the Spirit of the Fellowship
The spirit of the Fellowship is hard to pin down, and differs from other groups I have moderated.
The characters are fairly well-rounded, not mere charicatures. They have families and obligations. They also have pasts, psyches and personal hang-ups.
Above the law of common men, benefitting from the many economical and social privileges of nobility, yet bound on hands and foot by virtue and social censure, and by political necessity.
Both the grim stories told and the humour that makes them bearable derive from the unequal relations of the characters with people around them, and on the archaic codes of conduct adhered to.
While the characters may try to avoid thinking about it, the world is not noble. The characters are pawns and players in a sordid and pragmatic political game, and their antics often are a matter of life and death for noblemen and commoners alike.
When the style of combat is concerned, "swashbucklers in plate mail" springs to mind, as does "medieval battlemechs": Musclebound men in heavy plate, astride destriers, wielding swords and lances. Combat is grittily heroic, the characters bend realism slightly, but are still subject to devastating injuries, mutilation and death on their own part.