Red Flows the Sirannon Planning/Discussion Thread

[Folwren]

Originally posted by Mithalwen:
Oh don't be so sentimental... I created an extended family just to have people to kill when the battle hots up

It's not sentiment...it's having to do with coincidence and likelihood. Consider an outside reader...he knows there are four people writing about these dwarves and each person picks up a friend. Come battle, all four people's characters' friend dies and everyone gets to write about angry, grief stricken dwarves. The likelihood is slim, especially if the three brothers and uncle remain unscathed (or even if they're wounded), and it just wouldn't seem right. Now, I can see a universal friend getting killed and then everyone being mad for that reason, but not for each. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind killing off a few extra people to make the story more intriguing and full of feeling, but I don't think that we should kill everyone at once.

I would wish your extended family good luck, but I guess it's useless when I'm not the author.

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Folwren

It's not sentiment...it's having to do with coincidence and likelihood. Consider an outside reader...he knows there are four people writing about these dwarves and each person picks up a friend. Come battle, all four people's characters' friend dies and everyone gets to write about angry, grief stricken dwarves. The likelihood is slim, especially if the three brothers and uncle remain unscathed (or even if they're wounded), and it just wouldn't seem right. Now, I can see a universal friend getting killed and then everyone being mad for that reason, but not for each. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind killing off a few extra people to make the story more intriguing and full of feeling, but I don't think that we should kill everyone at once.

I would wish your extended family good luck, but I guess it's useless when I'm not the author.

Ah well it is hard now... I was hoping not to name them but with a year wait for reinforcements and becoming a refugee it is clumsy to keep on saying "her brother...... " but now they are turning in to people and oh dear... they say you shouldn't name an animal if you are going to eat it....

[Boromir88]

The likelihood is slim, especially if the three brothers and uncle remain unscathed (or even if they're wounded), and it just wouldn't seem right.

This is something I've done (although no one has to or even agree with it), but the first RPG I did "Ungoliant's Children" I actually had my main character die and my supporting character (his brother) ended up living. Kind of an interesting twist that I liked.