To His Highness, King Dain II,

I, Gronar, Champion of the Dwarves, send you greetings.  May you take pride and may your great beard grow even longer, as you read this report of my latest adventure:

As you well know, good king, I serve the Free Peoples as a member of the Marchwardens of Ennorath, an order dedicated to protecting the innocent from evil most-foul!  (Yet, they are aware that I still owe allegiance to you and do send you these reports regularly.)

A Call to Duty

‘Twas yesterday… I was in the Misty Mountains, scouting out the camps on the outskirts of Goblintown…when a messenger arrived with an urgent summons.: Lord Malborr needed all available Marchwardens to assemble at Ost Forod, that crumbling keep inhabited by men in Evendim.

I immediately released my choke-holds on two goblin scouts, mounted my pony, and rode at top speed to Evendim.

Arriving at Ost Forod, I was met by two other courageous Marchwardens:  Lord Malborr and Lady Naerrin, mighty spear-wielding warriors!

Lord Malborr told us why we were here:  It seems that the local bear population had grown out-of-control!  The bears, with unusual daring, had been moving ever-outward from their dens, in search of more food.  Upon finding this food, these bears were breeding at a furious rate!

And, well, you know how bears, by nature, seem to be attracted to garbage dumps of all sizes?   Well, just think:  Ost Forod’s the biggest trash heap within a hundred leagues!  Why, the bears were having a party! (Pardon me… a rather deadly party, at that.)  At night, they would freely raid the town for food and have themselves “a good time” (if you know what I mean).

The men in Ost Forod have never been known for courage.  But I now understand the reason for this…and why they always seem to be in a rather “pissy mood”:  Their people were being slaughtered nightly by hordes of bold, vicious bears!

News of this terror had reached the ears of Lord Malborr.  And he had now summoned all available Marchwardens to a hunt.  We were going to put a stop to these man-eaters that same very night!

Naturally, Lady Naerrin and I gladly accepted this challenge. (Unfortunately, the other Marchwardens were all occupied on other missions.  We would have to go it alone…just us three!)  And so, we mounted up and rode to a valley just outside the crumbling walls of Ost Forod…a place called “Nan Orngorn”.

Nan Orngorn: The Valley of Death

I dismounted and searched the lightly-forested valley with my keen eyes. Let me tell you, my king… my eyes were not prepared for the sight I did see!  Surely, there was dark magic behind this place….for there were bears everywhere!  Every rock, every tree, every bush, every stream… could not be seen because there was a bear in front of it!

And the smell…. Auch!!  Sometimes I wish that we dwarves were a wee bit taller, if only to get our noses up out of the stench!

Bracing ourselves for the task at hand, we three Marchwardens readied our weapons and tightened our armor.  For bears are most-powerful creatures.

Lord Malborr gallantly charged into battle with three of our ursine foe, his spear-tip flashing and slashing!  Lady Naerrin gracefully hurled missile after missile at the huge opponents that now surrounded her.

While the sheer size and number of these creatures would have intimidated a lesser-dwarf (say, maybe that Dori fellow)…I myself did not hesitate.  I rushed into the wall of slashing claws and teeth, swinging my swords at every ounce of bear-flesh within my reach!

(Ummm… I’m sure you’re now wondering… “swords”?  A dwarf with two…swords?   My apologies for the breach of protocol.  They are my temporary weaponry, until I can find something more suitable, I assure you!)

As we moved through that valley, the evil swarms of bears were upon us with every turn we made!  They never relented for an instant.  The minor nicks and cuts we were getting, plus the sheer enduring effort, were slowly wearing us down.  Which is why I was so glad to see Lady Arduina arrive on horseback!  She, my dear king, is a Marchwarden most-kind and is a runekeeper, having great skill in the healing arts.  With her at our side, the black masses of murderous bears did not have a chance!

Lady Arduina too was surprised at the numbers of these creatures, I could tell.  But she valiantly charged into battle, knowing that by killing these beasts, she was saving the lives of nearby Free-People!

We fought for what seemed like hours, taking brief rests to heal our wounds and skin the hides of these bears.  Yes, Lord Malborr had asked that we collect these hides, as they could be quite useful to the Free-People when winter comes.  Fortunately for us, such skinning did not take long.  We had to maintain a watchful eye while we worked, lest some black bear sneak up behind us and claw us in the back!

Treachery Afoot!

Resuming our task, we fought onward.

Soon, I came to a realization that shook the very foundation of my bones:  We had come full circle…several times!  And yet, everywhere we went, there were bears ahead of us!   Why, where in Arda were they all coming from?!?  What evil treachery was this?

It seemed that by killing the bears that were out in the open, we were only encouraging MORE bears that were dwelling deep inside of their dens to come out and face us!  (Either that or we were dealing with…*gasp*  — dare I say it?  — UNDEAD BEARS! — a possibility I shuddered to think about!)

My comrades too had realized the dark implications we were facing.  But, with legendary Marchwarden bravery, we pressed onward.

After a few hours, Lady Naerrin expressed something that gave me great concern:   She was having difficulty killing the wee little young-one bears.  It seemed to her to be too much like killing the innocent!

I tried to reason with her: This was just a ploy!:  Those baby bears were purposely approaching her, stopping, rolling over, and trying to “look cute”….all in an attempt to get her to lower her weapons… so that they could close in for a sudden-death strike!  (Not to mention the fact that I had seen one such bearling attacking Lady Arduina’s helpless, defenseless runestone… an act that surely should be avenged!)

But, alas, the dark persuasive magic of the baby bears overcame Lady Naerrin…and she was forced to retreat from the field of battle.

And, I’m sad to report, about twenty-eight bears later, Lady Arduina too seemed to succomb to this bewitching spell, though she would not admit it.

Three Press Onward

Malborr and I both understood.  Representing the stronger sex, we would have to defend the Free Peoples from the deadly, bewitching baby bears alone!

Fortunately, a fellow dwarf Marchwarden, a runekeeper by the name of Tyrmithrin, arrived just in time to assist us!   His training in the magical arts had prepared him for whatever evil spell the Dark Valley of Bear Terror could dish-out.

Onward went Malborr!  With great bravery, he attracted the attention of a half-dozen eight-foot-tall bears… by impaling them with his javelins. This barely (pardon the pun) gave the beasts pause.  They charged at him with gusto and he led them back to us like some big caravan!  Then, in a wild whirl of blades and fire, we made sure the beasts threatened lives no further.

Suddenly, a huge matron bear charged Lord Tyrmithrin.  But he calmly lifted his runestones and mumbled a few words.  Flames encircled the beast as she rushed him!  The smell of burnt bear-fur filled the air! <Yuck!>  And suddenly, a stroke of lightning struck this Mother-of-all-bears and down she went!

The Tide Turns

Again we went round the small mountain at the center of this valley, swishing and slashing, stumbling over bear carcasses (hey, don’t forget that hide there!) and wiping the blood from our eyes.

We were very tired, but we were winning!  The number of bears in sight grew thinner and thinner.  The dark mating spell that had led to the exploding bear populace was breaking.

( For a moment, it dawned on me that perhaps my dwarven runekeeper partner could learn about this spell.  Maybe he could harness it for dwarven use, since, as you well know, our numbers as a people are rather low.  However, all Tyrmithrin could learn about the spell was that some alcoholic liquid was a key component!)

And so, encouraged by our success and by the sheer power of the runekeeper’s words, we began using those words with their fullest force: that of the PUN.

First, Lord Malborr commented on how we were “bearly” surviving such a vicious assault… while I shouted that I couldn’t “bear” to see Lady Arduina leave us like she did!  Yes, this bear-fighting was grizzly-business, but we were making the best of it.

Our ursine foes gave even larger groans as they made their death-fells at our feet.

It was at this point, my good king, that your messenger-raven arrived on the scene, bringing your orders for me to proceed back to the Thorin’s Hall barracks. With mild regret, I left my fellow Marchwardens to finish the hunt without me.  Even as I left, fresh reinforcements were arriving to replace me, much to the disappointment of the remaining bears.

Epilogue

While I am very honored to be asked once again to teach new recruits…”Removing Vital Organs with an Axe 101″,…. I DO want you to know that my time spent away from your service is well-spent.

The people of Ost Forod are safe!  A dark, evil, beastly horde of man-eating mammals has been destroyed.  And the hills of Evendim are safe for travel once again.  The Free-Peoples owe a great debt to the Marchwardens of Ennorath for such service.

And now, if you will excuse me, I must end my missive.  Dori’s son has fallen asleep in class again.  Oh well!  Gives me a chance to practice my axe-throwing!

Long live the king!

In your service,

Gronar Gygaxul

P.S.  I would gladly go on this hunt all over again!:  The loot was u-bear!

When I stop and breathe for 30 seconds… and reflect on how I’ve been spending my time in LOTRO lately… I’m a bit worried.

It seems that, with the coming of the new “quest guide focus” functionality, I have now become completely addicted to quests!

“No time for roleplay!  I’ve got X-number of Orcs to kill!”

Sure, I’m having fun!  I’m accomplishing my goals and that’s always enjoyable.  But why am I not taking the time to roleplay or even do non-quest things?    Why is it that when I stop and think… “Say, I haven’t worked on crafting in a while”…. or …. “Wasn’t I going to go shop for a new outfit?”…. or  “Maybe I’ll stop by the Pony and start up a conversation”…. my answer always is:

Who has time for that?

I blame my yard.  And the weather.

Yes, with the coming of Spring, I set huge goals for myself…. (errr… “quests” ?) … to plant a lot of perennials and vegetables in my yard “in real life”.    And this leads me to being overworked.  It leaves me a lot less time for LOTRO.

And I’m starting to realize that a side-effect of this is that, when I’m in-game, I’m not really… relaxing.   I act as if the clock’s still ticking.

And that darned quest ring makes me do it too!

So there… I blame the weather, my yard, and the LOTRO quest guide thingy!   They’ve got me running around like some crazy squirrel!

I need to chill-out and play a bit more casual.  Take some time… put myself into “walk” mode instead of “run”…. talk a bit with people… reeelllaaaaaaxx!

Well, but not tonight:  My new hunter has to go clear the Vale of Andrath!   Blasted briggands!

I had reached the point where activity becomes a grind and boredom descends.

There, I admitted it.

I had become bored with LOTRO.

The quests of the Trestlebridge area seemed to have dried up, as I had completed all but several Fellowship Quests.   And for weeks, I’d log on in the evening and wait to see if anybody was shouting-out about those few quests.  After about 20 minutes of nothing, I’d leave to see if the anybody was “fishing” for people to help on the one Book 2 Lonelands Fellowship Quest I had on-file.   But there was nothing.

I’m still too intimidated by the idea of running a Fellowship myself.  Typically, this seems to require somebody who actually KNOWS THE MAP of the quest-in-question.  ( Not always.  Often it’s the “tank” who needs to know that sort of thing.)

And then, with the coming of Book 7, my “merchant routine” broke down.   Yes, I had gotten myself into a self-imposed “grind”.  I would go to the mine near Thorin’s Hall and order the highest-level ore contract… to be filled within 40 hours.  Then, I’d hop a horse to Michel Delving, catch another one to Hobbiton, and then take a third horse up to Brockborings (but I’d jump off near the hides dealer).   I’d buy the highest hides contract and then run back to the stables at Hobbiton.  From there, a ride to the West Bree gate.  And from there, on foot to the Chetwood lumber yard.  There I’d purchase my final contract of the three.

Wait 40 hours.

Then I’d run through the loop again, this time, collecting my goodies and ordering new contracts.  At the end of each day’s run, I’d port back to Thorin’s and put everything on the auction house.

Rinse and repeat.

Oh, it made me some regular funds!  Bought me my eye-patch!

But I grew weary.  Yet even though I was weary of the routine, I kept at it out of a small level of greed.  Plus, I found the auction house to be rather fun… but to a point.

Then signs of Spring started appearing in the real world, so I took the opportunity to be “distracted” and cut my playing time in half.

Then, one day, I decided:   What the heck — let’s create an Alt!   I had once told Lady Aerhinn that I would only create an alt once I was bored with my primary…and I had certainly reached that point.

The alt, a Loremaster, enlivened me!   The lower levels went by much more quickly, since this time around, I sort of knew what I was doing.   I played it a bit smarter too.   I would grab all the quests from all of the quest givers in a certain area…and THEN go out to do one.

Certainly, this saved me quite a bit of footwork, as I was usually able to complete 2 - 3 quests in any particular localized area I went to.

And then I went back to my primary one evening.  My kin all welcomed me back quite nicely.  And, somewhere in the nights that immediately followed, I realized my earlier mistake:    I had forgotten about the “clustering of quest-givers”.  And I had ASSUMED a particular path that was not true:

Some of the Trestlebridge quests had let you “dip” into the area just outside of Fornost.  So, I had ASSUMED that that was “where the quests would lead me next”.   But I simply hadn’t encountered any new quests that lead me there.  I had done a small handful and then… I kind of wondered why I wasn’t being taken back there?

Well, clearly I had forgotten all about a much-earlier trip to Esteldin.  At that time, all of the quests were way over my head.  But now, there were a bunch that were my level or slightly lower!  I was able to play steadily for hours and hours just doing Estledin quests.    And that’s where I am right now, as I write this.  I’ve finished several Dol Dinden (I get the feeling I’m mis-spelling that?) quests… and I seem to have a few more of those to go.

So, I guess my lesson is:   Don’t assume the story is leading you in any particular direction.  And if you seem to run out of quests, go somewhere else.   Plus, the BIGGEST lesson:   Open your mouth about your concerns!

While I didn’t ask my Kin anything DIRECTLY regarding the routine I’d fallen into, I did talk a bit about my fellowship quest dilemnas.   And they were happy to help me out!

That reminds me:  There’s one thing I still don’t “get” about this game:    Why in the heck would a level 58 character WANT to be on a quest with a level 31 character?

My last game was City of Heroes.  And if that sort of thing happened there, the 58 level guy wouldn’t get any experience at all.  Or, he’d have to “sidekick” me so that my level was just slightly lower than him.  I could have run some missions with him, but if I ever got a certain distance away from him…. outside of a certain range…. WHAM… I’d be back to being treated as a  level 31….. i.e.  I’d be TOAST!

So, why would a level 58 do that?  Certainly, there’s no challenge in the fight for them?

This is why I never ASKED my Kin.  Most of them seemed to be at least 10 levels higher than me.  It just so happened that, when I returned from my “part-time absence” from playing, several of them had characters within 5 levels of me.

So, I still don’t understand that sort of thing.    But I’m currently playing my primary at night and my secondary during the morning.   And I’m having quite a bit of fun with both, once again.

Thanks to the Marchwardens… and to the Orcs and Trolls of Dol Dinden… for making things fun again for me!

Now, if the Devs would just fix those three resource quests again soon, hmmm?   I’m gonna need a horse in a couple of levels.

No, I don’t mean that I now go into fits and start drooling when I haven’t had my LOTRO fix!

I mean something far better.

It all started when I joined a Kinship, specifically, the Marchwardens of Ennorath (www.ennorath.org).

I’d only had had two previous experiences with “clans” or “guilds” in game.  For the first one, I joined a small guild within “Star Wars Galaxies” years ago.  The guild was apparently run by two YOUNG teenaged brothers.  Well, it was less than two weeks before drama between the two appeared and tore apart the guild.  What fun!  I seemed to be the oldest person in the guild and tried to bring some rational thought to it.  But that was a lost cause.

Next, when I played City of Heroes, I joined a much larger guild (Superhero Group).  But, frankly, there were so many of them, and finding a team in-game was so easy anyways, that I basically never grouped with them except once or twice, and even then we had other non-group members on the team.  I was something of a “name-and-number”.  For the most part, I didn’t mind much.  I used them for their teleporters.

But now, in LOTRO, the situation is different.  Finding a pick-up-group in your level range is actually a little bit harder.  But so far, I don’t enjoy pick-up-groups as much.  There’s far less talking and much more rushing on through things…than what I experienced in City of Heroes.

And so, joining a Kinship seemed like a smart idea.  Besides, I wanted to experienced ROLEPLAYING,  a foreign concept in City of Heroes.

I selected “Marchwardens of Ennorath” because they were small at the time I applied, yet showed hope of growing larger.  Plus, their leadership seemed to be mature and helpful.

Now, the first thing I noticed when I joined the kinship chat with everybody for the first time was how NICE and POLITE everybody was with everybody else!  And yes, several of my kin were very generous, helping me out with some gifts of resources… one even made me a suit of armor!  I hadn’t asked for a thing, mind you!  They were just being friendly!   I, in turn, donated a couple of times towards the kinship hall rent (as I remembered from City of Heroes that SOMEBODY had to pay maintenance on the place)!

But one benefit of spending time with the Marchwardens actually made me stop in surprise and reflect in wonder:

I caught myself being nicer to my wife!

Actually, I don’t think I noticed it right away.  I think I may have said one or two things nicer than normal.  And then when she made some statement about doing something for me, I said to her:  “Ohhh….thank you, dear… YOU ARE WAY TO KIND TO ME.  I DO NOT DESERVE IT.”

I’ve never said anything like that to her before.   It’s like my character, Gronar the Dwarf, had done a “reverse role-play” on me in real life, and had said it for me!

My brain came to a screeching halt after I had said it.  It recognized the unusual nature of my speech.  And I wondered for a second, smiled and chuckled to myself… and wondered how years of to-do lists and sermons had failed to do what roleplaying in LOTRO had done.

I’m now trying to cultivate this a bit.  I figure it all starts with being a bit creative in the speech I type in-game.

Yes, Marchwardens, your “brotherhood” has rubbed off on me for the better!  I salute you!

I can’t resist the temptation to tell you one other tidbit.  Years ago, I took my wife to see “The Two Towers”.  She’s not in any way into fantasy, hasn’t read Tolkien, but likes a lot of kids movies.  So, aside from the LENGTH of all three films, she had no problem with them.

She was tickled-pink by Gollum… his voice, his mannerisms, the way he said “Precious” all the time.   Well, somehow, from that movie, “precious” became my built-in out-of-habit nickname for my wife!  She sometimes calls me that too.  In fact, we often shove a “me” in front of “Precious”!!

So, while the movie affected our relationship in one rather silly way… the game and the good people in it appear to be helping to make me… a nicer person!

Here is my current character sheet. (That’s in MS Word 2007 format.  Older versions of Word should be able to convert it / show it to you properly.)

It’s my second draft.

The first page contains the character’s history.  The second page currently holds his goals, likes, dislikes, quirks, etc.   Note that at this point, the quirks and favorite sayings are REALLY subject to change.  Their entries are more or less just “holding places for ideas” right now.

I’d really like to make a third page… or perhaps move things around.  My goal here is to create a “one page cheat sheet” for playing, but have more detailed information nearby for “backup”.

The “Oaths and Committments” section on page 1, really, I think, needs to be on page 2.  And perhaps swapping places between that and my character’s goals on page two would be more appropriate.

Also, I’d like to make that list of likes and dislikes a lot longer.  Somehow, writing it in my own handwriting made it easier my brain to see and reference quickly than in the typed-out format.

I’m also thinking of taking each Quirk and Favorite Saying and turning them to an in-game macro / alias… something I can quickly mouse-click on to activate.  I’d probably roleplay the quirks a bit more, instead of just mouse-click them all the time.  But the occasional mouse-click to quickly roleplay a quirk might be helpful.  And certainly macroing a favorite saying makes sense.

I welcome your comments about my character or the organization of the material.

Thanks!

Granted, I haven’t been a LOTRO player for very long, but already I find myself with a roleplaying dilemna:

I start a session with the intention of roleplaying / staying in character as much as possible, but somehow, I wind up behaving mostly as myself… and forget about infusing more of my planned character into my actions.

Which, of course, makes me ask:  How many people say they are roleplaying but are instead literally being themselves.  Maybe they say a few things about their character’s background or say a few catch-phrases their character is supposed to say and call it that.

Can one really roleplay a very different personality from their own?

Well, I would think they can, but it must be a lot of work.  It must take a lot of concentration.   And when you’ve got things like quests, crafting, friends IM-ing you, travel, wandering critters, and other frequent distractions, it seems hard to maintain any sort of focus on behaving differently than your normal self.

I think these sort of things over as I further define my character.

I started with 4 sheets of paper full of answered questions, described traits, and history of my character.  Today, I condensed this down to two pages.   And I see another rewrite on the horizon.

Right now, page 1 is becoming a sort of “history page”.  It has when and where my character was born, who his parents are, what his childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood were like (briefly).  I also have info there on his current “job” and home.  Plus, things like “most frightening moment”, “greatest regret” and “proudest achievement” have migrated their way to this page.

Now, on page 2, I’ve got personality traits listed.  And originally, these were a bit more “wordy”.  But as I play LOTRO more and more, I find myself wanting a sort of “cheat sheet” about my character:  something that has key words or phrases that summarizes his behavior on it.  Something I can quickly glance at in my darkened home office while playing for a quick idea on what to say or how to react to something.

And so, page 2 has now become two columns:   Likes and Dislikes.    Now, behind each Dislike, in parentheses, I have jotted down a short phrase as to WHY Gronar dislikes that thing.  [ Examples:    water (fears drowning alone), birds (annoying buggers), aloof elves (pompous...should help people),  greed (it led to the Moria disaster) ]

I guess I could easily do that to my Likes column, but I fear the page will get too cluttered.

I also now have a section on Goals (short-term and long-term) on this page.  Plus, I’ve got a section for “Quirks” (though I’m having trouble coming up with a few of them)… and one for “Sayings” (having trouble coming up with those too).

But I think page 2 may, with a bit of a rewrite, become a nice “cheat sheet” for me to glance at in-game.  Not sure.  Putting all of the history on page 1 is nice and organized, but will I remember to use it?

Perhaps my “cheat sheet” / “quick reference” page needs to be just two or three columns of key words about my character…. key words that refer to his history as well.

Not sure.  When I get it to the point where I think I’ve made something organized, yet handy, I’ll post it here.

But back to my musing on roleplaying:  My character already has a lot of traits that I do.  I think that simply makes it easier to roleplay.  Plus, if you like yourself, why not?   But my character probably needs a few more personality traits I do not have.  And when I add those, the challenge will be not only to roleplay them, but to remember to roleplay them.

I guess, in the end, all of your character’s personality traits are going to end up being an extension of you.  You’re not going to roleplay some action or feeling that you don’t feel comfortable in exploring in the first place, right?   Perhaps roleplaying frees you up to try something you’ve always wanted to say or act out?  That’s still your own personality creeping in, dictating your character.   So, maybe all roads lead back to you anyways.

Happy RP-ing!

Just wanted to note that I’ve posted a page talking a bit about designing one’s character for roleplaying. (In other words, coming up with the character’s personality traits, family history, etc.) I decided to make it a permanent page, because I wanted to provide some links that I found helpful to me when working on my character.

Roleplaying: Designing your Character

Please disregard the fact that it says I have a character on Brandywine.  I do not.  The system is confused.

As of this time, I only have a single character:  Gronar, Son of Gygax, on Landroval.