Spending time with friends at the Green Dragon in Bywater. Filching mushrooms from Farmer Maggot's crop. These are things that all young Hobbits in the Shire do, right? Wrong.

It seems to me that it's an extremely common trend for players in the Shire to roleplay these things, or at least include them in their histories, probably because it's what the characters in the books, particularly Frodo, Merry, and Pippin, did in their youth. While it's nice that they're taking a cue from the Hobbits in the Fellowship, it's much better to emulate the basic broad patterns of their lifestiles, rather than the details.

For example, let's take Farmer Maggot. I've read scores of histories in which their Hobbit writers snuck onto his farm for juicy mushrooms. However, many of these characters grew up and live in places like the Bridgefields, Hobbiton, or even Michel Delving! Someone from that far away would realistically never have even heard of Maggot, let alone tried to steal from his farm. See what I mean? Not to mention the fact that Frodo, Merry, and Pippin were raised by the Tooks and the Brandybucks, who were notorious for this sort of thing. The average Baggins, Bolger, Boffin, or Bracegirdle wouldn't dare risk shaming the family name. And if everyone in the Shire stole from Maggot's crop, he wouldn't have any left for himself, now would he? ;)

Then there's the Green Dragon. Folks tend to roleplay here more than anywhere else in the Shire, in my experience. Why? Probably because they're so familiar with it from the books. On any given day, there's a bunch of Tooks, Brandybucks, and Bolgers - none of whom live anywhere near Bywater, as it happens - roleplaying sitting around the bar at the Dragon. Which is just fine, except that it means people are ignoring other great places to RP. Take the Ivy Bush, for example: it's right down the road from the Dragon, off the same room, in fact, but I've only seen it used in RP a handful of times. Similarly, RP tends to revolve around Hobbiton, which is a relatively small town. Why not spice up your RP and spend some time in the Shire's real population centers, like Tuckborough, Bucklebury, or Michel Delving?

Then, it's my experience that everyone wants to play an impetuous tweenaged Took (or Brandybuck) who's friendly with everybody and travels all around the Shire. Which wouldn't be so bad, if it was just a few people. But oftentimes, it's the majority. People want to be 'cut from a different cloth', as it were... but most of the time, there are so many such nonconformists that they're no longer the different ones, they're the norm. See how there's a problem here? For one thing, Hobbits hate to travel: they're sedentary in the extreme, never leaving home unless it was absolutely necessary. And as for Outsiders, well, any Hobbit in his right mind wouldn't dare be caught dealing with one of them suspicious Longbeards, or spending time with those nasty, ill-tempered Big Folk. If you want to play a unique character, why not play a Hobbit elder, or child? Or an evil Hobbit? Hobbits were just as prone to evil as any of the Free Peoples, after all (look at me, for instance ;). There's any number of interesting, unique, and, most importantly, fun character types you can play.

Well, that's about it... thanks for your time and patience. [/rant] ;)

Your friendly (yeah, right) neighborhood Pimple,
Filby