Review – LOTRO Players

[CC] An eagle flight of lotros 2018

No pretty pictures or puns for this one. A quick overview of what we had in lotro over the last year. A due note that the articles overall content sounds worse then 2018 has been. With a timely developers letter the pacing could have been amended, but i’ve decided to post it on a slightly delayed timely manner

Out with the old and in with the new
2018 will be the year nearly every part of the game has gotten an overhaul. Classes, landscape, instances, damage systems and mobs. Everywhere you will go in 2019 is different then 2017. While 2018 was a year of change that had its ups and downs with a positive kink in the cable near the end that caused a delay in development. Future lotro is in a good spot, but that’s for another time.

Tail end of mordor
August of 2017 gave us our first expansion in years and the first signs of the upcoming year were laid out. New and returning ideas made it (back) into the game. Some adored and some reviled. The difficulty, barter and loot system each had their fans and opponents. The game felt unhinged at times as some classes would have a clear advantage when they would have had their overhaul. But not long after the raid was released we’d be venturing into a different direction then deeper into mordor

Update 22 Northern Mirkwood
It was time to help the elfs, dwarfs and humans in Northern Mirkwood. We’d roam the landscape for quest tokens and reputation. A 180 degree turn from mordor where the emphasize was on efficiency and instances. Alts, questing and dailies were the focus for the free people. Grouping up with your kinnies as the quests were challenging at times. Instances like searching for beornings were a challenge. You;d often repeat yourself, but it never felt as such to most. The landscape and schedule were gorgeous as you;d choose to focus on the dwarves or humans.

Lay of rust and rime
Right when you’d started to wonder what SSG had up its sleeve. Karazgar turned up with his new weekly quest chain. Not as light hearted as Bingo Boffin, but it made you wonder where the game was heading as we’d get further and further from Mordor. Nearly each week had its own story moment. But a moment if you just clicked continue quest.

Summer instances (and yule)
As we were near the end of update 22 and anticipating U23 which had a new instance cluster. Bullroarer came online with “seasonal instances”. The hobbits went on a picnic and Thrang came back with a vengeance. Rewards for both the casual and the one looking for the best gear were in 7th heaven.
It would come back in december with 2 new instances for the Yule festival. But for a review of these you;ll have to wait a bit for the next 99 instances.

Update 23 – Ered Mithrin
Dwarves, dragons, dwarves and beornings. As we’d dig deeper in Erebor we’d go easter(lings) and west for our new instances. Another batch of great landscapes and stories unfolded as you look for xp to get to 120. Solo, duo, fellowship and daily instances were available. Glimmerdeep, Caverns and Thikil gundu were the new places to be. And you’d go there a lot. In update 22 all the content was spread out and in U23 it’s all focussed in Skarhald. A new loot system, a designed loot and a push away from mordor and Mirkwood with the new and improved Ash system. Every part of the game got a refresh with instances, gear, lootbox and crafting getting a new tier. Pretty good, but missing the dotted i’s and crossed t’s.

Legendary server
The biggest surprise of 2018 was the first new server in lotro in a long while. The legendary server got launched with a desire to give old, returning and new players the experience they missed while fighting in Bree and Angmar. The slower leveling, less content and (bugged) difficulty proved to be hit. Anor getting a baby brother with Ithil joining the Launcher to relieve the first quees in a decade.
2 months in the server are still among the busiest servers. Perfect for a select group of lotroplayers.

Class and rating revamps
2018 was also the year where nearly every class and underlying game system gotten an overhaul. While it started of slowly the last few months of 2018 the game was in a continous flux with weekly patches and updates. When your class was on the board you’d find new options around the corner. Every traitline now was a valid option. Guards could kill stuff, minstrel and hunters got to use more skills then just that one. Even the beorning now feels like a class.

Difficulty returned to landscape and instances with the rating revamp. No longer was it a matter of capping everything. Choices had to be made. Did you want to survive or do more damage? The problems reared their heads as SSG got overwhelmed with all the changes they made and new bugs and issues turned up. Combined with the new instances and legendary server everyone was waiting for a fix to their problem.

Return of the creeps and departure of freeps
Update 22 gave a revival to the Ettenmoors. Creeps gotten a boost where they could now overwhelm the freeps. Pvmp was a good place to be for the summer. With the revamps on bullroarer it promised to be even better. SSG had different ideas towards the end. Without a reliable way to fight the damage the new creeps are pushing, the freeps relented the ettenmoors (on Evernight)

Quick bits
Filter system allowed us to choose which loot, quests or sounds we’d never want to see again. A great suprise we never knew we wanted or expected.

If you’d missed a festival you never had to worry. 2018 was the year of Yule in summer and an encore for every festival.

Grabbing a questlog full of dailies at the start and an empty questlog in december with a ton of instances for everyone to do. Lotro had two opposites for the higher levels in 2018.

Perfecting old systems such as lootbox and ash while also introducing new gearing, loot and essences gathering. 2018 was a game in flux.

A renewed marketing, a new leveling experience for every class and the legendary server. The world once again knew lotro existed.

Bugs, bugs and bugs. SSG chasing their own tails. Not all was roses and sunshine with the latter part of 2018 having more patches and hotfixes for problems they created themselves. A weekly server reset that more often used as an indication if we’d get another downtime this week.

Nearly 99 instances were discussed as some stragglers were left behind to work on one of the worst lotro related articles ever written. Clearly someone hasn’t read critters journey.

2018 in review
Lotro excelled in what they have always done best. Quests, landscapes and stories were created at every stage of the year. While they doubled down on getting lotro ready for the next decade.

Sometime wishing they would they would just stop with the new and polish/clean up the previous changes they made. There has never been a better recent time to experience the older regions of lotro then now. While on the other hand the promises for a well thought out end-game fallen flat on their face. While mordor was grind. Ered Mithrin is a chore.

A mix of superb playtime and time to log out and wait depending on who you ask. 2018 will be a strange year to reflect upon in the future.

Adventures in Middle-earth Player’s Guide Review

Smaug has been defeated, the Battle of Five Armies has been won, and Bilbo has returned to the Shire. But much danger still remains, and from the Orc-holds of the mountains to the dark and corrupt depths of Mirkwood a darkness waits, recovering its strength, laying its plans, and slowly extending its shadow…

In Dale, King Bard sends out a call for brave adventurers to journey to Laketown and assist him in restoring the glory of the North.

For those of you that know your D&D history you know, that in 1974, when D&D creator Gary Gygax included hobbits as a player character race, the Tolkien Estate & Middle-earth Enterprises were not amused and threatened to sue if the hobbits were not removed from the game. Since that day Tolkien and Middle-earth have never been together, until now that is.

Note – This review is based upon the 2nd Revision PDF

Cubicle 7 is not stranger the lands and world of Middle-earth as they already has a Lord of the Rings RPG: The One Ring, which is an amazing RPG in its own right, but how will they bring ME to D&D 5E?

Adventures in Middle-earth Player’s Guide (Which I will refer to as AME for the reminder of this review) is currently available in pdf and print preorder (which will also get you the pdf version); the book version will be available soon, With the Adventures in Middle-earth Loremaster’s Guide (Dungeon Master) is due to follow later this fall.

The Player’s Guide is as a 224-page full-color pdf, Amazing artwork and fully bookmarked for easy searching. Note – You will also get an iPad formatted PDF as well, which was a pleasant surprise, and most welcomed. The way it reads and the “feel” of the book really invokes the world of Tolkien and Middle-earth.

The Full Break down

The book is laid out into 11 different chapters

Chapter One gives you the information about the significance of 2946 in the Third Age and overview of the Free Folk of the North, the Free Folk of Eriador, the Free Folk of the South and the activities of the Shadow.

Chapter Two explains how the rules of Adventures in Middle-earth Player’s differs from standard D&D 5th Edition game. It contains rules for creating characters, the Cultures of Middle-earth, the classes this book introduces, Middle-earth Backgrounds, Virtues, the Game Rules, Journeys, Corruption, Audiences, and the Fellowship Phase.

Chapter Three are the Cultures of Middle-earth, which take the place of 5th Edition’s Races. The cultures detailed are Bardings, Beornings, the Dunedin, Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain (further defined by Erebor and the Iron Hills), Elves of Mirkwood, Hobbits of the Shire (further defined by Harfoot and Stoor), Men of Bree, Men of the Lake, Men of Minas Tirith, the Riders of Rohan, and the Woodmen of the Wilderland.

Chapter Four introduces the Classes unique to AMe.

Chapter Five covers Virtues which are AMe’s term for Feats. Virtues are specific to a Culture, they are well designed and constructed and could easily add new options for a standard 5th Edition game.

Chapter Six details the Backgrounds of AME, and each includes a character’s Hope and Despair to really dig deep into the lore of the setting. The Backgrounds are Loyal Servant, Doomed to Die, Driven from Home, Emissary of your People, Fallen Scion, The Harrowed, Hunted by the Shadow, Lure of the Road, The Magician (a performer), Oathsworn, Reluctant Adventurer, Seeker of the Lost, and World Weary.

Chapter Seven Covers Equipment, detailing such things as Dalish Fireworks, Dwarven Toys, and Cultural Heirlooms. Cultural Heirlooms cannot be purchased, only rewarded, and they take the place of 5th Edition’s magic items. Heirlooms for each Culture are provided.

Chapter Eight introduces the rules for Journeys, as travel is greatly emphasized in Middle-earth.

Chapter Nine details the Shadow and the Corruption mechanic is fully presented. Each Classes’ Shadow Weakness is detailed, as well. Consequences of Corruption, such as madness and degeneration are detailed.

Chapter Ten Covers Audiences, a rules sub-system for meeting with and seeking aid from some of the “big names” in Middle-earth, those that we have all read about or watched on film.

Chapter Eleven covers the Fellowship Phase, which adds another rules sub-system for allowing character to recover between seasons and helps flesh out what they were up to when they have gone their separate ways, sometimes for years at a time. It includes options for Rest and Recovery, Undertakings (accomplishments important to individual heroes), Training, Gaining a New Trait (a fundamental change to the character), Heal Corruption, Meet a Patron, Open a Sanctuary, Receive a Title, and Research Lore.

You Got Your Middle-Earth IN My D&D!

Characters options is where this book really shines, The Player’s Guide uses well over half of its page count to present an almost entirely new system of character creation.

PCs have the same six attributes (Strength, Dexterity, etc.) you’d expect.

The choice of race expands into culture. You will gain abilities unique to each homeland

There are six brand new classes, which are meant to be used in place of the core D&D classes, and of course bring the world of Tolkien into D&D

⁃ The scholar, which fills the healer role as well as the lore expert.
⁃ The slayer, is pretty much just a modified barbarian
⁃ The treasure hunter, which is rogue (With Interesting Subclass options)
⁃ The wanderer, which is your ranger.
⁃ The warden, which is based on the bard (Minus Magic and Music).
⁃ The warrior, which is a fighter

As you can see, this will help you immerse yourself into Middle-earth, some of you might be asking but wait, there is no spell caster, which of course, fits well into the theme, as “Magic” is very rare in Middle-earth. They thing they struck me the most, is I think these are fairly well balanced. I think they would fit nicely into a normal D&D game; I would not have a problem with any of my players wanting to use one of these choices in a normal game.

Another big change is how the Backgrounds are handled here. Core 5E backgrounds can be thought of as the professions the PCs followed before adventuring, providing a second set of skills and a minor ability. In AME they provide motivations to adventurers, like Loyal Servant and doomed to die. Which means that the flavor of Middle-earth comes through very strongly indeed. They provide most of the same elements as core 5E backgrounds, including personality traits, but they also have a bit more mechanical aspect. Players also gain a specialty, which acts a bit like an uber-skill like old lore, supplementing existing skills (it provides proficiency if you lack the skill that would normally apply, or advantage if you have it).

Feats are optional in core 5E. AME lacks feats, but it replaces them with virtues…which if I’m honest are the same thing here, but grouped into cultures, evoking specific aspects of those races/homelands. An example of this is the Beornings has a virtue called, Brothers To Bears, you get enhanced Sight and Hearing during the day, and a night you get a bonus to Wisdom abilities checks. This is another way this makes Middle-earth shine here, as you can really emphasize the cultural heritage and

And of course, we get a nice selection of Weapons and Armors from the lands of Middle-earth. Sorry no Sting for you though! They do have options for what are called Cultural Heirlooms, which are ancient weapons, ie – Bow Of The North Downs (Shortbow) these are SUPER rare as you expect, but your Loremaster (DM) will have the option to throw this into a game. As a rare reward and something you might find deep within a dungeon or dragon’s horde!

New things in the AME book

I’d say the most extensive addition is the Journey system. We all know that it was all about the journey in the books. Note this is based on the One Ring, but it’s VERY different than the analog in The One Ring, which amounts to planning and then several die rolls to avoid fatigue (and that trigger hazards on particularly unlucky rolls). We get several stages to the rolling: one at the outset to determine the omens, several in the middle to represent dangers and events, and one representing the conclusion. Each stage rolls into the next, and there’s always very explicit story connected to the dice rolls – though the specifics of each encounter are up to the Loremaster (DM), the tables specify the types of encounters they can use.

One of the biggest changes from D&D Core rules is there’s no alignment in AME: the game explicitly assumes that PCs are heroes, always doing the right thing, working against the Shadow. But there is a very robust system to represent the corruption PCs accumulate shadow points from evil actions, horrific sights, or blighted places, PCs who do the right thing will still suffer as they visit dangerous places. These points can be removed (with difficulty), but if they ever exceed a character’s Wisdom score the PC is likely to have a bout of madness. I thought of this reminiscent to the madness you receive in various Cthulhu Games. The particular expression of this is determined by the PC’s character class, each of which has a shadow weakness. During one of these bouts, the Loremaster (DM) will takes control of the character, forcing them to do something they will regret. If it happens again it gets worse, until eventually the PC must be retired.

This might be the biggest shock to D&D players, Here there are real consequences for evil actions, and you may even lose temporary control of your PC. But it is nice that these consequences are very clear, so there’s not a lot of gray area – and steps you can take to control the danger. It will make you think before you take an evil action, is it worth what might happen to your character?

Finally, the last major system is the fellowship phase, which is basically an downtime system. The game assumes that the PCs undergo about one adventure per year and spend the remainder of the year recovering. This phase lets the PCs accomplish something in that extra time, from recovering from grievous injuries to opening new settlements for future rests. Interestingly, many of the cultural virtues also provide interesting “training” options – if a PC devotes their downtime to training, they can gain a new ability.

The book concludes with Pre-Generated characters to get you playing in the worlds of Middle-earth fast.

My Final Thoughts

If you’re a fan of Tolkien I would say this is a must have purchase, it will allow you bring all the best of Middle-earth into your D&D game. The new class options will add some spice to your game. The best part of D&D is allowing you to create and craft your character the way you want to, and the AME will allow you to do just that, and of course explore the lands of Middle-earth all why having fun around the table rolling dice.

If you would like a hard-copy of the book when it comes out, you can head over to Cubicle 7’s web-store Pre-order the Adventures in Middle-earth Player’s Guide here, with a free PDF – the PDF is available now, the print edition in the Autumn.

Pre-order both the Adventures in Middle-earth Player’s Guide and Adventures in Middle-earth Loremaster’s Guide, with free PDFs here – the Player’s Guide PDF is out now, the print edition in the Autumn, the Loremaster PDF and print edition are both anticipated Autumn 2016.

You can head over to Drive Thru RPG and pick up a copy of the PDF for 19.99 right now, if you just want to purchase the PDF version.

A Big THANK YOU! To Cubicle 7 Entertainment for providing the PDF for this review!

Overall Thoughts on the Riders of Rohan Expansion

The Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan expansion has now been on the live servers for a little over two weeks. During this time I have gotten to experience a good bit of the content. My main character made it to level 85 two nights ago, but had gained a lot of the XP needed for that by way of hunting warbands, and has not done any of the quests in the Sutcrofts yet. With that said, I wanted to take some time to share my thoughts on the expansion as a whole.

The Ugly

Let me start by getting the ugliness stated and out of the way: there are some major tech issues, that I think most of us are at least aware of, if not impacted by them. This is common with most games when releasing new content. It is impossible to find and fix all bugs during beta sessions, and it is also impossible to know exactly what is going to happen when the player-base at large gets a hold of the new stuff.

We’re seeing some instances where certain players are almost completely unable to participate in mounted combat because of the slingshotting that is taking place. Since Mounted Combat is really the centerpiece mechanism of this expansion, I have no doubt it’s being looked at and they will hopefully be trying to address this as soon as they can.

Sapience even posted on the forums yesterday that they believe they have found the solution to the problem and that they may start implementing it as soon as right now (the time of this writing):

We’re aware of this issue and have ben actively tracking it. We beleive we’ve found a solution and will be making a change to the servers. Most likely tomorrow morning.

If you’ve followed what I’ve had to say, you’ll also know that I am very unhappy with and concerned about the Turbine Store prices associated with customizing the aesthetics of your Warsteed. This is my only other gripe with the expansion.

Now that the Ugly is out of the way… let’s move on to the good stuff.

The Good

Where do I start? There really are too many good things about this expansion to even really know where to begin. I could start with Warsteeds and Mounted combat, but I am fairly certain if you are here, reading this site, and have seen the URL… you probably know how I feel about it! To put it simply, and to echo something I’ve said a few times on the game forums: This is the most fun I have had in LOTRO since the Shadows of Angmar days. Absolutely nothing has lived up to the bar that was set in SOA when I was running around, rediscovering Tolkien’s world for the first time. Getting to a point where I am having as much fun as I was back then can directly be attributed to the Warsteeds system and Mounted Combat most specifically.

Or, I could start with entering Rohan, at long last. I think I played this a bit differently than most of the people I know in game. I think most of them started with Galadriel and worked the epic lines until they got to Langhold and started the quest to get their Warsteed. I like the epic books, I love the stories behind them; but I wanted my Warsteed more. The night before launch my Hunter suspected he would very soon be needed in the lands just south of his current camp near Stangard. The next day he received a note saying the Rohirrim was in need and that I should go find one of their riders and see where I could help.

That first time seeing the Wold, and realizing one of my characters was finally standing in the zone that I had been waiting for, dreaming about, since launch; I was ecstatic.

Working my way through the Wold, obtaining my Warsteed and then working backwards to pick up the epic line and continue through the East Wall, Norcrofts, Entwash and then into the Sutcrofts has been an amazing experience.

I am finding Warbands are extremely fun for me to find and hunt, even though the rewards I personally have been getting from them have been pretty lackluster (I want an Orc head on a Pike, why won’t it drop!?)

The music? We normally play music from an outside source while we play. I don’t think either of us have fired up Pandora once since Rohan launched. Chance Thomas and the rest of the people behind the sound have done an amazing, extremely high quality job of bringing us epic music that fits the settings very well.

The quest stories are some of the best, if not the best we have seen in LOTRO. This goes for both the epic lines and the regular regional quest story lines. They are well written, and very enjoyable.

The last bit I want to point at is Hytbold. Over the years I have been gaming I have changed from being a very group oriented player with a lot of time to play, to a solo/duoist type player with much less time. I think the Hytbold mechanic is simply brilliant for a player like me. Yes, it’s going to take some time to complete it, but it does allow me to work at it, at my own pace. You may say the 5 quest a day limit is too little, and for some that may be true. The limit may need some tweaking, but for now – for me, it’s working just fine. The amount of time it takes to go run the five dailies and head back to Hytbold and rebuild a couple things just about perfectly fits my play times on any given evening during the week.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

The lag sucks. Some Warsteed Cosmetic prices are way too much. The content is awesome, the music is amazing. I AM FINALLY IN ROHAN and I like the Hytbold Mechanic. This is the most fun I have had in LOTRO since Shadows of Angmar.

*Note – This review is based upon the 2nd Revision PDF*