Weekend Adventuring

Spent several happy hours over the course of the weekend adventuring in Middle-Earth with my hobbit burglar Tirra, human captain Tirawyn, and elven hunter Tiranor. Tiranor, who just hit 17, is the lowest level and is reserved exclusively for times when Doyce and I are on together. Tirra and Tirawyn (level 19 and 20, respectively) are both good for soloing, although they too have level mates among Doyce's stable of alts. I'm subverting the completionist part of my personality a bit, not doing everything on everyone, but rather picking and choosing the quests that are most entertaining, or which I know move the story along, and skipping some of the random "kill 20 bears" stuff. Nothing against bears! I have one on my hat!

What I like about LOTRO, compared only against CoH, is that there is a Epic thread which is the driving storyline. If you do nothing else, completing the epic quests will, presumably, get you to the end game. (I guess, if only because I'm only up to Book 1, Chapter 11, and there's something like 11 Books so far.) You can use the other quests to fill in the time between chapters -- for instance, when the epic quests jump from level 13 to level 19, and you need to do SOMETHING to raise your level. I'm struggling a bit with feeling overwhelmed with the sheer number of quests you can have -- 40's the cap -- but find that breaking them down into specific areas helps immensely. So, that's fun!

I also adventured out into the wilds of Forest Hills to attend a Halloween Party with the roomie and his gal pal, both dressed as pirates. Also in attendance at the soiree: Buster Keaton, one of his anonymous starlet costars, Bjork, a shadow ninja, some completely normal guy named Brian, a couple of Hogwarts students, a child molester, and the designer of the RPG we're playing on Thursday. That last one's for real, not a costume. I don't want to give away my costume yet, since I'm pulling it out again on Wednesday to head out to New Jersey and go trick-or-treating with my niece and nephew. Pictures to follow!