New Disadvantage: Compulsive Worldbuilding

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Anders

" . . . Two or three hours per day would be spent on discussing dwarven dying techniques. . . "

"I was on a train, thinking of nothing very much when I realised how the genetics of Tolkein's dwarves worked. That realisation changed my gaming life."

[RGTraynor]

Got it.


My players seem to love it.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by johndallman

"I was on a train, thinking of nothing very much when I realised how the genetics of Tolkein's dwarves worked. That realisation changed my gaming life."

Back when I first learned about R.A. Fisher's work on the determination of sex ratios, and its application by Trivers and Hare to investigate the sex ratios slave-taking and non-slave-taking ants, I applied the theory to the sex ratio of dwarves given in Appendix A.III of The Lord of the Rings and deduced the chromosomal arrangement of Tolkien's dwarves. Which was freaky.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Back when I first learned about R.A. Fisher's work on the determination of sex ratios, and its application by Trivers and Hare to investigate the sex ratios slave-taking and non-slave-taking ants, I applied the theory to the sex ratio of dwarves given in Appendix A.III of The Lord of the Rings and deduced the chromosomal arrangement of Tolkien's dwarves. Which was freaky.

So what conclusions did you reach? I wrote about this topic years and years back, in a paper on the ecology of Middle-Earth that I presented at a Mythopoeic Conference, but I don't think I approached it in terms of chromosomal arrangements.

[Lovewyrm]

Did Tolkien really world build that much anyway? (Regarding Dwarf Procreation)
I know the Simarillion is pretty much a design document, but:
I just regarded his works as fairytales that stand on their own, and everything weird or outstanding is fairtytale magic.

Like how witches can turn someone into an oven and the oven can still speak.

Just a beautiful adventure story with a nice ending.
In little need of Authors of prodigious girth needing to go: "But wot wes his tex policy?" to poopoo it.
(yeah personal beef...)

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Lovewyrm

Did Tolkien really world build that much anyway?

On one hand, when I wrote about Tolkien's treatment of ecological themes, and also when I wrote "Law and Institutions in the Shire," I was impressed by how much Tolkien's fiction was grounded in reality. And on the other, just recently, the publication of The Nature of Middle-Earth has given us a lot of documents where he did things like working out the growth in the elven population from generation to generation during the First Age. So he certainly seems to have been concerned with such matters.

In one of his letters, he talks about his use of older idioms, and cites Theoden's speech to Gandalf where he tells Gandalf that he's going to ride out to meet the foe. And he says that of course, he could paraphrase most of the speech in twentieth-century English, and, I believe, illustrates the word choice. But then he concludes that Theoden's final statement that if he dies in battle he will sleep better is simply not something that a modern man could say or think, and that he has to use older idioms. So I think the worldbuilding was implicitly present in his linguistic and stylistic choices.

[Lovewyrm]

Originally Posted by whswhs

On one hand, when I wrote about Tolkien's treatment of ecological themes, and also when I wrote "Law and Institutions in the Shire," I was impressed by how much Tolkien's fiction was grounded in reality. And on the other, just recently, the publication of The Nature of Middle-Earth has given us a lot of documents where he did things like working out the growth in the elven population from generation to generation during the First Age. So he certainly seems to have been concerned with such matters.

In one of his letters, he talks about his use of older idioms, and cites Theoden's speech to Gandalf where he tells Gandalf that he's going to ride out to meet the foe. And he says that of course, he could paraphrase most of the speech in twentieth-century English, and, I believe, illustrates the word choice. But then he concludes that Theoden's final statement that if he dies in battle he will sleep better is simply not something that a modern man could say or think, and that he has to use older idioms. So I think the worldbuilding was implicitly present in his linguistic and stylistic choices.

Hmmm, good angle to think about, thanks.

[dcarson]

Haven't read it yet but bought the other week because it showed up on sale on a ebook list. Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien (Culture of the Land)
Matthew Dickerson, Jonathan Evans

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Anders

Maybe steal the table from p. B129 and and make it a reaction penalty rather than a penalty to Merchant Skill?

"It began innocently enough. I looked at the templates in DF3 and began to wonder how the races related to each other. Soon I was jotting down notes about the internal politics of the Elven High Council. Two or three hours per day would be spent on discussing dwarven dying techniques. My wife left me when I spent more time on minotaur mating customs than on her. I realize now that I have a problem."

I like that idea, but maybe half the penalty. Not having any penalty on SC15 seems good.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by whswhs

So what conclusions did you reach?

I'm afraid that I have forgotten. It was over forty years ago, and my memory just isn't that good. I vaguely recollect there being two types of gametes with genetic content in the ratio of seven to four, but I don't remember what was going on with the ploidy.