LotRO's 2020 Includes A Wedding, New Zones, And Maybe A Legendary Item Revamp

In The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn had to wait almost 70 years after meeting Arwen before he could marry her. For players of The Lord of the Rings Online, that wait will be shortened to a mere 13 years since the game's launch, coming to the MMORPG this summer.

That, and much more about LotRO and Dungeons & Dragons Online, was revealed during a Q&A with Executive Producer Rob "Severlin" Ciccolini at PAX East this weekend, much of which is summarized on MMO Central. In addition to the wedding, LotRO fans can also look forward to two new zones, more fighting between orcs and dwarves, and a few teased-but-not-quite-official bits; when asked, Ciccolini said that areas such as Rhun and Umbar are places they'd like to go, and the Scouring of the Shire might happen in an unexpected way. A Gundabad-themed expansion is also in the works for 2021.

Even more significantly, he hinted that Legendary Items -- an overly complex system that's been in the game almost since its inception and has been exceedingly unpopular in recent years -- might be on its way out. According to MMO Central, that will be an "all-new system that’s more essence-based, with players being able to transfer the meat and bones of their current LI into it without losing their investment." It's still in the concept phase, but Ciccolini was hopeful it could happen by the end of the year.

On the DDO front, there wasn't nearly as much solid info, though level 40 is a goal over the next few years, and players will soon be able to encounter unicorns in the Feywild, an area described in the recent Producer's Letter. Psionics, megaservers, and housing were all on the "maybe" list, with noncommittal answers to many questions described as "a running gag throughout the evening." Hopefully, the gags didn't run too fast; dwarves would have a hard time keeping up, both physically and mentally.