Looking through the rule tabs for the general game and all the categories, there is a lot of repeating ourselves and generalizations that have caused a lot of confusion. This is evident by the numerous threads created here and queries in the discord by people asking for clarifications. I have rewritten the "Game Rules" tab after looking at all the clarifications that have been made in an effort to rectify this issue. This would allow us to also clean up all of the category rule pages/tabs.

Let me know if I overstepped in any regard to a specific rule or another. If we get more runners coming with the new servers then having some good concise rules would help a lot.

General Rules:

Recording:

• Any runs must be submitted with a link to the unedited video footage capturing the entire run.
• Unless specified by the category, the recording must start on the character selection screen, before creating the character that would be used in the run.

Start & End:

• The run begins upon first in-game action that advances the state of the game, and concludes when the category objective is reached.
• An action that advances the state of the game would be character movement, opening a quest dialogue box with an npc, using a skill/ability/item that interacts with another character or npc.
• You may edit/load a UI, change your settings, load plugins, target items/characters/npcs, & mount/dismount/change-form, destroy/use premium items in your inventory

Server:

• Runs are valid on any official live server of the game.
• Unless otherwise specified by the category, legendary servers are not allowed.
• Bullroarer or Palantir servers are banned.

Timing:

• Runner must use LiveSplit to time their runs, and it must be visible at all times: https://livesplit.org/downloads/
• Pausing of the timer is allowed if you disconnect from the server at any point (lost connection message appears in chat or black screen with lost connection message and quit button)
• Pausing of the timer is allowed while the game is loading; at the beginning of a loading screen and resumed once the game world has finished loading in, or any in-game action from the user (one that advances the state of the game or otherwise), whichever comes first.

Hardware & Software:

• External devices like specialized keyboards, MMO mice, streamdecks, controllers, foot pedals, etc. and their remapping are allowed.
• Hardware software like Razer Synapse, iCUE, etc. are allowed.
• All LOTRO plugins you can acquire from LotroInterfaceare allowed: https://www.lotrointerface.com/
• Any program or botting mechanism that facilitates an unfair advantage or complex automation is NOT allowed.

Game Rules:

Unless Otherwise Specified by the category, the use of anything listed below during a run is NOT ALLOWED:

• Hobbit Gifts
• Anniversary Giftboxes (1-year, 2-year, etc.)
• Destiny Points
• LOTRO store (Exception for "A Little Extra Never Hurts" to unlock riding)
• Items/Quests/Experience acquired from any Festival Event
• Housing Travel Skills
• Any 1-off/experience/non-cosmetic/non-mount related Pre-Order/Bundle Items purchased outside of the game from the LOTRO Shop (Ultimate Expedition Supplies, EXP boost earrings/pockets/cloaks, etc.)

Solo Self-Found Rules are enforced unless otherwise stated by the category:

• No Trading with other players
• No sending or receiving mail from yourself or other players
• No access/use of shared storage services (Shared storage, housing storage, wardrobe)
• Buying or Selling from the Auction House
• No grouping
• No intentional mob tagging (If a random player and yourself happen to come across one another in the open world doing the same quests/deeds/etc., it is ok to being tagging)

Account Based Runs:

Some categories have F2P and VIP sub-categories. The following rules distinguish the different restrictions/allowances, in addition to the above rules.

F2P:

Your Account must be a Free-To-Play or Premium Account

Restricted Race & Class:

• Cannot be River-Hobbit or Stout-axe
• Cannot Be Brawler or Mariner

Restricted Mounts:

• Allowed The 24-Hour Whistle from the level 5 Gift Pack
• Allowed Riding Skill & Mount acquired from the free quest in the Archet/Thorins Hall Introductions or Mossward ("A Little Extra Never Hurts")
• Allowed any mount earned in game (reputation, quest, etc.)

Restricted Swift Travel:

• Any unlocked while under the use of the Writ of Special Passage acquired from the level 6 gift pack.
• The routes between the following five locations: Bree - West Gate, Celondim, Thorins Gate, Michael Delving, Mossward

Allowed Premium Items:

• Gifts packs acquired at levels 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, & 51
• Any premium items acquired from standard landscape quests (Ex. The Infiltrators' Surprise quest in Bree)

Allowed LOTRO Store Unlocks:

• Inventory Slots
• Crafting Guilds

VIP:

Your Account Must be a Premium of VIP account.

Experience:

• Daily VIP 30% blue bar experience is allowed

Allowed Premium Items:

• Gifts packs acquired at levels 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, & 51
• Any premium items acquired from standard landscape quests (Ex. The Infiltrators' Surprise quest in Bree)
• Subscribers Jug & Subscribers Town Services Items

Allowed LOTRO Store Unlocks:

• Inventory Slots
• Crafting Guilds
• Apprentice/Journeyman Riding Traits

The amount of time I would have saved by unlocking riding skill from the start haha!

I think, for a note on the following - have to be careful on some of the categories as Treebeard and before that Shadowfax had exp modifiers which would given a distinct (dis)advantage if played on for any of the leveling runs. I think this should be considered.

Server: Runs are valid on any official live server of the game, including legendary servers.

These rule clarifications look all good to me. I do agree the Treebeard / Shadowfax question is a good one. I'd be fine with removing Legendary servers from runs. I'll let this sit for more feedback and assuming no negative feedback to discuss further I'll see about updating things this weekend. I'll work on collapsing and reorganizing the run categories this weekend as well. Most of the categories to be adjust don't have any runs so it should be straight forward.

As a note, with the clarifications on the pausing here, I'll update the Intro% runs with Pausing = Yes further. I flagged any with pausing of any kind for the moment and quite a few had only pausing on load screens so I'll mix those back in and see where the remaining runs lie.

Thanks for taking the time on this!

I completely forgot about the treebeard situation. Only reason I mentioned legendary servers being allowed is for runs like the pie-runner & chicken speedruns. Potentially even dungeon/raid speedruns if we ever include those. here are a lot of people that only play on those servers that may want to try their hand at some of these runs. Could add an additional line specifying the differences for these types of runs, also noting that the category rules themselves can also mention that. (I edited my original post to include this line as well)

Server:

• Runs are valid only on any official live server of the game.
• Unless otherwise specified by the category, legendary servers are not allowed.
• Bullroarer or Palantir servers are banned.

No problem on doing this. My life is a bit hectic right now, but I have plans and look forward to doing a lot of runs for this game. I've wanted to do runs for a while but part of why I didn't until recently was how unclear a lot of rules appeared at first glance.