Editorial
Comments, thoughts, stories about LOTRO
I am Creep
Sep 14th
For Grizanni’s earlier adventures, check here.
I have been a busy young warg. My jaws are well and truly crusted red, and the tantalizing scent of Hobbit, Man, Elf, and Dwarf remains in my nostrils.
As I am scouting around Lugazug, desperately hoping to join the fight to retake this keep that the conniving Freeps have wrested from our control, I stumble into the path of a large and hungry pack of wargs I have never met before. I feel humbled in their presence and most honoured to be invited into their pack. The leader whips me into shape immediately. “No moving out of turn, obey all orders, stay where you’re told to stay, attack when and whom you’re told to attack! Got it, pup?” I bow low before him, careful to avoid staring into his startling bright, vicious eyes.
I am Creep
Jul 18th
Read Grizanni’s previous adventure here.
Ah, what a good day for hunting! Blistering hot sun, blasting wind causing dust motes to swirl. Uncle Wargazar and I stretch out our limbs, our large paws pounding the earth as we race along.
I spent the last few days venturing further and further from my den in the mountains near Gramsfoot. My back aches slightly from the slow, careful gait of a warg sneaking along — I mean in stealth mode. Several times, Uncle Wargazar came with me to show me what he knows, and, several times I went all by myself! I was able to discover some keeps and outposts and check out the action to see how the war was going.
I hurried back to Gramsfoot to report everything I had seen. I told Taskmaster Uglash all about the elf with a big bow who was running towards Tol Ascarnen, the uruks gathering at Tirith Rhaw, the sun-scorched trolls I saw on my way to Grothum, and the really big spider I saw near the Grimwood Lumber Camp. Uglash listened very attentatively to everything I had to say and was extremely grateful for the vital intelligence I provided! There was a ringing in my ears for the rest of the day from the congratulatory thump on the back he gave me (well, I know he meant to pat my back, though he accidentally hit me in the side of the head, since I was bowing down so low before him).
Group Levelling – Busy Times
Jun 25th
Our group has come to a very difficult time. Many of our members have begun to have some long term (several months) commitments that do not allow them to go in game as often as they have in the past. Due to school, work and family commitments, we’re not able to get all five of us in game for content as often as we’d like.
I am Creep
Jun 25th
Today is a big day for me! I am finally considered big and brave enough to leave the den to fight for the Eye!
I am so excited to go out and gnaw on some fresh Freep limbs. Grrrr! My paws are big, my jaws are strong. Look out, Freeps, I am a force to be reckoned with and will make my Master proud.
Just need to figure out where to go…
Excuse me, sir. Can you tell me where…?
Yikes!
Yes, sir! No, sir!
Right away, sir! (This guy sure is big!)
… Uh, what’s a maggot?
Oh, good, here’s my Uncle Wargazar. He’ll show me around a bit, just until I get my bearings. Then — watch out! My mighty roar will cause the Freeps to tremble in their boots. More >
New Column: I am Creep
Jun 24th
I’m excited to announce a new column for LotRO Reporter in which Grizanni the warg will be chronicling her journey through the Ettenmoors for the glory of the Eye. Join Grizanni the warg cub as she cowers before warleaders, gets her muzzle smacked by Freeps, and slinks through the ‘Moors as she learns to stand on her own four feet. One day, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, she will perk up her ears, get the scent of Freep in her nostrils, and the chase will be on, ending in… victory!
Something wonderful will happen!
Jun 11th
A couple of weeks ago I was involved in a rather nasty car accident. A truck hit me from behind, and I ended up with a serious concussion. You might wonder what this has to do with LOTRO, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
I found out about LOTRO going Free to Play on Twitter a few days after my accident. As a journalist, I reacted in a dignified and objective manner, as expected from someone in my profession.
“LOTRO F2P? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Okay, I admit it. My first gut reaction was “There goes the neighborhood”. My scrambled brain conjured horrifying visions of The Great Unwashed storming the Shire, while screaming “WOW IS BETTER! WOW IS BETTER!” over general chat. I felt an urge to hide in the Prancing Pony with my fellow LOTRO players, barring the doors and hope they’ll go away or set the inn on fire. Either way, ending the suffering.
“My God,” I thought. “There will be tons of people entering this game. They will be all new players, who have no idea of what they are entering. They will be running all over the Shire and Breeland and the Lonelands. They’ll be everywh…”
This was the moment my concussed brain started making this squeeling little noise. Almost like it was trying to point something out to me.
LOTRO Free-to-Play: My Thoughts
Jun 7th
I was quite shocked on Friday morning as I got prepared for work, turned on my computer, checked my Twitter feed, and low and behold, there where several tweets about LOTRO going Free-to-Play. Now, having just read an article over at Mordor or Bust (see the article here), where the prediction was made that LOTRO would go Free-to-Play in 2010, I thought that these tweets where in reference to that. Little did the author know at the time how true this prediction would be!
The end of the tale of UConn CAMS 3208
Jun 5th
HOMERID PRIME ONLINE
BEGIN TRANSMISSION
My UConn course Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies 3208 (Gaming) Homer, aka Operation ΚΛΕΟΣ, ended at the beginning of May. Since then, I’ve been busy with such things as grading and forcing 115 accountants to sit in a lecture hall and play LOTRO at the same time (long, long story that I may get to tell here some day). So I’m only now finally getting around to figuring out what went right and what went wrong with Operation ΚΛΕΟΣ, which (as previously detailed) may have been the first college course ever taught in Middle Earth, if you discount the credits earned by the fellowship for listening to the bard on the Field of Cormallen.
Group Leveling
Apr 26th
Our intrepid little group is slowly working it’s way toward Moria. At the conclusion of the last group leveling column, members of the group where newly minted level 40s, with a 3 or 4 level gap between the highest level character and the lowest. As we’ve gotten closer to level 50, and each level has started to come a little slower, we’ve narrowed that gap to about 2 levels between the highest and the lowest.
A daring, epic rescue in the Scrag-Dells
Apr 15th
Homerids Prime (Thrasir) and Secunda (Kayzee) await rescue
Last week I did indeed bring my apprentice bards into the Ettenmoors. We were lucky enough to run into an enormous party of freeps several times. The apprentice bards were suitably impressed by the way Monster-Play puts forward a sociology of zero-sum glory. Or, to put it another way, we were pwnd several times in succession.
Here’s a sample:
