Beornings?

[Otaku-sempai]

If Beorn did sire any daughters or have any granddaughters I might have one or more of them be skin-changers. However, I might treat this as a rare anomaly. She might even take the form of some other creature (a deer? a swan?) rather than that of a bear.

[Earendil]

Or it's just Tolkien's usual old-fashioned use of "men" to mean human people in general...

I would agree with this if men in the excerpt was capitalized. More likely, in my opinion, is that Tolkien only saw the males in Beorn's line as being skin-changers.

Maybe, but Tolkien's capitalisation was surprisingly inconsistent; a lot of the consistency that exists now was added by editors and/or in later editions.

I'm just saying it could be interpreted either way. Maybe Tolkien did mean that none (or very few) of the women of Beorn's line had skinchanging abilities, but I don't think we have good evidence one way or the other. So if it matters in your game, you can go either way without worrying about canon.

(Obviously as LM, you can break canon in your game anyway, if you see fit, but I'd say you should tell your players if you intend to do so blatantly, or they may get irritated!)

[Elmoth]

Not very prominent in most cases in the sense of having much will of their own. Arwen could be changed for a nice drinking flagon and the story would read the same. She is an object of desitre and a mother, but plays no relevant role herself except as a knot between the elves and the dunedain leadership. Idril does not do much herself either. Etcetera. Been a while since I read the core materials and you can surely smash this with thousands of quotes, but in general they are not the real protagonists most of the time. When they appear they are consorts. With some notable exceptions, of course, but it tells you something of the worldview of the author. One that was quite common at the time.

I find it perfectly fine to change that in game (we do) but the core material is certainly biassed against gender parity.

[Stormcrow]

Not very prominent in most cases in the sense of having much will of their own.

Galadriel, Eowyn, Varda, Melian, Nienna, Yavanna, Luthien, Ungoliant? Heck, even Lobelia Sackville-Baggins? No wills of their own?

the core material is certainly biassed against gender parity.

Yeah. Most men marry upward: Galadriel is greater than Celeborn; Melian is greater than Thingol; Arwen is greater than Aragorn (at least as an elf is greater than a man). Even Varda is loftier than Manwe, and receives more love from elves.

[Elmoth]

I did not say they weren't there, but that they tend to be less prominent than men in the narrative. And as said you can always search for the exception in the text. You listed most of the important ones in the whole narrative in less than a row of text

Melian is a quite a clear case of someone doing things in a secondary role. The important scenes and fates of Belerians are driven by Tingol, not Melian, regardless of her being a maya. Girdle of Melian et al, she is a secondary or even tertiary figure in the narrative of Beleriand. An enchanted item could do most stuff she does since she is not important in decision making most of the time.

[Stormcrow]

I did not say they weren't there, but that they tend to be less prominent than men in the narrative. And as said you can always search for the exception in the text. You listed most of the important ones in the whole narrative in less than a row of text

Hence my statement that they were less numerous.

Melian is a quite a clear case of someone doing things in a secondary role. The important scenes and fates of Belerians are driven by Tingol, not Melian, regardless of her being a maya. Girdle of Melian et al, she is a secondary or even tertiary figure in the narrative of Beleriand. An enchanted item could do most stuff she does since she is not important in decision making most of the time.

Okay, I see that we're working from different definitions of prominent.

I'm referring to how significant and powerful the character is; you're referring to how much stage-time the character has.

Melian has far more power than Thingol has, though Thingol sends Beren (and, inadvertently, Luthien) on his quest and causes the downfall of Doriath by squabbling over the Nauglamir. Melian sets up the Girdle, gives Thingol much of his power, produces Luthien, and is the mentor of Galadriel. (No enchanted item could do all that.) She is a Big Deal, not someone's Little Woman.

[michael.harrel]

My Beorning player was very disappointed to find that Beornings couldn't turn into bears, so we worked out the following:


The Beornings were originally a group of humans for whom Beorn became a leader-figure after the events of The Hobbit. After his death, his son Grimbeorn became their leader...As such, it should come as no surprise that not every Beorning can change their skin to a bear’s; in fact, not even every descendant of Beorn has the ability. However, there are a few in whom the blood of the skinchanger runs strong, and these descendants may select the following as a Cultural Virtue during initial character creation.

Blood of the Skinchanger


“He is a skin-changer. He changes his skin; sometimes he is a huge black bear, sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard.”

You are a descendant of Beorn, and know the secrets of skin-changing. So long as you are not Weary, you may choose to gain a point of Shadow and become a bear. Any items you are carrying will be dropped during transformation. While in your bear-skin, you receive a bonus to your Body attribute equal to your Valour. Your Heart and Wits attributes are effectively 0 (or 1 for your Favoured rating). For the duration of your time in bear form your Song and Craft belong to the Wits column, but Hunting and Search skills belong to the Body column. When fighting in bear form, you must always choose a Forward stance. If your Endurance is reduced to 0, you will immediately return to your human form. You also have the following ratings:

Bear Form
Parry: 5, Armour: 3d
Weapons Skills: Claws 3, Bite 2
Claws: Damage: 8 – Edge: 10 – Injury: 14 – Called Shot: The enemy’s shield is smashed
Bite: Damage: 8 – Edge: 12 – Injury: 14 – Called Shot: Piercing blow
A Beorning in bear form also has the following special ability:

Toughness: The companion may spend a point of Hope to reduce his Endurance loss caused by the attack of an opponent by a number of points equal to your Body rating.

[Otaku-sempai]

Not bad, although it's not very useful until the last years of the Third Age and into the Fourth. Granted, we don't know whether or not Beorn sired more than one child.

[aramis]

Not bad, although it's not very useful until the last years of the Third Age and into the Fourth. Granted, we don't know whether or not Beorn sired more than one child.

As long as that child lived to breed, that's not a big issue...

[Otaku-sempai]

Not bad, although it's not very useful until the last years of the Third Age and into the Fourth. Granted, we don't know whether or not Beorn sired more than one child.

As long as that child lived to breed, that's not a big issue...

The opposite, I would think. It is a much bigger deal if Grimbeorn becomes an uncle rather than being an only child.