A comprehensive guide for those new to LotRO, or just new to Kinships. ~ Cherubina

What are Kinships?

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.

Creating a Kinship

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 eight characters (this would be a minimum of two subscriptions) to form the Kinship, If the membership fails to reach this number within five days of formation, the Kinship will be dissolved. If, at any time after creation, the number of member characters falls below eight (8), the Kinship will have five days 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.

Kinship Titles

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 Kinship’s 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.

Kinship Panel

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.

Kinship Commands

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.)

Lifespan Ranks

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).

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: Kinship house -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

Kinship Houses (or Kinship Halls) are available in every Housing Area for purchase by kinships which have reached Lifespan (Rank) 7 or above. Kinship Houses are much larger than Standard and Deluxe Houses, have more exterior and interior hooks for decorative items and trophies, and can hold up to three housing storage chests, which are optionally purchasable (on an increasing cost scale) in addition to the cost of purchasing the Kinship House itself. Only a kinship leader can purchase a Kinship House, although s/he will then have the option, if desired, to set the Kinship House Permissions so as to allow anyone of their choice to contribute directly towards the weekly maintenance cost (of which more below).

Access to the Kinship House's storage chests and/or the ability to use/place decorative items within the Kinship House is also widely customisable.

Each Kinship House has its own Mailbox, which is usable by every kinship member, although of course members will only see incoming mail which is addressed to them personally.

Another benefit (often overlooked) which is granted to each kinship member upon purchase of a Kinship House is the "Return to Kinship House" Fast Travel Skill, which will automatically appear in every member's Skills panel once the Kinship House is purchased, and which behaves identically to the "Return to Personal House" or "Return to Milestone" Skill, instantly transporting the member directly to their Kinship House from anywhere in Middle-Earth in return for one Travelling Ration.

Although Kinship Houses of the same "Racial Style" (Elven, Hobbit etc.) are all identical in terms of size, external and internal appearance, layout of rooms, location(s) of storage chest(s), if purchased, and number, positioning and type of internal decoration hooks*, there is one notable location-based difference between them. This is the fact that, although every Kinship House will have the same number and sizes of external decoration hooks, the differing surrounding terrain means that those hooks are usually positioned rather differently around the outside of each Kinship House.

(* NB: There are significant differences in terms of architectural style and internal layout between Kinship Houses of different "Racial Styles", so it may be worth checking which Racial Style your kinship prefers before buying.)

On a related note, it is worth mentioning that only Kinship Houses possess external decoration hooks designated as "Huge Yard", so if your kinship owns any outdoor items requiring a "Huge Yard" space, a Kin House garden/yard is the only place to display them. The layout of the Kinship House's external decoration hooks may well be a point to consider seriously, since the items your kinship owns may suit one particular layout better than another.

There is a second reason to carefully consider the location of your Kinship House: the initial purchase price and the weekly maintenance cost. Not all Kinship Houses are considered as desirable as each other, typically based upon the beauty of their surrounding landscape, their seclusion, and/or their "convenience factor" (e.g., closeness to the central Housing Area Vault and other NPCs or the main entrance to the Housing Area). Taking these factors into account, the costs of buying and maintaining a Kinship House do vary, and are listed at the end of this section. You will see that a Kinship House represents a considerable (and non-refundable!) investment, so it is probably worth checking all of the Kinship Houses in all of the Housing Areas before deciding which one to purchase. There are no restrictions based on which Races can buy Kinship Houses in which Housing Areas - for example, Dwarves are welcome to settle down in Falathlorn (the Elven Housing Area), or Hobbits to make their home in Bree-land, the traditional homesteads of Men.

One final point: every "Racial" Housing Area is an identical clone of every other Area nominally meant for the same Race (for example, all Hobbit Housing Areas/Districts, no matter their names, are completely identical in content, in layout and in number and type of houses), so if you find a Kinship House which is perfect in every way, but which has already been bought, it may be worth considering buying the same Kinship House in a different clone of your chosen Racial Housing Area. The Housing Broker near the entrance to each Housing Area can display a list of all the Housing Areas, showing which ones have your chosen Kinship House available. If you are also hoping to house your kin-members in the same Housing Area, it could even be worth waiting until a new, empty Housing Area is created, as they are whenever the available areas become rather crowded - every 6-8 weeks or so in my experience.

Kinship House Pricing:

Depending on the desirability of its location, the purchase price of a Kinship House ranges from 15 Gold to 17 Gold, 250 Silver.

Again, for the same reasons of desirability, the weekly upkeep cost of a Kinship House ranges from 300 to 345 Silver.

To purchase a Kinship House, visit the Housing Broker as above, or simply click on the "For Sale" sign outside the Kinship House itself, which allows you to bypass the Housing Broker and pay on the spot.

Renaming your Kinship

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.

Request a Kinship Rename HERE.

Additional information can be found at the LOTRO Kinship Rename FAQ.

Changing Leadership

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.

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.

Quitting a Kinship

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

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.