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...

Hobbits really are amazing creatures, as I have said before. You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you with a mushroom dish.

So why wouldn't you first ask something closer to: "How could that happen? And how would it be handled?", instead of assuming I'm gonna instantly turn this into D&D?

Your concerns are noted, and to respond to them I will assure you I have no interest in turning Middle-earth into the Forgotten Realms. But also, please try to have some trust in me as a storyteller and DM, because if you can't, you might have troubles enjoying the game.

Should I use a D&D character sheet or Custom?

You can use whichever you wish. But the D&D one is probably the least amount of work to adapt.

Well it's been fun, best of luck with the game!

Ugh, I missed the one line! Thanks for helping me find it.

Heh, not a problem.

I would rather receive that question all day, over: "Hey, can I play Strider's right hand man?" ... 😑

So we've got a couple characters submitted. One player still waiting to hear from (though I believe I know what he wants to play, hopefully they do still plan on playing). And it sounds like it's shaking out something like:

Giblets, Rohan Slayer(?)
Khulod, Rohan Slayer
Smores, a "naturalist", possibly Scholar(?)
thatguy2, Minas Tirith Warrior
TinheadNed, Grey Mtn Dwarf Warden

For now I'm just gonna leave the group at 5 Players. Does the above sound right? Anything changed for anyone?

Anyone have any questions?

I'm thinking a Hobbit Scholar. Working on the sheet today.

Just a heads up, Squadfather had to drop out for IRL reasons. I've brought on another player, thatguy.

I'll start reviewing PCs tonight, and maybe target opening up the IC story thread by this weekend, assuming we've got all PCs submitted.

I am also thinking a Man of Minas Tirith.

Hey, took me a bit of time to get to grips with this website and find the threads haha.

I was hoping to carry over the Rohan Slayer I'd made for the last game but will have a think about changing if it looks like two of them, and a combat heavy group.

Thanks for checking in Giblets.

I'm not bothered by two Rohan Slayers, you two could have a buddy thing going on even(?), but if you want to explore other options that's cool too.

Whatever interests you most.

I'm the other slayer, and I took the envoy background and the squire, so I'm a bit more socially apt. Would make perfect sense for us to have come together and have a shared background.

Thanks! Happy to change to something else though, the character I was playing before was a kind of exile from the rohan court so not sure an envoy would want to be seen with him!

I think I'll go a Wanderer, rather than us have two Slayers. Journey is such a big aspect of this that it will be handy to have one and I've always liked ranger-esque characters.

Probably will be Barding or Man of Lake Town. Will get it uploaded in next day or two, in time for starting this weekend if that's the aim!

OK, I've settled on a Barding Wanderer by the name of Astrid. Character sheets done if you need to take a look GM. Just gonna add a short bio at some point.

She's a wanderer, so would be entirely plausible that she's met Virar on her travels at some point.

Let's say we hid from wargs together, kept the fire going til morning.

Just wanted to keep you all in the loop, still waiting on a couple PCs. Weekends are usually a time where I'm mostly unavailable, so this means we won't be starting the story quite yet.

Sorry for my delay, work got unexpectedly busy this week.

Not a problem, I hadn't reviewed any of the PCs yet, and probably wouldn't have been able to get it done in time anyway.

Am I missing the point buy info? And what you get from standard of living?

Point buy is on page 13 of the D&D 5E Players Handbook. Or numerous websites out there.

Your Standard of Living and what you get from it is all primarily detailed in your Culture and Class, and there's some additional info beginning on p147 of the AiME Players Guide, but what you get is all in your Culture and Class.

Ah ok, thank you. Wasn't sure how much would be referred back to the PHB.... So I guess AiME is treated more as a setting for 5e. I was thinking it'd reprint the relevant rules.... Oops.

I think it's something to do with the open gaming license they publish it under. They can't actually print anything directly out of the Wizards of the coast books or something like that.

Basically you still need the PHB to be able to make AIME work.

I'll b able to make my guy tomorrow, apologies

Something on the clerical lines would be nice. Of course the matter of race and deities to work with.


Follower of Varda Elentári, Queen of the Stars sounds interesting.

Hey Gene, welcome.

There are no caster classes in Middle-earth, no spells. The closest thing to a cleric is a Scholar which has a path with healing options.

Are you wanting to play an Elf, then? I think they most revere Her.

I can see if I can find you an Elf Scholar pre-gen that meets those interests?

Sounds rather interesting to me.. :) Lets see what you have..:)

Great. Standby. I'm away from books right now. Will see what's available this evening.

Giblets, Astrid is good.

TinheadNed, am I missing an Attribute bump for Vidar somewhere? I have you at a +2 for Con and a +1 for Wis, but that doesn't get me to where your stats are I don't think...

Khulod, you're good to go.

Smores, looks like you still have a lot of data entry to do, at the least, on your character sheet? Your stats are at 10/2/10/2/10/10... and you've only selected 2 skills with proficiency? Please look into character creation again and make sure you're getting everything down?

thatguy2, waiting on a submittal.

GeneCortess, maybe use Caranthiel here:
...as a template and fill out your character sheet, for your Elven worshipper of Varda?

Hey all!

I have opened up the IC Story Thread for anyone who has had their PC Approved.

Please remember to use your Character Avatar, which you can set via your Character Sheet.

Also, anyone who wants to coordinate their characters stories/backgrounds, so that you know each other already in game, is welcome to do that. However I am gonna try to bring you guys all together "organically"/via the story, maybe with a little help from you all to make it work as needed ;D so it is not a requirement that you know any other character going into things.

Any questions?

Great, I'll probably head in to the IC character thread shortly then.

Just wanted to run a brief bio by you, to make sure you're OK with it since I'm a local.
I'd say Astrid was widowed at the battle of five armies. Her father still survives but lost an arm during the battle and lives quite poorly in lake Town still. She took her husbands weapons and took to wandering, hoping to take revenge upon any orcs or wolves. She tries to financially support her father a bit by making some income from hunting/trapping and occasional caravan guard duties.
That OK? It's only because I'm playing a Barding I thought I should run it by you, as the character is from the immediate area.

Also, happy with having met Virar on the road before and sheltered from wolves!

Hey Giblets! That all sounds fine.

I would say that being motivated by revenge could potentially get you into trouble with the Shadow, just depending on how far you take it when the opportunity is there, or how your PC views it in practical terms... I mean, it IS the Enemy, and everyone has their Weakness(es), so it's not a problem in and of itself... unless/until it does become one ;)

I won't be able to check my sums until Sunday when I get home, sorry. I can't remember my grand plan now!

No problem. Your stat distribution works if you're an Iron Mountain dwarf (as opposed to Grey), so I'm wondering if that isn't the issue?

Apologies for getting slammed, should finish this weekend

We'll see how I get on with the Shadow points then... could make for an interesting character I guess.

Decided to jump in to the IC thread and get things started today!

Caranthiel is now loaded and ready

Maybe I've confused myself with the dwarven subtypes then. The one in the lonely mountain region book

GC, you can change the name of your PC to not the pre-gen name if you want. Or if you don't mind that's fine too.

Ok, I think Hugo Took, Hobbit Scholar on a journey to document Flora and fauna outside the Shire, is ready to enter Middle-Earth.

Carantgiel and Hugo approved.

Remember, all, please use your avatars when you post IC.

Hooray!!

What method of character creation will we be using?

Point buy.

thanks

Grey Mountain Dwarf is +2 CON, +1 CHA. I've written out my point buys in my char notes in case I've done them wrong. Sorry for the delay. Also I can't seem to get an avatar to load up for Vidar.

I don't know if you changed something or if I was tweaking when I first checked it, but looks good. Approved!

Will advance Vidar in the IC.

thatguy, it was over a week ago that you said you'd be able to make your PC "tomorrow".

And the weekend has passed in which you said again you would have your PC ready.

I have had problems with you in the past, in other games, with being satisfactorily active, and with contributing meaningfully when you are active.

I have 3 potential players waiting in line, one with whom I'm familiar with from another game and I know they are an active Player and good contributor.

It is for these reasons that I have decided to remove you from the game.

Hey how many Hobbits in the party right now? I'm oscillating between a couple options, though this isn't a pivotal part of my decision. Just curious.

1 Hobbit (Scholar)

The more hobbits the merrier!

Smores! You almost convinced me to go Hobbit. That would have been fun - but I felt we should have a little more representation from mannish cultures in our party. Taking into consideration the title of the game, I was looking to go Minas Tirith, but having a Hobbit in the group makes for some neat RP with a Dunedain PC. And this is my opportunity to play one; I always shy away from Elves and Dunedain to preserve the Tolkien-esque racial percentages.

Smores, let's talk connections, if any, between our toons.

Quick question about Known Lands for the wanderer, as I still have to finalise mine.

Is iron Hills a region I can take? Back story wise it would make sense but it's not one in the players guide. Just wasn't sure if it is in the lonely mountain or anything (or if it's off the map/irrelevant without giving too much away haha).

I'm away from my books at the moment, but I think it would certainly qualify as a region, as the Iron Hills are quite extensive and it would probably pull in surrounding (eastern) extremes of the Waste and the Dale, and the northern reaches of the Carnen River valley and so on...

As to it's relavence, broadly I will refer you to the campaign title :P

That said, I'm fine with you not declaring one or two of your Known Lands until it comes up in play. Pretty sure that's a standard bit of guidance in the Players Guide.

Lol. Point taken.
Fine, I've got 6 to choose so perhaps I'll pick 4 just now and keep the other 2 back for the moment, if you think that's OK?

Yes, that sounds fine.

Pleased to meet you, Deminix! Welcome aboard.

Em, where should we roll for money?

Let's see how much coin our son of Rohan has (left)...

Rolling here in the OOC as Khulod has is fine.

Ok, rolling for monies!

Well, it appears as though Smores/Hugo has left the game.

We'll move on and I'll bring so someone up from the wait list...

Balls. Double scholar could have been really cool. And I made my character with his in mind. Ah well.
Just ghosted? no word of departure?

Wish this site had some sort of tracking system or point system in place.

Said they couldn't keep up :/

Frankly, early response to the game was very low and slow, and I accepted a lot of Players I normally wouldn't. So all this turn over hasn't surprised me much...

I'm going to give up on my imposter syndrome at this rate 😉

Heh, even if you both had to split tomorrow, you and Giblets both are as real-deal as it gets in my book.

wulfnor and Smores were both also originally respondents to the RoleGate game, but didn't respond in time to make it in at RoleGate, and so I reached out to them after initial response here was anemic.

For reference, everyone, I first tried to run this game on a platform called RoleGate to try it out, the game fell apart after a few weeks but Tinhead and Giblets expressed interest in playing again, so I came back here to do it.

That's funny to me because I'd have jumped at the ad if I'd only seen it sooner.
But AiME isn't everyone's cup o' tea, I get it. It's a game of love, and a commitment to be sure.

I've looked over RollGate, I think I played a test game with a friend once. But I'm always on mobile; which I'd add to keep in mind in case you're planning on using maps, Em. You'll have to be patient with me if that will be the case.

Edit: woops, I got RollGate confused with Roll20.
But I've looked at RollGate as well and I find it difficult to navigate. But again, that's on mobile.

I feel rolegate loads better on mobile but is too limited in features

Yeah Roll gate was a bit more mobile friendly but not as good overall.

Annoying about Smores. Is this just normal for PBP then?

Yup, especially at the start of the game. Once things get rolling groups tend to stabilize into the folk who are committed.

One killer feature rolegate had was ticking the box to say "I don't have anything to add to the current scene" ,(which then unticked when any new content appeared). Is there something for that here? As for the IC chat that is what I'd be ticking rn.

Aw man nice feature. That could be huge for php...

I am usually mostly inactive on weekends, I'll have the intro to the next scene up today.

Tinhead, I haven't seen a feature like that implemented yet, We've talked to GP about doing something like that and he's in the works on rolling out GP v.2

To be fair GamersPlane is a 1 man passion project that he's done almost soley. But we keep bugging him about features to try and do a thing like that.

Also Hi!
I'm the newly appointed lacky to the group :D please forgive my non extensive knowledge of LotR lore. :D

It looks like i'll be a breefolk looking to be a Scholarly sort

For the background features must the recommend Distinctive Quality, speciality, etc.. be from that same background or can we mix and match?


Belay that inquiry, I believe i fount one that suits my idea for the character.

Hey Cave, welcome. All these platforms are pretty neat, I'm not going to demand any new features :)

OH no worries, we've been picking on him to do something like that for a bit for now. like a "read" checkbox or something so the DM knows that the posts been read so they can move on the story or whatever.

Hey Cave, I'm AFB probably for the next 4hrs or more. But off the top of my head, I believe the Backgrounds are fairly "self-contained". By which I mean, mix and matching is not a default option.

If you had a compelling reason as to why you wanted to mix and match, I would consider it (which, please note, means I also might reject it).

ok if bg and class skill clash, how would you like me to handle that? out of luck or swap skill?
Scholar: medicine; Reluctant adventurer: Medicine, [...]

I'm kosher if i'm SoL. just wasn't sure how its handled.

MONIES!!!!

Welcome CaveJohnson! Glad to have ya.

Thanks for having me :D

I'll just put me down as that skill is forfit for exchange.

For better or worse i've submitted. let me know if i goofed somewhere

Apologies, Cave, didn't get your PC reviewed last night. Will try to get it done this evening. But it is my IRL game Meetup night and it may not happen cuz it tends to be a busy evening for me... Thanks for your work in getting caught up on AiME, and getting this submitted quickly!

NP, I' havent gotten caught up IC but its more fun just jumping in not knowing anything... like real adventurers right XD

Cave, I've approved your PC, although by my calcs you optimally have 1 point left to spend on your Point Buy.

You could raise your 9 STR to a 10, or any of your 12s to a 13.

I may have on and off access problems the next couple weeks. If it seems long, please play my character.

Appreciate the heads up, GC. See ya when you're back.

Fyi LM - I put my 'Known Lands' on my character sheet a couple days ago in case you wanted to check them or anything. Have left two to pick at a later date.

Sorry for being quiet, I haven't had any emails this week from gamersplane until today for some reason...

Thanks, Giblets.

And, Ned, no problem. I have stopped following any threads because the emails are so unreliable, they didn't do any good. I know that's a legit problem. Now I just check the site a few times a day (cuz I GM and play in multiple games, and have the time).

As a player, if you have a particular time of day that facilitates your posting, it may be easiest (as opposed to relying on emails) to just pop in for a quick minute whether you've received a notice or not.

The emails just don't seem reliable atm...

My pattern during the week at least is to read this when I'm out of work (1700+0) and then post once I've thought about it (for a few hours/dinner).

Whatever works for your life.

I've been spending a good bit of time on here recently because I find myself needing a but more escapism than normal, recently...

🌎🔥😷🤯

Oh yeah once I'm self-isolating, game on ;)

uk.gov has just said today everything's totally fine though so literally nothing can go wrong.

yea GP has been looking into the emails again, its something to do with the email sender outer thing i think. So if you know anyone whos good with email servers and all the likes with that hit GP on here or the discord.

I'm away for the next week on holiday to quite rural areas. I should be fine for WiFi but if I've not posted in 24 hours and I'm holding things up just carry on without me or roll for me if you need to.

I know haha. Nothing to see here, carry on.

All I know about running mail servers is that I don't want to do it again! Although I would say I'd love RSS...

What's the rule on "Known Lands"?

It's one of the Wanderer class features. Mainly helps for the Journey phase of play. Gets bonuses to certain rolls, tracking checks etc whilst in their 'known lands'. And know somewhere to long rest in each.
I get 3 + wisdom mod to start and can add some more at later levels.

I'm not sure if I've managed to make my character sheet open but, if it is, then all the bonuses are detailed on there.

Whattaya mean exactly, Kinu?

Sorry so late. Just wanted to make sure I wasnt missing something in charGen. Like, other systems have you select certain area or regions familiar to the PC for in-game enhancements of one sort of another. Gibbets put my concerns to rest.

Hey, sorry I've not posted for a few days. My signal was pretty terrible while I was away.
Had a chance to catch up now and I'll respond in character later today, not got a chance to just now.

P. S. I'm still keen on where this story line appears to be going, as is Astrid.

No problem, I remembered that you (and GeneC) were on reduced availability after I thought about it.

Guess that's four, for moving forward with Leiknir. I'll advance the plot.

Hey gang with the plague about im still here just its just "harder" poke me on discord or here if im super needed and ill get in when i can

I mean... you're needed, Cave.

Everyone is needed to keep this game alive.

Games need Players to persist.

Whenever anyone can manage it, it's greatly appreciated if you do post.

I'm not gonna come and chase anyone down or ask/badger anyone to post in a time like this. I don't see that as my place in a time like this.

This is addressed to everyone:

If you're enjoying this game, and if you want to see where you can take the story, and if you have time, I hope you would want to post, and therefore that you would just come and do that yourself without me asking.

I don't want to pressure anyone, I don't want this to be a chore. I want you to want to be here, to escape for a few minutes, and to enjoy the other players who want to be here, and to enjoy seeing where your PC fits and goes in this story. If those wants aren't strong enough to overcome the other demands on your lives, that's 100% understandable, and it's not my place to try to convince you otherwise right now.

PbP games die for lots of reasons, most of them for much much more silly reasons then a global pandemic and looming (?) economic crisis.

I don't see recruiting new players being a fruitful effort right now, so I'm not gonna even bother with that.

If we have 3 or 4 active players we'll keep going as best we can, everyone else will just be "there" but completely backgrounded (no DM control, no nothing). But if we can't manage that, I'll likely be shutting this one down and turning my energies to a something new.

Hey, just want to say I continue to enjoy the game.

Realise I've not posted for several days and apologies. Work has been a bit stressful this week and I kept putting off sitting down to look through the prices etc.
Should be able to post daily from here on out.

Anywhere special to track Endurance or just char notes?

Yea, I'd just create a note. Exhaustion doesn't tend to come up much in "normal" 5E.

Ok, I do want to note: because pbp has inherently less combat than an in person session might, I have stated that we will be using the Optional Healing Hands and other healing ability rules as provided in the Eaves of Mirkwood, which significantly scales back the ability...

Here's a summary for your reference:
And since Caranthiel would know his abilities, you would be welcome still to change your action if you wanted.