The King's Players - Discussion/Planning Thread

[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.

[Folwren]

This looks fun, but I don't feel I would do justice if I joined. I hope it turns out well!

-- Foley

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Fea the Reluctant Male Shieldmaiden

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.

Okay, well, I'll take it then.

[Nerwen]

NAME: Asta.

AGE/GENDER/RACE/WHERE FROM: Early twenties; Woman of Dale.

APPEARANCE: Medium height; skinny; long sandy hair; pale narrow face with rather sharp features. Light grey-blue eyes. Not plain, but nothing special to look at either.

BITS OF CHARACTER/HISTORY YOU FEEL MIGHT BE HELPFUL IN DEFINING THE CHARACTER: Younger sister of Brinn; unlike her, inherited their father's mechanical aptitude and often assisted him in his workshop. Since the original dragon puppeteer declined to leave Dale, Brinn persuaded Asta to come along with her as the next best thing. (This caused quite a furore in their family.)

Asta is fiercely protective of her dragon-puppet and her sister, in no particular order, but is sometimes resentful of what she sees as Brinn's domineering ways. Although working "Smaug" is her crowning glory, in such a small company she is naturally expected to do many other jobs, such as looking after the props, running errands, helping with costumes and makeup, and playing minor roles when required. She is afraid of being overlooked, and is always eager to point out just how invaluable she is to the troupe. She is also a bit given to boasting in general, and to blowing everyday incidents out of proportion. (E.g. that spider she found in the wagon was HUGE and clearly deadly and would probably have killed someone if she hadn't squashed it first!)

[Mnemosyne]

Sorry I've been AWOL, folks. Character sheet for Brinn and some more questions for your consideration should be up tomorrow, if I haven't perished before then.

[Mnemosyne]

Lari, including some movieverse distortions would be fine with me as long as it didn't go into overkill. I've seen this done before in fan fiction to varying degrees of success, and it always threw me out of the narrative a little bit. But if it yielded just a chuckle and I was pulled back in I always liked it.

As far as cameo-ing Eowyn, I did put "no canon characters" for the bit part sheets, and while I might be willing-er to let that slide with Ioreth, who's a very minor character in Tolkien, Eowyn seems to be too big of a deal. I much prefer the idea of "joint ownership" of canon characters, written as NPCs as necessary. But if the rest of the writers like the idea I'm more than willing to yield.

Harrenon and Asta both look great. Brinn will be happy to have a sister who does not share her clumsiness.

I do have a question about Therian, though. If he believes that women have no place outside of the household, how does he reconcile that with the fact that we have two women in our company, one of whom helped found it and is running a household within the company perfectly well, thank you very much? And how would he have joined the group in the first place? It sounds like a lovely bit of conflict, and one that I'd be more than happy to play with, but I guess I'm a bit confused...

Brinn still needs a husband, btw. I can make him an NPC, or he could be Branor (although that would depend entirely on him as Boro sees him, and besides that would make for some fun domestic rows), or we should start PMing various other 'Downers and seeing if we can pull them in. We're still only at five Players right now and I wouldn't mind getting up to six or more.

Another thing that occurred to me, from Firefoot's Dwarf suggestion. I doubt that the Dwarves of Durin's line, at least, would be quite as willing to take liberties with the text that Men of Dale would, but what about children? Depending on how long this show's been on the road (literally!) Brinn could have a few wee ones who could be put to work as "Aww, aren't they cute" hobbit/child performers. Alternately, recruiting talented street urchins for the final cut could potentially be very touching.

I probably don't have time for the character sheet before my night class starts, but I'll get it up later this evening.

Oh, and our company might need a writer.

Oh, and our dragon does need a name.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Mnemosyne

Lari, including some movieverse distortions would be fine with me as long as it didn't go into overkill.

I'm speaking for Lari only because I'm not sure she's done with her epic delayed travels yet, and because I know what she's got in mind since she and I were brainstorming together during our bouts of homelessness last week.

In terms of movie distortions, what we had in mind was in line with your idea of stage show plotlines that don't mesh perfectly with the actual events. So instead of having our 'real life' characters go with movie canon instead of book canon, the idea we had was to throw a few Easter eggs into the plot lines of the performances.

Confused Audience Member 1: "Now, I cannot say I was there for this, and I do not know for sure that my memory means a thing, or anything, and all, but I do not remember the minstrels singin' about m'lady majesty the Queen's father Lord Elrond climbin' up that mountain path with a sword!"

Confused Audience Member 2: "Now I heard m'lord Elrond followed the Fellowship to make sure they did it right, so that don't make no nevermind to me, but what I can't see is this: why ain't Tom Bombadil in the story?"

What we had in mind were passing comments that would get a giggle out of each other and readers, but without descending into movie issues as part of our actual story.

As far as cameo-ing Eowyn, I did put "no canon characters" for the bit part sheets, and while I might be willing-er to let that slide with Ioreth, who's a very minor character in Tolkien, Eowyn seems to be too big of a deal. I much prefer the idea of "joint ownership" of canon characters, written as NPCs as necessary. But if the rest of the writers like the idea I'm more than willing to yield.

We had this in mind for the following reason: Eowyn would only appear very [very] briefly during the final performance, basically seated silently in the audience somewhere, not actually doing anything. The only activity she would have would be an extremely brief and poignant (ahem, *snicker*) encounter with my Therian, who might just have reason to change his mind about his opinion on shieldmaidens.

So though Eowyn is, herself, a major character, her role in this game would be a bit part, no more than a post or two between me and Lari near the end.

Of course you may still veto it, since you did say no canon characters, but we were hoping you might let it slide because of how tiny and innocuous the role we had in mind was.

I do have a question about Therian, though.

If he believes that women have no place outside of the household, how does he reconcile that with the fact that we have two women in our company, one of whom helped found it and is running a household within the company perfectly well, thank you very much?

I daresay there might be some tension, is what I say.

And how would he have joined the group in the first place?

He is a very fine actor, you see. But all the good roles were taken, and the need for a shieldmaiden arose, and nobody could do justice to the part and/or nobody wanted it, and Therian is just biding his time until he gets a promotion to the part he really wants, which is actually the role of Theoden, because he feels he would be slain with Shakespearean gusto.

I have been slain! he would cry. And then he would give a speech. And then he would clutch his wound, and cry, I am slain, I have died, I am gone. And then in the next scene, still clutching his side (or head, or leg, or heart), he would again cry, Death finds me now!

But until the Theoden role opens up, he's just biding his time, playing the role of shieldmaiden with irritating excellence, and ticking off the ladies with his unspoken judgment of their roving ways. After all, he's from Dale, where women behave like women, not from places like Rohan, where legend has it women give birth in the saddle on their way somewhere.

It sounds like a lovely bit of conflict, and one that I'd be more than happy to play with, but I guess I'm a bit confused...

He wants to be an actor, and he wants to be in the troupe, but he doesn't want to play the stupid shieldmaiden, and he might secretly be in love with someone, but I haven't quite worked that part out yet, and it's making him stomp around like a bull with a bellyache.

Brinn still needs a husband, btw. I can make him an NPC, or he could be Branor

Therian could attempt to court her? Obviously he'd have to come to terms with powerful women before it would ever work out, and then she'd still be well within her rights to both deny him and fire him...

Brinn could have a few wee ones who could be put to work as "Aww, aren't they cute" hobbit/child performers. Alternately, recruiting talented street urchins for the final cut could potentially be very touching.

AWWW!!!!!

[Mnemosyne]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

I'm speaking for Lari only because I'm not sure she's done with her epic delayed travels yet, and because I know what she's got in mind since she and I were brainstorming together during our bouts of homelessness last week.

In terms of movie distortions, what we had in mind was in line with your idea of stage show plotlines that don't mesh perfectly with the actual events. So instead of having our 'real life' characters go with movie canon instead of book canon, the idea we had was to throw a few Easter eggs into the plot lines of the performances.

Confused Audience Member 1: "Now, I cannot say I was there for this, and I do not know for sure that my memory means a thing, or anything, and all, but I do not remember the minstrels singin' about m'lady majesty the Queen's father Lord Elrond climbin' up that mountain path with a sword!"

Confused Audience Member 2: "Now I heard m'lord Elrond followed the Fellowship to make sure they did it right, so that don't make no nevermind to me, but what I can't see is this: why ain't Tom Bombadil in the story?"

What we had in mind were passing comments that would get a giggle out of each other and readers, but without descending into movie issues as part of our actual story.

Passing giggle-worthy comments are more than okay, thanks for clarifying.

We had this in mind for the following reason: Eowyn would only appear very [very] briefly during the final performance, basically seated silently in the audience somewhere, not actually doing anything. The only activity she would have would be an extremely brief and poignant (ahem, *snicker*) encounter with my Therian, who might just have reason to change his mind about his opinion on shieldmaidens.

So though Eowyn is, herself, a major character, her role in this game would be a bit part, no more than a post or two between me and Lari near the end.

Of course you may still veto it, since you did say no canon characters, but we were hoping you might let it slide because of how tiny and innocuous the role we had in mind was.

Okay, I wasn't sure if Eowyn was going to have to act as a historical source or something. Of course, if anyone wants to run into her as part of our research (or any of the other canons), and can square the matter away with the fact that she'd probably be a busy, busy woman (and I trust all of you to have that kind of discretion), that's fine... I'd just like to limit the extent to which these are played as characters, if that makes sense.



On Therian: sounds good. I do think that Brinn should have gotten married before she left Dale, though, because--well, maybe they do things different in Dale, but I can't help but think that most people would assume something about a bunch of single ladies travelling with a bunch of single gents. If Brinn's married, then we have someone in the trusted position of looking out for her sister's "virtue."

Anyway, I'll write her bio that way for now, and I'll keep filling in the details as I get more input.

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by Mnemosyne

Brinn still needs a husband, btw. I can make him an NPC, or he could be Branor (although that would depend entirely on him as Boro sees him, and besides that would make for some fun domestic rows),

Branor could be, I just didn't know how much of a functional marriage you wanted for Brinn. As you said, I could see some pleasant conflicts. I had planned for Branor to have a massive ego, and usually people like that don't get married, because they are too full of themselves to ever consider anyone else's happiness. However, he does have redeeming qualities, as he will listen to Brinn. That doesn't mean he listens to Brinn ALL the time. But I'll put it this way, the chances he would listen to Therian or Harrenon are nil, Brinn can at least get through his big head....sometimes.

[Mnemosyne]

Boro, thanks for your points. I had been wondering about the likelihood of someone like Branor getting married, but still wanted to punt the idea out there for consideration.

I'll think about it a little bit longer.

In the meantime, I wouldn't mind some input on the timeline for the game: do we want to go "real time" or "half time"? Which do you think your posting ability, and your characters, will be better for the game? (I have no preferences on my end.)