The Week Behind, and what lies ahead – Issue 02 | 21 February 2021

 

Issue 002 | 21 February 2021

Welcome to the second of a series of newsletters looking at the Tolkien-related news from the previous week and what is coming up in the week(s) ahead.

LOTRO: Online chats with Standing Stone Games

During the last week SSG have held two chats with members of their team. 

Landscapes and world building
First up was on Wednesday 17 February 2021 with Senior World Designer “Scenario” (Matt Elliott) for a fascinating chat about world building and landscapes in LOTRO. I highly recommend this one, it was so informative about various aspects of game design and LOTRO in particular, with some funny anecdotes too.

You can watch the chat on either YouTube or Twitch.tv. I’ve also taken notes and a partial transcript of the chat and posted it on this blog here.

Q&A with LOTRO's Executive Producer
On Friday 19 February 2021 Community Manager “Cordovan” (Jerry Snook) and Executive Producer “Severlin” (Rob Ciccolini) sat down to do a Q&A chat with the LOTRO community, looking at plans, hopes and challenges of the year ahead.

They have posted the video chat on YouTube and Twitch.tv. I have also written brief notes on what was asked and the answers given here.

Free League’s The One Ring RPG

With 11 days to go, the Kickstartercampaign is currently at an amazing £792,315 (SEK 9,193,454,94) with 8,934. Twenty-five stretch goals have been unlocked.

The most recent blog update takes a look at the Ruins of the Lost Realm book which is a combined print collection of previously PDF-only stretch goals – Fog Over Tharbad, A Gathering Storm, Into the Lone Lands, Old Castles Built by Wicked People, Here Was Once a Realm of Men and The Clouds Break.

You can find out more about this on Free League’s update section of their Kickstarter page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1192053011/the-one-ring-roleplaying-game-second-edition/posts/3107363

Francesco has been giving more interviews about the game here:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkhaDxhV9Mc
• https://www.whatwouldthesmartpartydo.com/2021/02/17/francesco-nepitello-interview/

On Thursday 18 February Free League ran a Q&A session with Lead Design Martin Takaichi. You can watch that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrImpPFhF6k

The Tolkien Society

The next event for the Tolkien Society will be Tolkien Reading Day on Thursday 25 March 2021. Information can be found here: https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/tolkien-reading-day-2021/

The next seminar was announced as focusing “Tolkien and Diversity.” Details can be found on the link below.

Tolkien Society Seminar #2: 4-5 July 2021

• https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2021/02/call-for-papers-released-tolkien-society-summer-seminar-tolkien-and-diversity/

Amon Hen #287 (January 2021) has turned up on my doorstep. Amon Hen is the Bulletin of the Tolkien Society, published six times a year, both as a printed and PDF versions. You can get this and other goodies by joining the Tolkien Society here. In this issue articles include “One the origin of the Hobbits: Part One” by James P. Buchman, “Tabletop Tolkien #3” by Daniel Marchant (I get a mention!) and Colin Duriez writes about Walter Hooper.

Upcoming talks/events

The Immanent Grove: Memorialising the achievements of the University of Glasgow’s Fantasy graduates
24 March 2021 – oniine – free
Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, University of Glasgow

Looking at Trees in Fantasy literature with the University of Glasgow’s MLitt in Fantasy students

• https://fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/2021/02/12/the-immanent-grove-memorialising-the-achievements-of-the-university-of-glasgows-fantasy-graduates/
• https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-immanent-grove-trees-fantasy-and-the-glasgow-fantasy-programme-tickets-141403029267

International Medieval Congress
5-9 July 2021 – online - £120 (full) / £75 (concessionary)
Leeds University 

The Tolkien sessions for the InternationalMedieval Congress have been finalised. Dr. Andrew Higgins it taking over organising these from Dr. Dimtra Fimi. There looks to be some wonderful talks lined up, Details can be found here:

• http://wotanselvishmusings.blogspot.com/2021/02/eglerio-tolkien-sessions-at-leeds-imc.html
  

Shelob’s around the Web round-Up 

Nerd of the Rings talks with Corey Olsen (“The Tolkien Professor”)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnYrP5MhKt0

Prancing Pony Podcast #198 – Never Enough Tolkien: An Interview with Ted Nasmith

• https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-prancing-pony-podcast-tolkien-and-mi

Luke Shelton, Editor-in-chief of the Tolkien Society journal Mallorn, has written a blog looking at the best (and worst) reference books for Tolkien studies. Worth a look at:

• https://luke-shelton.com/2021/02/19/the-best-and-worst-reference-books-for-tolkien/

 Signum University/Mythgard Institute with the Tolkien Professor (Corey Olsen) continue their adventures in Exploring the Lord of the Rings with Episode 174, “The Beginning of the End of the Council” here:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q9fVkzQmFY
  
  You can find more about this series of talks and gaming sessions here: https://mythgard.org/lotro/exlotr/