New to this - Storyline idea, and plea for help

[SylvanPrincess]

So i have the handbook (among others), and this seems to be awesome! i love lord of the rings sooo much, and to have this available...anyway

my only complaint is that things arent clear enough in the handbook. sure they are written clearly, but i hate trying to find a something specific, as two things yyou wouldnt expect will be one after the other without their own ..um sections? i also dont like paging through "is it in 'words of power' or 'good words and true'" please just write RULES, and MAGIC. but i digress lol, sorry

being the first person in my d&d group to have this book, i will be reading it and re-reading it and will narrate a story once i feel comfortable with it all. the things i am finding confusing however, is leveling up. i love the malleable leveling feel, not "at leve 2 i get this, and at level 3 i must have this", but a create-as-you-go sorta feel. again, love it.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ____

i want to have a campaign (chronicle?) in the forth age, and i am curious if there is any written info on it? i have a cool story idea, but wanted to make sure i wasnt rewriting anything

i want to place the heroes in a world thats near the end of aragorns life and rule as king. i figure he would have a half elf son (the one mentioned in arwens vision (at least in the movies)) that was everything one cold ask for in a heir. also, due to man's victory at the end of the third age, and their glory since (in my story anyway) i feel that the remaining elves that are in middle earth would have more respect for man, and i may even say there are 1 or 2 other half elves now (is that going too far?), and that if a pc roles a high enough dc on a 100sided (like over 90), then they may choose to be a half elf, though i would say where he/she was from

evil, sensing the death of Elissar(spelling?), has been gathering its strength again, but lacks a unified leader...or so it appears. i think I will place the heroes in rebuilt osgiliath, on their way in separate delegations to pay last respects to the king, and to re-swear the alliance of old before his half elf son (is there a name out there for the boy?) when osgiliath gets attacked...

any ideas from there? what should the main villain be? i feel it should be something the pcs remember from the movies/books, a fallen hero risen as a shade (perhaps Haldir, or some other powerful elf, who awakens in saruman's tower, some last malevonance fo saruman during the battle at helms deep that we do not know of?) anyway, id love to hear ideas, about what the overall goal of the heroes should be, about the villain, where he/she came from, etc

'preciate it

~katy

[Sarge]

Hail and be welcome, SP. These boards are pretty quiet these days, but there are a few people coming by from time to time and you'll get some good advice here.

I'm away from my books at the moment, but I think Aragorn's heir was named Elessar.

As for your questions about what you can and can't do for your campaign, it's YOUR campaign and you can do whatever you want to make a good story. I'd recommend talking to your players and finding out what they would like to see. For instance, if you have a group of hardcore Tolkien fanatics who will wail and gnash their teeth if you allow half-elves, you'll probably have a better game without them. OTOH, if they come to you with fully fleshed-out character ideas for half-elven characters, you'd be a fool to squash their creativity. So do whatever works for your group.

As for page flipping in the rulebooks, I find that small sticky note pads make excellent page tabs and can be labelled any way you like.

[Ineti]

Welcome to the forums!

Elessar and Arwen's son was named Eldarion, which is mentioned in the Appendices to Return of the King, I believe.

If you do some searching on these forums, or go through the archives in the two LOTR subforums, you'll find a wealth of information and threads on the Fourth Age and the game itself. If I get a chance I'll dig up some links for you.

I haven't played Coda in a while, but I was a playtester on the game back in the day, so if you have specific questions on the rules, fire away.

[Celebelith]

Hi there SP.
There is also a webzine available for the CODA LotR-RPG.
It is called 'The Hall of Fire' and you can find it here:
http://halloffire.org/
The zine is filled with a lot of articles and info about the game so I think you find it usefull. Have fun!

[SylvanPrincess]

thanks for the help guys, and thanks also for the warm welcome!

nice little webzine that, ill have to delve into the archives...

any thoughts on characteristics for halfelves? life span? life span if they are not numenoreaN (though im not sure an elf would go for em otherwise )?

katy

[Nolmir]

The characteristics of a half-elf are a bit of a sticky issue, really. For instance, Elrond is half-elven, yet he appears as though he has no human ancestry. IIRC, his brother, on the other hand, was a Numenorean, in fact, one of the first. Both of their parents were half-elven, but they went to Valinor, so we can't really do much conjecture with them. However, Elrond and Elroth (I believe that was his brother's name...) were given a choice between being human and being elves by the Valar.

(Correct if I'm wrong on any of this, I don't have my books with me at the moment.)

All that to say, there's not much precedent in Tolkien's work for what happens when the Valar don't intervene.

Personally, I would probably say that they are like exceptionally pure-blooded Numenoreans, perhaps with one or two racial abilities from the elves and a longer life-span than Numenoreans. You could also go the route of saying they are more elf-like or more Man-like, in which case they'd vary in their longevity, power, and attribute adjustments.

[Tomcat]

Here is a copy of my thoughts from the Hall of Fire website...

My opinion on this topic is that there were probably more unions of elf and men than Tolkien wrote about, and he gave hints of such (i.e. Imrahil of Dol Amroth). The unions mentioned in the Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings are the most significant due to their impact on the three kindreds of Eru in Middle-earth.

First, I believe you have to discriminate between the Elves in regards to their lineage. The Noldor and the Sindar are the two highest branches of Elf-kind in Middle-earth due to their relationship with the Powers. The Vanyar being the utmost highest but they only returned to Middle-earth once, after their original departure, to aid in the final downfall and casting out of Morgoth. The Noldor spent the Age of the Trees within the Holy realm and though the Sindar never made it, they were still graced by the Maia, Melian, and their king, Thingol, who did cross the sea and return. The remaining Elves that never made the pilgrimage to Aman, though graced with immortality, were never tutored and empowered by the Valar.

Now back to the point of the thread... the first and most significant of unions of non-like kindreds was the marriage of Elwë and Melian, mixing those immortal/holy/powerful bloodlines. Their child, Luthien, then married a Man, Beren, and with the birth of their son, Dior, all kindreds were then united. This bloodline carried down to Elwing and her marriage to Eärendil, another born of man and elf (Tuor and Idril) and finally to Elros and the entire people of Númenor. These unions are all important due to the grace that was within the immortals that joined with mortal Men. It gave the Númenóreans their initial grace and longevity. The downfall of Númenor and its people broke the tie that these folks had with the holy realm, though the Faithful were spared and made their new realms in Middle-earth under Elendil. It was not until the marriage of Arwen and Aragorn that that relationship and grace was restored.

All this said, marriages between lesser men and elves would not have had the significance of those mentioned above, save to grace the family line with longevity, beauty, and perhaps greater wisdom. So, in my opinion, Imrahil, being a noble of ancient Gondor would have the benefit of his lineage through Númenor, plus the elven-blood benefit from one of his ancestor's (unmentioned) union with an elf (perhaps of the region where Dol Amroth lies, for it was once a haven of the Green Elves).

Now I am certainly not saying that an Elf would take up with any run of the mill human that might be in the forest chopping fire wood, but those of high standing would certainly be candidates. Remember that there was a great deal of commerce between the Lords of Andúnië and Elves from both Middle-earth and Aman, until the downfall of Númenor, and it was these lords that settled the lands of Middle-earth and took up the lordship of the men that were there.

So, in conclusion to a point that I hope I displayed , it seems very likely to me that men and elves of lesser stature may have married throughout the early Ages of Middle-earth until the Elves slowly faded away and became things of legend.

[SylvanPrincess]

wow, beautiful! this is really great information, as i had forgotten about all these other elf-man couplings through time. it also gives me several good ideas for my eventual plot. thanks tomcat!

heres a question; i understand advancement, but are there actual player levels? is there a way to keep track? maybe im missing it....

[Nolmir]

The only way to track character "levels" is to keep track of the number of advancements a character has.

As tomcat probably knows through another forum, we differ on the number of Man-elf marriages there theoretically have been in Middle-Earth. Personally, I favor fewer intermarriages, but it really is up to the individual GM to decide for their own campaign.

[Cpt. Lundgren]

The Encyclopedia of Arda might also provide a bunch of useful information. Not that much material on the 4th age, but there are some.

[robinsmalburrow]

Welcome Katy, hope u get some good info. Have u read Tolkien's own sequel to the "Lord of the Rings" called The New Shadow, it is in "Peoples of Middle Earth" (which is volume 12 of History of Middle Earth). You should read this as it set in the reign of Aragorn's son, Eldarion, although Tolkien did not finish it. This will give you a bit of a guide.

If you need more ideas you should search on here for my Fourth Age Chronology, which I posted to this forum last year. Any further queries give me a reply, as I run all my campaigns in the Fourth Age, so I like to think I am a bit of an 'expert'!

Tom, aka Robin Smallburrow