LOTRO's Farmer's Faire 2016 in pictures

2016 Has somehow developed to "the year of LOTRO festivals" for me. Since my return to the game to try out the new raid and instances, I've begun to feel more involved with it again. Never before did I write so much about LOTRO festivals on Ravalation. I find myself participating in festivals I never tried before (usually because I didn't understand them or because they are around for only a short time): first the Buried Treasure event, and now the Farmer's Faire. Here's another photo report.

The Farmer's Faire main event area is in Bywater, in the Shire. In the past, I was so confused by the quests that I gave up after a few attempts. But this year I was determined to get those cool cosmetic rewards. Especially the Mayor quest and the Manning the Market quest bugged me at first. Once I read on the Lotro-wiki that the mayor sometimes wants nothing, things suddenly made a lot more sense to me, and once I finally found out where all the items for Manning the Market were hidden, I could help everyone and still have plenty of time left over. It seems like the Farmer's Faire has a somewhat higher entry barrier, but it could also just be me.

I can't believe I missed out on Maggot's Mushroom hunt and Sandson's Egg Scramble before, though, because they were such fun! I thoroughly enjoyed picking mushrooms whilst trying to avoid Maggot's dogs. It's a direct reference to when the hobbits, still young and naive, first depart in the books. I love lore nuggets.

On a side note, the frightened Cicely on the picture above shows off her Pack of the Yield, which looks great on her farmer's outfit. She has a cornstalk main-hand to go with it - you can see that one on the banner, the top picture of this post.

I also loved the various effects that eating odd-looking mushrooms bestow on you. If you get a bad trip, you'll see a Black Rider or even Plaguemaster Gortheron standing in the field. Brrr! Or your character becomes tiny or huge. In the picture above, Cicely has shrunk to the size of the very mushrooms she eats - and to that of a photobomb shrew, apparently.

The red spotted mushroom makes you giant: a Super Mario reference? If so, nice job Turbine.

I've been after this mushroom ring decoration for a while now, so I'm delighted I finally got it! I never realized before that it features the very mushrooms you get to hunt at Maggot's farm.

I also enjoyed Sandson's chicken chase a lot, although I found it quite hard when a lot of people participated. Cicely was overjoyed with the basket with eggs I got her. It seems more of an Easter item to me, but whatever, I'm happy I finally got my hands on it.

My hobbit burglar Ravil was lucky and once more got treated with an entire new outfit. She is wearing the Farmer's Fancy Dress (dyed gold, as I found the default white too plain) and the Lantern main-hand. I don't like the cleavage of the dress much, so I added the Mathom Hunter's Mantle (dyed steel blue to go with the dress) to cover it and, as a final touch, the Lórien head piece. She also wears her coin pouch from the Buried Treasure event. The latter three are non-Farmer's Faire items.

Somehow the outfit is giving me a real "little hobbit in the big city" vibe. It's so cute with the lantern. It's almost a shame I don't really role-play, because I feel it would be perfect for that.

Finally, while I especially enjoyed the event on my hobbit characters due to the setting and the rewards, I did actually get some things for Ravanel, my elf lore-master.

Steed of the Yield (2015)

This year's new horse ("Farmer's Second Favourite Steed") looks like a mobile picnic station, which wasn't really something I see my characters riding around on. Honestly, I wish they had used the design for a nice picnic cloth yard decoration or picnic basket instead. Wandering around Arda has a post up with pictures if you want to check it out. Don't forget to put up your sunglasses beforehand!

What I did get for Ravanel was the gorgeous Steed of the Yield (depicted above) and since it was last year's, it cost just 40 tokens: win - win.

There was also a war-steed garment version, the Caparison of the Yield. I love it on my golden roan.

You could also barter tokens for Star-lit crystals this festival, but since you needed quite a few (120) I only got one. I figured it was more fun to aim for the cosmetic rewards on my hobbits instead. There were so many I wanted, but luckily I was able to get it all and some more.

What was Farmer's Faire like for you?