An overdue meeting - soon

Hello Kin fellows,

A meeting of as many of us as possible to celebrate and 'break in' the new Kin house is very much overdue.

Hopefully we will have races and duelling (probably with Mithril flakes as prizes) and perhaps one or two other events depending on what we can come up with.

A Sunday is somewhat traditional for us, although not essential. I would hope to make this event within the next two weeks.... maybe even the next Sunday coming if that fits well with others.

Please post any ideas for events below, and any times that you can or cannot make in particular... and I will try to make it suitable for as many as possible.

Also please let us know if you have friends who might like to come along.

Some initial ideas for games. These are pulled right out of my head with little consideration or forethought... so may be no good at all in fact! :

1. The usual race. Perhaps somewhere with twists and turns and places to fall off in Moria. I would prefer to be able to simply choose a point to begin and one to reach with no preset route (to avoid the need for observers).

It is well documented now that six people riding in LOTRO are quite likley to view the other members in different positions depending on their connection and PC. Therefore it would be essential to have one final judge at the finishing point who's decision is final.

2. A hunting contest. 10, 20 or more items of a certain type must be gathered to win the prize. The item to collect must be one that is not commonly used and traded so hopefully no one would have many upon them, and of course a good deal of trust is needed (kills stealing allowed and encouraged for this ).

3. A deadly drop into a Moria chasm. The one who makes the furthest from the ledge wins. Minstrels will be on hand to heal the poor contestants.

4. Duelling in the arena circle at the Kin house. This might be difficult to make fair as some classes will always do better than others. Perhaps melee weapons only... or anything else we can think of. I remember we tried unarmed combat once before and it lasted about an hour before everyone got tired and went home.

5. A 'pulling' contest. Not 'that' type.... sorry Lachlan and Salogel. Something like running through a stronghold in Angmar and seeing how many foes you can drag through the gates with you.

6. Seeing who is flung the furthest by the Inn League Tavern. Extra points may be awarded for states of undress.

I will add anything else I can think of.

It would be great to begin with a meeting at a public tavern, then travel onwards for the events and then afterwards return to the Kin hall.

I have not forgotten that we may have one or more members not able to access certain game areas. It wll be important to make sure they can join at least some things, but it should not be too harsh and exclusion if one or two events are in a level restricted area.

Ooh, great ideas Aloisa. I am bit busy for coming weekend ((sister is getting married on Sat)) and not sure the one's in future. The yard still needs finishing touches... Souns so fun!

Yes Aloisa, some truly good ideas and it is about time we met again. Any weekend suits me!

((Personally this Sunday would be great for me... alas, from next Sunday I'll be offline [again...] for a longer time due to a 6-week long research trip in Croatia...))

I'm reasonably sure I can make it sunday evening...

Looking forward to some clean fun

I think I have been a bit over eager and will actually take a bit more time to plan some events *sees self with notepad in the garden of an Inn this weekend*.

I am going to suggest Sunday 11th for the day (hopefully the notice will help make it possible for more to come).

Then for this Sunday we can still do something in case of people who will not be available later. Perhaps just a race, or maybe even a hunt (is that maze still outside of Bree town from the previous festival?).

I will try to make sure I have something in mind for this Sunday, and then proper preparations for the 11th.

I have found that the maze is indeed still there which should add to the fun. Perhaps a way to approach it will be for one person to run into the maze, and the winner is the first person to find them.

The problem I have is working out exactly how to tell that person. One thing I thought of was for them to wear a certain colour, then the first person to call that colour into the kin / raid chat wins. But then would people be able to inspect them to see it? I suppose it would only be a problem if lots of people went off in search in the same direction.

I will keep mulling thngs over and hopefully have a final roster of 3 or 4 workable events soon.

Sounds like there are some great ideas for events, looking forward to it

Few quick ideas....

Fishing competion
Bree land triathlon (3 man group or solo?, running, swimming and riding... This should be done in a raid for easier control, or give each team a unusual item they have to pass to next member of team)
Lotro quiz
I liked a lot of your hunting idea, maybe a style of "treasure" hunt...
Best hat competion?

and last... Hide and Seek with a chicken.... This could be done in Bree and chicken could be moving around.

Most of prices should be more or less honorific in my opinion. Maybe one or two should have some in game money value like mithril flake or even money, rest could be fishing trophies, tons of ale and weeds....

How about a chicken run ? Or was that what Vinyalindo suggested already? Could be quite fun to see how far we get without having to retreat ....

Obviouly a map or course would perhaps be needed?

After mulling things over a little I think I have a reasonable selection of events to pass away a couple of hours. I was beginning to be a little to eager and try to fit too much in... so I have selected a couple of my original suggestions along with one or two borrowed from others in the thread.

I think we could probably do something similar just a couple of weeks later, so all left over suggestions could also be used then. Someone with more knowledge of fishing (and probably Chicken play too) would have to help set them up, but I think both would be good events and a lot of fun.... although each one might take a fair bit of an evening even on their own.

So I think the running of the evening could be something like:

1. Meet up at the race start area for greetings and then the race. It should take no more than 10 minutes even with the gathering. For this I think we need one person at the start and one at the finish but that should be it.

2. To the Bree festival grounds hedge maze where a runner (probably me but volunteers are welcome) will go and hide and the others have to find them. I think perhaps the runner can carry some token items to trade with the hunters. Then being the first to return to a judge outside the maze with the item will win the prize.

3. Duelling at the Kin hall. This might be very long or short depending on who wants to join in. It will always be true that some classes are better suited to this than others, so it will be fun and entertainment and not a serious test of skill.

4. And I think Vinyalindo's suggestion of a contest for the best hat should take place... to be judged during the other events.

There are some details to still work out, but I think that is a workable start. I will change the message of the day in game to announce the event.

Sounds like fun !

So the date is this Sunday the 11th. I am not 100% certain of the time yet, but expect it to be between 20:00 and 21:00 (this seems to be a good crossover time for our earlier and later players).

The place to start will be Bree.

I have passed on an invitation to members of the Shadows Alliance. Please feel free to do the same to any friends or members of other alliances.

Since I have never tried to arrange anything like that, I had no idea how it would all turn out. It was really good to do it. The first time we have spent relaxing and enjoying good company together for quite some time.

I will make a post listing who won what and where later on.

Surma made a video of quite a lot of it. I had no idea he got so much.

It's a nice way to remember it. :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdmr_7jDU_I