Lord of the Rings Online: Laidback Monday Nighters' Group

Curious about Lord of the Rings Online? Or maybe you’re looking for an opportunity to start playing again? Or are you already playing and interested in starting an alt? Want to try one of the new Mines of Moria classes? Or do you just want to hang out and goof around with other Qt3s?

Introducing the Laidback Monday Nighters’ Group. Starting Monday, February 16th at 7pm Pacific (here are some specifics for playing with us on Monday night), a handful of us will be meeting with a set of brand new characters. We’ll play for about four hours, give or take, and call it a night. Then we’ll do it again the next Monday. And the next. And the next. A mic is optional, but LOTRO has great voice chat and goofing off is easier if you don’t have to type.

If you want to join us, you only need a Lord of the Rings Online account and client (Mines of Moria expansion not required). You can get a 10-day trial version for free, which will let you play with us twice before having to commit to a paying account.

Sometime over the next week, roll up a character on the Nimrodel server. Any character. Any class, any race. Run through your tutorial or skip it, as you like, and feel free to pick your crafting class. But don’t do any of the starting quests yet beyond the first couple of “Hey, go here and talk to this guy”. Instead, make your way to Michel Delving in The Shire. You can get there from any stable-master near a starting area for the low low cost of one (1) silver piece.

Then, on the 16th, we’ll set out and work our way through The Shire (named by some dude as one of the five virtual places you must visit before you die!).

You don’t have to join us every Monday, and you don’t have to commit. The whole point is that this is a casual group. However, I have two requests:

  1. Since part of the reason for doing this is getting to hang out with fellow Qt3ers, please name your character something that we can associate with your forum name. For instance, my newly created elven Runekeeper is Chickrond. That’s right, Chickrond.

  2. Again, since part of the reason for doing this is getting to hang out with fellow Qt3ers, please don’t play your character when we’re not gathered. Our goal is to mostly level together. If you’re out gallivanting about on other nights, you’re just going to have to do the same quests over again when you play with us. No one’s going to be a Nazi about it, but if you want to play LOTRO in earnest (and who could blame you?), don’t think of this as your main character.

And that’s it! Post if you’re interested and let us know the name of your new character when he or she safely arrives at Michel Delving.

-Tom

UPDATES
Click here for instructions on joining us for the evening of the February 23rd.
Click here for instructions on joining us for the evening of March 2nd.
Click here for instructions on joining us for the evening of March 9th.
Click here for instructions on joining us for the evening of March 16th.
Click here for instructions on joining us for the evening of March 23rd.
Click here for instructions on joining us for the evening of March 30th.

Here’s information on our kinship housing.

I’m trying to find an MMO, actually, so this may be good timing. I tried the EQ2 trial this morning. The gameplay seems solid enough, but I’m not sure about the graphics. Something about the world is bothering me…it feels sparse, for lack of a better word. Maybe WoW has spoiled me. But part of a good MMO is the scenery for me.

Is there a specific server to make sure we’re on Tom?

I’m a lotro newb.

Oops, good catch, Cubit. We’ll be on Nimrodel. I’ve edited it into the original message.

 -Tom

Cool idea and I hope you guys enjoy it (having even a casual group would soon allow you to tackle the Books together as part of your hunting. Those should be memorable experiences for the actual newbies.

If 7pm PST wasn’t 3am my time, I’d happily join. Happy hunting to those who do.

Wendelius

I just wanted to say that even though I won’t be able to join, I think this is a great idea. Good luck, hopefully we can get some AAR of all the level 4 heroics.

Great idea Tom. Will you group us as a fellowship or should our characters join Knights of Quarter to Three?

A mic is optional, but LOTRO has great voice chat and goofing off is easier if you don’t have to type.
For those who haven’t tried LoTRO’s built in voice chat (cribbed from official forum):

I wouldn’t mind participating in this kind of thing some time for a game I didn’t actually help design… sigh.

I must admit I’m tempted to give this a shot, but I’ve never played an MMO. I’d hate to be the guy dragging down the experience for everyone. If there are some other complete newbs thinking about joining in, that may push me over.

Well, I think I’ll give this a try. I played a trial of lotro a few months ago, but this will be more fun as a group going through the world.

I’ve created a male hobbit minstrel, named Cubito.

This started after I asked Tom if it was okay for me to give away a 60-day time card here, so if anyone finds themselves passionately in love with the game after joining in the lowbie group, I can pass along the code and you can play 60 days longer for the price of free! (I have a lifetime sub so the card does me no good).

I will probably remake my man captain tonight once I think of an appropriately clever Ned-esque name (it will be tough to top Chickrond, though). I likes me some sword-swingin’ and yellin’.

You’ll be fine, give it a go. If you play the tutorial missions you should be ready. If you want to just hang in the back of the group and heal others, choose a minstrel.

LoTRO was my first MMO, and thus far my only. Been playing sporadically since joining and I still suck, but for the most part others don’t care, they’ll help you out. And I’m even talking about ad hoc groups of strangers that are not labeled, as Tom’s is, “Laid Back.”

I just read this post and would like to join in, but unfortunately I may be unable to make it tonight. Would it be possible to join in next Monday? Also I will only be able to play for about 2 1/2 hours (sometimes a little longer, sometimes a little shorter), will that be ok as well?

Nice timing! I’ve just returned to LOTRO after taking a year off, and have been toying around with the new classes. My 42 Champion is still in the Quarter to Three guild, but it looks like he’s one of the few…

Monday nights are usually bad for me, but I’ll try to find excuses to be online to join all of you. The newbie quests in the Shire are great, and I certainly wouldn’t mind playing through them again.

I’m tempted to reinstall my copy as I’ve always wanted to try going through a MMO with a group of people at the same rate. It probably would have gotten me to stay with WoW a little longer.

It starts next Monday, not tonight. :) You can make a new character and get it through the intro section, though. You’ll be about level 6 or 7 when you’re done that.

It starts next Monday, not tonight. :)

Doh, this is what happens when you are at an extremely mind numbing job. I will be there as Devmented the whatever class I choose between now and next monday.

I’m in!

The 16th I’ll probably have to give a miss to, as I’ll be skiing in Tahoe. I’ll be ready to join in the fun on the 23rd if that works?

Man, that dude also said MMOs are “broken” - what does he know?

Sounds like a fun idea. Unfortunately, 7 PM PST is 10 PM EST, which means you’d be playing until 2 AM - little late for me to be up on a worknight.

Still: have fun storming the cast- err, Shire!

Actually I think you can count me in too, as I had just bought MoM in anticipation of coming back over the weekend and was starting to wonder what the QT3ers were up to. Good timing.

— Alan