Introducing the Green Dragon Friday Lecture Series

Post date: Jan 26, 2017 11:2:10 AM

By Lina Willowwood   

Do you know much about an exciting topic? Would you like to share your knowledge with a roomful of hobbits listening with rapt attention (and a bellyful of ale?) Now's yer chance! Sign up for the GDF lecture series!    The lecture series will be an addition to Green Dragon Friday, the hobbit inn night running more or less every Friday for close to nine years now. With the lecture series, we invite the attendants to give a quick talk/presentation/lecture about a topic close to their heart as part of the inn night.What topics are interesting? The most important guideline for what to give lectures about? Anything you find fun in talking about, as long as a hobbit living in the Shire would find it mildly interesting!

Some examples are:

• • Hobbit history and lore: The history of the Thainship, significant events in the hobbit past, etc.

  • Shire traditions and folklore: Hobbit customs or holidays, differences and similarities between the Shire villages, wedding and birthday traditions, where fireworks come from, etc.

  • Crafts: How to grow flowers late in the autumn, preserve fish after catching them, bake the perfect pie, prepare turnip juice, set traps to catch rabbits, etc.

  • Arts: How to write a poem, tune a lute, etc

These are just some examples, though, so yer should certainly be creative! And don't feel like yer need to have it all serious and perfect: Light-hearted talks and failed demonstrations can work too!

How to sign up?

Send a letter to Lina and present your idea, and we'll see if it could work and arrange a suitable date.

How to organize the lecture?

Some guiding principles:

• • Make it interactive - open for questions

  • Demonstrations are welcome - use the emote channel and be inventive

  • Lectures should be short and informative. Don't plan on talking for longer than 7-10 minutes. Add questions and demonstrations, and you'll have a 15-minute slot maximum.

How often will there be lectures?

That depends on you!

There won't be more than one lecture on any given Friday, and we certainly don't think there will be lectures EVERY Friday (although, it'd be grand if there were!). But hopefully, every once in a while, a hobbit will be brave enough to sign up and help create some fun for all those attending the event.

(( OOC:

Why lectures?

We are constantly looking for ways to increase interactive hobbit roleplaying at GDF, while reducing the impact of player music. Music is grand and fun, but when a roleplaying inn night turns into a string of songs only, it makes things a little stale. There is too little interactivity and none of the fun dialogue and running conversations that we would like to see more of.

Hence, we try lectures! They should allow for enough roleplaying "hooks" for everyone present to dig into.

Event guidelines

Green Dragon Friday happens every Friday on the Laurelin server, starting at 8PM UK (usually 3PM servertime). It usually takes place in the Green Dragon in Bywater, but at some times through the year, we move to other locations in the Shire.

GDF is generally about roleplaying hobbits at the local inn in the Shire. This means that those taking part should be interested in local happenings and hobbit practices in the Shire.

They'll be less interested in any dramatic stuff from outside of the Shire bounds. And they'll certainly not be interested in any references to real-life stuff. So the most important guideline is this: Keep it in-character. Please abide by the lore of The Lord of the Rings, in particular hobbit lore.

Apart from this, we are not looking for "lore perfection". Some creativity and leeway with the source material can be good fun, as long as it helps make the lecture exciting.

Besides this, regular GDF guidelines apply. This is an event for and by hobbits, with travelling dwarves welcome. This means that we ask that elves and men do not attend the event, since they were a rare sight in the Shire in Tolkien's books. Instead, we urge everyone to roll up a hobbit character if they plan to attend. You know it'll be good fun! ))