By: Jonathan “Donkey Slayer” Reynolds

Introduction

Greetings Middle-earthlings! Jonathan “Donkey Slayer” Reynolds here to give you some insight into the design of the “Inn of the Forsaken” instance.

You may not have heard my name before, but you’ve probably played some of the content I’ve taken part in. For LOTRO, that content is mostly located in Moria, as my first order of business upon joining was to help flesh out the instances there. I was the primary worldbuilder (which means I built the spaces from a visual standpoint) for the majority of the instances in the original Moria launch and on one instance, Fil Gashan, I was both the worldbuilder and the content designer (which means I did the visuals as well as the gameplay design.)

Aside from that, I also built and designed the Hall of Mirrors as well as the Waterworks instances which would follow the Moria launch. After a year away from LOTRO, I have returned bearing my gift to you: The Inn of the Forsaken. This is actually the first dev diary I’ve written despite having worked at Turbine for 7 years (come May), so bear with the insane ranting that is sure to follow…

Something new

One theme that runs through most of the content I'm involved in is some level of uniqueness. Usually that manifests itself as world interaction of some sort. I feel that when you go through an instance, the space itself should be just as important (if not more so) than the monsters you are fighting or the story you are progressing through.

Interacting with the space can and should be just as compelling for the player.

Watch your step…

Traps should be very familiar to those of you who have dabbled in Dungeons and Dragons Online at all. That is definitely the place that I developed an appreciation for what they can add to a space.

DDO was the first project I worked on at Turbine and the one that would define my design principles moving forward. DDO features many of the interactive elements I spoke of that make the spaces feel alive, but none are more effective than traps at achieving this. They add an element of danger and unease, requiring you to watch where you’re going at all times.

For the Inn of the Forsaken traps we wanted to keep things simple for the most part… at least your first time through. (Try the instance on Tier 2 for more fun with traps!) You’ll encounter two main types of traps -- spike traps and spinning blade traps. Spike traps come in two flavors: Those that jump out when you step on them and those that jump out on their own. The former are easy to avoid by simply watching your step and avoiding the holes in the floor. The latter usually require a better sense of timing to avoid.

Spinning blade traps act as walls when they aren’t in motion. When they are in motion, let’s just say you don’t want to be standing next to them.

Riddle me this:

Riddles work really well with the lore of The Lord of the Rings. They're one of the most ancient forms of a battle of wits, and the books themselves feature some very clever riddles. This reasoning led to the riddle doors featured in this dungeon. We make no claims as to the cleverness of the riddles in the Inn of the Forsaken, but we do confess that we love riddles.

We would have liked to allow players to type in their answers to the riddles posed by the doors, but this wasn’t possible. We had to settle with “emoting” the answer to the riddles. This keeps the potential answers manageable, as they're limited to emotes that all players have (no unlockable ones). It also keeps things fun while watching your party members perform rude gestures at the door.

But don’t worry! We know many players don’t share our love of riddles, so the doors were designed to give you a new riddle after three failed attempts. But for those of you riddle lovers, there are many, many riddles for you to solve and a special prize (mostly bragging rights) for those of you who can solve them all…

An object for every class.

We’re trying something new this time around in the form of class-based interactive objects. These objects have special functions within the instance and, like their name suggests, they can only be used by certain classes. The idea here is to give each class a unique role to fill in the space and promote diverse class makeups, but in a mostly non-combative sense.

Classes are grouped according to their flavor rather than their stats: The “Lore” classes (Lore-masters, Rune-keepers, and Minstrels) are studied in the various languages of Middle-earth and thus able to decipher ancient runes. This allows them to read runed plaques, and even to read aloud magical incantations that have unique effects.

The “Brawn” classes (Champions, Wardens, and Guardians) are about raw strength. Large, secret stone doors can only be opened by one of these classes, but a “Lore” class is required to locate the doors… "Brawn" classes' focus on melee attacks also makes them the ideal choice to tackle the Piles of Bones (unique monster in this instance) which have resistance to tactical and ranged damage.

Finally, “Aware” classes (Burglars, Hunters, and Captains) are able to temporarily disable trap mechanisms, shutting off nearby traps for a short time. In all cases, no individual class type is ever required to complete the instance. But having a well balanced class makeup may make the journey easier, and perhaps give access to rewards you would otherwise not receive.

But this is only the beginning…

We’ve touched upon the main distinguishing features of Inn of the Forsaken, but there are many other secrets best left to the thrill of discovery. Our hope is that you come away from this instance with a feeling of freshness and an eagerness to see more of these elements in future content. And by all means, let us know how you feel… even if you hate riddles…

Jonathan “Donkey Slayer” Reynolds