This is an important topic to me and my kin, as we periodically put on musical events on Landroval. In general, everything runs just fine. But I do get occasional questions on what should or shouldn’t be going on at these events. (Usually folks saying what shouldn’t be happening).

So there are several components of a musical event:

1) The Band
2) The Host or MC
3) The Audience

Lets look at each of these roles individually…

1) The Band
The band has a big job–to make multi-part music in a timely and correct fashion. This often involves a lot of behind the scenes chatting in /fellowship or /raid. All the band members need to have the correct files, instruments, and parts. Its good if the band has a leader who will keep track of who is playing what part. Its a lot of things to keep track of, so often the band won’t be RPing all that much before a tune. However, once a tune is queued up, the band may start to fidget and emote a bit while everyone gets queued up. Here are some examples of band warmup….

Galenswerd takes a sip of ale and wets his reed.
Harperella tunes up her harp.
Astleigh looks about expectantly, ready to play.

Once the music begins, there is a window of time where band members may RP a bit at being musicians. Here are some examples in performance:

Galenswerd takes a quick break from playing and swigs an ale.
Harperella continues to strum on her harp, but seems to have lost her place in the music.
Tombatuk puffs out his cheeks and plays a crazy riff.
Harperella says, “Everybody now! Always look on the Bright Side of Life!”
Galengorn whistles a little tune.

Once the tune is over, band members may remain in music mode, or drop music mode and take a bow.

2) The Host or MC
The Master of Ceremonies job is to fill blank space with patter and fun RP. This is the role I generally take in an event. The band needs time to get set up for the next tune and the audience needs something to do. So I generally will try for either a group activity, contest, or a bit of lore-flavored patter. Here are some examples of this:

Harperella says, “Please try and avoid the Diseased Boars near Archet, we’ve had reports that a fever is going around from these animals.”
Harperella says, “And now a tune written right here in Bree! Let’s give a hand to all the Oathbreaker Captains and their spooky pets. When you’ve got a spider problem, who ya gonna call? Oathbreakers!”
Harperella says, “We’ve a game to play now…”

3) The Audience
The audience’s job is far from passive. First off, make sure to give your musicians plenty of applause, laughter and /cheers. These will actually unlock new emotes for the performers. I learned to breath fire after being /cheered at Weatherstock. The main ones here are /clap, /cheer and /laugh.
The next thing the audience should do is interact with the music. This can be smoking a pipe during a slow tune, dancing alone, dancing with a partner, or making comments about the tune. Mixing lorebased comments lyrics on pop music can lead to some pretty funny jokes.

Javelarry claps for Keptwise.
Harperella says, “Jump in a PUG, everybody kill a bug!”
Aethlin says, “Got me 55 copper, but got no tin, And here I gotta another 50 crafting points to come in! I got the crafting blues!”
Harpereena cheers.

There’s always room for freeform RP during and between music sets. Notice and comment on your surroundings. We played once in the burned-out husk of the Mad Badger Inn in Archet. It was a great topic of conversation. Interact with your fellows around you. Invite someone to dance (/dance_elf, /dance_elf2, /dance_man are great partner dances. /dance_hobbit, /dance_dwarf2, /dance_man can be done singly or in pairs. /dance_hobbit2 and /dance_dwarf are a bit hokey IMHO)

Remember, just because there is music playing doesn’t mean you have to sit quietly by with a /dance emote until the end of the set. Get up and walk around. Talk to people around you. Comment on your surroundings. Comment on the music. React to what you see and hear.

Musical events can be a lot of fun. They are fairly easy to organize, easy to comprehend, and accessible to players on a number of levels. Come on down to Ales and Tales and give it a try. It makes a great change of pace from the normal grind of levelling, raiding and crafting!

–Harperella

My kin has been playing the Battle of Aughaire after our Ales and Tales for the past couple of months. The Battle of Aughaire is a repeatable instance in Garth Forthnir in NE Angmar. It has virtually all the new mechanics of the skirmish system.

1) Can be repeated.
2) Random mobs will attack at one of 4 locations, sometimes two at once.
3) Drops special barter-tokens for assorted gear and consumables (quite unique ones as well)
4) There are NPC allies that help in the battle and must be kept alive.
5) Its on a 30 minute timer–providing that “popcorn” experience.

The Battle of Aughaire is a battle instance that puts your 6 man fellowship against a series of attacks on Aughaire. The Hillmen of Aughaire have erected some defenses and manned them with soldiers. Periodically, one of 3 bulwarks will be attacked. Your fellowship must go to that location and defend the bulwark. During these attacks, you will occasionally get a small force attacking the main gate (having snuck around the defenses). At which point, you need to split your forces and defend the gate before the lone ranger defending it is defeated. To me, this is really the direct ancestor of the skirmish system. The skirmishes bring a few new wrinkles though:

1) Ease of access - Currently you have to get to Garth Forthnir, a long ride or a hunter port. Skirmishes will let you skirmish port to them.
2) Better rewards - The Battle of Aughaire gives vile coins for use in the vile vending machines (barter NPCs). These are not very useful in a post-SOM world. They are interesting though, giving potions that temporarily boost virtues, or equipment that will give virtue bonuses. We have few details on what skirmishes will be providing, but I’m assuming it will be a wider variety and updated to the latest level cap.
3) Level appropriate challenge - The Battle of Aughaire is a bit easy for L60 characters. This is why it is a nice relaxing activity after our weekly Ales and Tales. Skirmishes will let you pick your level of challenge.
4) Multiple different skirmishes - There is only one Battle of Aughaire. There are other battles, but they must be unlocked by successfully running the preceding battle a number of times.

So if you want a good feel for how the skirmish system will play… the Battle of Aughaire is a great place to start!

–Harperella

This is from a huge RP/storytelling/PvMP/musical event on Landroval called The Oathbreaker Captains. It culminates on October 31st with an army of Captains and their Oathbreaker pets fighting an army of spiders in the PvMP area of the Ettenmoors. This shot was snapped as they were getting a sendoff from the locals in Bree. They were happy to have the departed spirits fighting for them and to have those spirits… out of Bree. Lonely Mountain Band provided sendoff music as the spirits manifested in the Haunted Alley and made their way to the Prancing Pony.

It looks like we’ve another new type of barter item. We’ve had festival tokens, Khuzdul tablets, various Marks of Victory, stones and coins. Now we get Skirmish Marks.

Zombie Columbus says:

All Skirmishes will reward the player with Skirmish Marks. These Marks are barter items that can be traded at Skirmish Camps for a variety of rewards (more on that below). For now, just understand that Marks are a lot like gold. They are a liquid resource which you will redeem for the rewards you want. All rewards will have various Skirmish Mark prices. For example, a level 40 Sword may cost 50 SM (Skirmish Marks) while an IXP rune might cost 150 SM. There are a few points in a Skirmish run when SM will be awarded; each Control Point taken, each NPC ally that survives, and killing the final Boss. By awarding Marks in this way, you will gain SM even if your attempt at a Skirmish fails. We hope this incremental increase in your SM supply will allow you to pick a reward to aspire to and feel you are making progress towards that goal at all times.

So Skirmish marks are somewhat like our previous barter currency–the Vile coin. Vile coins of various substance were available from a number of instances in Angmar and could be traded at a variety of barter traders. Nowadays, these rewards are pretty meh. There is a small window around L50 where some are worthwhile, but most have been eclipsed by better gear in Eregion, Moria, and Lothlorien.

My problem with all these different barter items is that there are just so many of them. Questing across Middle Earth reminds me somewhat of backpacking across Europe some 15 years ago. There was always a new currency in the next country over. And you always ended up with a pocket full of change from the last country. At the end of a trip, these ended up a personal momentos to me. But in LOTRO, they just take up space. I’ve got platinum tokens, festival tokens, Khuzdul tablets, Vile Coins, some weird thing from Helegrod, and lothlorien branches all taking up precious space in my vault now.

So what to do with all these odds and ends? Hopefully, our new Skirmish Tokens will be consumable down the the very last one. By this, I mean I don’t want to have any leftovers when I’m done skirmishing (Unless I’m saving up…) Can I trade them for healing pots or even silver? Those are two commodities that are always useful in any amount. It would be equivalent to an “exchange” booth at the airport. I’m leaving the country now and I don’t want any more francs or deutchmarks. Can I please get dollars?

So to recap–we got a new barter item that seems the most like pseudo-cash of any to date. Every new barter system is like a new BoA currency. Can we please exchange our loose change for non BoA stuff?

–Harperella

I came to the Prancing Pony today to find Butterbur’s shoes empty…

And his pants, shirt, and arm thingies. Luckily, I was there to fill in…

Anyone need an Ale?

Thanks to Lonely Mountain Band, Songbooks of Laurelin, the Oathbreaker Captains, and the wonderful Landroval community for making a truly top notch event!

Come on down for some spoooky entertainment! We have a high quality band, a costume contest, and lots of fun and games!

10pm EST on Landroval server
Abandoned Graveyard, north of Bree
Special guest appearances by the Oathbreaker Captains!

There have been plenty of LOTRO lotteries in-game. We’ve had optional games of chance like dwarf and hobbit races, bobbing for apples, and fishing… We’ve also had some mandatory games of chance, like grinding for legendary items. Now Turbine brings us a lottery we can play on our off-time. The LOTRO lottery!

This is actually a pretty neat idea. Everyday (for now) you click a little widget on my.lotro and enter your characters into a Lottery. Prizes seem to be full stacks of tarts, fireworks and in-game silver. So practical and fluff items as well as cash. This seems to be a good incentive to participate.

Now the musings part comes in… Why have the LOTRO lottery at all? I suspect it is a tool to bring more of us here to my.lotro. Every incentive generates a behavior. And this incentive is going to keep many folks clicking their my.lotro page each day. And perhaps this will cause my.lotro to achieve the critical mass that its been just shy of for some time.

Or maybe we are all part of a beta for other things that Turbine is planning on with similar widgets… Perhaps we’ll see a game-wide voting system? Maybe they are testing some sort of extensions to the widget system before opening it up for player-made widgets.

This lottery makes me hopeful. Not for the prizes–nice but not game-changing. But because it means that Turbine is taking an interest in my.lotro again. Perhaps we are in for an update to the site soon? It would be nice, since many of the things in the My.Lotro manifesto are still unfulfilled:

1) Fix the latest list
The “Newest post” list is the way that most folks keep tabs on new blog entries. However, it has a number of issues that make it very frustrating to use.
a) Keep a longer history than 10 slots.
It is very easy to get pushed off the bottom. This will only get worse as we get more use of the site.
b) Separate out kin posts from this list
Kin posts have a very narrow audience and often post multiple times. This is especially problematic with using the kin calendar to schedule events.
c) Use UTC instead of Local timezone to sort posts.
Posts get sorted based on the timezone they were written in. This puts West Coast posters at a severe disadvantage.

2) Add PM notifications
We get comment notifications, friendship request notifications, but no PM notifications. Its buried under the profile panel, which is rarely used for daily blogging. Give us a notification when a PM is waiting unread like the forums does.

3) More space for gallery entries
As things stand, we can only upload about 10-20 pictures before our space is used up. For a regular contributor, this will disappear in no time flat.

#3 did get addressed in a quick update. We’ve been waiting a little longer for points 1 and 2.

–Harperella

While waiting for the Landroval Server to come up, I finished up the first verse of a parody song I’ve been working on…

Jump in a PUG (To the tune of “Jump in the line”)

Eat, eat, eat your food up–get your heal over time
Buff, buff, buff, your buddies–they’ll be feeling fine!
Fight, fight, fight the bad guy! He looks really tough!
Blame, blame, blame the minstrel–she didn’t heal enough!

Jump in a PUG, everybody kill a bug! (we got 10 more though!)
Jump in a PUG, everybody chug a jug! (love that green stuff!)
Jump in a PUG, give the leader a /hug!
Jump in a PUG, everybody kill a bug!

Get ready for the Minstrel Mash on Landroval server!

What: A concert and Halloween themed costume contest
Where: The Old Graveyard north of Bree
When: Friday, October 23rd, 10pm EST

There will be music, cheer, and fun and games. Come join us to get into the spirit of the season!