MMORPG expansions have become rather predictable over the years. Each expansion brings some new raids, some new group content, some new solo content, and a level cap increase. For The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood, however, we will be seeing the introduction of a new scalable instance system, the Skirmish system. Contrary to the status quo established by most major MMOs, the Skirmish system will allow all players -- raiders, casuals, mid-level, high-level -- access to the same content.

Siege of Mirkwood will be introducing twelve new Skirmish instances in addition to a pair of tutorial instances designed to introduce players to the system. Each of these instances is scalable on a number of levels: They each accept one, three, six, or twelve players at a time, with the deficit made up for by player-created NPC soldiers. Many of the instances are scalable by level; for instance, one skirmish which features an assault upon and defense of Weathertop will accept players from level 30 to 65. Each instance has nine optional challenges, each of which awards skirmish points -- more on those in a moment. These challenges are randomized, as are the enemies inside the instance (within certain logical limits, of course), so you will not likely have the same experience twice.

Jeffrey Steefel showed me the opening of one of these Skirmishes in which a number of NPCs have been locked within the Prancing Pony, and Sharkey's men are threatening to burn it down. Your job is to defend the Bree-town landmark. The Pony itself has hit points during this Skirmish, and you are awarded Skirmish points -- again, hang on a minute and I'll explain those -- based upon how well you defend the Pony. Let its hit points fall to zero and you fail your primary objective.

Now, Skirmish points: These are your rewards for completing your challenges -- primary and optional -- in each instance. They can be used to customize and advance your soldiers. Soldiers are quite customizable: You can assign them traits, just like a player character, and you can alter their cosmetic appearance. (Beardless dwarves appear to be off-limits, still! Drat!) The Skirmish point system will even be tied into MyLOTRO, where there will be leaderboards on which you can compare yourself to your friends.

At this point, you're probably wondering: If these Skirmishes are all over the game world, how much silver are you going to be spending on travel costs? Well, good news: none. In fact, you can enter a Skirmish from anywhere in the game world, as can your friends from their own locations in the game world. When you're done with the Skirmish -- each of them is designed to last thirty to forty minutes -- you will be transported back to your prior location in the world.

While Turbine is not ready to announce a release date yet, Turbine's Director of Communications, Adam Mersky, suggested that we'll see a date and more info in the next few weeks.

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