Shamus Plays LOTRO: Part 7

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Mar 3, 2010

Filed under: Column 23 comments

The theft of a handkerchief: Will it, or will it not, end in mass murder?

You’ll have to read to find out.

 


From The Archives:
 

23 thoughts on “Shamus Plays LOTRO: Part 7

  1. krellen says:

    It’s an MMO. Everything ends in mass murder.

    Even pie deliveries in the Shire.

    (At least for me, I certainly wanted to kill all those damn hungry hobbits by the time I failed the fifth one.)

  2. Miral says:

    Yeah, I was bitten by that “suggested level” several times. Eventually made me give up on my trial account. I might give it another chance sometime, though (although I just started playing Guild Wards, so…).

    Also: wow, I don’t think I’ve been this high in the comments before :)

    1. Meredith says:

      That’s mostly why I quit the WoW trial, too. They kept letting me accept quests that were WAY over my head and I got well tired of chasing after my body every five minutes.

      Edit: It’s nice when you put in little notes about what’s really happening in the game. It gives some perspective for your story and helps me decide whether to try the game.

      1. But WoW has a ranking level for quests. Gray/Green/Yellow/Red/Unavailable depending on the level of the quest and your level.

  3. Hawk says:

    I demand haiku.

    1. Greg from St Paul says:

      bloody knife in hand
      villagers wishes fulfilled
      copper pieces suck

  4. RTBones says:

    The one that gets me is that you have a quest for a certain level, and encounter an elite as part of the mob that is BELOW the level of the mob/quest. Most passing strange.

    Of course, the thing about quest drops that is sometimes a pain — some drops come on your first kill. Others take 20000 kills and three acts of Congress to gain.

  5. Joshua says:

    You make a passing reference to it here, but the few times I’ve played through those areas it always stuck out that the bandits would mock or be rude to the hobbits, but would outright try to kill you on sight. There’s another instance like that early in Evendim.

    Oh, and as soon as I saw Ted Pickthorne, I laughed. I was so pissed when the ending description has GOLD coins falling out of the boot you recovered and Ted hands you 90 copper. I refused to do that quest the next six or so characters I brought through there.

    1. Wow, given the huge difference in value, is there no way you can keep the gold? Of course not, but I can see why it is so irritating.

  6. Not Yet Measured says:

    Good read again, Shamus, thanks!

    My comments:
    1) I think a pickaxe is preferred to a shovel to *start* an excavation especially if the ground is very hard. It might also have something to do with the fact that the prospecting animation uses a pickaxe and they wanted to re-use it.

    2) I think the second Blackwold Sergeant in your picture is a glitch, albeit one that I see a lot. It’s especially obvious if they are both running the same patrol route with one just a few steps behind the other.

    3) I can’t remember, but I think you used to get a decent pair of shoes at the end of the Pickthorn quest line. Of course, loot at those levels doesn’t really matter, since the marginal difference between top-of-the-line and naked is negligible and you’ll upgrade after another 40 minutes of play anyway. And finally, I don’t think you can see the rewards from several quests down the line, so you would need to check a fansite or the Lorebook to even know.

  7. Maryam says:

    My favorite part of these (though it’s all a good read) is always the song at the end. Very entertaining.

  8. Eggbert says:

    Pretty background.

  9. John says:

    Why do they all have money? The bandits have been stealing Purses, Tree diarys, Fishing poles, Handkerchiefs but leaving the townsfolk with thier money? I think that is backwards.

  10. Klay F. says:

    Awesome Blade Runner quote at the end.

    1. NotYetMeasured says:

      Ooh, I missed that. What was it?

  11. pinchy says:

    While I haven’t played LOTRO I like the idea of the odd rediculously hard elite quest every once in a while so long as you get appropriately rewarded for it (especially if you have the option of grouping to do it if need be). A handful of copper, however, just makes it a waste of time.

    This is one thing that I really miss about levelling in WOW, sure you still get elite quests once you reach outland but some of those old world elite quests were fun before they were trivialised in one of the patches. Actually having to kite or use some of your class abilities other than just basic attacks to succeed is fun in small doses.

  12. Gavin says:

    Dear Shamus

    Please destroy the Lego MMO next. I’m strongly tempted to play it, but I just don’t have the time at the moment.

    Yours
    Gavin

  13. Vladius says:

    “The theft of a handkerchief: Will it, or will it not, end in mass murder?”

    So it’s like Morrowind?

  14. Blackbird71 says:

    Not to try to ruin the humor by applying logic to part of the joke, because I did find this amusing as always, but I did have one observation on the subject of pickaxes:

    First off, a pickaxe is commonly used in digging to break through tough soil, as a shovel is really only suited for soft ground, or for moving already broken dirt. But the situation here isn’t just the fact that you are digging, but that you are digging at the base of a tree. Having done a bit of this myself, I can tell you that you would have to fight your way through an ugly mess of roots, and a shovel just won’t cut it. A standard pickaxe isn’t exactly the ideal tool for this job either, but a very similar implement, the mattock, works quite well.

    1. Joshua says:

      I was thinking this as well, since I had to use a pickaxe to dig out around tree roots when I was digging postholes for my fence. However, I was trying not to be picky. ;)

  15. Old_Geek says:

    Your killing people for a handkerchief and a fishing pole, and YOU are supposed to be the good guy? I don’t think Sauron hinmself would kill anybody for a snot covered rag and a some used sports equipment.

    LOTR really needs to work on their quests.

    1. Joshua says:

      Actually, we used to joke when we played LOTRO that the players WERE the bad guys. After all, the opposite side has animals, undead, orcs, humans, dwarves, etc. all working in perfect harmony, and your side has constant racial squabbles.

  16. Maja says:

    Good paper is hard to find in the woods. I bet the tree diary has very soft pages, and if the bandit leader needs a bit more time… well, he can even read a bit.

Thanks for joining the discussion. Be nice, don't post angry, and enjoy yourself. This is supposed to be fun. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked*

You can enclose spoilers in <strike> tags like so:
<strike>Darth Vader is Luke's father!</strike>

You can make things italics like this:
Can you imagine having Darth Vader as your <i>father</i>?

You can make things bold like this:
I'm <b>very</b> glad Darth Vader isn't my father.

You can make links like this:
I'm reading about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darth_Vader">Darth Vader</a> on Wikipedia!

You can quote someone like this:
Darth Vader said <blockquote>Luke, I am your father.</blockquote>

Leave a Reply to RTBones Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.