Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Hello everyone, I wanted to introduce myself and talk a little bit about why I decided to join your wonderful group.

I am a fantasy lover, an infantry veteran, a HEMA practitioner, and (although I don't get the chance to practice NEARLY as much as I like) a bushcraft/survival skills enthusiast (both modern and "period.") Most of my interests and many of my life choices can be summed up in a phrase that has been in my mind since my late teens, "I wanna be a hero." Akin to Don Quixote, a lifetime of reading, watching, and playing stories about great heroes, I started trying to learn the kinds of skills that they have for myself. Because of this, I've always thought about joining here ever since I first heard about it years ago.

The reason I finally decided to pull the trigger (loose the arrow?) is because of a book I am writing in my spare time. I'm calling it The Adventurer's Guide, and it's meant to be an "in-universe" guidebook written by a veteran adventurer covering all the things a rookie needs to know to become a typical fantasy adventurer. I'm covering weapons and equipment, forming parties, marching and navigating the wilderness, campcraft, and fighting monsters. I am including both realistic and fantastical elements to each chapter (for example, in the equipment section I go over real-world fire starters like flint and steel, and matches. But I also include "dwarven fire rubies," capable of producing all the heat and light of a campfire without having to worry about stray flames.)

And that's what brings me here. While my book isn't Middle Earth specific (I'm trying to do as generic a fantasy setting possible,) I thought this place would be a great inspiration for things to include in my book. I am using all the aspects of my background I mentioned above to write it, but I'm sure that I can learn many more things from you folks to improve my book.

That sounds like a really fun project!
Mea govannen and welcome.

Hi and Welcome! Your book sounds interesting and because you asked, you might want to include some Herb lore. I'd recommend real plants first particularly those with medicinal value and then some fantasy plants. Some other topics to include would be the animals one might bring on an adventure. Types of horses, mules, donkeys, ponies, dogs and birds (both those used for hunting, aerial observation down to canaries being used in mines). There are a number of posts on the site for how and what to carry for personal loads, but you might also investigate pack animal load outs. Being that it's for beginners, the pros and cons of torches over lanterns. I suggest the characters use vegetable oil for their torches/lanterns as it works just as well as lamp oil and can be used for cooking. I do recommend a small vial of honing or mineral oil for metals in addition to the vegetable oil but a very small about is needed to coat blades. Vegetable oil will become rancid after an extended time. Not harmful if used in a torch but if it covered your eating knife, it might not be a good next couple of hours. The party should be sharing the gear. If an individual goes on an adventure they will need, their personal weapons, tools, food, cookware, possibly a tent. A party gets to divide that gear so 1 may be carrying extra water, 1 the camp axe, 1 a big tarp and 1 the big cast pot. Planning the party saves both weight and money for provisioning. Hopefully this helps

Greetings! Your book sounds very interesting and unique. I look forward to it.

Peter Remling wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 5:24 pm Hi and Welcome! Your book sounds interesting and because you asked, you might want to include some Herb lore. I'd recommend real plants first particularly those with medicinal value and then some fantasy plants. Some other topics to include would be the animals one might bring on an adventure. Types of horses, mules, donkeys, ponies, dogs and birds (both those used for hunting, aerial observation down to canaries being used in mines). There are a number of posts on the site for how and what to carry for personal loads, but you might also investigate pack animal load outs. Being that it's for beginners, the pros and cons of torches over lanterns. I suggest the characters use vegetable oil for their torches/lanterns as it works just as well as lamp oil and can be used for cooking. I do recommend a small vial of honing or mineral oil for metals in addition to the vegetable oil but a very small about is needed to coat blades. Vegetable oil will become rancid after an extended time. Not harmful if used in a torch but if it covered your eating knife, it might not be a good next couple of hours. The party should be sharing the gear. If an individual goes on an adventure they will need, their personal weapons, tools, food, cookware, possibly a tent. A party gets to divide that gear so 1 may be carrying extra water, 1 the camp axe, 1 a big tarp and 1 the big cast pot. Planning the party saves both weight and money for provisioning. Hopefully this helps

This is all great stuff! I've always wanted to learn some more herbology, so that will be fun to research and include. I had thought about expanding into pack/riding animals and vehicles once I covered foot travel, but hadn't considered bringing along animals for other reasons, that's clever. I can tell I'm going to learn a lot here.

Cool and good luck!

I think you might want to have a look at the Gwelf Survival Guide - it's got a similar structure to what you're talking about, but of course with a very different setting.

https://www.eyeofnewtpress.com/products ... ival-guide

And you may already know this, but for things like pack animals, expedition planning, etc, there are tons of good books in the ~1900-1930 period that make a great reference. They were generally written early enough there was still a good deal of living memory of cowboy/later frontier days, but late enough that it was practical to fill books with tons of illustration plates and how-tos. The "Classic Camping" scene is very much worth checking out on that score if you haven't already.

Elleth wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 8:27 pm Cool and good luck!

I think you might want to have a look at the Gwelf Survival Guide - it's got a similar structure to what you're talking about, but of course with a very different setting.

https://www.eyeofnewtpress.com/products ... ival-guide

And you may already know this, but for things like pack animals, expedition planning, etc, there are tons of good books in the ~1900-1930 period that make a great reference. They were generally written early enough there was still a good deal of living memory of cowboy/later frontier days, but late enough that it was practical to fill books with tons of illustration plates and how-tos. The "Classic Camping" scene is very much worth checking out on that score if you haven't already.

That's adorable! I've never heard of Gwelf, I'll have to check it out!

Awesome, I can't wait for read that!

Welcome!

We seem to have joined at about the same time, so let me say well met! I look forward to the development of your book, and if you need a proof-reader I would love to help out, I have an eye for that sort of thing.

Welcome Ranger!

Wyrdmake wrote: ↑Fri Feb 23, 2024 3:50 am We seem to have joined at about the same time, so let me say well met! I look forward to the development of your book, and if you need a proof-reader I would love to help out, I have an eye for that sort of thing.

Thanks! I'll certainly need some proof readers down the line. I'll let you know!

Welcome to the forums Screen, I hope your stay is profitable.