Who We Are And What This Is

Who are we?
We are a ragtag group of people of different ages, genders, persuasions and nationalities. What we have in common is the internet, the English language and a love for reading, writing and storytelling, as well as the Fantasy genre (Tolkien's fictional world in particular). On this forum we come together to talk, be creative and write our own shared giant story, a roleplay.

What is (forum) roleplay?
In a roleplay different people come together to create a shared and dynamic story that takes place in an agreed upon fictional world. Here this happens in writing. It is also called Play-by-Post Roleplaying-Game and is related to activities like interactive fiction or collaborative writing. The different participants (here: writers) take on different characters or roles. Those characters are each writer's responsibility. They create and share them with the help of a Character Sheet, coming up with details like name, physical appearance or character personality. A forum like this has a roleplay-section seperated into different threads and sub-threads. Each thread stands for a different location in the fictional world, each sub-thread for a more specific location. Now writers come up with the beginning of a story for their character and start writing it by posting the beginning of it in one of those sub-threads. They write what their character is doing there, what state they are in, how they feel, what they think, etc.. Now another writer replies to that post, describing how their character enters the scene, how they react to the other character, what they think about them or say to them. The other writer replies in turn. Reply for reply small and big stories emerge. Characters travel between locations, relationships between characters begin to form, romances, feuds, fights, intrigues, everything that makes for a good story. A main plot (here: the discovery of the One Ring and what do do with it or what do do in general, in the face of a growing dark power in Mordor) connects many sub-plots. The small difference is that we are writing this story together.
In case of this forum we follow the general idea and main plot of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. With a twist: this is our story. We are not simply rewriting Tolkien's story, we are creating our own. To what end may be up to you as well.


What is this roleplay about?
This roleplay is based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, specifically his The Lord of the Rings novels. However, we do not strictly follow the main plot of those novels. Our main plot may turn out differently, our characters are not exactly the same and our side plots may be something else entirely. Our fictional world is what we make it.
For details on the lore of our fictional world and what major plot points have taken place in it so far see: Chronicles.
For details on characters that you may encounter in our fictional world see: Accepted Characters.
Browse the roleplay section and read what others have written so far: Roleplay.
Or read and participated in the newest discussions of ideas here: Planning and Plotting


What is a character (original character, canon character)?
Here a character is a fictional personality or role created by their writer.
Original character or OC, in this case, means a character created entirely by their writer and based on their ideas alone.
A canon character or CC, on the other hand, means the writer's version of a character already established by Tolkien and in his lore. This does not mean that they are a mere carbon copy of those established characters. In fact, they will naturally develop their own story and personality traits as the roleplay progresses. Each writer, in their own voice, creates their own version of those characters. However, they should be clearly recognizable and major differences to their "famous namesakes" have to be approved be the admins and potentially discussed with the other memebers.

What is an avatar?
An avatar is the picture you choose for your profile when registering an account for this forum. It should depict the character you write with this account. When choosing your avatar, please keep our Rules in mind.

Is this for me and how can I join?
If you enjoy writing, the Fantasy genre and sharing and developing creative ideas with others, this might be the place and hobby for you. Like any hobby, however, this one, too requires some time and effort.
If you feel uncertain just wait and read, see what we are doing and if you would like to become a part of it. Or create an account to participate in the Off-Topic section, find out if you like our community. Feel free to ask us any questions that come to mind.
If you decide to join our roleplay, please take a look at our Step by Step Guide.