Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza

Yes!

looks decent to me

Yes! Let’s gooooo!

Wonderful! @Tarawen , if you can please move all post starting from here - viewtopic.php?p=43669#p43669 - down to this one, into the MT OOC that would be terrific! Thank you

@Afird Splitax the posts have been moved

Thanks, Tara!!

Hopefully I haven't missed anything in the game post. If I have please let me know. Thanks

Excited and a little scared by the math. Now to decide who to RP...

On a totally separate note, @Winddancer - your post in Northern Fiefdoms was heartbreaking!

I know! So sorry! :(

No no it's ok! it was wonderful. I love fictional sadness, drama and all the feelings. I hope she will be ok though..

Well, Berrik will likely try :)

@Afird Splitax I hope I did the formatting right (realized I didn't close the bold tag) but figured if that was the worst should be okay... And I THINK I did the math right. It's late and I'm prepping for just sort of 2 weeks in Winnipeg.

@Lailyn I suppose we have something else to plan Frost for! By the end of this little story arc he's going to earn the abiding ire and eternal hatred of 90% of Minas Tirith

Weeeeell given the statue he made, pretty sure it will be 100 :P

all the sudden everyone's an art critic!

@Fuin Elda and @Moriel - The letter S in GROVES fell on a DL premium. You may not have noticed it simply because the new board I updated never loaded. I am having a bit of trouble loading the board. Your score is 34. Thanks!

Hi @Tarawen ! Can you see the board in the game thread? Is it updated with the word GROVES? Thanks!

@Afird Splitax - yes! I see the updated board!

@Tarawen Thanks love!

Good, go Berrik!!
Yeah I have to agree that, 100% of the city will probably hate Frost..even Hathaldir the jerk won't be impressed.

Call of Cthulhu wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 3:05 pm @Lailyn I suppose we have something else to plan Frost for! By the end of this little story arc he's going to earn the abiding ire and eternal hatred of 90% of Minas Tirith

Hahahahahah It's always a lovely thing to be in the minority of oddball and uncanny characters who will appreciate Frost's peculiar sense of art form? Artwork?

And you can be sure I will play many, many of those oddballs and uncanny characters Minas Tirith can't be full of goody two shoes, there have to be a few bad apples in the barrel

<3

Call of Bearthulhu wrote: ↑Wed Mar 17, 2021 10:03 pm And you can be sure I will play many, many of those oddballs and uncanny characters Minas Tirith can't be full of goody two shoes, there have to be a few bad apples in the barrel

And I love them all and the fantastic ideas you come up with.

@Afird Splitax, hope I did the scoring right, but if not, let me know! Brand new to WSing and stink at math so please bear with me.

It looks like there are more evil folk roaming around MT than there are goody two shoes.

@Call of Bearthulhu *raises a glass* To misfits, oddballs and uncanny characters. May we have more of them and may they entertain us all!

@Pele Alarion - Heh, how does that saying go there is no light without darkness.

Hey, Gondor was ruled by the worst of them all! (Can you tell I did not like how Denethor treated Faramir?) Not that many goody two shoes :P

Did an actual minion just say that Denethor II was ‘the worst of them all’ ? Really ? Denethor was negatively affected by a corrupted palantir and he wasn’t a great father. But wow. ‘Worst of them all ??’ You minions have actually been to Mordor, right ?

Worst of them all OF GONDOR :P Not of all of ME lol

@Winddancer , would it be alright if I created a secretary kind of character for the Tower Guard? One such person who file the reports and keep track of the evidence and introduce clients to the guards etc ?

Denethor is a tragic figure indeed, @Ercassie , and surely his wife's death affected him greatly . "He listened to counsel, and then followed his own mind. He had married late, taking as wife Finduilas, daughter of Adrahil of Dol Amroth. She was a lady of great beauty and gentle heart...Denethor loved her, in his fashion, more dearly than any other... After her death Denethor became more grim and silent than before, and would sit long alone in his tower deep in thought, foreseeing that the assault of Mordor would come in his time." - Tolkien, from The Lord of the Rings: Appendix A - The Stewards

We clearly see that he had been a decent man once with the remark Tolkien made that he listened to people (this is echoed also in Letters in a quote I provided in the Ranger OOC or somewhere in Northern Fiefdoms) but after his wife died there was a change. Tolkien speaks of his corruption by palantír later in the following paragraph. Can we get the Gondor debate team back?

Go for it! :D

Ercassie wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 6:35 pm Did an actual minion just say that Denethor II was ‘the worst of them all’ ? Really ? Denethor was negatively affected by a corrupted palantir and he wasn’t a great father. But wow. ‘Worst of them all ??’ You minions have actually been to Mordor, right ?

What's this? Denethor Defence Squad?

I'll just leave you all with a quote by the Belter legend Klaes Ashford on this topic, I think it's suitable "You let nostalgia trick you, and you’ll regret it badly."

Re the secretary in the Tower Guard... Sorry, no appropriate quotes here Imma just haul popcorn and enjoy the show

Thank you, Windy! I'll have her interact with my character and your captain!

I have joined the Denethor Defense Squad, @Nessa Saelind in an edit ! Well, OOC. Beren still had no qualms about accidentally knocking his bust over in Ranger Commons . Yes, the secretary moments with Beren will be hysterical reads .

@Tharmáras - looks like today is the day for Belter quotes re DDS "Everyone makes mistakes eventually." and I cannot believe I'm about to quote who I am quoting, but "We all lie to ourselves first." I'm going to go put bleach in my eyes now but before I do re Denethor Some people aren’t worth saving.

I could argue other leaders of Gondor who were just as, if not more, a case of bad apples than was Denny 2, but I fear that may in fact be our clever Dragon’s goal; as surely seeing proud Gondorians break down pride in their imaginary nation and it’s rulers will please only the minions. Thus I withdraw my clearly misunderstood statement in efforts to draw a line under this odd diversion, and go back to trying to RP. This random announcement has been brought to you by the letters O and Oooh ! And a number far too high for me to count. Thank you

Ercassie wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 9:19 pm I could argue other leaders of Gondor who were just as, if not more, a case of bad apples than was Denny 2, but I fear that may in fact be our clever Dragon’s goal; as surely seeing proud Gondorians break down pride in their imaginary nation and it’s rulers will please only the minions. Thus I withdraw my clearly misunderstood statement in efforts to draw a line under this odd diversion, and go back to trying to RP. This random announcement has been brought to you by the letters O and Oooh ! And a number far too high for me to count. Thank you

*Says "Castamir? Castamir?" in the same monotone voice of Ben Stein asking for Ferris Bueller*

Ercassie wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 9:19 pm... will please only the minions.

@Tharmáras

Ercassie wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 9:19 pm I could argue other leaders of Gondor who were just as, if not more, a case of bad apples than was Denny 2

I knew my comment/gif would make you laugh that heartily, @Ercassie . I could not resist !

Hi @Pele Alarion, @Call of Bearthulhu ,@Fuin Elda , @Tarawen , @Moriel , @Lailyn ! I do not have much time for rping during the week, my apologies for the lack of effort. What do you think if both members of the team receive letters? Instead of 7 tiles per team, they would have 14?

@Afird Splitax As in playing individually, but counting two together for a team? Or - playing two words per round? As for RP, would it be all right to RP in between, even without a play, or would it clutter things up?

Wow, I go to bleach my eyes and sleep and somehow elves turn this into a debate club and rudely not send anyone the memo we are now forming/having a debate club over, wait for it...

Ercassie wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 9:19 pm (...) Denny 2 (...)

Cassie you are a treasure! This made my day honestly! Week even! I will never, ever look at Denethor the second of his name without thinking of him as Denny Thank you! You are a star and if I could ask admins for points for posts in OOCs for making me laugh I would (I mean can I? Answers on a postcard, please.) Have some chocolate instead! And if I write really, really hard today you might even get a post in the Inn from me

@Pele Alarion By all means, RP whenever you like!

Yes, playing individually, but counting two together for a team. And if someone can't play the round of letters, his teammate can. What do you think?

@Afird Splitax, that 48 hour deadline crept up on me for sure.. I don't mind playing either way though I like having someone to brainstorm words with. I'm ok with whatever you decide is easiest for you to manage since you are the GM.

@Afird Splitax I think playing with just the 7 letters is fine I know Moriel is busy/was worried about not being able to keep up, so might be easier to keep it to how it is rather than me needing to possibly come up with two words per round?

I'm actually quite fine with either, and can adapt to how other people/teams feel about this.

Thanks for the input! I will leave things as they are for this match.

This is the gist of what I am talking about. It is how the game was played on old plaza with teams. Of course then it was kingdom teams. But I believe it could work with individual teams also. Maybe next match...

Some things will stay the same, some things will differ. I will go into more detail a little nearer the time, but one major difference, due to the fact that it is a one on one match, will be that each team will be split into two and will play two separate racks, alternately (Team A(1), Team B (1), Team A (2), Team B (2) ) This will bring a lot more strategy into the game and make it really interesting, when one half of the team sets up the other half for a major word, then the other team blocks it, et cetera.

It’s not all that complicated, but will add some strategy. Say Rohan were playing Mordor:
Mordor (a) would play their word... say AMPLE just after a double letter score.
Then Rohan (a) would play somewhere.
Mordor (b) would play next, because of Mordor (a) playing the word they played, Mordor (b) are now able to use their X on the double letter score and create EXAMPLE getting huge points.
Then Rohan (b) would play.

Each team will be split into two playing teams, 9 letters to each, it'll soon become apparent

March might not be the cruellest month, but it's an important month. Many significant and important events for Gondor (and Rohan and the whole of Middle Earth) happened in March 3019 T.A. Although this year we might have missed some of the dates (March 13th, Battle at Pelargir, March 14th the Siege of Minas Tirith begins, March 15th Battle at the Pelennor Fields, Siege of Minas Tirith ends) an important date is approaching: March 25th, Battle of the Morannon and the fall of Sauron.

@Ercassie and I got to talking about anniversaries and in that conversation we wondered which date specifically would the Reunited Kingdom mark as a sort of Victory Day or Remembrance Day (or if you have any other idea how to refer to this day IC I am all ears here people! Sound off below, please!). Personally, I think that the cities in Gondor such as Pelarigr and Minas Tirith would have some sort of remembrance day ceremonies on the dates the sieges were lifted (as mentioned above), but that the whole Kingdom would celebrate March 25th (along with the rest of Middle Earth I suppose), the downfall of Barad-dûr and passing of Sauron (into the void. Yay! ).

This leads me to the point of this post (yes, there's a method and a point to my madness it's not always obvious, but it exists ). Would you, friends, Gondorians, countrymen be interested (is that the right word?) in marking these important anniversaries for our Kingdom and for your Gondorian characters IC in a separate In Memoriam thread?

I realise that if we want to we can do flashback posts or posts regarding the anniversaries in the Free RP threads, however, the War of the Ring is the single most traumatic event for an entire generation if not more generations of people in Middle Earth and has affected everyone. It would be extremely interesting to see how our characters (who come from various backgrounds and us as authors of those characters who come from different backgrounds) come together in public and private remembrance ceremonies. To show how they react, what they think about these remembrance ceremonies, do they participate or not? If they do how? Does the level of participation and attitudes towards those ceremonies change over the years? How does it change if it changes? To show the contrast how the older generation, or the people who actively participated in the war or were present during a siege mark these events and how the younger generation, or those people who were more sheltered and the war didn't touch them mark these events and what do they think and feel about all of it.

Since this is a very specific and sensitive subject I personally believe it deserves a thread of its own. It would be an open thread, and people could post in it whenever they like or whenever so no pressure that you have to do something by a certain date. Also, I think it would the discussion here in the OOC about how the public remembrance ceremony of these events would look like. What customs and traditions would we take for this. What would King Aragorn's, Queen Arwen's, Prince Faramir's and Lady Eowyn's roles be? (Although, if I'm being honest, I'd preferred that the focus is on our characters, not the canon characters, however, I'd love to discuss this). How would ceremonies differ or be the same in various cities, towns, villages of Gondor? Also people's private ceremonies in parallel with the official, public ceremonies...

Sorry if it got a bit rambly at the end, but I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts about this. Please let me know what you think down below. Any and all ideas, comments, questions, concerns are very welcome and in fact encouraged!

Do it. Now <3

Edit: Oh and Sauron isnt dead! He is just.. recouperating..

I'm all for this, and also yes, Sauron isn't dead, he's dreaming

For the Bear and the Dragon I did say he fell and passed, not that he's dead but I offer these verses in recompense

These are the voices of those
Who have passed over the river heard
On the wind entwined with the
Eternal and the everlasting

I think it's a lovely idea! I expect plenty of moving posts. I can have my Gondorians reacting to it in a personal way. Memories, flashbacks to moments like Linhir and Pelargir and the Pelennor and the Morannon. Maybe my children characters recalling thoughts/emotions about being sent to Tumladen when they were younger before the Siege of Gondor or receivng news of their parents' death; maybe even the children who have grown with each other grouping together to comfort one another.

Beren's mood at breakfast after having woken up screaming, remembering his kinsman Khallador being mortally wounded on the battlefield; maybe Beren raising a glass to the dead like the Grey Compoany, perhaps even seeing Khallador's ghost appearing momentarily but fading shortly after. So many possibilities.

In regards to traditions and ceremonies without having to RP canon characters, perhaps Aragorn could have made this an official holiday where no one could work so they could reflect and be by themselves or loved ones instead or take part in ceremonies across the fiefdoms?

Queen Arwen could welcome Gondorians to attend a candelit ceremony in the Pelennor Fields where people come sing and encamp on the verdant meadows where one of the major battles in the War of the Ring was.

This vocal ceremony would be in contrast with a more quiet event which King Elessar - Aragorn - could host that our characters could be involved in.

Aragorn could honor the Meneltarma rite of the Númenorean King, leading Gondorians into prayer of thanksgiving on Mindolluin. For reference (we could add more to this but copy the rite exactly?): "...the King spoke....offering prayer for the coming year at the Erukyermë in the first days of spring... praise of Eru Ilúvatar at the Erulaitalë in midsummer, and thanksgiving to him at the Eruhantalë at the end of autumn. At these times the King acsended the mountain on foot followed by a great concourse of the people, clad in white and garlandded, but silent. At other times the people were free to climb to the summit alone or in company; but it is said that the silence was so great that even a stranger ignorant of Númenor and all it history, if he were transported thither, would not have dared to speak aloud.' - Tolkien, from Unfinished Tales: A Description of Númenor


We could have Tower Guard or Ranger formations along side Dol Amroth cavalry in tandem with civilian floats of some kind.


These are just my thoughts concerning traditions near Minas Tirith; haven't thought of Pelargir yet (though fireworks on boats would be great)