Horsing around!
Two years since the last time, here are more fun, exciting and/or quirky-looking pictures by that hobbit adventurer! I have gathered a few more of me own favourite screenshots from LOTRO. This time, I have made a horse&pony special!
If you like these images, here is Part 1, Part 2 , Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7 in the same series. Click on the pictures for larger versions. Oh, and let me know if yer like them pictures in the comments below!
Descendant of the Mearas
With the release of the Riders of Rohan expansion in 2012, Turbine added perhaps the ultimate pre-order bonus to LOTRO: A special quest chain which introduced you to the mounted combat system through a series of session plays with a strange horse at Hengstacer Farm.The quests and the bonuses weren't particularly grand, perhaps. However, even after you finish the chain, you can still go back and do the quests. And many of them allow you to play as a sturdy white horse (without any silly blankets) roaming the landscape, albeit for a limited time.
Thus, sometimes you can see "named" horses running through Bree or parading slowly through the grassy fields. Often to the surprise of new players, who wonder what the heck is going. I sometimes take my steed for a spin, just for the fun of it. Seeing other players interact with the horse is grand fun every time.
Still, my favourite picture involving the Mearas steed is the one below. Here I am lined up near the steed with one of my regular ponies. There's this parent and child vibe thing between the two horses. Lovely!
Sunrise sunset
LOTRO may be an aging game, but it can still enable some pretty grand screenshots. The sky lights are particularly grand, which obviously makes for fine backdrops for horse and pony pictures. Here are some favourites.
From the Delving Fields:
From Rohan:
Also from Rohan:
From Forochel:
Pony dancing
During the Green Dragon Friday anniversaries, we often host "pony dancing" near the end of the main party. This basically just involves going outside the inn, mounting up and letting our ponies waltz around to a song. Unless we play the Bywater Bouncing Song, which involves... bouncing. As seen below. The chaos is quite enjoyable.
GDF celebrates its 13th anniversary next month. Will there be more pony dancing? The answer is a resounding: Perhaps!
Hobby-horsing around
The hobby-horse has long been a popular mount in LOTRO. Not least since in some areas (like the Shire), you are able to zip around at full-speed on them.
Back in the day, though, the hobby-horse was only available by playing a quest in Harwick, Rohan. Here's my first meeting with a hobby-horse.
Even after the hobby-horse was introduced as a proper player mount, it proved remarkably hard to obtain. That changed recently, not least with the barterable hobby-horses available with the Yule festival. I kind of like this picture from last Yule. It looks like a scene from a dramatic horse charge, until you notice the trail from my yule sparkler. The charge might be in a rather different direction than expected...
Of course, it is possible to do all sorts of fun with the hobby-horses too, here I'm playing my horse fiddle...
Odds 'n ends
Remember the Black Riders chasing Frodo towards the Ford of the Bruinen? When the Riders tried to cross, the river rose (with a little help from Elrond and Gandalf) and washed them away. Apparently, Gandalf was very proud after adding horse-shapes to the waves. So here is my feeble attempt to re-enact this scene. It is even made near Rivendell.
I bet Gandalf didn't dare add a yellow-clad hobbit to the waves as well, that'd have washed away the whole valley. At least all the biscuits!
I love playing around with camera angles when making my screenshots. This one is at the huge dwarven figure in the Iron Hills.
"For one to fly, one needs only to take the reins." Soaring above the Ivy Bush in Hobbiton.
Bonus video: Bullroarer's boy
Back in 2013, I made a video to kickstart a roleplaying adventure in the Grand Order. The adventure eventually fizzled out, but at least I had a lot of fun making the video and playing around with various filters in my video editor. In retrospect, I may have overdone things a bit...
I still like the idea, though. It is based on the Warden class quests which involved finding all the pages of "Bullroarer's Boy", a mysterious book written by one of the descendants of the Bullroarer. My setup was that the book really was a sort of a treasure map, leading to mysterious riches in the Shire. Sadly, a group of lankyshanks were trying to lay their hands on the treasure by following a trail of lost book pages towards The Shire.
What does this have to do with horses? Um, not much perhaps. Although the Bullroarer, now he rode a full-sized horse. So there's that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv3ZHidfjjc