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I’m going to try and push through with the last four introductions — once I’m finished with those, LOTRO blogging will be a little less frequent. I also may make a little side page for the characters and any other important information at some point to make things a little easier to remember who is who and what I’m babbling about.

I started with my first character, Th, and now I’ll go in order of creation of my own characters, finishing with (I hate referring to them as “supporting” characters) my husband’s dwarf and a brief mention of my friend’s characters (or at least one or two of them).

Number two!

To be honest, I wasn’t sure how long my first/main character would last. I had no idea I would even create a second! Necessity turned out to be a driving force in creating her. It wasn’t that I wanted to try another fighter-type or race… it was because I needed her skills.

As I mentioned with Th, one of his “careers” involves making weapons. Some of them are from wood. While he can mine for ore himself, he cannot gather and prepare the wood. There is an Auction House, but even if I had enough “gold” to buy what I needed, I am still at the mercy of waiting for someone to post what I needed, in the amounts I needed. I decided very quickly that wasn’t going to work for me.

Building a character in a different way

I already had a male dwarf, so I thought this time I would create a female character and make her an elf. I’ll admit it: for some reason, I have no interest in playing a human in LOTRO. I spend very little time in human areas, preferring dwarves and elves. And surprisingly, I’m really not interested in hobbits either.

I actually started by looking up the crafting categories, and which ones could gather and process wood. The Forester intrigued me. Not only do they work with wood, but they also can process hides from animal-based kills (I certainly ended up with plenty of those), and from those you can make light and medium armor as a tailor. Also handy, they can mine for ore without having to deal with the weapon making annoyance. This could also be handy to feed my dwarf’s crafting needs.

So, a female elf forester was started — we will call her “L.”

Ah, at last! Wood! Precious wood for my dwarf to work on his woodworking crafting tiers! I was so happy I’d finally fixed that little problem of mine, even if it meant a second character to level up.

More of the prospecting and producing ingots business, but that’s okay. If my characters don’t need it, someone else will.

And hey, might as well do something with all those hides from animals and beasts killed while questing.

Something different to do crafting-wise too. Wait a minute… this seems a little familiar to *me*…. hmmm… 😉

Give that elf a bow and arrows!

As far as fighting style, this character just screamed for the hunter category (think Legolas). Unlike Legolas and his shooting arrows while running around, defying gravity (running up falling stones *coughs*), I decided to go with the red tree trait, Bowmaster. Think more “sniper” than fast Legolas. I wanted a bit of power behind the bow shots. Since her armor would be medium, instead of the heavy I was used to with my dwarf, I was nervous how she would be able to deal with soloing. At this point, I knew she was a gatherer. A backup. I still needed her to advance level-wise, so I could get to the resources I needed.

As far as weapons, I also liked the double-sword look for her along with her main weapon, a bow. There have been times she’s ended up with an axe as well, but I’ve always liked the look of double-swords for her. Sadly, she picked up an axe when she gained access to Moria and since I’m still learning about Legendary Items (things change when you enter Moria), I’ve been too nervous to change it out to a sword or even getting her another LI sword. Perhaps once I feel a little more used to how things work with LIs, and the axe has been fully leveled up, she’ll go back to that look.

Although I do need to use it more often, she has the ability to sneak around. Either hiding while standing still, or “cloaking” and tip-toeing around. The only downside is once you do something, it stops working and the next time you can use it is a little while. It has come in handy though, and can be fun using. 😉

And now for something completely different

Back to the fact her main weapon is a bow — I’ll admit, I was not fond of this “distance-fighting” weirdness. Especially since bad guys always ran up to fight anyway, which was annoying when her powerful bow-attacks took time to power up! I felt awkward, and instead of just running in (at least somewhat) confidently, I would skirt around trouble, picking out weak spots, nervously starting things and hoping she’d pull through the fight.

What I didn’t realize, is part of the problem turned out to be my old laptop.

When L hit level 48 and went into Eregion — because the place is RICH with resources, so of course I pushed her ahead and couldn’t stop questing — I first thought there was just no way I could do this without help. Even the simplest fights with at-level foes made me nervous, and each one felt like I might come close to defeat. How was I supposed to get to those wonderful resources if I was scared to leave the path? I’d always had trouble with Rivendell making my laptop freak out (all those trees, buildings, waterfalls… at least you were safe from being attacked), and the trees in Eregion were doing the same. Except this time, there were plenty of things that wanted to attack.

And then the inevitable happened, my laptop died, and my sweet husband bought me a new desktop. He didn’t want me to be without my favorite entertainment, so we looked for the cheapest gaming system I could afford. LOTRO was the first thing I did when I got it up and running. And when I logged on, I used L and went to Eregion. If anything would tell me if things were better with the new computer, that would be it.

And suddenly, I liked playing L.

(Pardon the user interface/UI… I’m a skill-clicker and have no idea or interest in figuring out how to game without it) I used to hate playing a hunter, but I’ve now come to enjoy her different fighting skills.

What a difference!

While the graphics weren’t lots better than what I’d been stuck with, they were improved. Mostly though, the computer was able to handle the speed needed — fights weren’t as scary or difficult. Quite frankly, they were more fun. Sure, I still needed to consider what I was doing, but it was actually working. I couldn’t stop playing L and questing in Eregion. Next thing I knew, she was staring at the gate to Moria. Eregion had been a blur with quests flying by.

It was a hard decision to make, splitting her pairing with my husband’s dwarf, but it made the most sense. Onward she went, solo again.

You can’t see her axe here, but she looks quite defiant doesn’t she?

Wait, what? She wasn’t solo this whole time?

Oh yes… in all the talk about creating L and what I needed her for, I neglected to mention that shortly after her creation, Th and my husband’s dwarf stopped questing together, and L took that spot instead of soloing on her own all the time (just most of the time).

In a funny turn of events, my husband who was able to play video games far better than I ever could, preferred gaming with me. Somehow, LOTRO ended up making more sense to me and I had more time to figure out what was going on (he is a writer and a podcaster, and his free time is full of all sorts of projects). With L leading the way, he was able to make better progress than if he’d tried gaming on his own. Plus — don’t laugh — it was a bit of a “date night” for us.

A bit of romance?

Yes, as it turned out, L became a bit of “me” in Middle Earth and Christopher’s dwarf is all “him” — so it was only natural that a bit more playful fun and flirting happened with these two. Instead of greeting each other with a simple wave or bow, my elf took to blowing him kisses and giggling at him.

Of course, this doesn’t sit well with Th, his brother. He has become an embarrassment to the family — the shame! Following that pointy-ear around like a lovesick puppy.

When I told Christopher that L was about to break away level-wise and enter Moria, he gave me a bit of a sad look. No, he wouldn’t be questing alone. Instead, he would be working with my third character. Another elf. No silly kisses and flirting. There are some sweet little messages when L sends him gems and precious metals for his crafting, however. And it’s not like he’ll never see her again. In fact, he can’t wait to get into Moria. I’m not sure if it’s because he too likes dwarves and can’t wait to see it… or if he’s hoping to catch up to L again.

Current location

While L is working her way through Moria, she is not doing all quests. Just enough to keep her levels going, and mostly focusing on the main epic quest books. She may be about to start heavy questing to lead her out the other door, on her way to Lothlorien — but her main focus still seems to be that of gatherer. There is always plenty that needs to be mined or crafted.

And while she is an elf, she has spent a lot of time around dwarves and appreciates their history. Hearing the stories of Thorin Oakenshield’s quest to reclaim Erebor, and now with Moria, she has come to like them and contemplate them. Their loyalty, drive, passion, strength, and ferocity have inspired her and made her fight harder as well.

She still sometimes sneaks back to the stone trolls in the Trollshaws, where Thorin, Bilbo, and Company were attacked, and just sits and thinks while looking at them.

Now this is a place in Moria an elf could get used to. Even if you can’t see the sky. A shame there are lots of bad things in here that want to attack though. Maybe she’ll have to come back and visit when the dwarves clear them out.

There has been a lot of bad blood between elves and dwarves throughout history, but seeing this once-great kingdom in ruins like this saddens her. Dwarves really are not so bad once you get to know them.

Exploring Moria has been both breathtaking, and heartbreaking.

Thanks for reading (yes, she is blowing you a kiss)!

Up next, my last character. Yet another elf… but a little different!

As I mentioned, I’m not going to go into server/name/specific details since I already have players I game with and am blogging about it for fun. Also, just to cut down on typing out names over and over, I’ve decided to use the format many of my friends use when talking about family and friends in a private way… by referring to them by initials. I’m not sure how many names I will eventually talk about. My husband only has one character so far, I have three, and I’m honestly not sure how many my friend has (I really only interact with two of them on a regular enough basis though).

Also a reminder, that although I’ve become a bit obsessed with LOTRO, I’m really not a gamer. I’m still learning new things, and honestly although I’m definitely “getting around” a lot better than I ever imagined I would, I definitely am not fully up on what’s going on. There are times I have no clue what people are talking about if I read forums or tip pages, I don’t do things the “proper” way. It’s probably also why I am a little selective about who I game with. Folks who know I have no clue (and never will) what I’m doing and won’t be a lot of help on really huge team-based attacks. In other words, very patient people. 😉

Format?

I also asked my husband how he’d like to see me do the introductions. “Should I introduce all three in one post, or go into a little more detail about each in separate posts?” He preferred the latter, and I suppose he has a point. It’s not just about stats or titles… in a way, I’ve created a bit of a character for each of them. It might be more interesting to get to know them each one-by-one.

“Th” the Dwarf

My first character, “Th” we will call him, is a dwarf. Of course! I also have no problem roleplaying (RPing) a male character… and let’s face it: In LOTRO, dwarves are a little limited gender-wise. Both look exactly the same (much to the dismay of many players, and I admit I quite like the look the dwarrowdams have in The Hobbit movies. Yes, they have facial hair, but I’m not a big fan of the “all looking alike” dwarf thing… male or female. Makes me think of cheesy garden gnomes). Regardless, I decided to go with a male character and I’ve very much enjoyed it.

Fighting Style

Next was his style of fighting. I don’t really recall doing much research into how each class was to play, but they give you little descriptions of the different fighter classes using Lord of the Rings characters… Guardian for Samwise Gamgee, Hunter for Legolas, Champion for Gimli I believe is how it went. Well there ya go, easy choice there! Dwarf Champion! But oh, more choices!

It’s all about the accessories

Do I let him use a two-handed weapon? A weapon in each hand? And what about his actual attack styles? Gah! Thank goodness for having an iPad to look up some things while I was making decisions in-game.

So I did decide: a sword and an axe (something I still try to keep with him even if there are better options to pick from), along with the allowed bow (not as powerful, but handy on occasion), and although this might not make a lot of sense to non-LOTRO folks: I went with the yellow tree trait, The Deadly Storm. His attacks are meant to spread out across multiple attackers (Area of Effect/AoE). Handy, especially when playing solo or when our group has wandered into trouble (plural). 😉

His weapons have varied — different types/looks, as well as attack damage. That’s what the different colors are. When he ends up with multiple colors/attack damage, I always joke that he is lit up like a Christmas tree.

Building the character

So I ended up talking a bit much about stats there, unavoidable really, because in a way these stats helped start the shaping of the character. So let’s talk about looks. If he sort of reminds you of Thrain from the first Hobbit movie, there is a reason for that. Except he’s not missing an eye, merely a scar across one eyebrow. And quite a handsome dwarf Th is, if I may add!

Th is a typical dwarf. Loyal to those who have earned it, grumpy (especially while being made to prove himself to strangers by doing their endless tasks), and he absolutely worships the ground Thorin Oakenshield walked on — very proud of his heritage. You know he met Thorin once when he was younger, yes? That crazy wizard told him about the Quest to reclaim Erebor, and while discussing that with him, he had the absolute delight to meet Thorin. He wishes he could have gone with Thorin to help, but he was too young at the time. He was but a small dwarfling when the dragon attacked, and while he calls Ered Luin his home, he looks forward to the day he can see the Lonely Mountain again.

Saluting the bust of Thorin Oakenshield in the kin house. He really must get one for his own home!

A place to call home

And speaking of which, he does have a house. A medium-sized house in Ered Luin near Thorin’s Hall. It’s inside a mountain, which means screencaps are dark and somewhat fuzzy. In LOTRO, you can have small houses, medium houses, or your kinship can buy really nice BIG houses. With three characters sharing the house (and you can tell elves live there too, because they planted trees in the front yard. Really. Trees. Inside a mountain. At least he got to put dwarvish statues by the door, hmph!), the extra storage and “cosmetic hooks” for decorating run out quickly. In fact, that is one thing I’ve tried to pour a lot of focus on recently — stocking up on storage space! Oof. Apparently I’m a hoarder online. But back to Th…

Dwarf houses at Thorin’s Hall in Ered Luin are inside a mountain. It’s hard to get clear images (especially on weaker computers/lower settings like mine). It’s dark and there seems to be a hazy-lighting effect.

It’s a three-room house. A main large living area, a study to one side, and a bedroom off the other.

Apparently houses are mostly to hold all the loot you pick up from questing/fighting (trophies) and festivals. There never seems to be enough space.

And a brother

When Christopher made his dwarf (who I will eventually introduce), our dwarves ran together a little bit to help increase their levels to catch up with their waiting friend. At some point, they were running around in the Shire, and they met another dwarf who asked a little about them. Christopher blurted out that they were brothers, and that little story has stuck (and is a little amusing, that a husband and wife have two male characters who are brothers).

I admit, I haven’t really built up family history as much, and I haven’t even touched the bio section. Something I probably should do. Th isn’t married, he’s a typical overly-focused dwarf who obsesses about crafting and adventuring (bah, who has time for romance, especially when there is gold to gather!). In fact, he is a little too focused. The two elves he shares a house with continually hound him to change his clothes — he admittedly has not gone through many clothing changes. First, what he started off with (quickly abandoned), a dwarf-make hauberk, a spring festival outfit (after the aforementioned hounding by the elves to get with the festivities for once), and the start of some nice red armor. He doesn’t understand the need for many outfits outside of a good cloak in rain or snow. Of course, after stomping through the Misty Mountains and Forochel especially, he knows he needs something a little warmer. But if you craft enough, you spend plenty of time in front of comfortably warm, glowing forges. And even swinging a pick axe to gather ore keeps a body warm enough!

Can’t forget a career

Speaking of crafting, you can also choose careers in the game. I knew without having to think twice that I wanted my dwarf to work at the forge. I had a few choices, but he went with weaponsmithing. There are three “crafts” you are able to do and level up. Prospecting (gathering ore and working it into usable ingots), weaponsmithing, and woodworking. Woodworking is also part of the weaponsmithing (bows, spears, maces), but he can’t gather the wood on his own. That was a big annoyance for me, and why I created a second character who I’ll talk about next.

Mining for the ore…

… and making ingots and weapons from the ore. A dwarf always keeps busy!

The woodworking craft — this is where I had to create a second character to gather/work wood, so I wouldn’t have to rely on anyone else or pay a lot at the Auction House.

There are even hobbies!

While he hasn’t done either in a long time, he also spent some time fishing. Several trophies on display in his house were caught in Rivendell. He also plays the lute, but after my computer crash (lost those tunes) and a LOTRO update, I haven’t bothered seeing what new songs I can load for him. I mean, let him learn.

I’m not sure if collecting mounts (ponies, in the case for smaller characters like dwarves and hobbits, and small goats) counts as a hobby, but although I swore I wouldn’t… all my characters are starting to build up a collection. Even pets!

A favorite way to get around Middle Earth: The Thorin’s Hall Reputation Goat.

Current location

At the moment, Th — who was my first and only character for a few months at least — is now in Eregion working through the quests, and waiting to start the preparation to go into Moria. My other two characters have or are passing him level and location-wise. In fact, his brother (level 50) has technically gotten closer despite being a level below him still (Th just hit level 51). He’s determined to stick with his dwarf-friend, but sometimes scheduling time can be difficult.

Thanks for reading!

Next I’ll introduce you to one of my two elves…

Pondering blogging about LOTRO — it has been over a year…

When I first created this blog, it was not meant to be for any one hobby. It was meant to be a place to point friends and family to when they were interested in knowing what was up with me. I have too many interests and hobbies, and I frequently have to put things aside so I can focus on others. There is one thing I’ve been doing for over a year that I have not really talked about. And it is still quite new for me, especially.

See, I am very clumsy with video games so I really have never played them and do not consider myself to be a “gamer.”

The non-gamer gamer-to-be

Oh sure, I grew up in the days of arcade games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders, and while I had played them a little… well, not as much as most kids my age did (not counting the really cool mini-arcade Pac-Man game I had — still, I’d hardly call my frequent play of that thing very good). We had one of the first TI computers (I can’t think off-hand which one it was, but if my memory is clear, it was essentially a keyboard with a slot for a cartridge), but again although I would play some of those games, I never considered myself any good at them.

I guess at most, Solitaire and a few similar games on handheld devices like my iPad were what I assumed would be my main game focus. When my husband bought a few game consoles, they only reminded me how horrible I was at them. If you think I’m embellishing, take my attempt at playing one of the Star Wars Episode I games (I think it was for the first Playstation). I was a huge Darth Maul fan, and desperately wanted to get to the level where you fought him. Ha! The very opening of the game had you on Naboo, starting off by walking across some fallen tree serving as a bridge. Yeah. I fell off and couldn’t cross it.

I handed the game controller to my husband and just watched him play. When he got to the part with Darth Maul, he saved it so I could play. With all of our friends being video game fans, my part was to sit and watch (still fun to watch, I admit!). But oh so sad for clumsy little me.

Fandoms introduce you to new hobbies…

And then came my fandom with The Hobbit, which sparked my interest in Middle Earth (that’s a story for another time). I had heard about these MMO games before, but just assumed it would be even worse for my clumsy self to attempt just walking around. I kept seeing bits and pieces of Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), and my curiousity couldn’t be quieted. So I chatted with a friend and asked her to “tell me all about it!”

… and so do friends

After a lot of talking back and forth, and flat-out asking her if I had any hope of making it to any level of comfort and figuring things out, she finally convinced me to at least give it a try. So I held my breath, downloaded the game, finally got it working (there were a few quirks my old laptop struggled with), and built my first character. Then, not really knowing if I would be capable of hanging in there long enough to see if I would like it, I took my first step into the game…

I mentioned I was using a laptop, and it did not have a mouse. I had a touchpad. Big error there, but fortunately this was the early intro level. Chatting with another couple who play the game, I quickly took their advice and borrowed a mouse from my husband. MUCH better. I didn’t look like a drunk directionally challenged idiot anymore. I was however, absolutely terrified of the heights though.

Apparently in Middle Earth, they don’t know what handrails are.

Fear of heights, even in games

There is a section in Ered Luin, near Thorin’s Hall, with a winding staircase. I had such terrors of navigating up and down (and of course the quests insisted I needed to go up and down them multiple times), that I would have to stop, turn, and position the character properly before continuing. I wondered if I would ever get over that fear or learn to navigate more smoothly, with a bit more confidence.

Making it through the intro levels, into the real world of the game itself went rather quickly. After a little time (and reading online — thank goodness for LOTRO wiki sites), I acquired a pony and wondered how I had ever been patient enough with simply running on foot. Despite some confusion here and there, and learning things, I was quickly addicted to the game and enjoyed myself. I can’t actually remember when it happened, but I even convinced my husband to create a character and he sometimes plays with me when he has time. Mostly, I play solo, and of course I also play with the friend who convinced me to go ahead and give it a try. In fact, our two main characters try to quest together — I created two more characters so I could play with my husband, as well as quest alone without waiting for schedules to match up — and I consider the interaction between our characters to be just as much part of the story of Middle Earth as the game and quests themselves.

When did that happen?

I’m not sure when it happened, or when I first noticed it, but there was a point I returned to that winding staircase in Ered Luin and realized… I was zipping up and down without stopping or worrying I would fall off. I did have to stop and have a laugh about it.

Because even though I do tend to play the game a lot (skipping many aspects, while focusing more on others, and still learning new things about it), I still don’t consider myself a gamer. If something ever happened to LOTRO, I’m honestly not sure what I would do. I would hate having to start all over, building things up from scratch, learning how that particular game works, and of course there is my friend and my husband — it wouldn’t be the same without them.

Welcome home

I’ve always been an introvert (and I mean to the extreme), but I’ve enjoyed socializing online. IRC, forums, messaging, and email… and now I’ve found a new home online.

With that, I think I will be blogging here and there about LOTRO and gaming from the point-of-view of a non-gamer. I am sure it won’t be often, because I tend to keep blog entries limited so they do not bury my actual project posts. So if you’re not into that, don’t worry (and again costuming friends remember, I’m not finished sewing either, but there is more to me than just one hobby of course). 🙂

“PRIVACY SETTINGS” 😉

I also will be keeping some identifying details to a minimum. Characters will probably be referred to by initials, and I won’t be saying which server I’m on — this isn’t to say I’m anti-social (I do interact with strangers in-game when I can), but as I mentioned before the three of us and our characters are working through a story together, and I don’t want to accidentally get off track from that. I am saving the quests to run with them, and I don’t want to level up too quickly (yes, I have an XP disabler). That’s not why I’m blogging about it though — I simply want to write down things in case there is a day we can no longer log on. Since I have enjoyed my stay in Middle Earth so much, it has become a fun and important thing for me. Something to write about.

So I guess the next post will be to introduce you to my characters. Here is a quick glimpse of them saying “hello” until then:

Of course, while I do try to get quality screencaps when I can, that won’t be my focus (and sometimes you just don’t have time to go turn things off or pose properly)… and my computer is only so powerful, so settings are lower than I’d like.

Thanks for reading!