[Belin]

I've been invited to post here as well. Long ago, in the Freestyle Room, Susan Delgado and I started a game together called "Blue Sky, Night Thunder," later also known as "Fool's Errand." It started like this.

Susan had been played some games in the Freestyle room, and with her 501st post wanted to start a one of her own. I had been watching the rpgs a little, but hadn't played one yet, aside from a post or two in an extraordinarily silly semi-game called "Let's attack Valinor!!!!!!!" The idea originated with her, and (oddly enough) as a kidnapping. There wasn't much more to the idea at that point. She came up with a name--Thorondruin, a rough translation of a name she'd used elsewhere, and I came up with one, Hithduiniel, and we designed the characters to be as much at odds with one another as possible, an interesting thought in view of the brevity of their actual contact. Thorondruin was the kidnapper; Susan can probably tell you more about him. But Hithduiniel also grew from her name: I thought that she should be misty herself, with hidden agendas and less palatable layers that would only be fevealed after a reader had begun to feel sorry for her as a victim.

I think it was my idea to make her a Green Elf, mostly because a laiquendi perspective, it seemed to me, would be interesting and quite different from anything I'd seen (I hadn't yet read UT, and so there are many inaccuracies), and to make the treasure that Thorondruin was seeking somewhere in Ossiriand, and I think it was Susan that decided to make it the Silmaril they were seeking (or maybe that was me?).

Essentially, then, our process was to come up with two characters and a relationship between them, and then to situate it. So much of this was developed in conversation that, as you can see, the ideas began to belong to both of us, and not to be differentiated anymore; I don't think either of us would have come up with quite what we did on our own. So that's one way to collaborate. (Remdil, incidentally, was a totally spontaneous idea who wasn't even supposed to last; I have no clue how he happened.)

This, incidentally, is one reason I seldom post in the inns. All my characters are based on context, on what might prove interesting in the surroundings and on the other characters. An inn doesn't provide me with the same sort of definite storyline or other characters to work with, so I haven't been able to create a good inn character with which to post (I make a lousy RPG character as myself).

In any case, Susan and I seem to have started this process again, in a more focused and knowledgable way. So... beware!

--Belin Ibaimendi,
Fool Errant

[ February 28, 2003: Message edited by: Belin ]