Sigurd

Lord of the Rings: The Fate of the Rings

I'm always up for a LotR RP, but wouldn't it attract more people if it were set somewhere in the Third Age? Millennia after the Ring was gone pretty much only men were left in Middle-Earth, with all the elves gone to Valinor. The whole situation was more political than epic in fantasy terms, so it doesn't leave a lot of room for anything magical, and Lord of the Rings should be magical.

I participated in a tabletop game of LotR set during the War of the Ring in which we were tasked by Galadriel with bringing certain magical artifacts made in the First Age (like Turin's sword, some rings and pendants from Gondolin) to Grey Havens where Cirdan would take them to Valinor before the evil guys get hold of them, all while the war was raging everywhere. There was a certain 'will' system of some sort which controlled how the artifacts influenced the players. Something like this sounds similar (or almost identical) to your idea, but lets the players be more creative as they can play more races, more classes, with different powerful artifacts and have more interesting battles and encounters, and since most of Lord of the Rings fans are more familiar with this setting thanks to the movies and the trilogy, of course.

I should also say that you don't need a big group for this. You can play this game even with two or three players if not many people want to join, as it's more of a guerrilla squad type of story. This lets you have different obstacles along the way, like big bears, trolls, bandits, wargs, shapeshifters, as well as orcs and goblins, of course.

These are just my thoughts, of course; you don't have to listen to me. I'm a sucker for Middle-Earth, so I'll play any scenario. :-)

Here We Go Adventuring!

My Hider

I hope this is okay, I did my best:

Name - Welt
Age - Unknown, died sometime in his adult years
Gender - Male
Race - Human (undead)
Personality - Welt is now mostly a stoic persona. He kept most of his traditionalist traits when he died, but the fact that he's no longer welcome among the living has left its mark even on his brutal, warrior spirit. He's persistent, always has his goal on his mind, and has dedicated his 'life' to accomplishing what he was tasked with when his heart stopped beating. He is troubled by his personal demons from the past which are far more hideous than his own appearance; but he is reluctant to talk to about his old self, and prefers to keep it dead. Welt is a loyal 'person', whose principles are based on the warrior code.
Appearance -

My Hider

He covers himself with a tattered black cloak all the time, though. This is what he looks underneath the cloak.

Abilities - Cannot die like a regular person. It takes a powerful spell to kill him, as he was cursed by a sorceress ages ago. Mere physical damage cannot break his bones either. He is also a veteran of many raids and battles that he carried out with his comrades when he was alive, so he is not bad with axes, shields, and swords. His undead nature makes him immune to all weather conditions, he can freely exist underwater and he requires no food nor water. However, he cannot expose himself to the sunlight or his bones with wither, and his soul will forever be banned from entering the halls of his ancestors.

Equipment - Ax, two handed sword, cloak, a dead horse.

Backstory - Not much is known save that he was a mighty warrior of his tribe and that he had a family long ago.
What is most important for his character is that one day he organised a bloody massacre of the chieftian's entire family as a revenge in order to gain power and the spoils of war he believed were rightfully his, but the oldest daughter of the family cursed him before dying, leaving him undead for all eternity, until he manages to find a way to redeem himself. He's been searching for the way ever since.

Here We Go Adventuring!

<Snipped quote by Sigurd>

I'm gonna throw out a suggestion in case you want to use it; it's how I like to do sentient zombies but it'll work better if you wanna make him fleshy instead of a skeleton.
Typically undead can't feel pain, which is actually a huge advantage in combat. It's why when Kodor goes berserk, that's one of his boons; he just ignores pain and fatigue and injuries and fights until he can't even move. As an undead, you're probably also resistant or immune to disease, poison, and hunger.

Another thing you could do instead of mere durability is, not regeneration exactly, but something similar. Wolverine style regeneration is hard to keep track of without a system, and also relatively easy to abuse to where you inevitably have a guy who can get stabbed in the chest and say "lol i heal", thus negating any semblance of danger.
What you could do is have him get hacked to pieces, but then sew his body back together later. This gives him a certain form of regeneration that gives him a very unique advantage over a living warrior, but is still limited in that you don't have time to pull out a needle and cord during a fight.
Limbs can also be mangled to the point of uselessness, like if his arm got crushed, burned to ash, or chewed up by a large beast. So what do you do? Go find a fresh corpse, lop off his arm, and stick it on your stump.

And on top of this, you still have ways of being disabled or killed. If all your limbs are disabled or your head gets chopped off, then you'd be helpless until someone patches you up. And you can still have a method to get perma-killed, which with undead is typically destroying the head or heart.

I've been mulling this sort of thing in my head for a while, but I always forget to play a ghoul when I have the chance.

Also ImportantNobody, I'm probably gonna throw out some lore ideas in a short while, specifically about the actual culture and tech, and probably a bit on magic. That way the setting is a bit more cohesive and clear, but we can still leave room for adventuring. I'll make a post about that in a short while.

@IncredibleBee

Yes, as I've said in my sheet, he can live with no food and water and is immune to weather effects and so on. He may not feel pain, but he knows that it doesn't make him invulnerable, so I won't go into any berserk rages and insane killing sprees that go against reason. Really, him being a ghoul is more of an aesthetic choice than a choice of mechanics, even though there are some of them incorporated into his character.

That is indeed an interesting idea. I'll leave him as he is for now, since it's more interesting to play with some sort of handicap. Perhaps change him in the following adventure; or maybe even create a whole new character.

Here We Go Adventuring!

Oh, what I meant is that he can't be simply broken like any old bone you may find. He's got the physical resilience of a warrior, not a frail skeleton, if that makes sense. I am pretty sure Kodor could obliterate him if he isn't careful. :-)

And as for the magic killing him, I had something like this on my mind: If you crush him physically, let's say snap his spine or decapitate him -- or anything of the sort, really -- he remains alive, just useless and pretty much dead in the sense that he can no longer continue the RP, but his soul is still trapped in his broken skeleton and is doomed to remain like that forever. He would remain alive in that, should I say poetic sense, which doesn't make him invincible or overpowered. A powerful spell can destroy him in both senses -- obliterate his body and cast out his soul from it, killing him for good.

Is that better?

Here We Go Adventuring!

I hope this is okay, I did my best:

Name - Welt
Age - Unknown, died sometime in his adult years
Gender - Male
Race - Human (undead)
Personality - Welt is now mostly a stoic persona. He kept most of his traditionalist traits when he died, but the fact that he's no longer welcome among the living has left its mark even on his brutal, warrior spirit. He's persistent, always has his goal on his mind, and has dedicated his 'life' to accomplishing what he was tasked with when his heart stopped beating. He is troubled by his personal demons from the past which are far more hideous than his own appearance; but he is reluctant to talk to about his old self, and prefers to keep it dead. Welt is a loyal 'person', whose principles are based on the warrior code.
Appearance -

My Hider

He covers himself with a tattered black cloak all the time, though. This is what he looks underneath the cloak.

Abilities - Cannot die like a regular person. It takes a powerful spell to kill him, as he was cursed by a sorceress ages ago. Mere physical damage cannot break his bones either. He is also a veteran of many raids and battles that he carried out with his comrades when he was alive, so he is not bad with axes, shields, and swords. His undead nature makes him immune to all weather conditions, he can freely exist underwater and he requires no food nor water. However, he cannot expose himself to the sunlight or his bones with wither, and his soul will forever be banned from entering the halls of his ancestors.

Equipment - Ax, two handed sword, cloak, a dead horse.

Backstory - Not much is known save that he was a mighty warrior of his tribe and that he had a family long ago.
What is most important for his character is that one day he organised a bloody massacre of the chieftian's entire family as a revenge in order to gain power and the spoils of war he believed were rightfully his, but the oldest daughter of the family cursed him before dying, leaving him undead for all eternity, until he manages to find a way to redeem himself. He's been searching for the way ever since.

Here We Go Adventuring!

Can I join? I can make my character in about five or six hours, once I am back from the library, if that is alright.

Outcasts - A Star Wars Roleplay

EDIT
Unfortunately, I ain't game. I've just been bombarded with schoolwork. Y'all have fun nonetheless. ;-)

The EWIP- Fantasy RP

Well, I've been waiting for a while to see if someone would continue the IC thread. I can't do anything, as I was following the flying wolf plan. Kind of waiting for the others involved to tag along.

The Valley

I am fine with it as well.

The Valley

@Disciple Cain I don't know what else to do besides continue my and @RainDash's little chat in the apothecary, which I believe is pointless now. We need some guidance, GM.