Storylines

I have my gripes about what Turbine does about gameplay issues like LIs, loot, music soundtrack bugs and so on. And I agree with almost evey complaint in this forum.

But dang, Turbine excels at making great storylines in the quest lines. That's one thing they have always nailed down.

Just tonight I was questing in Great River and came across a tragic love story between an elf and a Rohirrim(spelling?)

The not so smart guy in Forochel trying to get a wife by traditional means was pretty funny.

And that Hobbit in the Shire pretending to be a Black Rider was nothing short of classic.

I think no one disagrees with that.
I also like the funny elements they put in 'serious' content like instances...
I'm still laughing with the frying pan fight in FG and the fight in Northcotton where u slap hobbits...haha truly epic.
(btw the last fight in Northcotton is great, all sorts of things happens in there. I really love the mechanics).

One of my prime reasons for disliking the changes to the hobbit/man intro was the change to the storyline with Amdir. That was a fantastic, heartbreaking story originally. And now it's like, "meh, whatever here's strider."

On every chance I confirm that. The stories and the humour therein are top notch :)

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Originally Posted by Brandon_Blackbird

One of my prime reasons for disliking the changes to the hobbit/man intro was the change to the storyline with Amdir. That was a fantastic, heartbreaking story originally. And now it's like, "meh, whatever here's strider."

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Agreed. The first sight we ever got of Strider should
have been in the Prancing Pony, as it was for Frodo and
his companions.

Digression warning:

In his introduction to his essay "On Fairy-Stories," which
every Tolkien maven should read, Tolkien mentions that
around the time the essay was written, "we had reached
Bree, and I had no more idea than the hobbits of where
Gandalf had got to or of who Strider was, and I had begun
to despair of ever finding our."

Yeah I'll agree. At first I thought it was a little trivial, but bearing in mind the restrictions of the lore, I think they did fine.

I started playing a lot of GW2 lately and by comparision the storylines in GW2 are like..... really, how old do you think I am, 6? :p It contributes to strong lack of depth and immersion in that game.

It's one thing that'd I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE doing, is to write little storylines for games like Lotro :) with bits of humor and tiny plot twists and some lore-related surprises. But I feel like it's easier to win the lottery than it is to get such a job.

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Originally Posted by Brandon_Blackbird

One of my prime reasons for disliking the changes to the hobbit/man intro was the change to the storyline with Amdir. That was a fantastic, heartbreaking story originally. And now it's like, "meh, whatever here's strider."

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Originally Posted by djheydt

Agreed. The first sight we ever got of Strider should
have been in the Prancing Pony, as it was for Frodo and
his companions.

...

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I have always been against that change. I absolutely hate it and run through the intro as fast as I can as, to me, it is meaningless. When we finally face Amdir again in the epic I'm ready for him to die. He has been turned into a Red Shirt. In the original book 1 I had hopes for him even after he was vanquished. This does not play well with the mature audience.

Of course MoL is probably printing this out so he can send it in as proof of deserving a raise.

-FanBoi Bubba

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Originally Posted by Nymphonic

I have my gripes about what Turbine does about gameplay issues like LIs, loot, music soundtrack bugs and so on. And I agree with almost evey complaint in this forum.

But dang, Turbine excels at making great storylines in the quest lines. That's one thing they have always nailed down.

Just tonight I was questing in Great River and came across a tragic love story between an elf and a Rohirrim(spelling?)

The not so smart guy in Forochel trying to get a wife by traditional means was pretty funny.

And that Hobbit in the Shire pretending to be a Black Rider was nothing short of classic.

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Running through the East Wall I did the quest line in Parth Galen with the "fellowship" that has certain issues - minstrel wandering off, guardian getting captured, Lore Master becoming overly-enamoured by a cave system, the hunter who has an overly-inflated view of their own fast travel skills, plans not going to plan. Excellent stuff!

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Originally Posted by Nymphonic

I have my gripes about what Turbine does about gameplay issues like LIs, loot, music soundtrack bugs and so on. And I agree with almost evey complaint in this forum.

But dang, Turbine excels at making great storylines in the quest lines. That's one thing they have always nailed down.

Just tonight I was questing in Great River and came across a tragic love story between an elf and a Rohirrim(spelling?)

The not so smart guy in Forochel trying to get a wife by traditional means was pretty funny.

And that Hobbit in the Shire pretending to be a Black Rider was nothing short of classic.

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I heartily agree! These little gems can be found everywhere in the normal landscape and sometimes in the heroic instances, too.

'These sties are MINE!" :)

Indeed, this is what keeps me in games. Not combat and especially not team combat. For me, that gets old and tiresome (not boring!) quickly. I have thought that this is where the whole MMO genre went off the rails, but that's just one old man's opinion. Any game that can do a story line akin to legendary mythology (think Iliad or the Elder Edda), through text and chatter (not full voice movie style cut scenes), will interest me forever (riddles and logic puzzles or even simple logistics for combat tactics and strategies are a plus). Currently there are only two games out there that does this for me and this one towers over the other one (and for my nephew, that seems to work for him, too, with the positions flipped).

The Bumbling Fellowship is the Best Fellowship.

From the Crazy Hippy Loremaster to the Burglar/Captain Hybrid Failure to the Worst Hunter Ever, it was amazing.

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Originally Posted by Maeh

The Bumbling Fellowship is the Best Fellowship.

From the Crazy Hippy Loremaster to the Burglar/Captain Hybrid Failure to the Worst Hunter Ever, it was amazing.

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Glowers! It's flowers and they glow! They're Glowers!

I agree! Turbine has done a great job on storylines. I often laugh when I hear some of the things goblins say, especially the recruits in the Training Hall in Moria.
They had some good ones in Asherons Call also, like the vicious White Rabbit (that rabbit is a killer!)

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Originally Posted by djheydt

Tolkien mentions that
around the time the essay was written, "we had reached
Bree, and I had no more idea than the hobbits of where
Gandalf had got to or of who Strider was, and I had begun
to despair of ever finding our."

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So this is why Strider suddenly revealed the Shards of Narsil, Isildurs sword?

How familiar. I once attempted to write a fantasy story (which I even finished after several hundreds of pages), and while doing so, it began to develop on its own, which isn't bad by itself - but the characters began to live a life outside their purpose, and some would follow their own agenda so much that it was hard to get them back on the track they were supposed to wander. After some time I found that more and more charcters joined the story (yes I was a beginner), and some were only mentioned by another person; and over the time all kinds of names accumulated until they became a real mess. It was like the fibers of a hemp rope, many 'links' were actually leading away from the main line into the void, without any use or purpose. When I realized this, I understood that I had to re-arrange at least a few of them into a larger 'circle' of related events and relationships, if I wanted to turn the story into anything better than just a line of apparently unconnected episodes. I managed to create a connecting arc (in mid-writing), but at some cost, because the 'twist' that brought the story to a close, looks like it was taken from the toolbox of a mediocre weekly paper novel writer.

Note: Not everybody who writes hundreds of pages creates a great story. But since then, I can tell a good story from a bad one, and Tolkien is good. So good that I can reread the Lord of the Rings and still admire how it is done.


Greetings, Polymachos

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Originally Posted by Nymphonic

I have my gripes about what Turbine does about gameplay issues like LIs, loot, music soundtrack bugs and so on. And I agree with almost evey complaint in this forum.

But dang, Turbine excels at making great storylines in the quest lines. That's one thing they have always nailed down.

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I agree. I've just recently returned from a few years' away and so I was taking my level 65 hunter through Dunland. I did the quest with the woman where I found her a new town to call home, after her family had been eliminated by bad guys. She was nervous, wondering if the people in this little town would accept her, but they did. Then my character was drawn elsewhere, as a diversion, and when I returned the town had been sacked. Buildings were on fire and bodies were everywhere. And I remember thinking "they wouldn't kill her off, would they? She's around here someplace with a quest marker above her head." But no...I encountered her body and a message along the lines of "She died along with her new family." I mean...wow. That really made me stop and consider her fate, and I felt bad for her.

Of course now I am in Rohan, and I don't think I've EVER done so many petty tasks as in the last few nights. Mend this fence, clear these dirty dishes, make bread, distribute the bread, find my missing ring, find a sack of chicken feed, board up windows, and of course carry this barrel of armor from one end of town to the other. Then another, and another. :) But overall this game is beautiful.

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Originally Posted by Xanatos665

I agree. I've just recently returned from a few years' away and so I was taking my level 65 hunter through Dunland. I did the quest with the woman where I found her a new town to call home, after her family had been eliminated by bad guys. She was nervous, wondering if the people in this little town would accept her, but they did. Then my character was drawn elsewhere, as a diversion, and when I returned the town had been sacked. Buildings were on fire and bodies were everywhere. And I remember thinking "they wouldn't kill her off, would they? She's around here someplace with a quest marker above her head." But no...I encountered her body and a message along the lines of "She died along with her new family." I mean...wow. That really made me stop and consider her fate, and I felt bad for her.

Of course now I am in Rohan, and I don't think I've EVER done so many petty tasks as in the last few nights. Mend this fence, clear these dirty dishes, make bread, distribute the bread, find my missing ring, find a sack of chicken feed, board up windows, and of course carry this barrel of armor from one end of town to the other. Then another, and another. :) But overall this game is beautiful.

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[just thought this might be a spoiler to a lot of people so stop reading if you are following the story in the middle of Dunland]
Yeah these are adultish stories. I felt the same way and even though I chuckle when I see, "Isengard bids 5" it was a moment of mixed emotions, not commonly found in video games. That whole instance with Saruman(?) was soul shattering. The first utterance was only a brief question in my mind and the response nailed the tone. From there I started to think about Mabon. Of course when the bid came back I knew there was no hope and was lost for a time, worrying about an 8 year old in pixel form. I love being involved in the story this way.

It suddenly occurs to me that the people who write these do not really get the credit. I'm going out on a limb here and saying this belongs to Turbine/WB not the individual author. I'd love to see the credit history with the actual author's names. I mean, damn, craft services gets movie credits in WB films, why can't the people putting this stuff together get their name on the album?

ok thats just me but... nm

I agree. Great stories here. I keep a cloak of the beloved (or something like that) from the Bree romance story, just can't part with it.... it's just one inventory spot...

But this thread gave me a stab of pain because my favorite story ever will probably never play again. By next Christmas EQ2 will most likely be dead, and my favorite story ever in any game was the McScroogle storyline where he pays you to deal with the pesky ghosts of his past/present/future. There are dialog options that are so hilarious I'm wishing I'd logged it. For instance, you might choose to tell off Belle, and several dialog options all through the story are like "Yeah yeah, get on with it." or "Oh suuuure, I'm very sorry.... (eyeroll), can we leave now?" The story of the grinchy santa's helper is great too, and rewarded an in-game book with illustrations (house item).

That said, I never miss the "waking the snowbeasts" quest over here even if that's all the time I have, it's worth the chuckles. At first I didn't think it was funny, but it's insidious, gets funnier every year.

I'm not into the cruel games like stomping shrews or smacking chickens around with sticks though. Yeah, it's just pixels, but I don't like it.

I also enjoy rebuilding Hytbold. I know some people see it as "just a grind" but I don't. I like things that recover and change as you work on them. And I second the sentiments about Great River, not just the love story, there's a lot there to appreciate. Not least of which is the Oathbreaker story. A previous storyline that interested me just as much was the Annuminas story. Very involving and if you want to finish it, you'll need a group at least for a couple of places.

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Originally Posted by gripply

That said, I never miss the "waking the snowbeasts" quest over here even if that's all the time I have, it's worth the chuckles. At first I didn't think it was funny, but it's insidious, gets funnier every year.

I'm not into the cruel games like stomping shrews or smacking chickens around with sticks though. Yeah, it's just pixels, but I don't like it.

I also enjoy rebuilding Hytbold. I know some people see it as "just a grind" but I don't. I like things that recover and change as you work on them. And I second the sentiments about Great River, not just the love story, there's a lot there to appreciate. Not least of which is the Oathbreaker story. A previous storyline that interested me just as much was the Annuminas story. Very involving and if you want to finish it, you'll need a group at least for a couple of places.

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Great River has always held a special place in my heart. Outside of adding the snowmen and the abominable snow-beast quest to the Yule Fest, Parth Celebrant was my first full quest storyline on LotRO.

The way I see it, storylines are the heart and soul of our game, especially the Epic - and even though not every quest will demand what you might expect from a hero/heroine, it just becomes that much more satisfying when you play a pivotal role in a major storyline.

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Originally Posted by ThePinion

Great River has always held a special place in my heart. Outside of adding the snowmen and the abominable snow-beast quest to the Yule Fest, Parth Celebrant was my first full quest storyline on LotRO.

The way I see it, storylines are the heart and soul of our game, especially the Epic - and even though not every quest will demand what you might expect from a hero/heroine, it just becomes that much more satisfying when you play a pivotal role in a major storyline.

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PINION!!! *giggles with glee* Didn't you add the privey quest to HD? Love yer work, boss.

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Originally Posted by ThePinion

Great River has always held a special place in my heart. Outside of adding the snowmen and the abominable snow-beast quest to the Yule Fest, Parth Celebrant was my first full quest storyline on LotRO.

The way I see it, storylines are the heart and soul of our game, especially the Epic - and even though not every quest will demand what you might expect from a hero/heroine, it just becomes that much more satisfying when you play a pivotal role in a major storyline.

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IF you are responsible for the main thrust of the parth celebrant storyline you deserve some major kudos, the questline involving the old fort is one of the best in the game (IMO)

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Originally Posted by ThePinion

Great River has always held a special place in my heart. Outside of adding the snowmen and the abominable snow-beast quest to the Yule Fest, Parth Celebrant was my first full quest storyline on LotRO.

The way I see it, storylines are the heart and soul of our game, especially the Epic - and even though not every quest will demand what you might expect from a hero/heroine, it just becomes that much more satisfying when you play a pivotal role in a major storyline.

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Yeah good job on that. My favourite storylines (and places) are: The Riders Four, the Wildermore story including epics, Middlemead village, Candaith the ranger (in lonelands, not the part of him dying), Jajax, the hobbits of Enedwaith, the Huntsman of Enedwaith and rebuilding Hytbold. The renewed Misties is also a big step forward.

I completely agree; and the its the game's fantastic narrative structure along with its breathtaking visual interpretation that make this one of the greats... Honestly, I hope the servers never shut down; the thought that some day all this hard work and labor of love could be gone in the blink of an eye...terrifies me. I'd even pay good money just to be able to revisit this game on a single player front. It's just that impressive.

If I had to pick a favorite quest... Really, all of the Shire quests are gold. They absolutely nailed the general attitude of the Hobbits, and having the flawlessly accurate landscape to capture the atmosphere... UGH. I love it so much.

Agreed, that part of the game is really well done.

It pains me so much that the game was ruined by the HD class revamps, and by the total dismissal of group content/challenging content/meaningful rewards. It was such a beautiful game, ruined by one expansion pack (Helm's Deep) that destroyed the game's balance and took away a lot of its uniqueness. I only hope that there is a renewed focus on challenging group content in the upcoming future, as without that, the storylines, landscape, and parts of the game that are really well done are basically made irrelevant, as there is no balance or challenge in the game, no meaningful reward system tied to completing challenging group content, and thus players inevitably just choose the path of least resistance to get the rewards they want, which results in a great deal of amazing content being rarely played anymore.

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Originally Posted by God_Of_Wargs

Agreed, that part of the game is really well done.

It pains me so much that the game was ruined by the HD class revamps, and by the total dismissal of group content/challenging content/meaningful rewards. It was such a beautiful game, ruined by one expansion pack (Helm's Deep) that destroyed the game's balance and took away a lot of its uniqueness. I only hope that there is a renewed focus on challenging group content in the upcoming future, as without that, the storylines, landscape, and parts of the game that are really well done are basically made irrelevant, as there is no balance or challenge in the game, no meaningful reward system tied to completing challenging group content, and thus players inevitably just choose the path of least resistance to get the rewards they want, which results in a great deal of amazing content being rarely played anymore.

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I don't think it's been ruined. I regularly group with people for all kinds of older content and instances. And if I want challenge, I can always skirmish at higher level than my level. In fact I do that on purpose not so much for the xp boost, as for the lessons I learn in how to play effectively. I wonder if people, especially new players, realize that the way to really learn is to make it too tough and work on surviving? Maybe it never occurs to people so we end up with people who don't know their class very well. You might have a point on that, but it's not the game designer's fault. The possibility of challenge exists, so if people fail to make use of it...

Maybe it would be good to allow skraids and scaling instances to go up to level 110, or add a tier 4, with an appropriate buff to the gear drops? But honestly, people will only do what they consider to be the least effort for the most benefit. So if the yellow jewelery form the stars of merit are no longer the best, people will do something other than Pel. The places you go are always driven by what drops exist, and that's usually a handful of places if you're capped, in every game, not just this one. That said, I love it when new instances are added to games, and I hope they will be added sometime in the future here too. Even if they're only purchased ones like the Halls of Night. I particularly like that one, and the title reward in it.

The reason I play these games isn't mainly for group content, it's to experience the story. Group content enables me to go back to my quests and sotrylines better geared, that's all. Group content, no matter how varied and challenging and interesting isn't going to hold my attention if there isn't a feeling that I could never possibly complete every storyline. Hack and slash only go so far toward fun for me. It's sometimes what I'm in the mood for, sometimes what I need to get some great gear or crafting drops, but the reason why I do it is so I can be effective and get through more of the story. If this were an endless hack and slash fest, I'd be quickly worn out and bored. It's the storyline that keeps me coming back.

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Originally Posted by ThePinion

Great River has always held a special place in my heart. Outside of adding the snowmen and the abominable snow-beast quest to the Yule Fest, Parth Celebrant was my first full quest storyline on LotRO.

The way I see it, storylines are the heart and soul of our game, especially the Epic - and even though not every quest will demand what you might expect from a hero/heroine, it just becomes that much more satisfying when you play a pivotal role in a major storyline.

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Hear hear!

Also it's beautiful. The first time I crossed that bridge, I killed the mobs, and then just stood there, focusing in on the tiles, a sun symbol, a tree and a stag I think, randomly placed, and something that looks like maybe the Green Man, except not green this time. Somebody had to create all of that and make it make sense with the story. Incidentally, I read Massey's history of Peter the Great and I thought I recognized some of the story elements from Parth Celebrant. Like the strategy of threatening a smaller force with a larger one and conquering them without a fight.... adding their force to yours, and moving on to the next place, repeating the process. That really happened. I'm a frustrated historian, I wish I could find a way to make a living off of it. :) Every once in a while I hear about someone doing a social or historical comparison study of LOTRO, I think it's an important game. If people are going to tell each other stories, make them about heroism and courage, I say. Many thanks for the hours of enjoyment and even the occasional deep thought!

Only been playing a few weeks, but I agree with the OP.
At first I was rushing through...my first Hero skipped a few quests just to get further along. Now my alts take their time and enjoy every quest. I fill up my Quest panel with a bunch of quests and try not to miss any.
I plan on being here for a while, so I am gonna enjoy every step of the way.
I figure I will play my main a couple days a week and then devote a day to each alt. I am gonna have each with a different craft ability. And they are from all races and classes, except Beorning, yet.