Skirnishes

I mentioned in my post about reaching level 20 that you are bale to start skirmishing.  Skirmishes are kind of like private instances you can do.  Skirmishes are repeatable and can be done once a day.  Because skirmishes are typically done at your level (especially if you're skirmishing solo), you get a lot of experience for each skirmish.  When you're skirmishing, you get a drone to fight with you that you can customize to learn different skills and to fight with a certain style.  For example, you can make your warrior a fighter, a healer, etc.  I've really enjoyed skirmishing with my friends and Kin members.  They've taken me on some really high level skirmishes, so far above my level that I wasn't able to attack anything, and I've received a ton of experience, and it's fun to watch everyone work together.  It's also really fun to have a group of people who know how to work together and are friends.

Why you should join a Kin (also known as going back to KINDERGARTEN!)

LOTRO has put in a really cool social aspect to the game.  Obviously it's an MMORPG, so there are lots of other players online, and sometimes they will ask to fellowship with you if it looks like you're running the same quest.  This is great, but it doesn't develop a social connection because as soon as the quest is finished, you all go on your merry ways and probably won't hook up with those people again.  This is why I really like being in a Kinship.  There are several Kinships which are started by a player or a group of players.  This gives any player that is a part of the Kin the benefit of having other players to ask for help, to skirmish with, or just run around and have fun with.  Most Kinships do their recruiting as they meet other players in the game.  Each Kinship has it's own set of values, some are more strict about who they recruit, but many are open to anyone who would like to join. Read more to hear about the Kin I joined.

Crafting

Besides doing normal quests, you can also develop a crafting vocation for your toon.  There are 7 different vocations to choose from.  Each vocation has some combination of three professions, and there are 10 professions.  Each professions has pros and cons, and some need other professions to build from.  Here's a list of the vocations and the professions they each have.

Deeds

So deeds in LOTRO are pretty cool.  Deeds are special tasks you discover as you play.  When you complete a deed you get turbine points and usually either a title, skill, or trait.  Turbine points are used to buy expansions and quest packs in the Turbine store.  It's a good idea to hang on to these until you absolutely have to use them.
Deeds can be anything and anywhere, so it's a good idea to complete all the quests you can in every area to make sure you've found and completed all the deeds.

Quests, and an epic story

Ok, so LOTRO has a main story line, the epic quests.  When you first land in Ered Luin, you find out there are some strange goings on, and as you do quests you learn that a clan of dwarves called the Dourhands are up to no good.  It's your job to stop them.  The story follows the LOTR storyline, and you're doing quests to help stop evil from taking Middle Earth.
From here on I'll be giving details about the epic quest line, questing in general, and posting a couple links to some helpful websites.

Lvl 20!

So, while I'm still trying to finish background posts about playing LOTRO in general, I thought I'd update on Tas' progress.  I played a lot over the past week/weekend (mostly Friday & Saturday) and got Tas up to level 20!  At level 20 you unlock skirmishing, which I will post about separately.  I've also done quite a bit of crafting and mat (materials) collecting.  I've mastered journeyman and apprentice farming, working on proficiency in expert now; I've mastered apprentice cooking, working on master journeyman and proficiency in expert; and I've made proficient apprentice and journeyman tailor, but I'm still working on mastering both tiers.  So that's where Tas is.  The plan now is to stop crafting for a while and just work on leveling and stockpiling money.  I've caught up on all the lower level quests in my tracker, so these next few play sessions should be fun and challenging.

Back to the beginning

Ok, so back to the very beginning.  Elves start out in the city of Edhelion, where you try to defend the city from invading dwarves.  Here is where you learn the very basics of the game - how to move, interact with characters, fight, etc.  There aren't any quests here, you're given direct instructions, and you follow certain characters around.  After you finish this area, you end up in Thorin's Gate, which is a dwarf city.  this is where you first start doing quests.  This is the Prologue area for both Elves and Dwarves.  Here you do quests that show you how gameplay goes, and let's you do things more on your own, unlike in Edhelion where you have to things their way.  As you progress through the Introduction quests, you will get an Instance quest which will let you leave Thorin's Gate and take you to the main world (where everyone else is!).  Instances are private quests that separate you from the rest of the online world.  Once the Thorin's Gate Instance is finished, Elf toons get dropped in Celondim.  this is where the fun really begins! (more to come later)