OOC Thread

Can't have a PbP without an OOC thread for table conversations.

I'll kick off with some guidelines I tend to use:

1. I view 'play time' as Monday - Friday. Posting on weekends is entirely optional. I may post on weekends, but frequently that's to catch up.

2. Generally if you need to disappear for awhile (say more than a few days), please don't hesitate to let us know here, or through the Absences thread on the General Forum. I can handle pretty significant departures as long as I know about 'em!

3. If you disappear and don't let us know -- after about a week I'll send you a PM. After about two weeks I'll park your character somewhere in game (and safe, or reasonably so) and after about a month, I'll remove you from the game. No hard feelings in this, just want to make sure we're not constantly waiting on a person who isn't present.

4. I travel with work almost every week -- so at some point every week, I may slow down a bit depending on work. I apologise for this. Usually this is for 1-2 days, but occasionally for 3-5 days. If I'm suspicious that I'll be seriously hit, I'll post a warning note. I do try and use my hotel time to get updates going.

Thanks!

Good to know! Thank you!

I have been instructed by someone much more knowledgeable about LotR than I that Bilbo had some Took ancestry and Hobbits recall their cousins to the nth degree.

Oh yes. Genealogy is Very Much a Thing in the Shire.

I'm assuming you've seen this news from Cubicle 7 Falryx:

http://cubicle7.co.uk/wilderland-adventures-seven-adventures-for-ame/

Nice to see the 5e version getting some support beyond the initial 2 books (which I've now ordered the hard copies of! lol) - do you have any familiarity with the One Ring books at all? Just wondering if they're any good for setting info and the like for AiME as I may pick a couple up.

Ooo! I hadn't seen it. I may get it, if only to learn about how they do the conversion (and be careful if you get it -- we may do some of these adventures here!).

I own every One Ring book. Some will be more appropriate for setting backgrounds than others. A little later today I'll follow up with a post about all the books in TOR and provide some opinions about whether or not they're good for background material for AiME. At first blush, I think many of them could be generally useful -- but each will have specific content for TOR that will need conversion to AiME or is already included in AiME (e.g. Rivendell provides rules for magic weapon creation, which I believe is already in the AiME player's guide).

fell asleep early last night as I shake off this cold. will get an update up today.

Do we still need to plot a route on the map? I may have missed that part, or we might've skipped it to save time. Admittedly, I'm very tired, so I may have just forgotten.

I just assumed you were taking the route plotted by Gloin about Balin's path. Also I admit I have some challenge figuring out how to make that possible online. Maybe a google doc?

I'm not sure if you can upload it to google drawings. Some kind of Google suite item sounds most likely, for sure. And that route sounds good to me!

I'll poke around and see if I can find a collabedit image thingie. It'd be cool if you could all draw on it. perhaps a google presentation.

I've got to admit, for this outing I was assuming the same. A different route would have been a bit pointless as we'd have likely missed the spot where they dissappeared/ran into trouble.

Well for future efforts even an image file we can share and draw on would be good (we could just all use a different colour to mark a proposed route)....would be a bit basic but would get the job done :)

Yah, that's what I was thinking. Pretty sure google presentations can do the trick. We can also keep a slide of 'paths you've traveled' and 'places you've been' since those are helpful and provide game benefits on journeys IIRC.

I think that this should work.

So since I'm coming up on the end of my first semester of grad school, my ability to post (has been and) is going to be a little spotty. Should be better in a week or two, but I wanted to give you a heads up just in case!

Thank you for the heads up!

I'm posting slower too between work (post vacation) and visits to the surgeons for my ACL, my dance card is full. Sorry for any slowness!

Not a problem. Totally understandable..take care of yourself!

All,

Sorry I've been slow lately. I wound up tearing my ACL on my ski trip and dealing with surgeons, trying to get my flexibility back and handling the return-from-vacation workload has occupied a lot of my time. Then, come evening, I've been kind of exhausted due to the extra work to get my knee into pre-surgery state so I've been crashing early.

I'll try and pick things up -- but I've not forgotten about y'all! I'm just operating at less than 100% and so being a little vicious with my prioritization.

Perfectly understandable mate, you rest up and don't stress about the game, we'll be here when you're feeling up to getting it going again :)

Ditto...take your time!

Work is hellish for me right now, anyway. I can relate to having very little energy.

Things are mostly back to normal on my end, and I have a few days of breathing room now. Thanks for your patience. Hope you recover as quick as possible, falryx!

Thanks all.

Between physical therapy, work, and generally not sleeping well (and getting a cold!) it's been hard to keep up. Work's also increased the stress level by about 10x lately due to a massive reorg, so trying to make sure I have the energy and time to get an update has been hard.

That said -- here I am tonight! So an update you will have. Thank you for your patience!

No problem! I hope things ease up on you soon.

Hey there -- checking in. Things are still slow as I head towards surgery on Tuesday. Post-Tuesday I'm off work for a couple weeks, so I'm hopeful that I can spend more time here then. Let me know if the pace/quietness is driving anyone crazy and I'm happy to talk through stuff and see if we can work out something else if folks prefer.

Otherwise, I'll keep on keepin' on and will be more present starting next week.

No worries mate, just focus on getting yourself sorted and we'll be here to pick up things when you're ready :)

Yup, I'm happy to wait. Take care of yourself! Surgery is no fun.

Ditto to all of the above! Take your time and get better!

Hey folks! Sorry for the false start there! Turns out sitting around resting is mentally way more taxing than I thought it would be, so I dropped off the map for a couple weeks after surgery. All is well! But I do have to continually remind myself that I have to take more like 6 months to heal up rather than 6 weeks. So in all in due course.

I figured I'd rely on these men being from less savory parts of Middle Earth where the kindness of Hobbits is not widely known. Certain in LOTR it appears that the Rohirrim, for example, still feel that Hobbits are something of a myth. So it didn't seem too far a stretch of canon to have someone convinced Hobbits were evil creatures that could curse a man... especially given a natural 20. :)

All: inclined to add a fifth here at the camp unless there's a qualm. I'd like to ensure we have a good solid base of four of you. I can also NPC a fifth from time to time to make up for drops in activity.

Thoughts? Can also keep it to the four of you if there's a preference.

I'm happy either way but 5 may be better to keep things moving

Sure thing.

I'm good with that!

Have invited Omenstar into the game. Hopefully he'll have a character done today. Based on what he picks, I'll weave him into the story-line with the porters we have afoot..

Hi Everyone!
Happy to be joining your game!

Welcome! Glad to have a chance to play alongside you.

Welcome Omenstar!

Welcome aboard.. Another Dwarf! Omen, I'll approve the character immediately so you can post as him. I'll double check to see if anything seems amiss in creation and let you know out-of-band.

Schedule has been tight for me lately with work and home items. I need to crash tonight and be up early tomorrow -- I'll strive to have an update posted then. Apologies for the delay.

Take care of yourself first! Thanks for letting us know, and this is supposed to be fun...not more work. :) Post when you have the time and the energy. This game has been great so far, and I don't mind the slow pace at all.

Marithyme sums up my feelings exactly. Take your time and thanks for the heads up!

Yeah same here mate, RL comes first so get yourself sorted and we'll be here when you're back in a position to run for us :)

Just thought I should let you all know, I'm heading to a meditation retreat for almost two weeks. Feel free to RP Frór as you see fit until I get back. But don't let him die!

Have a good time!

Enjoy!

We'll keep him in the background 'til you return. :)

Hi peeps, just to let you know I'm going on holiday from tomorrow for a little over a week. Still hoping to be able to post on an evening at a reduced rate but I've no idea what the crack will be with regards the the interwebs so I may be completely off for a week (hopefully not though)

Thanks for the heads up - I'll either autopilot you or let us stretch our stuff, or both!

All -- sorry for the slower pace this summer. Unfortunately with the nicer weather here in the Pacific Northwest, we tend to spend a bunch of time outside until it's nearly dark -- which turns into "I should get to bed" pretty promptly. During the week I also am juggling knee-related rehab three days a week that eats up a couple hours, the other days I need to be on the bike -- so I'm chewing into my free time with this "exercise" crud. Net net -- the games will be a bit slower until the kids start school in September, but I'll keep the posting up!

Slow is fine...and of course you should enjoy both the lovely weather and your family! Thanks for letting us know. I'm really enjoying the game.

I concur! I'm enjoying all of the characters a lot. Take your time. I'll be here, for sure :)

I'll be home from vacation tonight, so I'll be posting again soon. Enjoying the game! Thanks everyone! Hope it continues on and on... I really like all the characters, and the setting, and the story!

All -- Still alive! A few of the other games I've been in are slowing down, so I hope that my relatively limited time can be more thoroughly focused.

Something pretty terrible occurred to someone close to me, and I need to do some traveling cross country. There's a chance that there isn't any disruption in being able to post at least once a day, but I don't know for sure. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up in case I miss a day or two over the weekend.

Thanks MoMo -- sorry to hear about the circumstances. Spend the time you need in real life, and we'll make sure you're fine here. Note also that the weekends are generally a 'free time' -- I generally think of them as optional posting days for you guys since, you know, it's the weekend and you may have other plans and whatnot.

In Hawaii on vacation 'til 11/26 -- posting may be sporadic to non-existant. Sorry for the slow down in the game while I'm away!

Aloha!

Enjoy!

No worries

Have a good time!

apologies for being incognito. work has been diabolical for me lately -- with early days and late nights. that plus the holiday season has meant a little less spare time (or a lot less). vacation starts Friday and I'm doing a staycation so I'll get caught up by then for certain if not beforehand.

No worries here!

no problem

No worries from my side either, seems like most people have been busy with RL stuff recently given the slowdown on here

RL has been nuts for me too. The pace is fine!
Thank you 🙏

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope everyone had a restful holiday / end of year season. I, myself, did a whole lot of nothing. Much time spent with family and playing games with my kids. It was a good time, and I'm actually ready to head back to work tomorrow (and to have the kids back at school).

Can I get a quick role call to see who's back and ready to roll? If we don't hear much -- I'll let it coast 'til the end of the week. That said once we hit 1/6 we'll get going and I'll act as the players who are incognito if I need to.

Happy new year peeps, I’m still here and ready to get rolling again :)

Happy New Year!
I’m traveling back home today, but we’re moving on Saturday the 6th, so this week is packing week with limited computer time. I’m prepared to participate, but it would be less than usual until we’re settled next week.

My next week and a half are going to be really difficult, as I'm dealing with teacher certification. Feel free to go on without me and auto-pilot Robin in the meantime. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Happy holidays and new year, everyone!

I’m here.

I need to take some time off from GP, everyone. I'm really sorry. It's been a great game.

Dang!
We’ll miss you!

Apologies all, I've been totally mugged by work. I'm holding out hope that things get a little less crazy sooner. But I'll focus on winding down this adventure (which we've basically gotten to) and then I think I'll hit the pause button until stuff mellows out at work (assuming it does so). I believe once I hire in a couple folks and offload some of my day to day, I'll be back into a sane schedule...

but...

Sounds good to me. Take your time.

I'll be here waiting mate, totally understand that RL comes first.

...RL comes first?

Real Life :)

I know what RL means. I was making a joke. I guess it went kinda flat, huh?

I will defend my position by stating it's been a looooong day lol

:) Checking in. I need to read up on the Fellowship Phase and get that rolling for you guys...

Hey folks -- sorry for the delay in moving this along. I see you are all still in game. How's it going? Work has continued to be insane, but I'm hopeful for some clarity in the near future.

I’m game!
I can never get enough Adventures In Middle Earth!

A GM is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives exactly when he means to.

:)

All good on my end, glad you’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel matey

Let's get the fellowship phase knocked out real quickly, then we'll sort ourselves out. I think MoMo is still basically AFK (I see he's ~30 days inactive) and I'll excuse thatguy from the Fellowship as well.

I do have 1-2 players over in my One Ring campaign that may be interested in continuing. As a result, I wonder about whether or not all of you are interested in migrating to the One Ring system and joining Geleswinta the grim Beorning and Reginard the scholarly Hobbit in that play system. No pressure if not! (I've also asked if they'd like to come over into this system).

I am vaguely of the opinion that One Ring captures the Middle Earth feel better -- and I have more source material for that than I do for AiME, but I'll make a go of whatever. :)

For me, it would depend on how steep the learning curve was. What is the chassis of One Ring?

I've got no experience with the One Ring system but if you're ok with a noob then I'd be up for giving it a try :)

I also have zero One Ring materials, but I have lots (although not all) of the AiME books, so AiME is definitely my preference.

Newbieness would be ok (and all three of you would need to be on board with trying it before I'd suggest it).

TOR's framework is it's own thing -- its fundamental mechanical die role is a d12+nd6 based on your skill in a thing. On the d6s an extra rune imparts either a great (1 6) or extraordinary (more than 1 6) success. In combat this means greater damage, out of combat it means greater overall success/impression.

In the case of TOR, your culture is fundamentally determinative in what your stats/skills are at start. Your profession/calling modifies them slightly but only slightly. There are no levels in TOR -- everything is through experience point gains through skill use.

I think there are a couple key differences:

1) some of the social interaction rules are more complicated - opinion varies on whether they're clunkier or more evocative of ME.
2) there's a "Hope" mechanic that is used to get bonuses or activate special skills. This is what Shadow points are measured against, so there's a much stronger focus in Hope vs. Shadow (versus AiME which puts Shadow against Wisdom for a smaller focus).
3) combat in TOR is more dangerous, as a rule and abstracted more than in AiME.

Other items like cultures, journeys, social encounters, fellowship phases, etc. are all in TOR and many of those concepts were adjusted and ported over to AiME, so your familiarity with them as concepts should map over to TOR easily if you collectively decide to give it a go.

Note, I've also asked the TOR folks if they'd like to come over here and do AiME.

In the end, if people aren't up for mixing, that's ok. =). Just making it an option since there's clearly a couple groups of people who like Tolkein afoot.

Sorry I've been a little scarce this week. It's been unusually warm in Seattle and our A/C is on the fritz, which means my computer is located somewhere at the intersection of Hell and the Sahara -- but with more humidity. End result is that I've been avoiding my computer like the plague since it's really uncomfortable to be there. Temps get back to normal this weekend!

That said -- I may keep things quiet on the AiME front for the summer. Lots afoot at work and I'm not sure I can run two games and keep on top of things. Thoughts?

It's all for fun! Just play when you can. I too will respond/play as I'm able.

Yeah, I'm okay with putting it on pause until the fall.

It's probably the best place to pause things for a while given that we're still in the Fellowship phase so I say leave it for now until you feel you've more time to do the game justice

Sounds good. I'll leave the game open, but not plan to come back to it until later in the year. If y'all choose to drop out to keep your games list clean, that's fine -- I'll go hunting for you when it's time to get rolling again.