Tom Chick, over at Quarter to Three, proposed an Lord of the Rings game night where once a week forumers would come together in the virtual world of Lotro and adventure together.

I played Lotro for about a month at launch, and while I had fun I felt alone. See none of my regular online friends were playing, and that left me to sort of fend for myself. I was in the Qt3 guild but it was hard for me to get hooked up with other players doing the same quests as me. So when my free month expired, I did not renew. *shrug*

As Tom’s idea started to gain steam and more and more people signed up , I felt compelled to give it another try. I am not really in a position to pay for a second game right now, but I was able to use a buddy key that was in my orginial box to make a new account and play for 10 free days.

We all met up in Michel Devling, Where Tom handed out guild (sorry Kinship) invites, and group (i mean fellowship) assignments. Once our group was full we head off to adventure for the night.

It only took a few minutes for us to get self organized on which quest(s) we were going to tackle and then we were off. We started by picking up some quests and finding hide and seeker, followed by our groups contribution to the great shrew-out of ’09.

After that we headed out of Delving toward Tuckborough where we met distressed hobbit who was having a “ghost” problem.

To solve his problem we started With a mass slaughter of bears, and boars and ended wiht the firing of fireworks and chasing off a squirrel. Along the way we saved some chickens, killed some wolves, and saved Dora’s “neighbor”.

All in all, a good night of adventuring; we played for a bit over two hours, and most of the group ended at level 8.

A few thoughts on the night and the game

• Thanks to Tom for proposing and organizing this. Knowing there is a regular play night with people to group with makes the game a whole lot more fun.

• We were in full groups of six which was probably a bit of of overkill on these starting quests. Groups of three or four would probably work better

• The Shire’s beauty and variety of quests keep it enjoyable, even the second time around.

• Even though I did not talk much, the in game voice chat work well. It allowed our group keep moving or fighting as we joked around or gave out advice. Added bonus of not having to fumble around with a third party app.

• While I played the game a short bit back at launch there is a lot I never bothered to learn like; traits, tradeskills, hobbies, and housing. There seems to be a lot more depth in the than I realized back at launch.

• The game is pretty. So many amazing vistas in the Shire,even at night.

• I have not messed with customizing the UI much, and I guess most games do this now, but I love the “out of box ability” to move screen elements around.

• While some of the equipment I picked up makes me feel like a clown, I do love the ability to Hide displaying a lot of pieces. Kudos Turbine!

• I wish the overland maps, could be displayed in a window instead of just full screen. Also it would be great if they had a google-maps like zoom in and out feature.

• Also thinking about zooming in and out, I really wish I could zoom my mini-map in and out a bit.

Overall I had a blast and not only look forward to next week, but will probably start at least one other character to play during the trial period. I suspect after week two, I will want to play on my own account and not a trail. Gosh, I really need to get a new job so I can afford to pay for these games.

edit: you can read more comments about the night on the Qt3 thread, starting on page 10.