Nostalgia -- A new type of kin for anyone tired of the kinship scene

[cipher_nemo]

Nostalgia

The no-drama, no-pressure, no-application, no-meetings kinship that lets you progress in your own way.


Reclusive Kinship on Anor

The term "reclusive" implies that we're a kinship for players who prefer adventuring and progressing alone through Middle Earth. It doesn't mean we're anti-social or only run solo content. We want the benefits of finding help and offering help for group content, but we don't want to deal with the old kinship scene of pressure, drama, and politics. Even a hermit needs to travel to town and interact with others once in while.

We hope to be a safe haven for players that want to enjoy LOTRO and their progression on their own terms. Why should you have to adapt your gameplay and socialization habits just to fit in with a kinship? A kinship should be flexible enough to enjoy having you around as a member just the way you are. We currently have members who range from being lurkers to being in a fellowship all the time.

We have an optional site for kinship news/discussion and an optional discord channel for grouping.


What's in a Name?

Definition of nostalgia
2: a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition

When deciding upon a name for this new form of a reclusive kinship, I knew I wanted to keep it short and sweet. It had to be somewhat original, and I didn't want to mimic those dime-a-dozen, jocular kinship names you see while exploring Middle Earth. One word to express a longing some might feel with LOTRO. With many old players returning to LOTRO, perhaps many are like me. Do you want to enjoy all of the fond memories of playing the game, but you're so over the kinship-scene? A name to nicely package that sentiment.


Our Promises to You

• We will never pressure you to socialize more. Everyone should feel welcome to socialize as much as they like.
• We will never rush you to level faster, and never ever have level or gear requirements for membership.
• We will not belittle you for your level, gear, or current progression. Everyone plays LOTRO with different priorities.
• We will never criticize you, nor remove you from the kinship for lack of activity. Everyone has lives outside LOTRO.
• You don't have to use kinship chat or VoIP (Discord) to be here and enjoy the kinship.
• We won't pressure you to help others if you've received help. Help others when it's by the will of your own heart.
• You are welcome to log in and out as you please. Don't feel pressured to say hi, good night, etc.
• You are also welcome to leave and join the kinship as you please. Respectful players are always welcome back.
• We will never require applications or interviews to join our kinship.
• And when you are ready to enjoy group content, we will do our best to facilitate it.

Our Requirements
These exists to protect our members. While we have no application process, we still expect kin to be respectful of each other.

• Be respectful and considerate of your fellow kinship members.
• When you wear our kinship's title, do not troll or harass other players and kinships.
• We want to keep kinship chat family-friendly, so please refrain from sexual topics, talk of violence, and explicit language.
• Please remove yourself from unnecessary drama. No one wants to deal with drama, especially a reclusive kinship.

Open Door Kinship

You are welcome to join and leave as you like. We will wish you well if you decide to change kinships or go it alone for a while. Of course we'd hope you'd like to stay, but we certainly won't pounce on you when you leave. And if you leave respectfully, you are always welcome back later.

Feel free to PM Ciph, Cipha, Ciphariel, Alartar, Ashvi, Gemitty, Shelwen, or Yellowheart for an invite to Nostalgia.

Safe travels, friend!

[cipher_nemo]

I'm happy to say that our recruitment has been a very positive experience so far!

The formation of our kinship is focused on creating a place for players who enjoy having the freedom of an open-ended experience. We keep in mind that everyone likes to progress at their own rate, but doesn't want to give up access to the benefits of a kinship. Since then we've had a wide range of members join, from those who are very reclusive to those who are very social and enjoy spending time on Discord. We cater to that entire range and take pride in such a unique approach.

This range is reflected in the diverse characters levels within our kinship. Our current membership as of 1/14/2019:

[Barruktp]

I'm happy to say that our recruitment has been a very positive experience so far!

The formation of our kinship is focused on creating a place for players who enjoy having the freedom of an open-ended experience. We keep in mind that everyone likes to progress at their own rate, but doesn't want to give up access to the benefits of a kinship. Since then we've had a wide range of members join, from those who are very reclusive to those who are very social and enjoy spending time on Discord. We cater to that entire range and take pride in such a unique approach.

This range is reflected in the diverse characters levels within our kinship. Our current membership as of 1/14/2019:

It is fascinating looking at the breakdown of your classes vs. Anor as a whole and the kinship that I am currently in. We're very focused on endgame, and have a pretty even distribution of classes, except that Captain and Warden and trending higher and burgs are the least represented. I wonder if kin culture has an impact on class distribution?

I love your kin charter btw, and if the politics and raid culture of my current kin get too much for me I'll definitely be joining you guys. Take care and good luck!

[cipher_nemo]

It is fascinating looking at the breakdown of your classes vs. Anor as a whole and the kinship that I am currently in. We're very focused on endgame, and have a pretty even distribution of classes, except that Captain and Warden and trending higher and burgs are the least represented. I wonder if kin culture has an impact on class distribution?

I love your kin charter btw, and if the politics and raid culture of my current kin get too much for me I'll definitely be joining you guys. Take care and good luck!

Thanks for the comments.

I've noticed that having a very open recruitment attracts many players who play infrequently and are probably not interested in a typical kinship that may boot their characters for inactivity. Regardless, we've also recruited some very social, very traditional kinship members who progress quickly and group often. It has been an exciting experiment so far that made for a very stress-free, easy-going kinship to join.

Updated charts 5 days later, 1/19/2019, with character count as well:

[Elquasso]

For any looking for a laid-back kin, this kin is a superb one ! Great bunch of people and everybody lets you do your own thing. Crafting help is also a thing with this crew, so I have pleasantly discovered !

[dmark101]

hmm. my wife and i have toons on anor, which are progressing slolwly. we would definitely like to join a kin together and enjoy the frienships that can be made. i'm a little tired of "traditional" kins and not really into gear snobs, so this sounds like a nice change of pace.

[cipher_nemo]

hmm. my wife and i have toons on anor, which are progressing slolwly. we would definitely like to join a kin together and enjoy the frienships that can be made. i'm a little tired of "traditional" kins and not really into gear snobs, so this sounds like a nice change of pace.

Awesome, sounds like we might be the perfect place for you and your wife. We have a few r/l couples among our membership. We just invited a r/l couple last night, was that you?

Anyone wishing to join can send a PM to any of the characters listed in my signature here on the forums. Thanks!

[Kronovan]

I'm very much interested in this kin, because these words...

The term "reclusive" implies that we're a kinship for players who prefer adventuring and progressing alone through Middle Earth. It doesn't mean we're anti-social or only run solo content. We want the benefits of finding help and offering help for group content, but we don't want to deal with the old kinship scene of pressure, drama, and politics. Even a hermit needs to travel to town and interact with others once in while.

...really describe my play style and interests.

My Elf Lore-master is approaching level 37 and I've hardly done any group quests. Not that I didn't try, but the times I looked I never found a group. I definitely have a preference for soloing and are fond of even wandering into areas well above my level. I'm the type of player who'll climb to a high vantage point just to take screen shots of the vista - yes I know, hopelessly sad. I'm a big fan of Middle Earth, its lore and this game and get a lot of enjoyment from just journeying through the realms. That said, at times I feel I really should be sharing the experience with others, even if it's just to recount adventures.

These words read like a good set of promises and expectations...

• We will never pressure you to socialize more. Everyone should feel welcome to socialize as much as they like.
• We will never rush you to level faster, and never ever have level or gear requirements for membership.
• We will not belittle you for your level, gear, or current progression. Everyone plays LOTRO with different priorities.
• We will never criticize you, nor remove you from the kinship for lack of activity. Everyone has lives outside LOTRO.
• You don't have to use kinship chat or VoIP (Discord) to be here and enjoy the kinship.
• We won't pressure you to help others if you've received help. Help others when it's by the will of your own heart.
• You are welcome to log in and out as you please. Don't feel pressured to say hi, good night, etc.
• You are also welcome to leave and join the kinship as you please. Respectful players are always welcome back.
• We will never require applications or interviews to join our kinship.
• And when you are ready to enjoy group content, we will do our best to facilitate it.

• Be respectful and considerate of your fellow kinship members.
• When you wear our kinship's title, do not troll or harass other players and kinships.
• We want to keep kinship chat family-friendly, so please refrain from sexual topics, talk of violence, and explicit language.
• Please remove yourself from unnecessary drama. No one wants to deal with drama, especially a reclusive kinship.

How does one go about becoming one of the kindred within your kin?

Finehain,
Elf Lore-Master
on the Anor Server

[cipher_nemo]

I'm very much interested in this kin...

My Elf Lore-master is approaching level 37 and I've hardly done any group quests. Not that I didn't try, but the times I looked I never found a group. I definitely have a preference for soloing and are fond of even wandering into areas well above my level. I'm the type of player who'll climb to a high vantage point just to take screen shots of the vista - yes I know, hopelessly sad. I'm a big fan of Middle Earth, its lore and this game and get a lot of enjoyment from just journeying through the realms. That said, at times I feel I really should be sharing the experience with others, even if it's just to recount adventures.

How does one go about becoming one of the kindred within your kin?

I'm glad the founding concepts of Nostalgia appeal to you and we'd be happy to shoot you an invite to the kinship.

All you need to do is PM me in-game or another member with officer privs and request an invite. Also, I added your Finehain character to my friends list, so if I see you online I'll PM you.

[Kronovan]

I'm glad the founding concepts of Nostalgia appeal to you and we'd be happy to shoot you an invite to the kinship.

All you need to do is PM me in-game or another member with officer privs and request an invite. Also, I added your Finehain character to my friends list, so if I see you online I'll PM you.

Sounds good, looking forward to joining the Nostalgia kinship. I wasn't able to login tonight, but I'll possibly be on tomorrow evening and most definitely on Saturday.

[Randinaglar]

I would like to know an estimation of the US/EU ratio in this kinship. I recently started playing this game again on Anor, and I really like the idea of this kinship. I'm based in the Netherlands however, so this part of the FAQ on your site is a little discouraging to me:

When are most of your members online?

I recruit mostly on evenings and weekends for Eastern Standard Time (GMT -5). So anyone online during that time who wishes to join would get an invite. However, we have noticed that we have a mix of members from all over the US. We also have at least one Australian.

Thanks!

[cipher_nemo]

I would like to know an estimation of the US/EU ratio in this kinship. I recently started playing this game again on Anor, and I really like the idea of this kinship. I'm based in the Netherlands however, so this part of the FAQ on your site is a little discouraging to me:

When are most of your members online?

I recruit mostly on evenings and weekends for Eastern Standard Time (GMT -5). So anyone online during that time who wishes to join would get an invite. However, we have noticed that we have a mix of members from all over the US. We also have at least one Australian.

Thanks!

A good chunk of our members are from the GMT -5 to GTM -7 timezones. We also have a handful of Australians in the kinship, somewhere between GMT +8 and GMT +11. I hope that helps?

[cipher_nemo]

We recently hit Lifespan Rank 7 and as such have purchased a premium Kinship House.

Tol Lochú in the Naith Faras neighborhood of Cape of Belfalas







Our current membership as of this posting:






We continue to enjoy fellowship content together, from current end-game Carn Dum and Urugarth through early level content such as Great Barrows and Fornost. Feel free to drop us a PM in-game to join!

[cipher_nemo]

Even though both Nostalgia and LOTRO overall have slowed down quite a bit since SoA and MoM content was released, we're still recruiting.

And we will always be open to new members who share our no-drama, no-pressure values and ambitions to make us a welcoming kinship for even the most reclusive players out there.

After Mirkwood, all future content will be new to me and many of our members of Nostaliga. If you like that feeling of being around those experiencing things for the first time, then now's the time to join.

Safe travels, friends.