The King's Players - Discussion/Planning Thread

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Mnemosyne

Formy, the mechanical dragon that always breaks would be a real delight. And Amdir looks great. Another idea to incorporate him into the Players' past is that, if we put on multiple shows while at Minas Anor, it might be helpful to have a temporary stage of sorts. So even if you haven't been travelling with us, you might have helped with building sets in the past.

Not to intrude on this idea for Formy as a set builder, but if this is a travelling troupe, would we travel via wagons? And could those wagons be convertible to stages? (Stage-wagon?) (sorry, bad I know).

Originally Posted by Boro

Or if we are going with the dragon-idea, perhaps Dale? They're familiar with Dragons and that sparked the need to insert Puppet-Dragon into the act.

Well, if we are going to be canonical about it and use characters from the historical events , does that mean we should have a Shieldmaiden in the story?

She could do an Ophelia or Lady of Shalott type death until she learns there's another ending . . . . (where's the smilie for pumping heart?) Or she could do a Joan of Arc burning scene. Pyrotechnics! We could work in some anti-witches/heretics stuff which is overturned (or not).

The actress who plays her could be the daughter of the founders, depending on their ages of course. Or an orphan picked up by the troupe, who has duties outside of acting. Selling oranges to the audiences?

*coughs* I've never played a shieldmaiden yet. *coughs*

[Mnemosyne]

Okay, so that means we're looking at five Players already! Wow!

Given the paramount importance that our dragon seems to have, allow me to suggest the following origin story, which (I hope) will take input from what everyone's said so far...

Every year, as part of the events surrounding Smaug's death in Laketown, Dale has put on a creative reenactment of the story. During the first years of the post-war economic boom, the king of Dale financed my character's (Brinn or some variant thereon) father, a skilled toymaker, to make a bigger, better, and grander dragon. As Brinn's friends (and betrothed) had taken leading parts in the drama, our feet were itching, and we'd heard that the South was getting loaded in cash, Brinn convinced her father to let them have the old dragon. After a few months of patching up and modifying some old defunct wagons, they decided to take an abridged form of the show on the road. They took on the name "The King's Players" because 1). it sounded grand, and 2). the King of Dale had been kind enough to give them a little money to fix up those wagons. ...Maybe.

Whilst touring among the fiefs of Gondor, the King's Players were astonished to find out that a theatrical tradition was already there, and that a few other small acting companies were making smaller tours in the fiefs. The largest one of these was the Swan Players in Dol Amroth, whom they had the misfortune of duelling show runs. These players had a patron (Imrahil), and they'd been running since well before the war--since the time of the Kings, they claimed, but Brinn at least didn't believe that. They seemed to look down on their nose at the more *ahem* popular nature of our entertainment, but they had to admit that they did not have a dragon, and if they had had one they would want to use it as often as possible too. After a bit of a fight, though, the two troupes decided to stagger their tours, so that neither group would be in the same place. They took Minas Anor for the New Year; we took them for Cormare.

The King's Players been touring the area for 3-5 years, now, long enough for a couple of our founders to have settled down with a local, and long enough for us to recruit some Gondorians. Dimturiel, maybe this is where your character came in--he or she may have gotten a start with another company, or was just a local who liked what we were doing.

We may have taken a break on these tours by going somewhere else for a year--Rohan, maybe, or back to Dale and over to Bree. Or maybe we went to Bree before we headed south. I want to leave these options open in case, say, we recruit a hobbit.

Finally, while in Gondor, Brinn (and I think Boro's ham would do the same) has taken on a more suitable stage name: Celebrindal. She obviously has no idea what it means, though, as she's a bit clumsy (which is why she doesn't act when she can help it. Especially near the Dragon).


Okay, how does that sound? Good? Good, but needs some changes? Bad? This is supposed to be a "shared authority" RP so I don't want to be making decisions unless people want me to.


One other question: how humorously (or seriously) are we playing this? I could still see it going either way, or switching between the two. But better to discuss it now than when the game's in full swing.


Bethberry, I was thinking that normally we use the Stage Wagons, but the festivals in Gondor are long enough that we thought to try to switch to a more permanent set. Or, maybe, one of the wagons broke down in a previous year and Amdir fixed it? At any rate we'll need his help again if any of our sets need to be different.

Or he might have been travelling with us on our circuits for a while. Up to Formy, really.

Originally Posted by Bethberry

*coughs* I've never played a shieldmaiden yet. *coughs*

Are you insinuating something?

Boro, glad you're on board. For some reason I'm imagining this scene: "Surely, if Lord Samwise himself will be attending, he will want to see himself portrayed by no less than the best actor of them all!" And the rest of us trying to talk him down...

[Boromir88]

I wanted to get my character sheet completed (or at least mostly complete) before tomorrow. Having a stage name has given me an idea.

------

NAME: Branor

AGE/GENDER/RACE/WHERE FROM: 28, Male, Man, Esgaroth

APPEARANCE: By the standards of the Men of Dale, Branor is considered tall (almost 6'2''), pale-skinned, and slender, but healthy looking. He has dark brown, shoulder-length hair, and brown eyes.

BITS OF CHARACTER/HISTORY YOU FEEL MIGHT BE HELPFUL IN DEFINING THE CHARACTER: Branor's dad, Bainor, was a weaponsmith and fortunately took Branor to Erebor where they found refuge when the Dark Lord's army came. Branor was too young to fight, but remembers the fear of being trapped in the Lonely Mountain, not having hope to escape.

After Sauron's defeat, and a great peace swept across Middle-earth, Branor did not want to be an apprentice to his father, afterall there wasn't much need for weaponsmiths anymore. It wasn't until Branor was nearing 24, when he figured out his life's passion. Branor's good friend, Brinn, pitched him the idea of creating a theater troupe, and doing an act celebrating the demise of the Dragon. He was quite familiar and always intrigued by the story of Smaug. Although, all he knew came from stories his father told him, who had heard the stories from his father. Branor had always been passionate and eccentric. His passion, while performing, tended to bring out the best in everyone else. However, off-stage, he simply looked boisterous and arrogant. In fact, Branor often saw new members of the troupe as a threat to his fame, and after the first couple performances, Branor would rarely ever get out of character! The only member of the troupe he would listen to (unless you were simply stating you agreed with him) was Brinn.

------

The troupe's background looks good to me Mnemo. I may have some questions or more to add, tomorrow or when I'm back on Sunday night. If there are any changes I'll adjust Branor's history/how he knows Brinn accordingly.

BB, yes, you know you want to be a shield-maiden.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

BB, yes, you know you want to be a shield-maiden.

The only way I see this being more/different levels of amusing is if you go in the direction of a male-only or male-mostly cast, and the role reminiscent of EOWYN is played by a boy. A boy who doesn't even get the story right. And is a BOY. Playing the part of Eowyn. (With a royal audience.) (Point driven home? I'm sick again. AGAIN, I say! My brain isn't on top of subtlety. Just saying, you say shield maiden, I think bwahahaha gender bending swaparoo of epic!)

[Firefoot]

I had an amusing idea, if anyone would like to run with it. Seeing as Dale is a bit short on hobbits and rather longer on dwarves, perhaps they might have a dwarf or two in their troupe to play the hobbits? "What do you mean Hobbits don't have beards?"

[Bêthberry]

Sorry, there's little time here for me to write, as there is a family issue that's taking up great time.

If the troupe is from Dale and the dragon is central (and rightly so, I like this), it sounds more to me like The Hobbit than LotR, so I'm not sure there would be much room for an Eowyn figure after all. Unless the dragon picks up Sam and Frodo from the volcano?

Originally Posted by Boro88

BB, yes, you know you want to be a shield-maiden.

I am uncovered! erm, uncloaked?

Originally Posted by Fea

The only way I see this being more/different levels of amusing is if you go in the direction of a male-only or male-mostly cast, and the role reminiscent of EOWYN is played by a boy. A boy who doesn't even get the story right. And is a BOY. Playing the part of Eowyn. (With a royal audience.) (Point driven home? I'm sick again. AGAIN, I say! My brain isn't on top of subtlety. Just saying, you say shield maiden, I think bwahahaha gender bending swaparoo of epic!)

Fea my love, I've never written a gender-bender voice and wouldn't want to try it here for the first time. If you like this idea, feel free to take the shieldmaiden character as you'd be a blast with it.

[Mnemosyne]

No, no, the Witch-King was riding the dragon in, and Eowyn had to slay it before she slew the Witch-King, and he nearly scorched her to death, because that's what did Theoden in, you know? (never mind his tombstone)

Or there were FIVE DRAGONS guarding Barad-dur when Frodo the Halfling went there to challenge Sauron to single combat, and while he was there he tricked them into setting the tower on fire and blowing it up and only survived because an eagle happened to fly by at that very moment...

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Fea my love, I've never written a gender-bender voice and wouldn't want to try it here for the first time. If you like this idea, feel free to take the shieldmaiden character as you'd be a blast with it.

Hm. I'm extremely tempted and I have some very fun ideas, but I need to sleep on it. Given the significance the dragon puppeteer has gained (and delightfully so), would somebody else like to take it? I don't feel right now as though I could do it justice.