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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6239478" data-attributes="member: 42582">I didn't realise you were simply trying to emulate Frodo in some abstracted fashion. I thought you were talking about trying to capture a LotR feel.I don't know why you would make that assumption, given that the main examples of fantasy fiction I refer to in my posts are Arthurian romance, Tolkien's romances and REH's Conan.Under any standard definition of &quot;protagonist&quot; there are two candidates for the protagonists of LotR: Frodo and Aragorn. The fact that, within the fiction, these character are not (entirely) masters of their own destinies does not mean they are not the protagonists of the work; otherwise, only a certain sort of modernist fiction (eg REH's Conan) would have a protagonist at all!And as far as RPGing techniques are concerned, many RPGers want to do more than simply provide colour in a story otherwise completely determined by the GM; and there are other mechanical techniques to convey a sense of being hostage to fate - such as obliging a player to draw upon a pool of meta-resources - than the GM force that you suggest above.In AD&amp;D he is a 0-level halfling. In 3E I guess he is an aristocrat, although that gives him weapon and armour proficiencies that some (eg [MENTION=48965]Imaro[/MENTION]) will object to. I have already suggested that in 4e he works best as a lazy warlord.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6239478, member: 42582"] I didn't realise you were simply trying to emulate Frodo in some abstracted fashion. I thought you were talking about trying to capture a LotR feel. I don't know why you would make that assumption, given that the main examples of fantasy fiction I refer to in my posts are Arthurian romance, Tolkien's romances and REH's Conan. Under any standard definition of "protagonist" there are two candidates for the protagonists of LotR: Frodo and Aragorn. The fact that, within the fiction, these character are not (entirely) masters of their own destinies does not mean they are not the protagonists of the work; otherwise, only a certain sort of modernist fiction (eg REH's Conan) would have a protagonist at all! And as far as RPGing techniques are concerned, many RPGers want to do more than simply provide colour in a story otherwise completely determined by the GM; and there are other mechanical techniques to convey a sense of being hostage to fate - such as obliging a player to draw upon a pool of meta-resources - than the GM force that you suggest above. In AD&D he is a 0-level halfling. In 3E I guess he is an aristocrat, although that gives him weapon and armour proficiencies that some (eg [MENTION=48965]Imaro[/MENTION]) will object to. I have already suggested that in 4e he works best as a lazy warlord. [/QUOTE]

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