LOTRO, The Lord of the Rings Online, is an MMO you can begin playing for free! I’ve been playing for a few years now. This online RPG has a lot to explore, enjoy and experience. It features a very active player base, a positive community and extensibility through plugins. The Lord of the Rings Online (previously titled The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows and OS X set in J. Tolkien's Middle-earth, taking place during the time period of The Lord of the Rings.

Kinships are groups of players that come together for a common, long-term purpose. (In other online games, such organizations may be called guilds, clans or allegiances). The purpose of a Kinship may be to facilitate grouping, socializing, to aid in common interests, such as crafting, to help each other level and acquire gear, or any combination of those goals.

To create a kinship, you must purchase a kinship charter from a Clerk of Kinships. These NPCs are found in various towns throughout Middle-earth, including Bree-town, Michel Delving and Thorin's Hall. A kinship charter must be used approximately 48 hours after purchase.

You must be level 5 or higher, and it costs 5 silver and 12 copper to buy a kinship charter. You cannot create a kinship if you are already a member of another kinship. You must have at least six characters (this would be a minimum of two subscriptions) to form the Kinship, If the membership fails to reach this number within 24 hours of formation, the Kinship will be dissolved. If, at any time after creation, the number of member characters falls below six (6), the Kinship will have twenty-four hours to recruit the necessary number of new members, or it will be dissolved.

Clerks of Kinships sell the following types of charters:

• Man Kinship Charter
• Mixed Kinship Charter
• Hobbit Kinship Charter
• Dwarf Kinship Charter
• Elf Kinship Charter

Any race can found or join any type of kinship. The only difference is in the titles given to its members. To use the Kinship Charter double-click it in your inventory. This will open a panel, where you can name your Kinship. A kinship's name cannot exceed 32 characters. Recruit other players into your kinship with the /kinship recruit <player name> command. The person who created the kinship is its first leader.

The character who purchases a charter and starts a Kinship is its Founder, and always has the Kinship Founder title (or something similar). They should keep the title, even if someone else takes over leadership of the Kinship. That character is also the Kinshipâs first leader. Only one member can be the leader. The other title is officer (or something similar); any other characters in the Kinship can be officers.

Kinship titles depend on what type of charter was used when founding the Kinship.

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Once you are in a kinship, the kinship tab, in the Social Panel, displays information about your Kinship.

Main sections of Kinship Panel:

• Kinship Name
• Message of the Day (MotD)
• Member List

The name of your kinship is displayed at the top of the panel.

The Kinship Message of the Day is for important announcements which your Kinship Leader or Officers would like members to know about (such as scheduled kinship events or introducing new members).

The kinship member list is used to quickly determine who in your kinship is currently online, where they are adventuring, and what level and class they are. Finding kinship members close to your own level and current area is a good way to begin establishing a Fellowship. All buttons within the kinship window are considered to be kinship commands. Kinship commands can only be executed by members of sufficient rank.

From the kinship panel you can set a successor, set a MOTD, promote, demote or remove other players from the kinship as well as resign.

You can use the following command functions for managing a kinship

Command Description:

• /kinship disband Disbands your kinship
• /kinship recruit <player name> Recruit the target into your kinship
• /kinship accept Accept your current kinship recruitment request
• /kinship decline Decline your current kinship recruitment request
• /kinship quit Voluntarily leave your kinship
• /kinship expel <name> Expel the kinship member from your kinship
• /kinship promote <name> Promote the kinship member to the next higher rank
• /kinship demote <name> Demote the kinship member to the next lower rank.
• /kinship motd <what you want your motd to be> Set the message of the day for your kinship.
• /kinship successor <name> Make the kinship member the member who will succeed you as leader when you resign
• /kinship resign Step down as leader. (This will automatically promote your successor to leader.)

Kinship Lifespan Ranks are Kinship abilities which become available once a Kinship has existed for a specific amount of time (real-time, not in-game time).

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Below is a list of current Kinship Ranks, inclucing the time it takes to aquire them, and the reward.

Lifespan Ranks:

• Rank 1 - Creation: Kinship Chat, Max Kinship members available is 1000
• Rank 2 - 24 hrs: Message of the Day
• Rank 3 - 3 days: Kinship Titles
• Rank 4 - 10 days: Officer Chat
• Rank 5 - 30 Days: Kinship Mail
• Rank 6 - 60 Days: Kinship Auctions - Messages to Kinship reduced to 10 copper
• 'Rank 7 - 90 Days: Max Kinship members increased to 1200 -Mailing item to Kinship member becomes 50% cheaper
• Rank 8 - 180 Days: Max Players: 1300
• Rank 9 - 270 days: max 1400 members
• Rank 10 - 360 days: max 1500 members

Kinship Houses (or Kinship Halls) are houses created specifically for kinships. Kinship Houses are larger than Standard and Deluxe Houses, have more exterior and interior hooks for decorative items, and can hold three housing chests. Only kinship leaders can purchase Kinship Houses. The kinship leader must be in a kinship which has reached Rank (or lifespan) of 7 or higher in order to purchase a Kinship House.

A kinship House may be purchased for 15 Gold, and requires a weekly maintenance fee of 300 Silver.

To purchase a Kinship House, visit a Housing Broker near the entrance to the housing area of your choice.

You can rename your kinship in LOTRO for a charge of $12.95 USD. Kinships can only be renamed if:

• The requestor is the confirmed leader of the kinship
• The kinship has not been renamed in the past six months
• A review of the kinship leader's account does not reveal any current and/or previous Terms of Service or Code of Conduct issues

Kinship Renames are non-reversible. Turbine is under no obligation to reverse a Kinship Rename purchase under any circumstance. Kinship Renames are non-refundable. Once your Kinship Rename has been completed, the associated fee(s) will not be refunded. Turbine reserves the right to deny a request to rename a kinship for any reason.

To request a Kinship Rename, please contact Turbine by clicking HERE

There are many methods of changing kinship leadership.
The leader can click the Resign button on the Kinship panel to resign leadership, which will transfer ownership of the kinship to the successor.

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If the leader does not log in for more than 35 days or cancels his or her account, the successor receives a mail indicating the availability of the Usurp option. The successor can click the Usurp button in the Kinship panel to become leader. If the successor does not usurp leadership within 10 days, all officers of the kinship receive a mail informing them that any officer can usurp leadership. If no officer usurps leadership within 20 days, all members of the kinship receive a mail informing them that any member can usurp leadership. If a kinship goes 65 days without a new leader, the kinship will automatically disband.

The Kinship Successor button is a toggle, which means leaders can now un-name someone as their successor. Demoting your successor will also remove their successor status.

Please note that the In-Game Support Team will not resolve issues regarding the transfer of ownership for a kinship or the automatic disbanding of a leaderless kinship. It is the responsibility of the kinship members to ensure that a successor has been chosen.

To quit your Kinship, press the Quit button at the bottom of the Kinship tab in the Social Panel (accessed by pressing O) . Please note that doing so will also remove any Kinship titles that you have.

You can also use the /quit kinship command.

Monster Tribes are the analog for player kinships. You can forge tribes to stalk the Ettenmoors and gain the rudimentary benefits available to player kinships, including tribal chat and the ability to have up to one thousand members in your tribe.

Just like a player-created kinship, monster tribes require a charter (available for purchase in Gramsfoot) and must have a minimum of six members to maintain the tribe.

They are completely independent of your player's kinship, and you can belong to only one tribe at a time.