Scarburg Meadhall Discussion Thread

[Galadriel55]

I just had enough time to update my characters - I daresay Theolain needs a better character description now that he's seven! Here's the character post, with updates in italics:

http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showpos...postcount=3524

[Firefoot]

Update for Scyld here: http://www.forum.barrowdowns.com/sho...&postcount=207

Not sure Leof really needs an update - original bio here: http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showpos...&postcount=101

Anything happening in the intervening years I'll cover in in-character posts.

[Galadriel55]

Question - is there any particular time in the year when we're going to "cut" to post the in-between posts? I'm just thinking that it would be a bit awkward if we all pre-plan/write those posts ahead of time, and it would end up happening that one person posts about midsummer just after another person described the beautiful snow that has been falling down for days. I think we should either designate the "cut" time each year, or else, for each of the years, notify everyone about what time of year your post comes in so that we can post them in the correct order of season / weather.

Thoughts?

[Nogrod]

Sorry, but I've been away for five days on a work-trip and then had to catch up with my normal duties...

But as Legate said the "fell winter" was just a word coined to label one extremely bad winter that would help us get rid of extra characters from the Mead Hall - and add some therapeutic unity to the otherwise quarrelsome and torn place as they have needed to have survived it together.

I think it would be okay if people wished to come up with occurences during that winter by themselves in their posts after we start (like making their characters reminiscing of them or making some characters talking of them) and we others would then take them as given. So there would be no need for any details we'd need to come up with beforehand - except maybe a list of those who died (or disappeared).

Also my suggestion for the five years G55 kindly quoted was basically meant as nothing more but an initial suggestion, as one possible scenario.


~*~

If I'm not wrong, it seems only Scyld would benefit of a jump less than 5 years. That would suggest we'd make it five - which conclusion surely doesn't make Firefoot happy - but if the changes for all (or most) others are better with a 5-year jump I do think we should go with that.

A 5-year jump would give us an opportunity to include all our three ideas about the time jumped over into the plot (Aragorn's trip & the following good times and lot of people around, the muster of Rohan taking a lot of soldiers away & giving a reason to take Athanar away, and the terrible winter, the hardships and disaster it brings along & the healing effect it will have on the small community of the Mead Hall).

Also many characters would be so much more interesting to write if they'd need to go through some change or be of enough age (with the latter I'm thinking of Saeryn's twins: five year -olds are surely something more funny to write than three year -olds).


~*~

I'm also for a new thread if it is doable, mostly on reasons Lommy already voiced. It would get things clearer for old writers and more inviting (and less cryptic and insider-kind of thing) for the new writers.

Also I think that a couple of year's real-time pause, a five-year time-jump and a re-instating of the original patron to the Mead Hall are reason enough to start a third edition of the Mead Hall.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Question - is there any particular time in the year when we're going to "cut" to post the in-between posts?

I think I suggested the ending of the hard winter. That might be an easy and a productive way to start as everyone would have their characters needing to go through their thoughts about going from hardship, anguish, and death into a new hope. It could be seen as a kind of a turning point. And there would be a lot to do to get things rolling again.

So a spring then?

Maybe a late one if the winter has been really long and bad. The snow melting, temperatures coming on the plus side (centigrade), green shyly coming forwards... A late April spring?

[Firefoot]

I like the springtime start.

Question - is there any particular time in the year when we're going to "cut" to post the in-between posts? I'm just thinking that it would be a bit awkward if we all pre-plan/write those posts ahead of time, and it would end up happening that one person posts about midsummer just after another person described the beautiful snow that has been falling down for days. I think we should either designate the "cut" time each year, or else, for each of the years, notify everyone about what time of year your post comes in so that we can post them in the correct order of season / weather.

Seconded. So for me, Scyld I'm writing about the lead-up to his departure from the hall (so basically right where the current RPG leaves off), but then everything else I'll cover retrospectively wherever we pick up. Leof I'll just write retrospectively.

[Folwren]

I'm happy with Springtime, but should it be the springtime right after the Fell Winter?

Originally Posted by Gal55

Speaking of which, what kind of twins are they? Both boys? Identical? Or do you want to hold that back until they're actually born in-game? I think we just kind of assumed that the child is a boy, but having twins means there are two genders to decide on.

Oh. I don't know. Elempi, any thoughts on that? I kind of feel they'll be as much yours as mine.

I know four sets of twins - one set of identical boys (I think they were identical, anyway), one set of girls (though I never really got to know them), and two sets of boy and girl twins. I've been able to observe those two very close hand for the past three years, as they're at my school, and one set was actually in my class this year.

We haven't had any twins in this RPG have we?

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

I think I suggested the ending of the hard winter. That might be an easy and a productive way to start as everyone would have their characters needing to go through their thoughts about going from hardship, anguish, and death into a new hope. It could be seen as a kind of a turning point. And there would be a lot to do to get things rolling again.

So a spring then?

Maybe a late one if the winter has been really long and bad. The snow melting, temperatures coming on the plus side (centigrade), green shyly coming forwards... A late April spring?

Hmm, I meant more about any posts we might do in between now and then - during the jump. I threw out the idea that we could pause on each year for a couple characters to post about what's been going on with them lately, which would help keep track of both the plot and the character development. There was some murmur of agreement and no opposing voices, so it kind of floated off. Do most people then want to just jump straight to the final spring, without any brief updates in between?


PS: Harreld and Garreth are twins (right?)

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

I think it would be okay if people wished to come up with occurences during that winter by themselves in their posts after we start (like making their characters reminiscing of them or making some characters talking of them) and we others would then take them as given. So there would be no need for any details we'd need to come up with beforehand - except maybe a list of those who died (or disappeared).

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Hmm, I meant more about any posts we might do in between now and then - during the jump. I threw out the idea that we could pause on each year for a couple characters to post about what's been going on with them lately, which would help keep track of both the plot and the character development. There was some murmur of agreement and no opposing voices, so it kind of floated off. Do most people then want to just jump straight to the final spring, without any brief updates in between?

It would really depend. Personally I think in any case, we will - and I daresay we even should - end up with some reminiscences of the past five years coming up from time to time in reminiscences and inside thoughts of our characters, because that is also a handy "literary device". So at least for some time, I'd expect such things to pop up once in a while, because I am sure people would have stuff to tell about the past winters.

But as for having some separate posts for in-between, that's also not necessarily bad, I think it all just depends on how we want to organise things. Nogrod's idea has probably the advantage of that everybody just can start writing whatever they want, and fill in the details about the past years in their own pace. The downside of it is that there is no clear control of the flow of information, i.e. if something major has happened to some characters, and their writers want everyone to know, they should make certain that everyone knows perhaps even on the discussion thread. Just so that we don't end up with one person writing how they greeted Harreld and shook his hand merrily, only later learning that Harreld had lost his hand to frostbite the previous winter. (You get the idea.) We probably should also get a clearer list of which characters are around and which are not, I think the list Firefoot made some posts back was a good start for orientation.

Maybe I am slightly in favour of the "flashback-insertion" style Nogrod suggests, it might make the initial posts a bit messy, but then it should also keep the writing flowing as we at the same time struggle to start up some things happening in "real life" at the current time at Mead Hall. Speaking of which, we can probably start with the reminiscing and stuff, but eventually we should also return to what we've been talking about earlier, inventing some sort of more coherent "plot" we'd eventually strive for.

In any case, I am also for starting the new thread for all the reasons already mentioned above a couple of times; can we get a hold of one of the mods somehow? A PM?

[Galadriel55]

I don't disagree about the benefits of reminiscing (and I think that's exactly how most of the events could be covered), but I'm in favour of doing some in-between posts in addition to the flashbacks. My reasons are mostly personal - I would prefer to slip in at least one post from Theolain's perspective, before he kicks the bucket. I mean, I'd love to slip in more posts from both my characters' perspectives, but I can make adjustments for those and think of a way to flashback their story. However, even if I delay Theolain's death until springtime, he would realistically probably already be unconscious / feverish / not in any condition to flashback for a long time. And I would have preferred to write his death in real-time (but if necessary, that's also adjustable).

But also, we have so many other characters leaving. Like, don't you want to post one last post from someone's POV before they go? It's true that these things can be reflected on later, but sometimes there is merit in posting one last post from, say, Athanar who says goodbye to a good chunk of his people. Also, while some events can be done in retrospect, I don't think it hurts to have f.ex. one real-time post that reflects the completion of the Mead Hall, or any of the other points of notice during the jump.

I get that I'm trying to stuff a storyline of Theolain growing up and becoming a completely different person during a time-jump, which is not the greatest idea, but I'm trying to come up with ways that would make it work. Maybe I could try doing a fever post from Theolain to cover those years. I'll figure something out if the majority votes for not doing in-between posts.

[Nogrod]

It seems I didn't manage to express my idea clearly enough, so let me restate it. So when I said:

Originally Posted by Nog

I think it would be okay if people wished to come up with occurences during that winter by themselves in their posts after we start (like making their characters reminiscing of them or making some characters talking of them) and we others would then take them as given. So there would be no need for any details we'd need to come up with beforehand - except maybe a list of those who died (or disappeared).

I was referring to this one terrible winter just behind aka. to something that has been just upon people of the Mead Hall as we start writing. The idea being, that we wouldn't need to make a detailed description (painfully reached via a lot of PM'ing and "fact-gathering" by some poor souls who'd need to do that) of what has just happened the last few months of the killer-winter. So people writing about their characters reminiscing about those few months just behind could use their creativity to build the story kind of afterwards.


The question of whether there should be some intermediary posts covering parts of the whole 5-year jump (not just the one winter which just ended) from the POV of some of our characters I think is a different one.

I'm not too keen in making it a big thing as it will delay the starting quite considerably. I think we'll still be needing a kind of an "official post" introducing the Mead Hall to the new players and recounting the major events of the jumped years. And the idea of the jump surely is that we jump, we don't "play" those years.

That said I'll be perfectly fine with someone / anyone wishing to fill in and writing some posts describing their characters at some important crossroads of their personal development during our jump. We should just make a definitive DL for entering them so that everyone could look forwards to a set date when the common writing then actually begins.

Haha, just saw G55's post. Yes indeed, I might like to write a short post describing lord Athanar saying farewell to the Mead Hall... Oh I can see the kind and warm thoughts he'd have.


~*~

Anyway. What we need then is some kind of a timetable, a goal or aim, as when to proceed and how.

I'd say it would be nice if we were able to kick this open and going in more or less a month, like say before the midsummer or around that time.

And with this being "open and going" I mean that there is a new thread (and discussion thread), all possible intermediary posts are done, the official "re-opening post" is there, all character bios are updated, the new writers are in with their bios and ready to roll - and we have some shared ideas as to what we're going to be doing...

One of the important things will of course be agreeing on the general outlines of the jump. I have made one suggestion based on the discussion here as to what happens during those five years. Are there any other ideas we should consider or is there something that is included in my suggestion you'd rather not have happening during the jump?

The sooner we agree on this issue the sooner people can get into thinking how their characters will become those characters they will be when we kick this off again (and yes, what kind of characters they will be indeed).