Reply To: The Taproom

Hello, well it seems that the female assassin has generated some heated debate; to that I say GOOD!

It would be a terrible idea to regulate which ideas could be submitted and which couldn’t. That somehow suggests that the will of the majority should not prevail in our membership. And I don’t believe for a minute that Mithril and Chris would ever seriously consider it. And why would they, it would reduce interest and membership the moment it was instituted. Look what happened with Michael’s attempt to even just narrow things to a specific race, such as Dwarves. We already have many members frustrated that we are limited to single, mounted etc. months, but at least we can accept that due to an understanding that Chris has a heavy workload. Say a list was put together, where would one draw the line? Could we have Elessar holding Eldarion, even if it was never specifically mentioned in the body of the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit? What about the Apendices, Unfinished Tales, even the History of Middle-earth series?

No, the real problem is that we are not getting enough good suggestions each month (only nine this time), and are rehashing various characters over and over. This, in my opinion is why a female assassin or a half-troll standard bearer are of some interest to many. Truth be told, I feel that it is important to try and suggest something every month, and wish others would too. This past deadline came upon me fast, and I felt it better to throw something in the ring than just sit there and do nothing. I do not expect everyone to like every suggestion–I certainly don’t, but I hope all of those voicing an opinion would make an effort to make a suggestion every month.

In fact, my suggestion is not original at all. It is based upon the cover of Assassins of Dol Amroth by MERP, as some have mentioned above, and I thought it might be a nice compliment to the upcoming Dol Amroth release. It certainly has nothing to do with trying to get a specific role-playing figure–there are many miniature female assassin types out there to buy for that.

No, this has much more to do with several previous email conversations with Chris about the lack of certain character types, especially females and Humans from the many other geographic areas outside of Eastern Gondor, Rohan, and Eriador. In the past, he enjoyed producing those kinds of figures very much. And we have seen a move in this direction: Lossarnach, Corsairs, soon Dol Amroth and Easterlings, not to mention the recent MERP-based series.

So please, vote for who you like best, but please also help make ours a better Fellowship by making monthly suggestions!