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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 9663714" data-attributes="member: 6787503">Okay, yeah, maybe in the Geek Talk forum, lol.This clarifies things somewhat, but I think calling it the "Everyman" is muddling the conversation. The everyman isn't the lucky guy or the guy protected by fate or the gods. If that's the concept, then I think a better name for the class would be the Serendipitous Fool or Lucky Fool, or maybe just the Fool.Samwise, on the other hand, is pretty much a perfect everyman. It isn't luck that makes him effective. It's two things that are both types of attributes of the everyman.The first type, which is used in low-stakes situations, can take a variety of forms but, I think, is best described as an ability to avoid difficulties of one sort or another. Sam uses this to avoid revealing his part in the "Conspiracy" when interrogated by Gandalf, after being caught eavesdropping, by pretending to be innocently curious. He also gets Frodo to let him carry some of his baggage for him by lying about his baggage being the lightest. Another possible example is, in the Battle of the Chamber of Mazarbul, Sam receives a cut to his scalp from an orc that he kills, possibly avoiding a far worse injury, so a literal ability to dodge a significant wound which probably should have killed him since he's no great warrior himself. I think it could also be argued that Sam's moment of ambivalence, upon finding Frodo seemingly dead at Cirith Ungol, whether to pursue Gollum for revenge or to complete the quest, may have helped him avoid leaving Frodo behind, his hesitation having lasted long enough that as he departs he hears the approaching orcs.The second type, which is particularly prominent in Sam because of his role as a protagonist, can only be used to avert a complete disaster and allows Sam to take swift decisive heroic action (in Sam's case, to save Frodo). He resists Old Man Willow's sleep spell, so he can save Frodo from drowning. He saves Frodo from the Watcher in the Water. In the Battle of the Chamber of Mazarbul, he breaks the shaft of the spear of the orc chieftain that has Frodo pinned to the wall. And, of course, there's his heroic rescue of Frodo from the Tower of Cirith Ungol in preparation for which he resists the temptation to claim the Ring as his own. It isn't luck that enables him to do this. Tolkien makes it clear that it's his love for Frodo and his "plain hobbit-sense". This seems like a good explanation or "power source" for the everyman's abilities.I'm not familiar with Tasselhoff, but I had a somewhat similar dynamic occur with a PC in a game I was DMing which was supposed to be a "drunken fist" sort of character. The PC's class was monk, but the character's backstory was that he was a common baker in search of his missing wife. All the PC's actions and uses of monk abilities were described by the player as the result of clumsiness on the part of the PC. It worked out okay, but I think it was a lot of work for the player to constantly dissociate the mechanics of the class from PC's level of ability in the fiction.</blockquote>

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