April fools chicken quest

[Halphast]

Within minutes of the quest launching, monster players camped out and killed every chicken they could find. Super fun.

[Tralfazz]

Within minutes of the quest launching, monster players camped out and killed every chicken they could find. Super fun.

I try to stay out of stuff like this on the forums, but yeah, not fun at all. I know the point of this chicken play is to get from A to B without being defeated in the PvMP zone, but if there are players camping the spawn and destination spots it's just not possible. And I don't need to spend 5+ minutes avoiding wandering monster players and mobs to get shot in the back from long range with no chance to do anything about it just before reaching the destination. I have better things to do (in the game and otherwise) with my time. Once was enough, so no title for me.

I'm sure some really enterprising folks will put together chicken escorts with their Freep friends. But if it's this hostile at 10:05am EDT it's not going to get better as the younger folks get home from school and decide to pluck chickens all weekend.

[Halphast]

I know the point of this chicken play is to get from A to B without being defeated in the PvMP zone, but if there are players camping the spawn and destination spots it's just not possible.

I know a few people got it just by being online when it launched because the moors were deserted. But as of 15 minutes later it became impossible. Maybe it's an attempt to get freeps into the moors to protect their chicken friends. Still doesn't sound fun to me.

[Baritone]

It's a 2 day April Fools event...who cares

[Nonde]

Not everywhere! I was playing on Eldar at the time and while GM's had to defend the log in spot I was escorted to GV by a warg I didn't know. Is one of my fondest and funniest Lotro memories as we did a long nonverbal communication, warg to chicken and chicken to warg LOL. He would jump in place so I started jumping in place too and if he jumped twice I would jump twice and if he spun I would spin too etc so was like a dance. Then he would turn and take a few steps away from me then come back and we would jump dance together again and after a few rounds I realized he wanted me to follow so I did and he protected me all the way to GV.

[DavidmeetHal]

I was lucky, I was online right when it started, and no one was there to stop me.

[CloudCastle]

I just did it about 10 minutes ago and got lucky. I didn't encounter any Creeps until the very end, where there was one camping out at the finish line. He spotted me and chased after me, but I dodged behind some rocks and actually managed to get away. I'm looking forward to trying again with some other characters. I hope people will start putting together escort groups for chicken runs. Maybe they will run the event all weekend?

[SSG_Orion]

The err of that initial run has been alleviated and now the spawns are scattered throughout. You might end up with a really short run to safety, maybe a longer run, but the event is for fun. If you are not going to have fun running like a chicken, then you should not run.

[WeirdJedi]

I was lucky, I was online right when it started, and no one was there to stop me.

Me too. I thought for sure I would see some activity but I managed to do it on 4 characters within an hour of the event starting.

[Pontin_Finnberry]

I did it successfully on 3 characters, one monster player came close but didn't notice me, I saw in chat they killed another Chicken player so they were busy.

[Linawillow]

The err of that initial run has been alleviated and now the spawns are scattered throughout. You might end up with a really short run to safety, maybe a longer run, but the event is for fun. If you are not going to have fun running like a chicken, then you should not run.

If you got the April Observer deed in the past, but didn't do the chicken run then... will you still get the mail so you can do the chicken quest this time?
(I'd guess "no" by now, since I still haven't seen any mail)

[SSG_Orion]

If you got the April Observer deed in the past, but didn't do the chicken run then... will you still get the mail so you can do the chicken quest this time?
(I'd guess "no" by now, since I still haven't seen any mail)

Sadly, no. You will not on that character.

[Halphast]

but the event is for fun. If you are not going to have fun running like a chicken, then you should not run.

Chicken runs don't appeal to everyone, and that's fair. The difference is normal chicken runs build community by having players escort chickens across the landscape. This event has actual players with malicious intent camping out at the finish line to one-shot kill chickens and gloat over their bodies.

[Narufind]

Sadly, no. You will not on that character.

As someone that's waited 15 years for this quest to return this is very disappointing. Enjoying running it on my alts but my main character is the one I most desired to complete it on.

EDIT: To hopefully avoid anymore confusion, this was in response to Orion's confirmation that a character which previously attained the April Observer title will not receive the in-game mail with the quest item for The Fox in the Hen House. I'm not concerned about the difficulty of the quest, only the ability to begin the quest in the first place.

[Ulrek]

As someone that's waited 15 years for this quest to return this is very disappointing. Enjoying running it on my alts but my main character is the one I most desired to complete it on.

The place was empty when I ran it... took about 3 mins to complete.

[Polymachos]

I have meanwhile done it on four characters on Belegaer - the first one ran headlong into the siege outside Glan Vraig. After yet another fail, it dawned on me, that I shouldn't go the obvious route. I don't name details here, because then the Creeps will start to camp the places I went by. In the end, one fool of a Hobbit made it from the Steps of Gram (yes, he got dumped there) to the Freeps in one go.

Now on to see what happens in other places.


Greetings, Polymachos

[Narufind]

The place was empty when I ran it... took about 3 mins to complete.

The issue is that mail is only delivered upon completion of the deed "A Day of Pranks" (which also grants the title April Observer). If you logged in last time the event happened then you will have already completed the deed and won't receive a letter, thus you'll be unable to start the quest "The Fox in the Hen House" which gives access to the session play and rewards the "Fool" title upon completion.

[SophieTheEnchantress]

Hahahahah! That is one way to get me to take a break from studying and log onto all my characters.

Question: I have no interest in the Fool title or chicken play but I am a fickle maid and like to keep my options open. If I store the letter in the vault, will the option to run the quest remain open for some future April?

Good luck to everyone trying to complete the quest.

[Shau'nac]

Sadly, no. You will not on that character.

That's pretty lame given we could acquire the April Observer title in 2010, but the Moors Chicken Run wasn't active then. Just logging into the game in April of 2010 bilked us out of getting that title ever in the future? Weak.

[Boseafus]

Sadly, no. You will not on that character.

Typical LOTRO...so lame.

[clogg2009]

Dont use /stuck it will put you out of bounds in GV then you will really be stuck.

[Malachi108]

I just did it on 9 characters on Arkenstone. Only got ganked by Creeps twice, both on the 9th and last run.

[greendarner]

Something like, when they kill a chicken runner, there is a big orange message: YOU KILLED A CHICKEN! YOU HAVE LOST ALL MOORS RANK! and then they DO lose their rank. The prank is that they get it back only after the event ends. How about that?

[Regero]

As someone that's waited 15 years for this quest to return this is very disappointing. Enjoying running it on my alts but my main character is the one I most desired to complete it on.

So go complete it, what's stopping you? People on the forums have been exponentially forgetting for the last 15 years that when the destination doesn't matter (and it does not, this is a video game) than the journey itself becomes the destination.

It took me about 9 tries to get it on Brandywine, and that was only because I was lucky. I ended up joining a group of 6 other chickens, and we decided to rush through a big battle directly in front of GV because we figured the creeps would be too busy to notice us when there were about 8 Hunters shooting them. We were kind of right. One particularly malevolent Weaver decided we would be a better target than the Hunters and began shooting at us. One chicken got lucky with the evades, another Played Dead which bought time, and the rest of us, now only 2 strong, rushed to GV and jumped up and down in celebration. We were later joined by the third chicken which got up from Playing Dead, jumped on the dead Weaver, and joined us. The challenge of it makes for a much better story and memory than simply spending a few minutes to earn an insignificant title.

[Narufind]

So go complete it, what's stopping you? People on the forums have been exponentially forgetting for the last 15 years that when the destination doesn't matter (and it does not, this is a video game) than the journey itself becomes the destination.

It took me about 9 tries to get it on Brandywine, and that was only because I was lucky. I ended up joining a group of 6 other chickens, and we decided to rush through a big battle directly in front of GV because we figured the creeps would be too busy to notice us when there were about 8 Hunters shooting them. We were kind of right. One particularly malevolent Weaver decided we would be a better target than the Hunters and began shooting at us. One chicken got lucky with the evades, another Played Dead which bought time, and the rest of us, now only 2 strong, rushed to GV and jumped up and down in celebration. We were later joined by the third chicken which got up from Playing Dead, jumped on the dead Weaver, and joined us. The challenge of it makes for a much better story and memory than simply spending a few minutes to earn an insignificant title.

I'm not complaining of difficulty or anything like that, if anything I'd personally like more of a challenge (I know many feel differently, I'm not advocating for a change like that). I'm specifically talking about an issue with the delivery of the quest item, if you don't receive that item in the mail then you can't do the quest on that character.