LOTR role-playing

This could be harder than I anticipated... but I'm up for a challenge... Tin, you may just have to make up a character, someone far less (self?) important than you, yourself... You could be a scullery hobbit... what a humble thought, Your Majesty!

Can I be a drunken buckie fuelled Scots hobbit?- I can probably manage to role play that with an effort, stretch as it is.

Oh, you can't be an existing book or movie character.

Tinuviel has sort of made her own character based on the Luthien of the books, though.

"Oh, you can't be an existing book or movie character."- Lorient


Well no drunken Scots hobbits in the movies and definently not in the books (I contend Pippin is not drunk at the gates of Isengard in PJ's version but clearly stoned). So I should be in the clear!
Or I suppose I could role play a bar fly from the Prancing Pony.

My character is developing even as we speak... Not my character, it's set in dark crystal. No, I mean the character for the Role Play.

As an old DM how os this going to work exactly? Do characters have stats- what if I get into a drunken brawl? How are such matters resolved?

Eldorion wrote:Tinuviel has sort of made her own character based on the Luthien of the books, though.

Is she based off luthien or is she luthien. Cause luthien dies in the first age.

Treason!!

Even I knew that, Petty.

Lorient Avandi wrote:Is she based off luthien or is she luthien. Cause luthien dies in the first age.

We're really a lot more laid-back about that. To try to put it in concrete role-playing terms, we have our own sort of alternate-universe version of Middle-earth that is a mish-mash of elements from various parts of the legendarium as well as the real world and wholly original ideas. If you want to have a serious Middle-earth RP that's perfectly fine, but that would necessitate everyone coming up with new characters, or at least severely modifying their existing ones.

Just trying to get my head around how this works? It sounds more like taking turns writing a story set in ME rather than an RPG. I'm old skool I feel all wrong without stats, saving throws, funny shaped dice and names with not enough vowels in them!

"Even I knew that, Petty."- Porgy

I refuse to believe Queen Tin is some sort of filthy zombie! Zombies do not have exquisite noses.

Oooh... I'm going to be a fluffy rabbit, called Fluffy. But it'll be a talking rabbit, not a rabbit you eat.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Just trying to get my head around how this works? It sounds more like taking turns writing a story set in ME rather than an RPG. I'm old skool I feel all wrong without stats, saving throws, funny shaped dice and names with not enough vowels in them!

I get where you're coming from Petty, I went through the same phase myself as a D&D player coming across online role-playing for the first time. Wikipedia has a pretty good article about the play-by-post model that I believe Lorient has in mind. It is to a large degree collaborative storytelling, much more so than tabletop RPGs which (in my experience at least) tend to devolve into dice games to see who can get the best numbers.

Well I don't really care if she does a high ranking person. As long as she doesn't use the power to change the story to just how she wants.
In answer to Petty's question: this will not be you traditional D&D RP game. The story just changes according to how the players write their characters. We don't really have any way to keep track of stats, abilities, etc. All I'm saying is try to keep your encounters realistic. if you drunkenly attack a fully sober town guard, you should either get overpowered or flat out killed. You will be the one writing about your character though. It should be easier to figure out once I start.

You need a better DM Eldo! Talking of which is there even a DM? Who runs the game? And how?

MMm your post Lorient has only confuddled my already befuddled brain! I still dont get how it works- why would anyone write their character out of a game, or have them lose a fight, or not get the loot? Maybe I should just let you all get on with it and jump in when I think I have got it sussed out.

Ooooh... I'm ready to jump in and go along with just about anything any of you wants to do with me... I'm not quite sure about the rabbit now... a Maiden would suit me better, I think...

Pettytyrant101 wrote:You need a better DM Eldo! Talking of which is there even a DM? Who runs the game? And how?

MMm your post Lorient has only confuddled my already befuddled brain! I still dont get how it works- why would anyone write their character out of a game, or have them lose a fight, or not get the loot? Maybe I should just let you all get on with it and jump in when I think I have got it sussed out.

I'm not entirely sure how to describe it, so I'll give you a link to a LOTR-ish RP on the forum where I met Baingil. It's a fairly light-hearted thread where all sorts of characters show up at The Prancing Pony and just interact. I show up as a wolf in the middle of page six, which I've been told was one of my better attempts at RPing, though I leave such judgments up to you.

http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=236269&PN=6

There really isn't a DM, per say. Some threads have a "threadrunner" or "game master" who keeps the plot moving along by posting updates about what NPCs and enemies are doing, but mainly it's the participants in the thread who drive the story through their interactions with each other. It's really dependent on good communication and collaboration between players.

Maiden!!! Oh my thats rich!

I shall have a look Eldo- I am intrigued.

Well, I thought I might be able to use my imagination, Petty!

"I thought I might be able to use my imagination"-Porgy

There's a worrying (or intriguing) thought!

Well, I'm truly offended, Petty - I'm going away in a huff (...back later sometime, though... I can't stay mad at you for long, Cherrypie).

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Maiden!!! Oh my thats rich!

I shall have a look Eldo- I am intrigued.

Let me know what you think of it; I'm curious as to your perspective coming fresh from D&D-style RPing, which I have sadly not done in a while.

Just had a look- it does seem more like a communially written interactive novel than what I would traditionally think of as an RPG. Its less of a game. A sort of make your own adventure thing. I think I prefer still the idea of a DM of some sort and a setting with a rough plot going on in it the 'players' can interact with. That of course would require someone with a lot of spare time to write responses as DM to everyones direct actions. So I can see why its not hugely feasible.

That does happen to some extent in more structured threads (the pub was more of a "free RP" where everyone comes and goes as they please). Sometimes the DM explains the direction of the plot to the players in an out-of-character (OOC) thread, also, so that they have a general sense of what their next actions should be. I think that Lorient had something like this in mind, but he'd have to clarify that himself.