This phrasing is in the Ered Luin, Shire, and Breeland deeds. There's something that I'm curious about for doing those runs optimally. There are some quests that are accepted while geographically outside of the Shire's region, but they count as a "Shire" quest in the quest log and for Shire quest deeds. An example of this is the "Mysterious Relic in the Shire" quest, which is accepted in Oatbarton (Evendim), but it counts as a "Shire" quest in the quest log and for the Life of a Bounder deeds. The "Join the Bounders" quest can also be accepted in Ered Luin or Breeland, but it counts as a "Shire" quest in the quest log and deed. There are also some quests that are accepted while geographically inside of the Shire's region, but they aren't counted as a "Shire" quest in the quest log or for Shire quest deeds. An example of this is the "Prologue: Mundo's Complaint" quest, which is accepted in Little Delving, but it doesn't increase the "Life of a Bounder" deed counter.

Which of these count as "accepting a quest or otherwise starting a deed in Shire?" This question applies to the same wording in the Eren Luin% and Bree% categories as well. I'm fine if the answer is either or both. I just want clarification by sutterismine.

I figure if you want to have the riding trait with the current set of rules, you'd have to go to the VIP section. The VIP section doesn't even require that you go VIP, but it does allow account-wide benefits like the account-wide Journeyman Riding Trait. It doesn't seem desirable to spend ~3000 points on something just to have a proper chance at truly being your fastest, but even just reaching max level at the fastest speed would probably involve buying the expansions, which would be even more than 3000 points. Reaching max level while FTP would be pretty obtuse to begin with, as I think you'd basically have to spam scaled instances to get XP without using the expansions. "Purchasing levels or anything from the LOTRO Point shop is banned" would exclude account-wide things like the access to quests from expansions. However, I think sutterismine ought to reword the rules there. It's clear from Intharth's run being accepted that purchasing character slots is acceptable, but character slots would obviously fit into the category of "anything."

When one finishes the prologue, they get a blue package in the mail. Opening it gives a red package that contains a temporary horse whistle, and you don't need the riding skill to use that horse whistle. It does expire after 24 hours, but 1-10 runs take way less than 24 hours. One might run into a problem with this if they did the max level run, but I doubt anyone will really do that. It would probably take days if not weeks of actual playtime to reach max level by my guess.