Scarburg Meadhall Discussion Thread

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

PS. I have absolutely no idea what has happened in Scarburg during my absence so pardon me if this doesn't make sense, but I would even advocate a longer time jump - 3 years, 5 years, even 10 years - that would open up interesting opportunities for character development and aging up the younger characters (even though I do like tiny Cnebba)...

Originally Posted by Nogrod

I was actually also thinking more like a 3 - 5- 10 year jump - like giving it a good kick forward and then seeing who's still around (oops - a teen-Cnebba would be hilarious - or unbearable).

That would both pose a nice challenge to those who have written there already - to adapt to their characters who are older and maybe the overall situation has also changed - but also give new writers more freedom to come up with their characters.

I think a longer time jump would actually be great. Will give chance to pick up the old characters and put them into a new perspective by making them grown up again a bit, and also it would make it easier for newer players to join in, of course. But of course, that's all open.

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Also if we're doing a longer time jump and introducing new characters, would we again start a new game thread and a new discussion thread?

Hm. A new thread also for discussion might possibly be easier also for those who want to join in, since then one can also neatly sum up the necessary points in the beginning of it, so that people don't have to search for it in tons of old posts on page 199 of 325...

[Firefoot]

Hmmm. For Leof I'd be fine with a longer jump, less sure about Scyld. I could make it work, I guess, though with where I was at with him when the story dropped off, a few years could make a huge difference. For him I'd probably favor something shorter - months? But if we do go longer I think I'd still favor only a couple years, not something drastic like 10.

I'm also toying around with the idea of bringing Leof's sister into play. Not sure but it's been in the back of my mind ever since I started with him. To echo Legate, I don't want to bite of more than I can chew with more characters than I have time to write for.

[Galadriel55]

It just goes to say how much I've forgotten that for one moment I thought, "who's Athanar?" (oh, how I've missed this emoticon ). Anyone any less major I pretty much don't have recollections of. Heck, I couldn't remember my own characters off the top of my head. I have a lot of reviewing to do.

Thinking about my characters, though, I'd say a 3-5 year leap would be better than a 10 year one. I think 10 is a tad too much. As for character development, Ledwyn is a young widow with a 2 year old son, whose husband died in some working accident or other (can't remember who he was) - or so she says. I think I know where she's going. Oh how young and innocent I was when I created her! I could go all Game of Thrones on her, but I don't think that would be fitting here, though I do have a very appropriate twist in mind. But regardless, that doesn't stop her from being young and single, and she's not the only wench around. That should give this gathering of men something to ponder.

As for the general storyline, I think we need a calamity. There's only so much you write about cooking breakfast. I think the last biggie that happened was the trouble with the minor lords (correct me if I'm wrong - my memory is simply marvelous). But even that wasn't really serious. Not as serious as it can get. We should have something where lives are at stake - a war is probably not realistic in the setting, but a full out rebellion could be pulled off. Or a famine. Or some other natural disaster, if human enemies of that golden age aren't really a danger. Any cataclysm would do. Not right away of course - we'd first need to set the stage of how things look X years from now. What do you think?

[Mithalwen]

Oh well if it moved years I might be able to recycle Elfthain. He was only ten before but it isn't inconceivable that he might be away from home as an adolescent.

[Firefoot]

I guess I don't really understand the push for a large time jump. I've been thinking about it quite a lot the last couple days and I feel like I could do three years. My biggest problem is with Scyld's development (and if I'm honest, the way his relationship was progressing with Rowenna) - that's something that's not going to remain stagnant for an incredibly lengthy amount of time, but I also can't write that development independently since it depends on another character's writer. To get to three years, I'm probably going to write in that he left for a while (and I have an idea to work that in), but five years is a long time. In some ways at least I think Scyld is on his way to being a very different person but I can't just gloss over that and skip to the end without it feeling totally contrived. lmp, thoughts from Rowenna's side? Though maybe I should ask first whether you are also interested in continuing writing Rowenna's character?

I like the general plot points Nogrod outlined, though I think it could easily be compressed to a shorter time frame (if anyone else is with me... if everyone else really wants to jump five years I guess I'm outnumbered).

My thought is, if we're starting up new characters and some new general plotlines anyway, it shouldn't matter to new writers how far along we move the timeline. And for those of you arguing for a longer jump with existing characters, I would be interested in knowing why you want to move them so far forward - do you feel they were a bit stagnant where they were? Then I'd suggest introducing some event in their life that changes or pushes them in new directions - and it doesn't necessarily have to be a long time from now. Though I do understand the desire of those with children characters to grow them up a bit.

I won't belabor my point, but you can consider my vote as

++3 year shift