Weird Wonder - Amanda P.'s Website

There is a point to Tom Bombadil (or how I approach lore)

Tom Bombadil, Old Willow, and the Barrow Wights are an early component of the Lord of Rings that I absolutely love and is one of my favorite parts of the entire series. It informs my approach to running games and my writing.

  1. It just happens.
  2. It implies a larger, more wondrous world.
  3. It gives age, texture, and interest to what would otherwise be a few days of forest travel.
  4. It provides early challenges to the adventurers while building early connections between them and beyond the more mundane world of the Hobbits in the Shire.

People are critical of this component of the Lord of the Rings,seeing it as unnecessary, weird, childlike, and other such slander.

The Lord of the Rings as a series is about, among many other things, the aging of the world, the sins of one's ancestors coming to roost, finding community in the face of overwhelming evil, and banding together to face nearly intractable challenges with hope in one's heart.

This has value but not all campaigns could or should be at this domain-level of play.

Tom Bombadil embodies the fact that while the world is trembling in the face of devastation, there is still time for joy, that there are always helpers in the world, and that eating a good meal in safety can renew the spirit.

Campaigns in this mode are more local and geared towards troubles, wonders,and encounters that are specific and sinister because they are closer by, just over the hill.

Here are a few ideas on how this can be applied.

  1. If there is a central yarn that runs through your world, split it and separate the threads to be found and learned via travel and exploration.
  2. Provide opportunities for interest, danger, challenge, and wonder that are hyper local.
  3. Avoid pantheons that are universally known. Create deliberate points of difference. A spirit might be known by different names, with different offerings offered in different places for different reasons.
  4. Make encounters sticky, pulling the characters in, and memorable through specificity to location.
  5. When it comes to things like lore, less is more. Reward curiosity about the people and places nearby by placing interesting things there and follow the threads that the players pull on, letting other wonders and dangers lie fallow further in the forest until they are stumbled upon.