I think garyh's and my character are similar enough to make good siblings but different enough to give something new mechanically (there is always difference in roleplaying).
Waiting for VV's translation to 'see' the third dwarf.
Oye! People are stealing my ideas! I was leaning toward taking a hobbit, mostly because no one in the right mind would .
The hobbit I was thinking of would be more "Tookish". I can't recall the name of the town east of the Shire that had mostly men and some hobbits, but he would be from that area. And he would be a treasure seeker by choice! Quite un-hobbit-y of him. He knows there is grand treasure out there, and he can't wait to find it.
It is not - the book doesn't cover anything west of Rivendell. The Shire's only mentioned as the place where Hobbits come from. There's no background for Hobbits from Bree, but it's easy enough to use one of the more general Hobbit backgrounds and just say, "Oh, and he's from Bree." (Also the backgrounds listed in the book are "suggested backgrounds", so the GM can make up their own. A Bree-Hobbit background is obvious; I was thinking of making Anduin-Hobbits, like the ones Gollum was from - in the real LotR they died out ages ago, but it would be neat if some still survived in hiding.)
They're probably saving Bree for the second box so that they've got some more Hobbit backgrounds to add.