D & D on the Straight Dope setup thread. (In Middle Earth FA63)

Thread Games
1501

To follow some discussion on the Shire, The King’s Edict and Nobility in the reunited Kingdom.

This is an odd thing for me to say, but Tolkien either did not think out the edict or he had Aragorn make a mistake.

The way I am playing it is men can visit and most importantly trade, but they cannot move into the Shire.

The Shire is the Bread Basket of the North and fueling the growth in population of Arnor. Now I will say much trade is done at the growing and prosperous markets of Bree but Men are not 100% precluded from the Shire. Additionally Shire Pipeweed is selling all over as a specialty luxury item much like Dorwinian Wine travels great distances.

Some notes from a PM discussion between **Elendil’s Heir **and I.

I don’t know exactly how to handle peerage and noble titles. We have High-Kings, Kings, Princes and Knights and nothing else mentioned but Nobles in general. Would Aragorn introduce a fuller system of nobility?

I was picturing Sea Knight as more like being a trained successful special forces member. A mounted SEAL type if you will.

Thoroncir was raised to an actual Life-Title of Sir as a Knight-Errant. Knight-Errants actually implies you are still adventuring and thus eligible and expected to rise higher unless your career is cut short by death or disabling injury.

I like the latin root of Duke and plan to include it as something Aragorn introduces as he tries to bring control and civilization to the vast areas of Arnor and other places that are largely empty.

Aerdolan Kanotir on Amontiri (that magical House on the Hill) is a perfect location for installing a Duke. Andrast, Angmar, Ered Luin, Nurn, the Brown Lands and many other places would make sense. I have already installed a Lord-Mayor type in Tharbad and of course the Thain of the Shire is effectively a Duke of the Kingdom.

*Earlier bits from me: * Sea-Knight is not truly noble; it is more a Special Forces designation. I actually did not imagine all of the Knights of Dol Amroth were true nobility either though I am sure in both cases it helps.

Knight-Errant would be minor nobility (the proper term escapes me) but not an inheritable title.

Elendil’s Heir and other please add more to the discussion. We are leaving the realm of what the Professor actual wrote.

1502

I’m glad the Shire won’t be entirely closed to our party. Even if you take as a given Tolkien’s Elessar-issued prohibition on non-Hobbits entering the Shire, it’s not unreasonable to think that the edict was relaxed - perhaps even, for the purposes of trade, at the request of the Thain himself - in the 60-some years since it was imposed. In any event, the knight-errant would definitely like to bend an elbow at a Hobbiton pub sometime.

Tolkien says surprisingly little about the nobility of Gondor; we know more about the governing structure of the Shire - the Thain, the Shiriff, the Master of Buckland, the Warden of Westmarch, the Mayor of Michel Delving, etc.

In addition to (on the male side) kings, princes, and perhaps dukes, barons and lords, of course there’s another one-of-a-kind hereditary title in Gondor: Steward. George R.R. Martin in his A Song of Ice and Fire books has a similar official in his Kingdom of Westeros, the King’s Hand. Functionally very similar, although not hereditary. Anyway, I always thought dukes were cool. Remember that William the Conqueror was Duke of Normandy before his self-promotion in 1066 to an even better gig. :wink: As Jim and I have discussed (and as CatInASuit alluded to in one of the early game threads), I’d hope Thoroncir could, in time, start climbing the ladder of the Gondor nobility and, Eru, the Valar and the DM willing, perhaps someday marry Gilraen as a noble if not a royal man.

1503

And of course when Caspian and friends showed up in the Lone Islands in Voyage of the Dawn Treader and found the place going to hell in a handbasket thanks to the venal Governor Gumpas, the King did away with the office of Governor altogether and installed Lord Bern as Duke.

See also The Mote in God’s Eye for an imagined future where they opt for nobility and royalty in a reasonably Good-aligned galactic empire.

ETA: Don’t worry, I’m sure Thoroncir would get a title handed to him if he ever got wedlock on fair Gilraen. But have they thought through the implications of her two-century life expectancy?

1504

That is a good question, but never an impossible one for a D&D game. :wink:

BTW: Meriadoc just got another longevity potion and another 11 years removed. The other party is trying to convince him to join them as they do not have a lucky Hobbit and few have been luckier the he. Well that and he is highly skilled, highly respected and gives them a voice with royalty.

This could prove a pretty clever move by them.

1505

I’d have no particular objection to a life-prolonging potion, spell, wish, ring (!) or the like, but I actually think it’d make for a more emotionally-satisfying tragic romance if he died well before she did, following the Aragorn/Arwen example. Or even more wrenchingly, if she died due to accident, war, illness or assassination before he did, totally surprising him and breaking his heart. We shall see… but not for a long, loooooooooooooong time, I hope.

:: crosses fingers ::

1506

If Bitur engages the spellcaster, can he be affected by the swarm as well? If so, how? And would he even know this as a character?

1507

You have seen that Ghân controls who the insects attack.

1508

Openings in this game and possible second game

Just a heads up for players and watchers. It looks like D_Odds, **RogueRacer **& **Omi no Kami ** are out. That means we have a need for an active Ranger type character and room for another player in addition.

As to the other game, I will possibly start a concurrent Middle Earth Game on Domebo.net

It will be in the same world and time and the characters can and will interact and cross over. If any one is interested please wander over to this thread there.

Anyone that has been following these threads already knows what to expect. I will put up a general setup thread for the new game soon over there.

That game would not start for a few weeks at least and Theogrim (OneCentStamp) will return to be part of that party.

1509

Here is the actual Setup thread for the new game: Middle Earth D&D Game on Domebo: FA63 Setup Thread.

1510

So how do the bolts of wounding stack up against my +2 Dwarven bolts?

Wounding does 1 point CON damage, right?

I would guess the +2 bolts are better in general.

1511

I would split the bots with you if you don’t want them all. It’s up to you. I figure you should have right of first refusal in this case. So if you do want them all, they’re yours.

1512

Ooooooo, tempting. Seriously tempting. But I feel too busy already. For now, I’ll pass.

1513

In Middle-earth, of course, we call them “droids.”

1514

I would think maybe Golems if it comes to it, not to be confused with Gollum of course. :wink:

1515

Hoopy Frood: Let me see your Identify spell.
NAF1138: [with a small wave of his hand] You don’t need to see his Identify spell.
Hoopy Frood: I don’t need to see his Identify spell.
NAF1138: These aren’t the bolts you’re looking for.
Hoopy Frood: These aren’t the bolts I’m looking for.

1516

If Gollum ran into a Basilisk, would that make him a Stone Gollum? :eek:

1517

:smiley:

If he got hold of the special Pipeweed he would be a Stoned Gollum. I’ve heard that it is a hard Hobbit to break though.

If we pressed him he would be an Ironed Gollum and before he fell into Mount Doom he was a Flesh Gollum.

1518

And if he lived on the North Norfolk coast he might be a Cley Gollum, but only a foreigner would pronounce it that way. :smiley:

Where’s my Beorning Druid, then? taps fingers impatiently

1519

And if the Stoors were one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, then Gollum would be… oh, never mind.

1520

?? I don’t get this joke.