OOC Chat Thread

This thread is for chatting, out-of-character (ooc).

Could be about meta/irl topics, could be about in game stuff.

But if it's OOC, do it here.

Hey everyone, so I'm about ready to post the story thread, but I wanted to address just a couple things first.

If you're familiar with Tolkien's work, then you probably know that Tolkien presents a very black and white world. Both metaphorically and visually.

Light and white is Good. Dark and black is Evil.

And furthermore, Tolkien's world is one that can very frequently be characterized by intense Nationalism, and even racially-motivated conflict and discrimination. Often lending very little nuance nor room for different characterizations of diverse nations or cultures or people.

While I do not intend to fully subvert many of these hallmarks and tropes of Tolkien's fiction (they do make for very easy storytelling and characterize much of standard "romantic" fantasy drama, and just provide the structure for which the admirable traits of Tolkien's works at times rest upon), I do want to leave room for nuance, I do want to portray a world of diverse people, and most importantly perhaps I want to acknowledge these tropes, and call them out and recognize them for the ugliness that they can represent in humanity and bring out in humanity. My goal in using them in this story is not to honor those flaws and ugliness, but to acknowledge and expose them, so that they do not hide.

And I encourage you to give whatever aid to me that you feel is appropriate towards those goals, via your rp.

For all his flaws, I believe Tolkien did at least depict chattle-slavery as universally evil, and that will be no different here, but I do want to provide notice that enslaved peoples may come up as a story element.

If at any time you feel uncomfortable with the narrative content that is coming up in the story, in these or in any other regards, please send me a Private Message, and I will develop a corrected course.

That said, also as is the way of Tolkien's written works, you can expect very low to nil levels of sexual content or gratuitous/modern profanity, nor even really much in the way of graphic depictions of violence or torture from me. And I ask a similar standard of you all.

Thanks for being here!

Hey gang, just wanted to give you all a heads up.

After hearing the Session Zero elements, above, regarding inclusivity and boundaries, therecusant has withdrawn themself from the game.

Again, I have no intentions to subvert the general themes of Tolkien, but do want to leave space in the narrative for more diverse characterizations of Nations and peoples.

If you have similar discomfort with these intentions, I would encourage you to also withdraw now.

I have reached out to another forum member who expressed interest in the Tavern thread, to see if they're still interested.

Is so we should have a new member in short order.

Or if not, I will re-open the Recruitment thread.

Knifesedgegsmes had just started DMing a new game and declined an invite, however GreyWord who has also expressed interest in the recruitment thread was still interested.

I've sent them an invite.

I have something in mind to bring them in to the story down the road and it doesn't look like anyone else has immediately dropped out (I apologize, I really didn't see the session zero disclaimer blurb being divisive/deal-breaking), so I think I will go ahead and put up the story thread to get things moving.

I like oysters. On the shell, raw. Grilled. Oyster soup.

But oyster pie???

Sounds 🤮🤮🤮

😆

Gondorian delicacies... 😬

I had a lot bigger post in my head, but it would take me too long to finish it, and I didn't want to hold up the game.

Post to your hearts content. I am sure none of us will think you are holding anything up

Hey! Don't knock the Whistler's famed oyster pie. Much better than the eel pie down the road in the Warbling Breeze!

Mmmmm ... pie.
Being able to blend in with the locals can definitely come in handy. @emsquared, do you have any customs/mannerisms/sayings in mind? Can we brainstorm a few ideas here?

I think that'd be awesome! You'd be welcome to just make something up off the cuff as well in a moment of rp that feels right, but the very effort of the world building is very Tolkienian.

The people of Umbar are a sea-fairing folk - much of their livelihoods revolve around the sea, and/but they are also from a desert climate. So those would be the first things I think about...

@Dr_B: impressive leaving scene! Very cinematic and Tolkien.

@Drakis2 Thanks! Was fun to write it.

@emsquared the tools to create that letter look are all here in GPlane, if you select some text in the post editor and press the 'F' icon next to the color eyedropper icon, this menu appears where you can format text in many advanced ways:
It's handy for handouts etc. , but I use it sparingly to keep the posts readable via the agreed formatting conventions!

Woah. I had no idea. Thanks for the info

Just thinking, and @Dr_B , give Cirion Inspiration for that letter please.

I had kind of forgotten about Inspiration until now, and as DM I often am not thinking of everything all the time, and so I want to leave the door open for you guys as Players to "nominate" others for Inspiration too.

Because they made you laugh, because they made you think, because they were in the right place at the right time, or had the right thing to do a thing. Whatever.

Actually, at this point let's everyone have Inspiration.

I was and am really impressed, and grateful, for how much each of you built characters more around the world than mechanics. I don't know that I have ever in my years of playing this game seen a group of characters that have such moderate, "real person"-looking ability score distributions.

Anyway, you all seem to have really embraced the setting and spirit of the game, and so I just want to say thanks.

Thank you, I am invested in the setting and intrigued by the storyline!

I am enjoying the chance to game in Tolkien’s world, so it lends itself well to character building. Looking forward to exploring the Southron lands

Every dm has different ways, how do you use inspiration?

Well, AIME has some special uses for Inspiration I think.

You can use it to trigger some abilities and maybe even some magic item powers (I forget exactly), but also if you have Inspiration you're not as effected by being Miserable (when you have more Shadow than your ... Wisdom(?) score), I believe.

It's been awhile since I've looked at Inspiration in AIME...

At in person games, I always aspire to award Inspiration like candy. Certainly in the "vanilla" ways (playing to your Background or Bonds or Flaws), but also basically just anytime someone's like, "That was awesome." about someone else. i.e. as a reward for making the game an experience that we all want more of.

And I've tried allowing Inspiration to be spent to attempt "rule of cool" type of stuff that might fall on the fringes of RAW. And I wouldn't be opposed to doing that here.

But I always forget to award it, and ppl always forget to use it.