I completed Book 14 last night, which effectively means I have completed the Volume I story line and am waiting on Volume II: Mines of Moria to continue the story. Rumor has it that a Book 15 is coming, though I haven’t seen certainties on that nor details on whether it will be a normal content update or included with the Moria expansion.
The final chapter to the book, Chapter 15: The Doom of the North, is by far the longest and probably most challenging of the epic book instances. We took shortcuts and snuck by mobs rather than clearing every single mob in the place, and it probably still took an hour or so. The final boss before we could enter the ring-forges seemed like she took 30 minutes, but that’s because she’s a scripted encounter just like a good dungeon or raid boss would be, and it took us awhile to figure out a strategy that would work. My lore-master’s mezzes and roots, as well as the burglar’s mezz, were resisted quite often which caused the battle to last longer than it might have otherwise.
Spoiler Alert: Book 14 did a great job bringing the past 4-7 books full-circle. We’ve been running quests for an elf, Laerdan, whose daughter Narmaleth was responsible for Amarthiel’s downfall in the Fornost dungeon. We gradually learn that Amarthiel possessed Narmaleth and the loss of his daughter took a terrible toll on Laerdan’s mind. Amarthiel poses as Narmaleth to manipulate Laerdan, as well as taking the form of her keeper to manipulate the players and other characters involved in the story arch. Amarthiel is seeking to reforge Narchuil, a Ring of Power, and that story takes us into Forochel (which was the Book 13 update) and finally into the small portion of Eregion included in Book 14 that is the location of the ring-forges. Mordirith arrives on a fell beast and challenges Amarthiel, however, and with the full power of the Witch-King behind him, defeats her and his servant Mordrambor takes Narchuil for himself. Laerdan seems to have been slain in the fight while a gravely wounded Amarthiel (or is she Narmaleth once more?) weeps over him before being taken prisoner by the Free Peoples.
Book 14 also serves to show where Turbine is taking some of the technology they’ve implemented over the past year.
Session play, for example. It started with “chicken play” where we can go to Sandson’s Farm in the Shire and temporarily become a chicken, perform some chicken quests or just attempt to travel around the more dangerous world. Later session play was added to the PvMP game in the form of Rangers for the freeps and Trolls for the creeps. Book 14 has two instances that make full use of session play.
In the first, we play an Angmarim Bloodletter in charge of preparing Sammath Baul, a tower in Carn Dum where Laerdan has been imprisoned, prior to Amarthiel’s arrival. After we clear up some rabble and wake up the lazy guards, Amarthiel arrives, interrogates Laerdan and leaves. Suddenly Laerdan’s allies arrive and we rally to attack, knowing it will be our deaths. Fade to black. Savvy players will add 2+2 and remember that in Book 12 it was a player fellowship who stormed Sammath Baul to rescue Laerdan. So this first use of session play for an epic book quest gave us additional insight as to what happened during that encounter from within the dungeon and from the enemy’s point of view.
In the second session play instance, we play Laerdan himself who has tracked his daughter Narmaleth into Eregion and seeks to save her with the power of Narchuil, which is in two pieces. In fact, it’s Amarthiel once more posing as Narmaleth to guide Laerdan along and claim Narchuil for herself.
Some players whine that they’re not playing, or advancing, their own character in these session play instances. That depends on your perspective. Are you not furthering the story, thereby advancing your character into new places, new encounters and being rewarded with new gear? The characters we portray during session play certainly aren’t receiving those rewards. It’s a story-telling technique many authors use to give the reader the full story by providing glimpses of all the characters’ motivations, both protagonists and antagonists. Rather than making us read a wall of text quest dialogue that players like myself will forget in quick fashion, we get to actually play through the events. I could liken it to the Guild Wars Bonus Mission Pack where you play as a character from various stories in Guild Wars’ lore rather than playing your own character. But in the end, it’s your character who receives the reward for doing so.
Session play is here to stay in LOTRO, and will be further improved upon as the game progresses. We know the encounter with the balrog Durin’s Bane in Mines of Moria will be a session play instance, for example.
In yet another comparison to Guild Wars, the finale to Book 14 also makes use of a new cinematic camera technique in similar fashion to the cut-scenes in the Guild Wars missions. In this case, the story and interaction is purely between the NPC’s. It will be interesting to see if future cinematics give the player characters any dialogue like Guild Wars does, or if Turbine decides they’d be better off not putting words in our mouths. Regardless, the emphasis on story and utilizing various techniques to tell those stories are one of my main attractions to Guild Wars and LOTRO, so personally I couldn’t be happier that Turbine is trying new ways to bring us into the story in a traditional MMORPG.
Good times, and am eagerly anticipating the continuation into Moria and beyond!
Tags: LOTRO
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