Wacky and Wild House Rules

[thetimewarptrio]

Does anyone have any special house rules for physical playing with their friends and collection?

I managed to suck a good amount of my friends in, so we've made space and adaptations for up to a 5 player game. These games get very lengthy, and the decks become pretty huge but they're a blast. We've made up some rule variations along the way though. Such as, nobody is allowed to play a deck that is dedicated swarm, and obviously OP'd cards (Galadriel, LR) are house errataed. With four shadow players, if you aren't playing dedicated twilight choke or defender plusses, you're going to lose the game if one person has a swarm deck simply because there are too many minions to, ahem, stream to the field.

We also implicated a new strategy when doing our own sealed leagues. We get five starter decks and get randomly assigned one, and then take the booster box of the main set (we only play movie) and distribute seven of the packs amongst ourselves (7 x 5 = 35), as well as one each of the expansions. After building the best possible deck, things change a little bit when it comes to bidding, because there's one booster pack still left....

Whoever bids the most (or wins the Ro-Sham-Bo battle) gets the choice of choosing in what position they go, OR opening the booster pack and taking two cards of their choice, which they must display to the table, including the ones they replace if they choose to replace instead of merely add. They are then sent to the bottom of the totem pole in regard to choosing in what position their fellowship goes. Rinse and repeat down the line, until all positions are decided. Typically, once it gets to the third position, deciding gets tough. This is done to add a wild card aspect to the game and increase burden bidding, which makes it more fun.

Another thing we've thought about trying to do is using partners in the game somehow. Haven't hashed out what this would look like yet, but that's another reason why I'm posting this.

If you have any wacky house rules, or suggestions on how you liven/change up gameplay, post them here!

[nameuse1]

We often play with the shadow players having one big, interchangeable shadow phase, and one shadow player can play his possessions on another shadow player's minions.

We have mostly early cards, so Moria swarm is really effective in multiplayer, especially when several players can take turns playing their host of thousands to play goblin runners before going back to an earlier shadow player who plays his higher strength minions. 

This has led to a lot of anti-swarm fellowships though: lots of expendable, defender plus one aragorns, SAMs, etc. and lots of archery, frodo strength bonuses and maneuver wounding

[thetimewarptrio]

We often play with the shadow players having one big, interchangeable shadow phase, and one shadow player can play his possessions on another shadow player's minions.

We have mostly early cards, so Moria swarm is really effective in multiplayer, especially when several players can take turns playing their host of thousands to play goblin runners before going back to an earlier shadow player who plays his higher strength minions. 

This has led to a lot of anti-swarm fellowships though: lots of expendable, defender plus one aragorns, SAMs, etc. and lots of archery, frodo strength bonuses and maneuver wounding

Ours sort of works the same way, in that we allow table talk, although specific card titles cannot be used, and there's always an order of operations for one shadow player to screw another one over by taking all the twilight if they want it. The more illogic there is in the game, and the more players hold in-game grudges against each other, the more fun it gets.

We have worked in that some shadow players can play posessions on other shadow player's minions, but for the most part we all run different cultures and strategies so for the most part  it isn't too feasible. Whenever some of us tag team though it gets dangerous. Meat shields, tank Frodo, elf archery, and choke are just as you said it, the main strategies.

[TheNinthPlayer]

Foil companions have +1 strength, Tengwar as well, but only if you can read their text without looking it up. 
Also, no cards from Helms Deep allowed.  I don't really remember why... we just sort of decided that, and now it's law.

[thetimewarptrio]

Foil companions have +1 strength, Tengwar as well, but only if you can read their text without looking it up. 
Also, no cards from Helms Deep allowed.  I don't really remember why... we just sort of decided that, and now it's law.

Haha, I like this! We pull from the same collection though, so there'd just be a grab for foils/tengwar.

And no BoHD?? That would disappoint me greatly. There go my machines and berserkers.

[Carl333]

Well.. when my brother and I play, we have this rule where if you are on any site in the second region you have to add an extra 3 twilight in addition to the sites twilight, and if you are on any site in the third region you have to add 6 twilight in addition to the sites twilight.  I don't know if that is an actual rule, but it is the way we like to play.

[Paviel]

I haven't put this idea into practice, but it's been on my mind for a while...

1. New loaded keyword: Tough +X: When this companion or ally loses a skirmish, the minion(S) skirmishing him or her must have strength of at least (2+X) times his or her strength to overwhelm.

2. Replace all instances of "unable to be overwhelmed unless his (or her) strength is tripled" with "Tough +1". Replace all instances of "prevent (companion) from being overwhelmed unless his (or her) strength is tripled" with "make (companion) Tough +1".

[ANGRY]

Well.. when my brother and I play, we have this rule where if you are on any site in the second region you have to add an extra 3 twilight in addition to the sites twilight, and if you are on any site in the third region you have to add 6 twilight in addition to the sites twilight.  I don't know if that is an actual rule, but it is the way we like to play.

I think that is an actual rule.

We usually play with two full sets of sites. No other special rules (I'm still not QUITE sure what all the rules are, anyway).

[Carl333]

I think that is an actual rule.

That's what I thought too.  I looked in the rulebooks though and I cant find it now.

[ANGRY]

Ah, found it. It is under Deck building/formats in the comprehensive rulebook

[ANGRY]

Found it exactly.

"Add 3 twilight tokens if you are in
region 2, or 6 twilight tokens if you are in region 3. (You
may find it easier to remember this: add 3 if
you've passed the sanctuary at site 3, or add 6 if
you've passed the sanctuary at site 6)."


"When you play a game using the Fellowship
block, Tower block, or King block format, you
cannot choose any site from your adventure
deck when it is time to play a new site on the
adventure path. Instead, the site which has the
next consecutive site number must be played.
When you play a game using the Fellowship
block, Tower block, or King block format, you
do not add pool for the fellowship's region
number when you are moving your fellowship."

[thetimewarptrio]

I've always wanted to do a FOTR draft, using only Fellowship block with the parameters as following:

You MUST have a copy of at least one of the 9 walkers in your deck. They can be from ANY block, and there will be a price for every copy of a card, the commons starting at $1, bids occurring for competing interest. The better the card, the higher the price. Once someone picks up a certain copy of a card, they own all copies of that kind (like, if they buy Frodo, Son of Drogo, only that person can use that copy of Frodo).

After bidding for your companions, you draft as you would normally, and then play with those decks. Winner gets the entire bidding pot.