When did you start playing LotR TCG?

[Knight-Who-Says-Nee]

I started playing when Realms of the Elf-lords came out in summer 2002.

[leokula]

I started playing when Realms of the Elf-lords came out in summer 2002.

Same here.

[jahataku]

The Two Towers Fall 2002

got addicted to the book and the movie so it all started that fall
i was 12 and i couldn't afford many rares, so my deck was predictable, simple elf + gondor / uruk. legolas greenleaf was my favorite card i never got my hands on

stopped playing after a year because club where we gathered moved to another location and slowly the game started dying, people were transferring their money to mtg and star wars.

never won a tournament although the biggest win was the one against nazgul deck (lots of stealths and aragorn defender saved me). one fotr booster was a great prize for that win

when bloodlines was released i dropped by to the club to see what is new and what happened to the game and saw that there are completely new rules that i hated and only 3-4 players were playing...

nice trip down the memory lane, thanks Knight

[LOTRFreak15]

Early 2005 I got a starter deck(Aragorn Two Towers)and then got a reflections booster box. I disliked anything after set 10. Got hardly any cards in the next 2 years and then stopped playing in 2007. Then I started playing in 2010 again.

[FM]

Started just a few weeks before RotEL hit the shelves.

[Gil-Estel]

Somewhere between Rotel and TTT. And friend and I walked into this store, saw some boosters, sat down with the shopowner for 2,5 hours and we were hooked.

[uncle_elrond]

I started when Fellowship came out.  I was reading an issue of Scrye that had a preview for the its coming release.  I loved the books already and I bought some starters and I was hooked.  I managed to mind a group to play with and regularly came in 2nd in all the tournaments and maybe won a couple.  I moved right after the Ents of Fangorn release tournament and I could never find another play group after that.  I still collected when I could, but could never find another real opponent.  Thank you GCCG

[itjunkie]

i started when two towers came out. my first starter decks were the aragorn/dunland deck from two towers and the gimli/sauron deck from mines of moria. gimli/sauron has remained my favorite deck til now, though the build is far from what it was.

[Bascas]

I started at 11 years old with The Fellowship of the Ring base set. It had been a few years since the Pokemon craze. All my friends were starting up MTG. I did join them to an extent; however, I was too big of a Tolkien fan to not play the game after I saw it being played at my local gaming store.
My first deck had a bunch of hobbit tricks in it with Aragorn supporting them. At that time I changed my shadow deck every other week.
10 years later, I still love my favorite game I grew up with.

[Ringbearer]

FOTR, I moved from Star Wars ccg into another Decipher game It helped that I am a Tolkien fan.

[Craig_The_Scotsman]

First thing I ever bought was the Mines Gimli starter (brother got TTT Theoden) and we played many a game with decks based off of those (I was always on the losing side of things). Between funding Star Trek 1st edition, 2nd edition, and LOTR as a kid, I never had a terrible amount invested in any. Once high school hit and Decipher started to die off, I picked up a bunch of LOTR cheap and introduced a few friends to the game.
No one in my area sells any of those games anymore, so I'm currently an MTG player and recently stumbled upon a store that sells Decipher's Star Wars, so I've started playing that. Hopefully, I can find decent card shops when I move to a new city next month that support SW, LOTR, and MTG.

[Fingolfinfinwe]

Right away when FOTR came out.

[Haszor]

Last year

[rubbercarp]

The Two Towers Fall 2002
Friends were into it before that, but I got in at Fellowship.

10 years ago. Crazy.

Played through the release of Shadows, then picked it up again about 2 years ago

[menace64]

I got caught up in the release of Fellowship. I still remember seeing my first site card (Prancing Pony, actually) and being all upset, claiming that they "were ripping off SWCCG," either briefly unaware that it was the same designers or I was just a stupid teenager.

...Sure was a long time ago. Kind of interesting taking stock of the changes that have occurred in those years. Some of what I am I could have predicted... most of me is nothing anybody could have imagined.

/soapbox

[Kenddrick]

Realms of the Elf-lords Summer 2002. I remember first getting my Boromir starter deck and feeling awed by them. Then I forgot about them till June/July 2009.

[Gil-Estel]

... most of me is nothing anybody could have imagined.

/soapbox

There is so much I can imagine, so here we go:
- you found out you are a wizard?
- you have a pig's heart?
- you have metal body parts?
- you have been obducted by aliens and have learned the true secrets of the universe?
- you have a third nipple that opens the door to the secret land of Narnia?
- other.....

[Anautikus]

BoHD! Awkward time start hahah. Got pulled into it, then started working my way into the game backwards. Good times...

[Sabrien Reed]

FOTR.  Collected all through Movie Block.  Got a few of the new ones, but transitioned to playing online, where I collected until the end.  (My digital set was vaporized when they turned off the servers though.)  So glad I found GCCG - hope to get some more games in the future.

[Finisterle]

For me it was: "another expensive card game" and "people who haven't read the books competing with numbers printed on cards" at first.
But when Mines of Moria came out I couldn't resist anymore. The game simply looked to good in all aspects not to want to play it and collect it.

[Narij]

Started in December, so a few months after FOTR was released.  I remember going on line and seeing the post about The Balrog and wondering "How is my fellowship going to survive site 5!"

[Air Power]

I started playing before Fellowship was released.

Yes, before.  Decipher released PDFs of the Fellowship starters a month or so before the initial release.  You could print the pdf, cut out the cards, and stick them in sleeves to play.

[Tbiesty]

I started playing before Fellowship was released.

Yes, before.  Decipher released PDFs of the Fellowship starters a month or so before the initial release.  You could print the pdf, cut out the cards, and stick them in sleeves to play.

Yep! I remember those. That's how my friends and I first played as well.

[CoS]

The Balrog promo got me! I saw that and said I have got to play this game. Competed in Locals during law school  then Worlds at Deciphercon 2002. Vegas 2003. Origins 2004. Silver Bullet online (CoS as screen name same as GCCG). Beating the World Champ (Brochu) in Vegas round 2 with Vida Moria cavern enterance was probably the highlight of my TCG career. (Better than winning the Sword Tournament for Andruel at DPC Chicago and besting a field of high level competitors Brian Fried, Clint Hays, Brad Eire, etc.). Best "theme" ccg  I have ever played. Still teaching it to folks.

[NappyKorn]

TBH, I'm not really sure I know it was sometime after MD though. My cousin came home from college and told me I needed to give up SWCCG because it was dead, LOL. He gave me a moria swarm deck and taught me the rules and it was a blast. I guess starting after MD was released is why I was so addicted to the OPness that is now expanded. After finding out about GccG I have a few respect for movie block and Im finally starting to like FotR block. Hopefully with a little time I will try my hand at TTT and perhaps TS in the future .

Didn't vote cause I'm really not sure when I actually started cause I was lost in the game after my first play.

NK

[macheteman]

Nappy, TS is a blast, but there aren't as many crazy combos to break. ;-)

[Disco Stu]

i started playing multi-player (5 players) in 2001. i started collecting and building decks, when the Euro was released. it was the first thing i bought with this new shining money.

[altrico]

Oh #$&*@!, I clicked the wrong one, I actually started with Mines of Moria when it came out. I lived in Bolivia back then and it was really hard to start a Community of Lotr-TCG over there
Now im back in Germany and havent played in years, but when I moved I found my old cards and Im so eager to play again! With a bit of google Search I found this Site, but it was the only one and I guess noone of you lives near enough to play? ^^
Such a shame, I had such a amazing time with the game back in the days, and my Set rocked! *g

[hsiale]

I guess noone of you lives near enough to play?

With small player base left I guess online play is what's left for most of us.

I started playing between EoF and RotK sets, I remember my first deck was based on Faramir starter from EoF. I played in Wroc?aw in Poland, there was a really good group of players there at that time, not very big but really competitive, I learned a lot from them. I stopped playing more or less when Hunters came out, then found GCCG and started again some two weeks ago - now I'm slowly getting used back to the game, but I still make many mistakes, I guess I'd need at least two months of regular playing before I'm back at least at semi-competitive level

[altrico]

I guess noone of you lives near enough to play?

With small player base left I guess online play is what's left for most of us.

how this online version work?
i only played the first three editions though, because I was only a teenager and did not have the money to spend so much money over and over again =/

[hsiale]

http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,1474.0.html
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,7188.0.html

Those are threads you should read. Basically you need to install software and download card images, then you create an account. Once you have it, you can start building decks and playing games. At the start you are given some in-game cash which you can use to buy cards, you are also given additional cash each time you play a game (even if you lose, though you get more when winning). But even when you don't own cards you still can use them to play, there are some people on GCCG who only play, don't collect and don't own a single card.

[altrico]

http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,1474.0.html
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,7188.0.html

Those are threads you should read. Basically you need to install software and download card images, then you create an account. Once you have it, you can start building decks and playing games. At the start you are given some in-game cash which you can use to buy cards, you are also given additional cash each time you play a game (even if you lose, though you get more when winning). But even when you don't own cards you still can use them to play, there are some people on GCCG who only play, don't collect and don't own a single card.

great, thanks!