All about Second Breakfast

Our culture:

Second Breakfast is very casual, but we are fully committed to maintaining a friendly and helpful environment in our kin and around our server. This is not an all-hobbit kin, but we take the hobbit outlook as our guiding principle. We love parties, a peaceful environment, and sharing a pie, a battle, or a laugh with our kinmates. We cherish the lore and value our friendships in the kin and the community.

Events:

We have hosted events for the server ever since the first call to Elevenses on the day Crickhollow opened. Our best-known events revolve around music, but we have also hosted rallies, costume contests, plays, horse races, pub crawls, fish fries, trivia contests, scavenger hunts, and so much more.  These special events are posted on the official forums, LOTRO Players, and LOTRO Artists. Within the kin our activities have included leveling groups, elven and dwarven roleplaying, deeding, material gathering runs, group instances, house tours, and all sorts of parties.

Music:

Music has been important to this kinship since the beginning, from the jams at Elevenses to the bands that perform at Weatherstock. We hold several music events for the server every week and our two kin bands hold weekly concerts. Many Breakfasters are leaders or members in other bands that play here and on other servers. We welcome non-members to join our bands and participate in all of our server events. Second Breakfast founded Shirefest in 2014, Winterfest in 2015, and continues to hold smaller music festivals like March Hare Bunny Fair and the Monsters of the Rock throughout the year.

Roleplay:

This is a roleplay friendly kinship.  Nobody is required to engage in RP, but we ask that everyone respect the many who do by choosing lore-appropriate names, using double parentheses when talking out of character at an RP event, and never mocking those who participate.  Both in character and out of character talk are accepted in our kin chat.  We hold several light RP events for the server and a few medium RP events for the kin.

Raiding and PvMP:

We don't emphasize these facets of the game heavily but do occasionally hold some weekly raiding events at all levels within our kinship and occasionally with alliance partners, PvMP is not something we do. If this is your primary playstyle, in truth another kin may be a better fit for you. If you like other aspects of the game as well but are interested in raids or the Moors, please inquire in kin chat or on the forums and members who are involved in these activities will get you set up.

Crafting:

Many of our members have maxed guild crafters, but we are willing to help those who have not leveled their crafting. We share resources directly and through our crafting warehouse. Members are asked to use the warehouse responsibly and not pester those willing to craft, but we encourage everyone to take advantage of what we offer while giving back to the kin. This includes donating materials and gold to our warehouse efforts.

What we look for in a member:

This kinship has never worried about the number of members we have, but we remain one of the largest kinships on Crickhollow because people see our enduring quality. This starts with our application and continues with the 3-week probationary period. Membership is not based on stats or on player ability. Rather, we think about what a person can contribute to kin chat, to our events, to our community. We seek maturity but judge it not by age but on the caliber of our interactions. Respect for fellow players is paramount.

How to join:

Simply fill out an application. The officers review and assess applications as they come in. They try to come to a consensus within a day or two, but sometimes need to reach out to applicants for more information. The best way to get a prompt decision is to give insightful and thoughtful answers to each question. The officers seek out approved applicants but encourage them to come to us first. Some may see our application system as exclusionary, but that is certainly not our intention. At heart, this is about finding a group of like-minded players who we might enjoy our time with in Middle-earth.  We sweat over the early details so that membership itself is easy and drama-free.

How to become a full member:

Our recruit mentor regularly checks up on new recruits to make sure that they feel comfortable in the kin. At the end of 3 weeks, the officers decide whether or not to promote a recruit based on their interactions in kin chat, on the forums, and at events. Those who we haven't gotten to know are in limbo until we get that opportunity because it's important that our membership reflects our values throughout the game. Recruits who are inactive for more than 60 days without notifying us about their absence ahead of time are removed from the roster, but if they return they do not need to apply again. However, the clock may restart on their 3-week probationary period.