Those Hobbits in the Bird and Baby (Part 3)

posted this on October 22nd, 2010.
Categorized as From the Book (Lore), inklings, lore, Outside LOTRO, tolkien.

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Here it is: the long-awaited (or at least long-delayed) conclusion to my series of posts on the NPC hobbits in the back room of the Bird and Baby in Michel Delving!

Inklings As I have explained in the earlier posts of this series (here and here), these hobbits represent real-life members of the Inklings, an informal circle of J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary friends who met regularly in Oxford during the years that The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were being written. Owen Farfield is the in-game counterpart of Owen Barfield, and Carlo Williams represents Charles Williams.

I’m sure many people will think I’ve saved the best for last, for our third hobbit, Jack Lewisdown, is really none other than world-renowned sci-fi/fantasy author and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis!

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Yes, Virginia, the Minstrel Class IS Lore-Appropriate!

posted this on September 11th, 2010.
Categorized as From the Book (Lore), lore, Minstrel.

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Way back in 2007 when LOTRO was first launched, one pretty consistent gripe from reviewers concerned the whole concept of the Minstrel class. Sure, everyone knew that the game needed a healer of some sort, but many people just didn’t get the concept of the Minstrel. I remember one particular review that basically asked, “What idiot came up with the idea that you could play music to fight the monsters, and what was he smoking?”

Now that we have a flood of new players, many of whom are unfamiliar with J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings outside of The Hobbit, coming in for free-to-play, I suspect that we’ll hear these questions again from time to time, so I’d like to answer them here. Are you ready?

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Those Hobbits in the Bird and Baby (Part 2)

posted this on August 17th, 2010.
Categorized as bird and baby, From the Book (Lore), inklings, lore, Outside LOTRO, tolkien.

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Carlo Williams In an earlier post, I showed how certain in-game features in LOTRO represent real-life people and places connected with the life of J.R.R. Tolkien. Specifically, the Bird and Baby in Michel Delving represents the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford where Tolkien and his literary colleagues frequently met. Also, the three named hobbits in the back room of the inn represent specific members of this informal society, the Inklings. In this point, I’ll introduce the real-life counterpart of the second of these hobbits, Carlo Williams.

Charles Williams (1886-1945)

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In-Game Courtesy: From High to Low

posted this on August 2nd, 2010.
Categorized as Community, Deeds, General, helping, new player.

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It has been said many times (and I agree) that LOTRO has the greatest community of any MMO out there. Players are by and large respectful towards each other in their in-game interactions, and new players are not insulted when they ask basic questions about game play in the chat channel. I think our community is one of our greatest strengths.

Having said that, I felt like I should take a brief break from my lore posts to point out a bit of a problem that I have seen repeatedly over the last few weeks.

Many players do not like deed grinding, and they tend to put off building up their Forochel Deedsvirtue traits in particular until they start seriously contemplating doing a lot of dungeon runs (somewhere between levels 50 and 65). So what happens is that these high-level characters go back to lower-level zones to grab the deeds for the traits they want to build up. (Anybody want to help me grind Forochel?)

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Where Did That Evendim Stuff Come From?

posted this on July 23rd, 2010.
Categorized as arnor, Evendim, From the Book (Lore), lore, tolkien.

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Evendim-Ruins1The first time I made it into Evendim, not long after the zone opened up, I was blown away by the ruins dotting the landscape and the views across Lake Nenuial. If you have never spent any time there, you are missing out on what I think may be the most visually stunning zone in the entire game.

Nenuial from NW

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Those Hobbits in the Bird and Baby

posted this on July 9th, 2010.
Categorized as From the Book (Lore), lore, tolkien.

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If you play LotRO, you have probably paid a visit to Michel Delving, the “capital” of the Shire, at some point, even if you do not play a hobbit. Maybe you needed to turn in mathoms for reputation, or perhaps you’re a member of the Cooking Guild. On the other hand, if you completed the Shire Brew-master deed, successfully finished Inn League initiation, or did the “Recovering the Lost Leaf” quest chain (available from Ronald Dwale near Dwaling), you would have gone inside the Bird and Baby Inn.

Bird and Baby

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