The Shire is basically an idyllic countryside; most people are satisfied and content with their lot in life, there's no real need for adventurers, roving bands of monsters don't stalk the night, and it's the place that young heroes depart from on their journeys into the wide, dangerous world.  Good examples in tabletop games include Lamordia of Ravenloft and Bytopia of Planescape.

The Shire has a common place in fantasy, but it's not necessarily a place brimming with conflict and adventure.  It's more of the place that adventurers retire to, spend during their off-time, or defend from outside threats.  It also gives a sense of verisimilitude to campaigns: the setting might be a dangerous place, but it does have its points of light and simple folk unaware of the surrounding horrors.

How would a Shire-like location best be incorporated into adventures, or be expanded beyond a one-stop town the PCs need to defend from monsters?

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter!

Quote from: Libertad;563164The Shire is basically an idyllic countryside; most people are satisfied and content with their lot in life, there's no real need for adventurers, roving bands of monsters don't stalk the night, and it's the place that young heroes depart from on their journeys into the wide, dangerous world.  Good examples in tabletop games include Lamordia of Ravenloft and Bytopia of Planescape.

The Shire has a common place in fantasy, but it's not necessarily a place brimming with conflict and adventure.  It's more of the place that adventurers retire to, spend during their off-time, or defend from outside threats.  It also gives a sense of verisimilitude to campaigns: the setting might be a dangerous place, but it does have its points of light and simple folk unaware of the surrounding horrors.

How would a Shire-like location best be incorporated into adventures, or be expanded beyond a one-stop town the PCs need to defend from monsters?

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter!

From my recollection of the books, and other source stuff, if you travel a day or two out of the Shire in any direction, you're getting into strange territory. A few days north and there are ruined cities, strange men, etc. A few days to the east, you find the Old Forest, Bree, and so on.

So, one way to use something like the Shire might be as a place of rest for your PCs. Let them wander, adventure, and find excitement and riches on the outskirts of the area, where few sane hobbits ever venture. But then give them a place to come back to at the end of their travels, rest up, and get ready for their next journey.

That is a very good idea.  Keep the safe zone small.

The implication in "The Sign of the Prancing Pony" is that the Rangers are the ones who've kept the darkness out of the Shire and Bree-land; only the roads between are unmanageable in terms of monster incursion.

Also if I had to pick a place, I'd say Bree-land, or even Buckland over the Shire proper.  There's more chance that an outsider with offers of adventure could come by, esp. at The Prancing Pony.

I wouldn't.

Fuck Tolkien and his fucking hobbitts.

Mystara's Five Shires are basically this.  And in my epic levels 1-36 RC D&D campaign, the PCs ultimately chose the Five Shires/Darokin border region as their "home base" in the world, where they built their expert-level strongholds.  This was really useful, because it made a lot of the game about protecting this little piece of real estate and the people in it from harm.  For example, when the Master of the Desert Nomads started to move into the "known world" region with his hordes, the PCs had a very real sense of why it felt so important to them to stop him, more than just for the xp or the loot.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Libertad;563164The Shire has a common place in fantasy, but it's not necessarily a place brimming with conflict and adventure.  It's more of the place that adventurers retire to, spend during their off-time, or defend from outside threats.  It also gives a sense of verisimilitude to campaigns: the setting might be a dangerous place, but it does have its points of light and simple folk unaware of the surrounding horrors.

I recommend you give Lord of the Rings Online a try, create a hobbit character and give the Shire a shot (as Turbine interprets it). The Shire in LOTRO has a lot of small missions, helping farmers get rid of pesky wolves, bears and boars, finding lost stuff, solving some kidnappings, dealing with some annoying bandits, and more. It is a great environment for zero-to-hero first steps. As you get near borders, risks get riskier.

My own campaign take on the Shire, the Halflings and the dark side of their culture. Don't let their sweet charming peaceful lands fool you.  

Limerick
The Halflings of Limerick Shire are the glue that holds the alliance of races together. While the Elves are the traditional leaders it was the Halflings that worked to keep trade and communication flowing. Since its foundation Limerick Shire has supplied much of the food and everyday goods for the five races. During the fall of Silverwood and the Majestic Wilderlands their aid was instrumental in allowing the survivors to regroup. Later they helped in the foundation of Thunderhold and Loshain providing much of the supplies needed in the initial years.

Limerick Shire is ruled by a triumvirate consisting of a High Lord, Lord Sheriff, and the High Warden. The three officials are advised by a Shire Moot consisting of all property owning Halflings. The High Lord and subordinate Lords are responsible for adjudicating disputes and hearing criminal complaints. The Lord Sheriff and his Deputies enforce the shire ordinances and keep the peace. They are typically the accusing party in cases involving criminal complaints. The High Warden and his Wardens are responsible for patrolling the Shire boundaries plus organizing any expeditions needed to take care of menaces to the shire.

The fall of Carolyn and Merdain, a thousand years ago, saw an influx of human refugees into the Shire. They primarily settled around Boughrune forming a mixed human-halfling community. Soon afterwards a tradition was established that at least one of the Lords, Deputies, and Wardens of Boughrune was a human. Many humans work in the barge trade along the Estuary of the Roglaroon.

Halflings
In most aspects Halflings are similar to bigger cousins Man. However their small size has left them with a marked disadvantage dealing with the monsters haunting the Wilderlands. This in combination with their initial training as farmers has caused Halflings to be far more cooperative with each other compared to normal human. They know if they fight among themselves they will be prey for the larger and nastier creatures and races around them.

A legacy of their origins is their interest in agriculture. Like many of the other races created by the Demon Lords they continued their vocation after their liberation. Growing the food needed to feed the armies of the revolt. When victory came they continued this tradition their lands becoming the breadbaskets feeding the other demi-human realms.

The Halflings are the greatest allies of the Elves in promoting harmony among the races. They take a leading role in the Rangers and other organizations that reach across the boundaries that separate the races. They view that should the various alliances fail then their own lands will open to bandits and worse.

These views have opened a darker side of the Halfling race. They take pride their unbroken history of cooperation among themselves and view the troubles that afflict other races with contempt and condescending. In private talks between the elders they blame the Elves for whole mess in the first place as they couldn't maintain cooperation among themselves resulting in the Dark Elves becoming Demons.

Since the Halfling race lacks physical strength and is not gifted magically the only means they have to deal with threats is manipulation and guile. They will plant rumors, lie, and steal to nullify any threat to their race. Their ideal is to transform a potential conflict into one of mutual cooperation. But they will do what takes to nullify the threat if that can't be achieved.

Quote from: RPGPundit;563546Mystara's Five Shires are basically this.

I'm not sure; IIRC it's the halflings themselves, under the leadership of the Sheriffs, who keep the Broken Lands humanoid hordes in check. Mystara's halflings are pretty badass, not quite Tolkien's complacent farmers.

That being said, it is kind of tricky to integrate Tolkien's imagery of the Shire and hobbits into a world crafted under a sword-and-sorcery ethos. Settings like Mystara (which has halflings patrolling the borders of the humanoid-ruled Broken Lands and of expansionist Thyatis) and WFRP (which has Halfling Fieldwardens keeping an eye on the Moot's borders, including the one they share with vampire-infested Sylvania) do a fine job of striking a balance between fat, easygoing farmers and crafty, sneaky, badass adventurers like Frodo and Bilbo (both of whom, Tolkien reminds us more than an once, are an aberration among the Shire's generally placid population, and almost universally regarded as troublemakers).

Quote from: The Butcher;563636I'm not sure; IIRC it's the halflings themselves, under the leadership of the Sheriffs, who keep the Broken Lands humanoid hordes in check. Mystara's halflings are pretty badass, not quite Tolkien's complacent farmers..

Yes, you're very right about that.  The shire's "Sheriffs" were tough characters, and within the shires halflings had a special ability to negate magic.   Even so, they were on the whole a very peaceful and serene place, and pastoral, compared to most of the other lands of the "known world".

RPGPundit

Yeah, i think it's best used as a place for the PCs to defend from the horrors of outside.

The PCs life is one of conflict, injury and death and sights and sounds that poor little Shirelings couldn't handle. A Shire type place might remind the PCs of the good in the world and be somewhere worth preserving - in fact, i would say that it's not a place to retire to or a safe haven for the PCs, because PCs tend to bring trouble with them.

I'm reminded of the scene in Serenity where the operative is talking with Mal and says he does horrible things so that others can live in what he believes is a Utopia. Then when challeged on it, he says "it's not for me. I'm not going to live there. I'm a monster."

Now, i'm not saying that the PCs are 'monsters', but i think the sentiment is the same - they are preserving a good place and recognise that if they went there or stayed there, their very presence could ruin it all.