Wishlist Wednesday: A Short Hike

In this weekly feature, I share game titles from my various gaming wishlists. I share screenshots and video from the developer, talk about my expectations, and generally just ramble about why the title made it onto my list in the first place. This week's choice is A Short Hike by adamgryu.

Learning LOTRO: Lesson Ten - Racial Traits

In this series, I talk about various aspects of The Lord of the Rings Online. This series is meant for newcomers, but may also help veteran players find more to love about the game.

What defines the unique qualities of the races of Middle-earth? What makes each stand apart as its own separate and wonderful Free People? This week we talk about Racial Traits and what they mean for the player characters in Lord of the Rings Online.

Soundtrack Saturday: Chime & Chime Sharp

In this weekly feature, I recommend game soundtracks. I share a few of my favorite tracks, talk about why everyone should listen to the soundtrack, and a little bit about the composer. This week's choice is Chime & Chime Sharp by Zoe Mode & Twistplay.

Wishlist Wednesday: Pine

In this weekly feature, I share game titles from my various gaming wishlists. I share screenshots and video from the developer, talk about my expectations, and generally just ramble about why the title made it onto my list in the first place. This week's choice is Pine by Twirlbound.

Learning LOTRO: Lesson Nine - Deeds

In this series, I talk about various aspects of The Lord of the Rings Online. This series is meant for newcomers, but may also help veteran players find more to love about the game.

What makes a hero? Performing deeds, great and small! In this entry, I'll be talking about LOTRO's Deed Log and the many types of deeds that can -- and can't! -- be found in it throughout the game.

Soundtrack Saturday: Life Is Strange

In this weekly feature, I recommend game soundtracks. I share a few of my favorite tracks, talk about why everyone should listen to the soundtrack, and a little bit about the composer. This week's choice is Life Is Strange by Dontnod Entertainment.

Wishlist Wednesday: Inmost

In this weekly feature, I share game titles from my various gaming wishlists. I share screenshots and video from the developer, talk about my expectations, and generally just ramble about why the title made it onto my list in the first place. This week's choice is Inmost by Hidden Layer Games.

Learning LOTRO: Lesson Eight - Rune-keeper Class

In this new series, I talk about various aspects of The Lord of the Rings Online. This series is meant for newcomers, but may also help veteran players find more to love about the game.

It's time for the second class-focused entry in the series! I created this Rune-keeper not long after Glasbren for the last class entry, so I've had a lot more time to decide what I should cover and what doesn't need rehashing. 

The Rune-keeper class is restricted to Dwarf, Elf, and High Elf. Since I made an Elf last time and High Elf isn't available to everyone, I chose Dwarf for this character. Using my Welsh again, as well as thematic input from my husband and BFF, I focused on the fact that the Dwarf race in LOTRO is of the Longbeard line. I gave him a white-ish beard and thought about all the frost that would collect on so much majestic facial hair. So I took 'barf' for beard, and 'rhew' for frost, and thus was Rhewbarf born! (Isn't that the best name ever?!) He's the one pictured in the header, not to the left.








A note for new players: You'll have to purchase this class or acquire it with the Mines of Moria Expansion. Even VIP players!

Also of note: We had some very nasty weather roll through that delayed progress on this entry. For this reason, I'll be adding jump links post-publishing. Apologies to early readers for any inconvenience!

The following is a basic summary of the creation process and some of the things you'll encounter when you start out in LOTRO with a Rune-keeper.

Soundtrack Saturday: The Last of Us

In this weekly feature, I recommend game soundtracks. I share a few of my favorite tracks, talk about why everyone should listen to the soundtrack, and a little bit about the composer. This week's choice is The Last of Us by Naughty Dog.

Wishlist Wednesday: Wanderlust Travel Stories

In this weekly feature, I share game titles from my various gaming wishlists. I share screenshots and video from the developer, talk about my expectations, and generally just ramble about why the title made it onto my list in the first place. This week's choice is Wanderlust Travel Stories by Different Tales.

LOTRO: Producer's Letter Recap

Producer's Letters for any game generates hype and expectations for future content and events, and the one from The Lord of the Rings Online today is jam-packed with tidbits to gush over -- which I will now proceed to do!

This is going to be a messy entry without relevant game pictures, but I really, really, REALLY wanted to respond to this beautiful list of game content goodness that Standing Stone is going to throw at us in 2020! So, to start with, if you haven't read the Producer's Letter, you can do so by clicking this here linky-link.

Learning LOTRO: Lesson Seven - Craft Vocations

In this new series, I talk about various aspects of The Lord of the Rings Online. This series is meant for newcomers, but may also help veteran players find more to love about the game.

There are a lot of items in a game like LOTRO which spans 130 levels and has 10 classes, each of which has 3 trait tree options and a variety of choices to make in how to progress. To take the consumer burden off of all those poor NPC Suppliers and Outfitters, the denizens of LOTRO are able to take up Craft Vocations... to outfit themselves and others. (If you don't get the joke I just made, this blog entry is for you.)

Soundtrack Saturday: Sekiro - Shadows Die Twice

In this weekly feature, I recommend game soundtracks. I share a few of my favorite tracks, talk about why everyone should listen to the soundtrack, and a little bit about the composer. This week's choice is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice by FromSoftware.

Creating Characters: What's In A Name?

"My name is growing all the time, and I've lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story."

          -Treebeard, The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien

I've been told that I'm very good at coming up with names. Having given names to dozens of MMO characters, and more than three times as many characters, creatures, and places I have written about -- I suppose that's a fair statement. This entry is a (generous) handful of my favorite character names and how I came up with them.

Wishlist Wednesday: Panoramical

In this weekly feature, I share game titles from my various gaming wishlists. I share screenshots and video from the developer, talk about my expectations, and generally just ramble about why the title made it onto my list in the first place. This week's choice is Panoramical by Fernando Ramallo and David Kanaga.