Sundays in the Shire #2: A Quiet Start

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

Let others follow it who can!

Let them a journey new begin,

But I at last with weary feet

Will turn towards the lighted inn, 

My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

Back during Lockdown, was lucky to discover Discord as a method of online role-play gaming.  It was quite a fertile time for trying new games and systems and - before I burnt out - I was playing up to four sessions a week (go back to the 2020/21 entries on this blog for the details).

One of the games which definitely fell into the "played it once, want to play it again' was 'Under Hill, Over Water' a game based upon respectable Hobbits living nice, quiet lives (certainly not adventuring!).  I talk about the one, very enjoyable, session we had here.

A couple of weeks ago I floated to my current face-to-face group ('The B-Table') the possibility of trying it out.  As I suspected, the idea was greeted with enthusiasm.

For at least the first session, I suspect that we will be happy to pooter around the town of Hayton Below Rime, but what will happen then?  I need inspiration.

Now don't get me wrong, I do have some source materials...

My Tolkien shelf

...but most of them deal with adventures and adventuring Hobbits.  

What is there for Hobbits that stay at home?  I'm sure there are tales of English small town or rural life that could be mined - the more comic elements of Cranford spring to mind.  If they stay in the village dealing with aunts and pigs, that's fine,  PG Wodehouse has that covered.

For Hobbits that go a-wandering (certainly not adventuring!) within the bounds of the Shire, I'm tempted to go to the folklore of the British Isles to find out what happens to ordinary people who stray away from the path and bump into Odd Folk.

This is all Work In Progress - stay tuned to see what happens.  There's the distinct posibility that I'm overthinking things: 'Under Hiil' is after all a very light game.