Excellent call on Affinity. You dodged a bullet before the gun was even loaded!
Thanks!
Been thinking further on this, and perhaps Affinity should be "a culture symbol + a number" below the red vitality circle. Some guys run and join the struggle by seeing a sole distant relative in troubles, while others would need to be surrounded by a multitude to feel part of the band... that # would represent "the number of other characters of the culture of the Affinity" you need to spot in order for that character to gain that culture. Aragorn, Bilbo and Gandalf would be totally OK with 1 for each Affinity, but others like a "Gondorian Border Patroller" would need 3 or so
Men to dress the Rohan-fashion... (if one of those 3
warriors dies, the Gondorian would think "well, they're really kind and all, but I got wife and kids down south so... see ya!")
Some leader characters might even reduce the # of a specific Affinity for characters of their own culture (just like
trackers reduce roaming penalty/site number): a
Gondorian Captain with "
Affinity 3" might "reduce the
Affinity number of each
Man by 1."
In that sense, even a standalone double-culture doesn't seem bad for some exceptional characters, like
Dwarves (who were utterly loyal to their folk) trading and returning to Erebor (a "
Affinity 0" would portray that). Of course, not every character must have Affinity... it's hard to imagine Denethor II the proud pledging easily his loyalty to anyone outside Gondor (though he gave his trust to
Curunir).
In an Expansion, Aragorn might have a Shadow culture Affinity (like
): a spy messing under Sauron's nose
"where the stars are strange"!
==========
I'm going to shy away from incorporating the mechanic of cards remaining active into a keyword. Honestly I just want the rule itself to change... It probably could've been this way from the start without affecting very much, unless I'm missing something.
Uniqueness rules need your Shadow and FP cards to go separate, or said otherwise, your FP and your opponent's FP must be separate. Having your Gandalf active as Shadow player will negate your opponent from playing his/her own. And things that target Gandalf specifically (like
Too Great and Terrible) would create the question... what Gandalf must I would twice? And add the dead pile to that mess...
Shadow things that spot cultures/races/allies to get a bonus will get automatic boosts, instead of the metagame counter they were supposed to play (like
OLoAGT spotting your own allies to add tons of twilight!). Of course, cards can be written to specifically spot "
your opponent's allies" or "races in the
Free Peoples player's fellowship", but that bloates the text A LOT, and what I've learned in these 3 last years working with Enola in his Hobbit Draft Game is that card room is a very scarce and valuable commodity, for both graphic cards and also for easier understanding and recalling of each card's text (not every TCG player is a rocket scientist!).
(If this project was mine
) I'd make it a loaded keyword, and use it for Saruman (and things related to him) to work on both sides, and perhaps a thing here and a guy there. Separating FP from Shadow simplifies everything... and it was you who said "simplicity is sexy."
==========
as a culture won't make any appearances as a rule - they don't become relevant until the War and I'd hope that any TV show focused on this time period would also follow that idea.
Yeah, I'd loathe to watch another Tolkien-based film starting from The Shire! (Unless it's a grim and war-scarred Shire...)
Hobbits in is totally fair game though, and now that I think about it I'd be on board to slide Bilbo into Bree at some point. I mean, he and "The Dunadan" were friends, and they both knew Gandalf! Makes sense to me.
IMO there should then be 2 Bilbos: one
("Friend of
Strider" or so) with Bree home and
Affinity, and the other
with Rivendell home and
Affinity (he went every now and then to visit Elves).
You might create some song Tale cards. Of those in the FOTR book most were written by Bilbo, so his songs might either need to spot him or get boosts when he's around: "All that is Gold Does Not Glitter" to be borne by Aragorn, the "Song for Eärendil" for Elves, "The Road Goes Ever On" might be a Regroup event to heal and increase the move limit, "The Merry Inn", "I Sit Beside the Fire and Think"... that'd make Bilbo an important character, instead of a simple Hobbit who passes by Bree.
Some Dwarf songs from The Hobbit might be sung by any Dwarf (no culture enforcement), while the
Song of Durin by
Balin's Colony only (if included).
==========
I'm also hoping to completely overhaul the adventure path, because it stopped making sense after RotEL and Aragorn's legs are too long for just 9 sites.
I've been thinking about the Adventure Path, and got an idea of how sites might work in this format.
Unlike Frodo, Aragorn isn't trying to reach a specific place to drop Middle-Earth's garbage, so makes little sense to give each site a fixed Site Number. Then this would work like Shadows sites... but we already know that the "anything goes" sitepath makes little to depict well a meaningful story. So sites must have some factor added to create a specific sense.
That addition might be a keyword for the Region of Middle-Earth where they belong (like
Rivendell,
Gondor,
Mortor...). So instead of max 3 sites with the same twilight, max 3 sites of the same Region; Aragorn then would be travelling to and fro chasing troubles. Also, differentiate Evil and Good regions (the same way as the rules do with Shadow and FP cultures), and forcing each player to include minimum 3 Evil sites (or so). Finally, only Evil sites would be playable for site 9, assuring the adventure will end in enemy land with Aragorn's triumph... or death/desertion.
Allies would fight/shoot/take-bullets at sites of the Region that matches their home Region...
Please tell me what you think.