READ ME FIRST! OOC Character Creation Thread

Hey gang!

Welcome to the party - or should I say: fellowship (har har, Tolkien pun)!

This will be a temporary thread which we can use for the purposes of character creation, and to come to a common understanding of what the game will be about.

Talk about what kind of character(s) interest you here, your hopes and dreams for your PC, any questions you might have about the campaign or my DMing style, or how the gameplay will work, so on and so forth... Let's do it here.

Also, I want to draw your attention to the two "Resource" threads, IC and OOC. The OOC Rresource thread is primarily there to very specifically draw your attention to the important differences between Adventures in Middle-earth, and D&D. It's basically my "Session Zero" speech, so that we're all on the same page there. If you have any questions about it, ask them here.

The IC Resource thread is there to give you a solid baseline understanding of where in the Middle-earth timeline we are, and the important immediate people, places, and things. Everything in that thread is considered to be known by your PC, so you should be aware of it as a Player. Your PC of course knows more than the stuff contained in that thread, but it's the baseline.

So yea, please read those threads, as well as the PBP Basics thread if you're not familiar with Gamersplane, feel free to use the OOC Chat thread to start to get to know each other, and discuss any off-topic things and to announce absences. Annnd, yea...

Let's have some fun!

I'm thinking of playing a Man of Minas Tirith. As far as classes go I'm thinking of a Warrior.

Aaah! threads are popping up like mushrooms!

Copy-paste commences.

Hey all,

I definitely want you to prioritize creating the character that interests you.

Let me worry about any overlap/redundancy...

The other two players who've been accepted, but not chimed in yet, I was actually gaming with on a different pbp site before that game fell apart and I decided to move it here (and offer them a place in it), so I think I have a good idea of what they want to play...

One was a dwarvish Warden.

The other a Rohan Slayer.

I'm presently reaching out to them to get them going here. As well as contacting other prospective players. But at this time, go ahead and roll up your PCs (we'll be doing Point Buy), and I have just a little more work to do on the Story Thread, but hopefully we'll get this rolling soon!

Let me know if you have any questions.

My dwarven warden was from the lonely mountain guide so I'll need to tweak it

I'm hopefully picking it up today at an FLGS, that I called a week ago and they said they had it at that time! So don't re-tool quite yet...

I'm only using a dwarven race that's not very different to the core ones. Chief difference is that they're poor. Which isn't the best difference tbh but I thought made for some interesting RP.

I was able to get Lonely Mtn, so proceed with Vidar as per normal!

I officially have all Region Guides (well, Bree-land is still on its way), which I'm pretty stoked about...

It is submitted. Also congrats. I'm not particularly in love with vidar the warden but OTOH I'll never get the hang of one if I don't try it out!

Hey all, I'm interested in playing a Dunedain Wanderer named Halbarad, son of Halbaron.

The background for my character is he's an older Dwarf from the Grey Mountains, which are to the north of Mirkwood. The dwarfs there are Frugal, not having the riches of Erebor or the Iron Hills. As it's not the best place, Vidar has wandered (but not a Wanderer) about the Wilderlands a bit already. He tends to get vivid though vague dreams to interpret and act upon. The actions are normally around helping someone or something, but there hasn't been much of a theme to them. Currently he's in Dale and he doesn't know why.

Vidar plays the harp or tells stories in taverns when he's not in the wilderness.

LM, how are we determining starting Ability Scores? By using the Standard Array, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. Or by some other method? I assume you want us to use the 5th edition Character Sheets that are here on the site. Is that right?

We'll be using Point Buy for attributes.

Also, I do have to say wulfnor, that the idea of having a canon(?) character in the game as a PC makes me uncomfortable, as I don't know what your expectations are for that, or what liberties you might think that gives you.

If you want to do this, do not expect to have any special knowledge - even if it's knowledge that said character "should" have based on their canon (particularly regarding what's really going on in the background of the world, i.e. the canon meta-plot, for instance he won't know or believe Sauron is in Middle-earth nor who Aragorn really is), and especially don't expect any mechanical benefits - no advantage on checks with someone your PC "should" know, no Sanctuary in places where they may have lived or have good friends according to their canon.

Basically, you can play a character named Halbarad, son of Halbaron, but play them as if nothing you know about them as a Player ever has or ever will occur in this instance of Middle-earth...

My instinct is to say, no, but I'm willing to trust you to not try to take advantage of it.

Also be aware, AiME campaigns can easily span many years, so you very well may end up altering the story of Halbarad and never doing the things he does.

You can use the 5E character sheets and just add the AiME stuff in Notes section, or you can use the "Custom" option, which is just a blank sheet.

As things are so far leaning toward a very combat-oriented party, I would like to try to tempt someone to play a Scholar by saying: if you do, you will have the opportunity in-game to learn magic/spells if you wanted to...

That doesn't sound very LOTR-ish? Besides, I actually sacrificed some combat efficiency so I can be surprisingly strong socially. My sheet is almost done, but I have advantage on Traditions, Insight and Perception, and I am trained in persuasion. An envoy has got to envoy!

You say that without having any idea as to how it could happen, or how it would be handled.

Indeed, I don't. Hence my concern. I have visions of doom where men, hobbit and dwarf wield magic all of a sudden and that doesn't rhyme with what I expect of the setting. And even stronger, I think a major charm of the whole game is that magic plays little or no role where the player characters are concerned. The creators of the RPG really went out of their way to get all the magic out, and I'm honestly not to keen on seeing it make a return, for it would muddy the setting to get closer to D&D, and for what goal? If you wish to make the scholar more enticing, instead I would ask you to give them a different sort of benefit. More skill proficiencies for example, or maybe even more specialties through the path of wisdom. And if a player shies away from the scholar for lack of combat ability, then give a little bit of that. The great scholars of the novels like Elrond Half-elven were also consummate warriors.

I was thinking a naturalist of sorts, which I can easily make into a Scholar. No magic needed, unless perhaps some amazing cooking skills?

Did someone say... Mushrooms?

Mushroom!

I, uh, am considering a Hobbit...