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Old 06-18-2018, 04:36 AM   #11
jeff_wilson
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Default Re: Stating J.R.R.Tolkien

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Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Basically, time travelers are going to meet Tolkien in the late 1930's.
You might want to pick up John M. Ford's THE SCHOLARS OF NIGHT; IIRC part of it is set at Tolkien's former home and there's some detail where it is shown off to an American professor of literature.
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Old 06-18-2018, 05:39 AM   #12
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Default Re: Stating J.R.R.Tolkien

The only way I could see typing showing up in game is if you were playing Stargate SG-1. Samantha Carter pulled their butts out of the fire many times with her speed typing.

But back on topic, Tolkien was a prolific lecturer. A student of his once said that "He could turn a lecture room into a mead hall." (straight Public Speaking)

I'd also give him points in Poetry, Singing and Carousing. He was known to show up at parties in crazy costumes and could tear it up with the best of them.

For flavor, I might also consider a point in Naturalist. There is evidence that he spent a fair amount of time in the woods and was somewhat of an environmentalist.

He did spend time in the trenches in WWI, so perhaps a point in First Aid.
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Old 06-18-2018, 05:54 AM   #13
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Default Re: Stating J.R.R.Tolkien

Oh yes, and let us not forget Addiction (tobacco), Research/TL6, Teaching, and some History (esp. Anglo-Saxon & Norse).

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Old 06-18-2018, 07:07 AM   #14
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Default Re: Stating J.R.R.Tolkien

He appeared in an episode of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, so you could check that out for some extra ideas (not that that show is usually especially concerned with historical accuracy though).
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Old 06-18-2018, 08:36 AM   #15
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Default Re: Stating J.R.R.Tolkien

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Old 06-18-2018, 08:39 AM   #16
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Default Re: Stating J.R.R.Tolkien

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Oh yes, and let us not forget Addiction (tobacco), Research/TL6, Teaching, and some History (esp. Anglo-Saxon & Norse).
That may be a quirk level addiction. It does not seem to have affected him much other then that he put Pipeweed into his stories.
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Old 06-18-2018, 09:03 AM   #17
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Default Re: Stating J.R.R.Tolkien

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I doubt his descriptions of battle indicate any kind of Tactics, Leadership or Savoir-Faire (Military). He himself commented I believe that he didn't go into great detail on these things because he didn't really know then all that well, and really just wanted the mythic story from them.
Some of his descriptions of war sound like someone who knows it as an experience rather then an academic subject. Like the trail of refugees just before the Siege of Minas Tirith. Or the horror of the place where Sauron and Melian were holding their wizard duel (and yes that does sound like WWI). Or Merry and Pippin feasting on spoil, which looks suspiciously similar to Easy Company rousting a Nazi Grandee's palace and getting drunk on his wine in Band of Brothers.

On the other hand you will have to go elsewhere for more technical stuff that gives details on the actual functioning of a Middle Earth military. We have an idea of the organization of the Rohirrim (which was far more regimentalized then a Gothic or Frankish tribal levy). But we have little about logistics or communication. The battle descriptions are heroic but not always such as to strain Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Yes seven thousand horsemen could get through dense forest in a good guy version of Case Red if they had a native guide. And yes they would run amuck for quite awhile if they got away with it (the Turks after all never recovered from Jon Sobieski but they did not have a ghost leading them). Horse archers making a caracole as with Eomer's men trailing the Uruk-Hai in Two Towers are fairly close to reality. Silmarilion battles are quite a bit less realistic but they are meant to be mythic. LOTR is a cross of genres between an epic and a fairly modern novel, with even speech patterns changing according to the atmosphere desired.
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Old 06-18-2018, 11:53 AM   #18
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Default Re: Stating J.R.R.Tolkien

I believe that's what I said.
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Old 06-18-2018, 12:29 PM   #19
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Default Re: Stating J.R.R.Tolkien

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The only way I could see typing showing up in game is if you were playing Stargate SG-1.
Private eyes, WW II fighter pilots, police detectives, mercenaries for hire, superheroes, criminals turned good... why, any number of action-adventure heroes might benefit from being able to whip out a sheet a paper from a typewriter at the end of every episode.
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Old 06-18-2018, 12:51 PM   #20
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Default Re: Stating J.R.R.Tolkien

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I believe that's what I said.
Not in as much detail.
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