A call to adventurers !

[Nashan]

What : the Oaths of the Riddermark campaign, Rohan scenarios from Other Minds, and some original scenarios featuring Sarumane and his darkening schemes. I guess it would take years to play but let's be ambitious.
When : As soon as player sheets are ready and backgrounds agreed on. 
Where : this very forum.
Why : the campaign fits nicely the play by forum format. It features a lot of social interactions and political maneuverings, with quite few combats.
Who : up to seven companions hailing from any place of Middle Earth, including the cultures from HoF. Rohirrim and Gondorian are of course welcome, and Dunlendings for those looking for a challenge. Note that no hobbits have been seen in Rohan for centuries, and none will be until the reign of Theoden King. I don't want to completely rule them out however, so I allow hobbits as long as they won't proclaim their origin clearly or expect public recognition. At best they will be considered beardless dwarves or very small and possibly disformed humans. In any case, history is doomed to forget them.

Drop a line as a reply below if you're interested and I'll get in touch with you shortly.

Some words about me ; my name is Chris, I'm 41 and I'm Belgian. I've been playing RPGs for the last 25 years now. Legend of the Five Rings and the World of Darkness have long been my favorites, but as a compulsive buyer, I've tried many games. Recently, I've rediscovered French jewels like Agone, Esteren and Nephilim, but also The One Ring obviously.

[tomcat]

As a long time storyteller here - I think I will make up a character for your approval to join this game. It will be great to have the chance to just play a PC, too. (Although I cannot not say that Paul did give me a good long break in our own game.)

I will add his PC sheet link here in a short bit.

[tomcat]

I present Gárulf - outlaw of the Eastern Emnet.

His background is dark and if you want me to lighten things up to fit better in your overarching story, I can - just let me know.
Gárulf, son of Gármot, was born on the northern pasture of the East Emnet along the banks of the Entwash in 2927 T.A. The clan to which he was born traveled with the herds of horses that ranged the great plains between the Wold and the Fangorn Forest. He grew to be a great horseman and rider and learned from his father the ways of the squire. Gármot always told him that at times, the King in Meduseld would call and it was the obligation of every Rohirrim to answer the summons. Gárulf, wanting to honor his father, worked diligently in his martial studies, as well, so he might be the capable Rider of Rohan of which his father spoke.

When into his late teens, Gárulf met Marda, a beautiful flaxen haired girl from a neighboring clan that was also coming of age. She would often come amongst Gárulf's folk with a few of her own family and as the men would make trade, Gárulf and Marda would walk the fields around their enclave and speak of love and commitment. The two young lovers made a pact that with the next spring, Gárulf would make his intentions clear to Marda's father and ask for her hand in marriage – he would be 20 years old.

Unfortunately, that day would never come...

When the trades were done, during that fall season, Marda and her father, along with ten others of their folk, mounted to head back over the Entwash and south onto the West Emnet. They would never make it. The group of Rohirrim was set upon by a ranging band of orcs out of the Misty Mountains (truthfully out of Isengard) and all were slain. When they never arrived, their clansmen sent out people to search for them and some of these individuals came back to Gárulf's folk. It was here that he learned of his lover's disappearance and took up the search for her and her father. Gárulf, along with others from both his and Marda's clan finally found the bodies of their kin. They had all been slain, stripped and left to rot under the sun. The decay of the bodies and the impact of carrion feeding upon them horrified the young Eorling and he became shadowed. His heart, he felt, had been torn out and left to die with the woman that he loved.

Amongst the dead, the orcs had also left traces of themselves, thus revealing the culprits of the horrific act. As he laid her body upon the pyre, in his heart, Gárulf swore the most awful pact that he could muster – an Oath to his love that he would bring death upon the orcs (and any that followed or allied with them), a life for a life, one for every moment of time that they stole from him and his beloved Marda.

After the burning of the dead, the winter that followed was cold and cruel to Gárulf's folk. The young Rohirrim began to slack on his duties to his people. He became roguish and in the following spring, when the King in Meduseld called for warriors to muster, he turned his back to the call. Thus it was that Gárulf, son of Gármot, became an outlaw in his own land.

Now, seven years later, Gárulf and a harsh band of compatriots haunt the Eastern Emnet – between Fangorn and the Wold – robbing both friend and stranger, and brutally hunting any orc or orc band. From a small sanctuary that he has made on the Wold, Gárulf ranges the Emnet.

[Telcontar]

I may be in too.

[tomcat]

C'mon, Tom!

What else do we have to do except to hang out on the internet forums?   

[Telcontar]

Chris,
 How do you envision Tolkien's world unfloding in this campaign arc? What style of GMing Do you intend to employ? Would you classify yourself as a theme person or a game mechanics person?

[Nashan]

I'm not fond of heavy game systems, that's one of the reasons why I like ToR that much, with its simple yet complete system. To me, dice rolls are guidelines for roleplaying. In my table games, I always ask my players to roll first then to roleplay accordingly, and I plan to do just that here. Of course, it implies that the players enjoy failures as much as successes.
As a GM I always favour a good unfolding of the story even if it requires me to "cheat" from time to time. If my troll runs out of endurance one round before it manages to break down the bridge, I give him some extra. I also try to flesh out the characters and the setting as much as I can, I don't like empty characters doing nothing but adventuring, they have a life, they know everyday people without any real connections to the scenarios, they have a job/occupation and hobbies. 

I plan to follow the guidelines of the campaign, but I really want to include Saruman and his impeding downfall. We all know how's he's going to end but at the time of play, he's still wise among the wise, and there's much to be told and played about his darkening. Hell is paved with good intentions.
Not much is known of the reign of Thengel King, so my themes will be Rohirrim >< Dunlendings, Downfall of Saruman, and inclusion of as many personal problems and goals of the characters. 

[Telcontar]

I'll take a look in my tomes tonight and flesh out a character idea.

[Nashan]

I'm looking forward it. As of now we have two Rohirrim characters.

[Anarion]

Egilhir Noble of Dol Amroth and Soldier of Gondor reporting for duty!

My background is pretty brief, he has a few reasons for heading to Rohan, to protect it's king and people from the influence of the shadow and to obtain a horse bred in Rohan to bring home to take his place as a Knight.

Egilhir is the son of the nobility of Dol Amroth, his father a knight of the fair city sent Egilhir to live with distant relatives in Minas Tirith in his early teens to learn of the history of Gondor and Numenor. He fondly remembers being taught how to ride by his father back home, and so in the stone city he spent much of his time watching the riders and messengers of Gondor ride in and out of the city.

As he got older he wished to prove himself to be as brave as his father and fought on gondors borders with Mordor and the south against, both orc and wicked men, making a small reputation for himself as a warrior. Egilhir regularly moved to the defence of his comrades during battles with the agents of the enemy.

The news of his valour reached his father back in the City of the White Swan, and he was presented with a gift, a spear named Foe Thorn, crafted by The Faithful of Numenor to fight their enemies in the second age and passed down his family ever since. Being back in his home city and seeing the knights ride through the city on their shining steeds reignited a passion in Egilhir. A knight however needs a horse, and while the steeds of Dol Amroth are wonderful. Everyone knew the steeds of the Rohirim where greater still.

An oppertunity had arisen however. King Thingol has taken the throne of Rohan. The agents of the enemy may see this new king as a weakness to exploit or test. He knew that both Dol Amroth and Minas Tirith would wish to send emissaries. Who better than a brave young man who has fought the shadow and was familair with the intricacies of fuedal court life.

https://rpg.avioc.org/profiles/view.php?id=1322

[tomcat]

Hey Andy,

You will need to go into the Profiler and click the EDIT link on the Characters' page and then APPLY PUBLIC PERMISSIONS if you want everyone to be able to see your character.

Hey Christophe,

In the RPG Profiler, you will want to create a CAMPAIGN.

To do that you must first go under your PROFILE and click the box that says DM Functions. This will expand your available choices within the Profiler.

Next, create the campaign and fill in the pertinent cells that you prefer. Once done, invite our PC's to the campaign. This will provide you with GM control of our character sheets so you can look at them and adjust at need.

The current PC log numbers to invite are:

Garulf 1321
Egilhir 1322

[tomcat]

For our new players - I want to help you find your way around and point out the tools we do have.

First - the top menu has a series of buttons - one is Characters. If you double click the button, it will take you to our RPG Profiler where all of our characters are saved. You will need to make a separate login for that site, but the softwares are not linked so feel free to use the same info that you use for our Forum.

Second - here is a HELP post that I wrote for everyone to see what features we have here for Dice Rolling and other icons:

HOW TO USE OUR FORUM

Third - the RESOURCES button on the top menu is for any maps or other imagery that a GM might want to have available for his players. Christophe, if you need that done you will have to send the image to me via email and I will add the item to the dropdown.


If anyone has any questions, feel free to write me a PM or open a thread on the General Discussion board.

[stevelampon]

Hello, I would like to join in if that is OK. I already have a Beorning character that I have just created for a ftf game, or I could create a new Rohan character if you think that is a better fit.

Thanks

Steve

[tomcat]

To all -

Christophe is currently unavailable as his wife is in the hospital today delivering their child! I would safely assume we will only be getting scattered responses over the next week.

Steve - I cannot speak for Christophe's game, as I am just a player in it, but I would suggest having both types of characters ready for him to see. That way you are covered either way.

[Anarion]

Thanks Tom, I've done the edit so it should be viewable now.