What is Lord of the Rings Online?

About This Game

Lord of the Rings Online is the only MMORPG set in J.R.R. Tokien’s Middle-earth. Travel with your Fellowship across the wide lands of Middle-earth to face the growing evil in the East. All of Mordor is stirring as the Nazgül hunt for the One Ring. The fate of Middle-Earth lies in the hands of those who possess it. Join hundreds of thousands of players online in the fight to drive back the armies of Sauron. Your time is at hand.

This is Lord of the Rings Online.

General Features

• Personalized character advancement system.
• Play as a Hobbit, Elf, Human, or Dwarf
• Character creation allows for unique features, including faces, hairstyles, clothing, armor and more
• Purchase customizable, race-specific dwellings
• Join other players in fellowships and wage war against the Dark Lord Sauron
• Travel to the far corners of Middle-earth as you follow along with the storyline as it expands on the fellowship’s quest

Gameplay
The game’s milieu is based on, but not limited to, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. However, Turbine does not have rights to any other works in Tolkien’s legendarium, such as The Silmarillion or The Children of Húrin.

Much of the gameplay is very standard to the MMO format. The player controls a character avatar which can be moved around the game world and interacts with other players, non-player (computer-controlled) characters (or “NPCs”) and other entities in the virtual world. Camera angles can be switched between first-person and third-person options. Player’s characters are improved by gaining “levels”. A character’s level increases after it earns a set amount of experience points through the player versus environment (or “PvE”) combat and storyline adventures. Characters’ abilities are improved by increasing in level, but character skills must be purchased from specified NPCs after gaining a new level.

The main storyline (also known as the “Epic Quest Line”) is set up as a series of “Books”, which feature quests called “Chapters”. There were initially eight Books when the game was released, with new books added with each free content update. So far there have been 6 free content updates.

PvP
Player versus player (PvP) combat is included in the form called “Monster Play” or “Player vs Monster Player (PvMP)”. Monster Play is unlocked when a player’s character reaches level 10; players can then play a level 50 monster. These monster players (also known as ‘creeps’) have their own quests, titles and deeds, and fight the Heroes (player characters of level 40 and above, and known as ‘freeps’) in the Ettenmoors. Both heroes and monsters fight for the control of various keeps in the Ettenmoors, of which 5 are able to be taken. When one side holds 3 keeps, they are able to go into the Delving of Fror (also known as the Ettendeep), a dungeon area beneath the Ettenmoors.

Both monster players and Heroes gain ranks in the Ettenmoors through defeating the opposing side. Monsters receive infamy for killing a Hero, and Heroes receive renown for killing a monster player. There are 15 achievable ranks, starting at Footman, and ending at Captain-General (for Heroes) or starting at Scout and ending at Tyrant (for monster players). Gaining ranks allows you to purchase specific equipment and armour.

Another aspect of character development is the inclusion of Destiny Points. Destiny Points are awarded for leveling and completing quests and can be used to temporarily increase some of your abilities or skills. These points can also be earned through combat in Monster Play. Monster players earn destiny points for controlling a keep, killing ‘freeps’ (the player controlled Heroes) and completing quests. A player’s destiny points are shared across all their characters, whether heroes or monsters.

Tolkien’s Middle-earth as represented in The Lord of the Rings Online implements magic in a different manner than other MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft. There are only five “wizards” in the fictional world, none of which are player controlled. Instead, there are active skills which require “power” (the equivalent of magic points). Some skills behave like magic (like healing or throwing a burning ember at an enemy), but are based on “lore”. In addition, objects and artifacts are used to create effects similar to magic.

Other features include a fast travel system and a detailed quest log with tracker and history.

Deeds
Characters obtain titles and traits by completing “deeds” in the game. Deeds are earned in each area of the game, by killing a set amount of monsters in an area, using a certain ability a set number of times, completing a number of quests in a given area, or finding certain locations or unique items. Completion of these deeds yields a fixed amount of experience points to the player.

Titles
Titles have no direct impact on gameplay. Instead they provide another means of customization by adding additional information to your name. Some titles are common while others can be difficult to obtain. Each character starts with one title that indicates their origin. Titles are earned by completing deeds and quests and by mastering tiers in professions. Only one title can be active at a time. Characters who are ranked in the Ettenmoors can also have a prefix to signify their rank.

Examples of titles:

<your name> of Bree (One of the many origin titles that players start with)
<your name> the Undying (received by attaining level 20 without being defeated)
<your name>, Spider-Foe (received by defeating 30 spiders in the Bree-lands)
<your name>, Pie-eating Champion (received after winning a pie-eating contest)
<your name>, Master Apprentice Woodworker (received after finishing both the basic and master-level tiers of Apprentice Woodworking)
<your name>, Vanquisher of Thaurlauch (received after defeating the Balrog in the Rift of Nurz Ghashu)
Examples of prefixes:

Footman <your name>, <your title>, shows that you are rank 1 in the Ettenmoors.

Sergeant of the Guard <your name>, <your title>, shows that you are rank 5 in the Ettenmoors.

High Warden <your name>, <your title>, shows that you are rank 9 in the Ettenmoors.

Traits
Each character has the ability to equip traits earned during the game. Traits give characters a myriad of different bonuses or abilities. Any trait combination can be equipped as long as they have enough trait slots. The number of free trait slots depends on their level. The first virtue trait slot is available at level 7, for example. Virtue, class and racial traits offer a maximum of five slots, and legendary traits offer two slots. Traits can be easily changed by visiting a bard found in most towns, and equipping traits costs a certain amount of money.

Types of traits include:

Virtue
Virtue traits are common amongst all races and classes and can be earned by completing general goals, such as killing a set number of monsters, or completing enough quests in an area. These traits generally improve stats, resistances and total morale and power, including regeneration. There are a large variety of goals, and each has multiple levels that can be earned during the course of the game.

Class
Class traits are specific to a certain class. These are generally earned by using a class skill or power often enough, or meeting certain conditions with these skills often enough, such as achieving enough critical strikes with a certain skill. These skills improve the power of certain abilities and often give an additional passive bonus to character statistics.

Racial
Racial traits are specific to each of the races. These traits confer special abilities or improvements, and only a relatively limited number can be used at one time.
Legendary
Legendary traits confer rare bonuses. They are obtained by collecting class-specific books and their pages which drop from specific enemies, or from a series of level 45 class-specific quests.

Music System
Characters that reach level 5 can learn to play the lute and, depending on their class, other instruments. Minstrels can learn to play all of the instruments, including bagpipes and cowbells. Using macros, the instrument can be played in real time on three octaves and abc notation, with the music broadcast to nearby players who have not disabled hearing it.

Setting
As of Book 13, The Lord of the Rings Online is set during The Fellowship of the Ring. The player starts simultaneously with Frodo and company leaving The Shire. Later on the timeline freezes with the Fellowship waiting for their departure in Rivendell. Players are able to meet the characters from Tolkien’s story, including all of the Fellowship at varying points in-game. However, during Book 14, the Fellowship finally departed Rivendell, ready for The Mines of Moria expansion.

In the initial release, only the area of Eriador was available. Eriador was further divided in Ered Luin, The Shire, Breeland (this included the area around Bree, the Old Forest and the Barrow-downs), North Downs (Fornost), Lone Lands (the area around Amon Sûl), Trollshaws (the area surrounding Rivendell), Misty Mountains (including Goblin Town), Angmar and the Ettenmoors. The Shores of Evendim update added the region surrounding Lake Evendim and Annúminas, about 100 miles north of the Shire. Book 13, Doom of the Last King added Forochel, a snowy tundra, as a new zone. Finally Eregion was added in Books 14 and 15. Expansion packs will follow the journey of the Fellowship: Rhovanion, Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor[citation needed].

Races
There are four playable races in Lord of the Rings Online. Players can choose a male or female gender for each race apart from dwarves.

Man
Elf
Dwarf
Hobbit

Classes
There are 9 classes that can be played in Lord of the Rings Online: Burglar, Captain, Champion, Guardian, Hunter, Lore-master, Rune-keeper, Warden, and Minstrel.

One Response to “What is Lord of the Rings Online?”

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   March 20, 2009 at 2:36 am

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