[Galadriel55]

Well most of LOTR (except for references to events that happened ages and Ages ago) takes place late TA, in the middle of a war. Fourth Age peace could potentially mean less energy dedicated to outwitting the enemy and more energy to outwitting your neighbour. I think there were other FA RPGs that explored the idea of honesty and chivalry becoming meaningless in the peaceful world and skill at court intrigues replacing them. Such a result would be a natural assumption, and court intrigue would be the main source of plot ideas once the fighting is done.

Yet from what Tolkien did write, I think he intended early FA (and 14 is still pretty early) to be a good time, and free of such "parasites". I think that he meant to bring the peace but keep the chivalry, at least for another few decades.

So it's a question of balance between staying true to what was assumed from what was written and having an interesting not-solely-character-based plot. Plus, the suggestions about the lords are not exactly court intrigue, they are just rogue lords...


PS: Legate, I just remembered something I did not include in my list of important stuff that happened recently. Harreld has discovered osanwe, but in a limited form. You might have read about it already, but, just in case.