bree for it to thrive, so it does open up some potential problems. But then fantasy-settings in general are often iffy about trade. Wilderland has the Dwarves-Dale-Laketown-Mirkwood Elves trade, then we have Elves-Dorwinion, we can presume some north-south trade might happen between Gondor and Dale. And The woodsmen-Beorninings trade is also probable. In general though the points of light aspect of ME means commerce (and coins) should be of less importance than barter-exchange of goods and services.

It comes up in TOR in that there's not a lot to do with Treasure other than increase Standing, which is one of the few core parts of the game I dislike (I went with Rich H's reputation system instead, with my players using their treasure to improve places they care about). Treasure therefore seems even less useful in Eriador than in Wilderland where there are a large number of places to resupply, to barter for goods etc.

Diversion and mental sidetrek done, Bree is still the only named place for trade and supplies between the Shire and the Misty mountains (I don't think you buy stuff in Rivendell, I think you get resupplied if you're a friend).

My Bree will definitely not be the one from the Movies, being some sort of Tudor-looking place that didn't get enough detail.


The map is going to be based on the Atlas of Middle Earth map by Karen Fonstad, though probably fleshed out to some detail and tweaked/altered as needed for gaming.

[Tolwen]

The map is going to be based on the Atlas of Middle Earth map by Karen Fonstad, though probably fleshed out to some detail and tweaked/altered as needed for gaming.

There is a thing I always wondered about this map (which, BTW MERP almost copied 1:1 in their Bree and the Barrow-downs regional booklet). When you look at the scale of the map, Bree looks extremely huge for a settlement of supposedly limited size. Even with a rough eyeballing guess, the town/village(?) is about 1 mile (1.6 km) long and about 2000 feet (600m) wide! These are dimensions for a decent-sized city. Even a generous guess based on the descriptive given by Tolkien, we hardly come up with more than 1,500 inhabitants.
I wonder whether she had a sound reasoning for these dimensions or the scale had been printed with one '0' too many.

Cheers
Tolwen

[PST]

There is a thing I always wondered about this map (which, BTW MERP almost copied 1:1 in their Bree and the Barrow-downs[/] regional booklet). When you look at the scale of the map, Bree looks extremely huge for a settlement of supposedly limited size. Even with a rough eyeballing guess, the town/village(?) is about 1 mile (1.6 km) long and about 2000 feet (600m) wide! These are dimensions for a decent-sized city. Even a generous guess based on the descriptive given by Tolkien, we hardly come up with more than 1,500 inhabitants.
I wonder whether she had a sound reasoning for these dimensions or the scale had been printed with one '0' too many.

I've not found anything to suggest it and given i'm going with around 1500-odd in bree proper, with farmland spread around for a way and the three villages as well, I'm definitely going to be condensing the houses into more of a village and less a recreation of some millionaire's island where no one wants to have any actual neighbours!

As far as the hill, archet/staddle/combe go though it looks fine, it's just Bree itself which is too sprawling. Some sprawl is fine, likewise having some outlying buildings which are no longer lived in to represent the decline.

[Mim]

You (all) raise some great points about Bree and the Bree-land. In addition to the pages you cite from MERP and Ms. Fonstad, you may want to take a look at Barbara Strachey's Journeys of Frodo. I personally find her reasoning in regard to some of these questions concerning Bree very compelling

http://www.amazon.com/Journeys-Frodo-Ba ... a+strachey