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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8605601" data-attributes="member: 42582">A thought on this: in LotR the principal characters are from different places - Mirkwood, the Iron Hills, the Shire, Gondor, etc - but most of the time are in situations that are grounded or connected to them in some fashion: the Hobbits were friends before they started journeying together, and they meet Bilbo at Rivendell; Gimli re-enters Khazad-Dum; Legolas meets Elves in Lorien; Aragorn is on a quest to his ancestral homeland, through lands that he has travelled before (and he see the Argonath, the statues of his ancestors, for the first time); when Gandalf arrives at Edoras, and at Minas Tirith, he is not a stranger to his hosts. Etc.So it seems to me that the idea that [USER=22779]@Hussar[/USER] and I are trying to convey isn't just about geography - although that may sometimes be an aspect of it. It's about all the different ways in which PCs can be connected to a setting: location, kin, history and legacy, etc.Elrond knows that the Ring Bearer is travelling to Rivendell, and sends out Glorfindel to assist. But Glordindel comes too late to offer any aid but a horse. How would we resolve that in D&D? Galadriel and Celeborn are expecting the Fellowship, and host them, and give them boats. How would we resolve that in D&D?One way is to keep all the setting on the GM side, under GM control, with the GM deciding everything about connections, friendship, pacing etc. But it could be done differently. Missing Glorfindel, and finding only the elfstone, can be envisaged as the narration of a failed check (CHA, or WIS, or Circles, or whatever suits the system and the table) to have help arrive. The hosting at Lorien can be imagined as the result of a successful reaction check that is buffed by player-established history/backstory.Rather than looking at this sort of thing as circumventing, we can look at it as playing and as engaging.</blockquote>

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