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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emberashh" data-source="post: 9145239" data-attributes="member: 7040941">I think trying to rehash or oneup LOTR is the wrong approach. Tolkiens original idea for the sequel started seeding threads about not just people beginning to treat the past with flippancy (children playing as Orcs, on up to cults to them), but also, at least from my reading, the inevitability that the "Shadow" would always crawl back into the world, even without a Dark Lord to champion it. I think the main reason this didn't get any momentum going is because it doesn't explore anything new; its just a direct reaction to what occurred during LOTR, and one that merely subverts the triumph it without anything meaty and new enough to justify it. As such if it were me as a writer, I would concur with Tolkiens idea to focus on Men and how their civilization unfolds, but I would set it specifically amongst the backdrop of the last of the old heroes departing Middle Earth in their various ways, and I think Id incorporate a theme of legacy, and how the old "Stewards" of Middle Earth foster one that'll last...or perhaps not? I think the principle conflict would actually be who should follow and be followed when the old pass on, and I think in that context, you can justify bringing in those themes about flippancy and the resurgence of the Shadow. And I think this would work; particularly as it happens to have some happy paralells historically with what happened after (IIRC, might be mixing up my monarchs) Charlemagne died. I think the challenge of it is still, ultimately, in not undermining the triumph. Despite the coming strife of this story, what the old guard did is still fundamentally important and should underscore the conflict pretty starkly. If it were me, I think I'd try to thread that needle by leaning on another theme of combatting cynicism and contempt; the conflict comes from not regarding the past's triumphs with respect and deference rather than from that triumph being undone. But that diatribe on my thoughts on a LOTR sequel has to be taken in context with the fact that this is all about how we would do this in a book, not an RPG. Although, much of the same principles apply as far as laying down the essential hook of an RPG that sought to tackle this question, we'd just have to be far less prescriptive about how the specific themes of the conflict play out.</blockquote>

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