November 2016 Meeting Notes

Dear friends,

Here are the notes from last months meeting:

November 19 Smial Notes

- Present: Hawke, Chris, Richard, Brian
- BH summarized notes from Oct.
- We all took turns reading the rest of Letter 131.
- Comments: 3 Silmarils finally rested in earth, Sky, sea. Interesting. Story of Beren and Luthien will be published next year! Reference to the importance of this story personally to Tolkien: gravestones for he and his wife. Difficulty for jrrt to get married to Edith. Reference to other tales in Silmarillion incl. Earendil the Wanderer.
- 2nd Age mentioned in letter. Tolkien describes 3 main themes:
1. Delaying time by elves
2. Sauron's power as the new Dark Lord
3. The rise and fall of Numenor/Atlantis

- Hawke shares a history of RPG. Discussion connected with topics such as: new d20 version of The One Ring; the past several decades of Middle-earth RPG; the origin of RPG in general, like H G Wells "Little Wars" in 1913; 1960s game "Chainmail" first fantasy setting for war gaming; 1974 Tsr's Dungeons and Dragons; 1977 AD&D heavily borrowed from Tolkien and others. Tolkien Legendarium heavily influenced RPG as we know it.
- Tolkuen scholarship intertwined with Tolkien RPG. Merp/Wizards of the Coast/ Saul Zaentz shut down ICE before movies came out. Decipher bought the license. Never came to full fruition. Ea d20. 2010 new generation: Cubicle 7 made The One Ring. Story driven, rules-light. 2015 license renewed and surge in modules, etc. finally d20 compatible books being released by Cubicle 7 and Sophisticated Games. Heroic/ Tolkien-esque but with d20 tweaks on combat, treasure, etc. it's come full circle to the 1970's!

-next meeting is December 17, 1-3 pm