Hobbit Draft Game

[-Enola-]

Small update 28/10/2014

The new Hobbit draft game card back!

[-Enola-]

Did anyone test the game with proxies ?


I also want to change the Spider culture in the following way :

(20 cards)

2x • Crazy Cob : (4) 9/2/5  Fierce. Each time an Orc is killed or discarded from play (except during the regroup phase), you may play a Spider. Its twilight cost is -2 and strength +2 until the regroup phase.
4x Old Tomnoddy : (4) 8/3/5  Fierce. When you play this minion you may play a Spider from your discard pile
3x Fat Spider : (3) 8/2/5  Fierce. Regroup: Exert this minion to add a burden.
4x Wicked Spider : (3) 7/2/5  Fierce. Skirmish : Discard an Orc to make a Spider strength +2 until the regroup phase.
3x • Lazy Lob : (4) 9/3/5  Fierce. Skirmish: Discard an Orc to make a Spider damage+1.
4x Caught in Webs, Condition, Plays on a Dwarf companion. Limit 1 per character. Each time bearer is assigned to skirmish a Spider, bearer must exert.

What do you think about it?

[-Enola-]

Update 05/11/2014

• Crazy Cob
Cost:4 Strength:9 Vitality:2 Site Number:5
Each time an Orc is killed or discarded from play (except during the regroup phase), you may play a Spider. Its twilight cost is -2 and strength +2 until the regroup phase.

Larder -> • Lazy Lob
Cost:4 Strength:9 Vitality:2 Site Number:5
Skirmish: Discard an Orc to make a Spider damage+1.

Wicked Spider
Cost:3 Strength:7 Vitality:2 Site Number:5
Skirmish: Discard an Orc to make a Spider strength +2 until the regroup phase.

• Gollum, Stinker
Gollum is strength +1 for each doubt.

[-Enola-]

Update 06/11/2014 http://hobbitdraftgame.free.fr/Updates.html

Additional site cards in Booster deck! There are now 12 cards in each booster deck.

Site 1: Bilbo's Kitchen
Site 3: Rhudaur
Site 4: Great Goblin's Cavern
Site 5: Old Forest Road
Site 6: Lake Town
Site 7: Dale

• Black Arrow   -> • The Master
Cost:2 Strength:5 Vitality:2 Site:6
Fellowship: Exert The Master to discard up to 3 cards from hand and draw an equal number of cards.

• Thror's Map   -> • Dain Ironfoot (the image will be changed with the picture of Bill Connolly)
Cost:3 Strength:7 Vitality:3 No Site!
At the start of the regroup phase, you may discard a follower to discard a minion (except Smaug).
Maneuver: If the fellowship is at a battleground site, exert Dain Ironfoot to allow him to participate in skirmishes until the regroup phase.

• Bard,   The Bowman   (text replaced by the text of Black Arrow)
Archery: Exert Bard to wound a minion. If that minion is Smaug, wound it again.

[Durin's Heir]

Awesome work, sir! It's really nice to see a well-crafted adaptation of The Quest of Erebor in a card game, and the dynamics you chose/created are both simple and efficient. Brilliant!

With the limited card pool you made, you really did well by summarizing the dynamics of Shadow cultures (and cross cultures) into very few cards, and not allowing anyone outside Thorin's Company to be a companion.

If the card pool was larger, there are many things that could be added... there's only one card and lots of elves will be present in the last movie. No Staff for Gandalf, no White Council, Wargs as minions, Free Peoples weapons, Sauron/The Necromancer and the Witch King, no Legolas/Tauriel/Thranduil... There's no room unfortunately. But almost everything regarding Thorin's Company is present, and that's a great achievement.

If you have any comment on game balance or new ideas, tell me.

I noticed there are some points to fix... I haven't printed those beautiful cards and have no one to play them, but there are some loose ends that can be seen somewhat easily with mere theory:


1. Smaug Resurrects!: Given the current texts of Smaug and Battle of the Five Armies, the Shadow player can bring Smaug back to life at Site 9 even if he was killed previously by Bard or anyone else. Either Site 9 should say "Remove 2 doubts to play a minion from your discard pile (except Smaug)", or Smaug should say "To play, the fellowship must be at a mountain site. Smaug may not be played from discard pile". Or even better: "If Smaug gets killed, remove him from the game".

In respect of Smaug, I would add a maneuver ability to him in order to represent his eagerness for vengeance and destruction. "Maneuver: Exert Smaug to discard a non- ally or follower (except Bard)." Not just a mere big minion often killing 2 companions, but a Dragon bringing fire and ruin to entire cities, and forcing everyone else to hide behind their walls. Just like artillery blocking the coming of reinforcements.

2. Boxing Dwarves: There is not a single generic hand weapon for dwarves (or anyone in the FP side), therefore Thorin would be the only dwarf with a chance of not fighting with bare fists. That may be fixed by creating non-unique weapons; an "Axe of Ered Luin" or something like that should be enough, several copies of it might be added to Main Deck/Booster Deck.
    I would love to see the Deathless as an alternative to Orcrist (the latter could be instead of that way). And a diversity of weapons like hammers, bows, axes, spears; Men bearing Swords, or even Dwarves bearing weapons of Men... But I know the current small card pool won't offer that possibility.

Dwarves neither have any Damage Bonus mechanism. That generic hand weapon might say something like "If bearer is at a mountain or battleground site, he is Damage +1" to counter that deficiency. Other cards like events or followers can be adapted to give damage bonuses (Bombur seems like a very damaging fellow!)... The Arkenstone might say "Skirmish: Discard a card from hand to make a Dwarf companion strength +2 and/or Damage +1"... Just suggestions.

Balin, Brother of Dwalin seems too weak. I mean, he fought in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, 42 years later accompanied Thrain in the first Quest of Erebor, 100 years later was the second leader of Thorin's Company, and swept the Orcs of Moria 47 years after that. He was not only strong but wise, and in my opinion little of those attributes are present in the card. Just an opinion.

3. If there is a Door, there must be a Key!: The Key of Erebor is missing... The map is useless, and the quest futile, without a key to pass the secret door. It is a crucial object, even more important than The One Ring to the Quest's purpose.

I really don't know what to suggest here. Should it be a possession/artifact in the draw deck, or a card you start like The One Ring in LOTR TCG? What attributes should it give: strength, vitality, defender or damage bonuses?

By the way, The One Ring and The Arkenstone should be artifacts.

I can think about two card titles related to that Key: Thrain, Yearner (Follower - Dwarf) and Thror's Door (Site 8, Mountain). There are pictures of a captive Thrain in the expanded version of The Desolation of Smaug.

4. Shotgun Marauders: Orkish Marauder is a little bit too much, in my opinion. It's a steroid-aided version of Shotgun Enquea: it's non-unique, can be played from discard pile with Host of Thousands and Hatred Rekindled (and Site 9), earns vitality with Wargs (and fierce keyword), you can even exhasut Thorin and assign Marauder to him with Threatening Warg... The only drawback is the Shadow player can't force its trigger. Anyway I'd make it unique at least...


That's all, at least by now. If you want to expand the card pool, my axe is at your service!

[-Enola-]

Awesome work, sir! It's really nice to see a well-crafted adaptation of The Quest of Erebor in a card game, and the dynamics you chose/created are both simple and efficient. Brilliant!

Thank you a lot Durin's Heir for your compliments and support .

With the limited card pool you made, you really did well by summarizing the dynamics of Shadow cultures (and cross cultures) into very few cards, and not allowing anyone outside Thorin's Company to be a companion.

In France, we still play tournaments every 2-3 months, and one National each year. I wanted to make a Hobbit TCG cardgame playable in tournament. Since I can't produce cards and boosters to make a TCG, I decided to make a complete boardgame.

The most reasonable boardgame to play in tournament seems to be a draft tournament. For a 8-players tournament, I will print 8 main decks + 2 Booster decks for 4 players so 8*60+2*144=768 cards (a lot of cards and something like 80-100 euros to produce them). I really need a limited card pool. Moreover, a beginner at this game (not at LOTR TCG) needs a clear view on the draft game. Every player has the same deck:
- 30 different FP cards in the main deck
- 8 different  Shadows cards in the main deck, 20 Shadows cards in total
- 9 sites

And the players know that there will be in the boosters:
- FP events, similar as the events from the main deck
- 5 new Shadow cultures
- 6 different new powerful FP cards
- 6 different new sites

If the card pool was larger, there are many things that could be added... there's only one card and lots of elves will be present in the last movie. No Staff for Gandalf, no White Council, Wargs as minions, Free Peoples weapons, Sauron/The Necromancer and the Witch King, no Legolas/Tauriel/Thranduil... There's no room unfortunately. But almost everything regarding Thorin's Company is present, and that's a great achievement.

I wanted to be closer to the book than the movies, which used other books, new characters and new situations. So no White Council, no Sauron/The Necromancer and the Witch King and no Legolas/Tauriel. Thranduil doesn't help the Dwarves, I decided to put him away. I used the Warg-possession way, similar as LOTR TCG, they are always mounted by an Orc. No staff for Gandalf, I replace it by the Dawn take you all! event.

This is for now, but all these cards could be in a next Hobbit draft game extension.

However, I admit, there are Radagast, Azog and Yazneg.
- Radagast is more a reference to LOTR TCG and a way to bring back Gandalf.
- Azog is the main villain of the first two movies. I decided to keep him and place him next to Bolg in the Warg-Riders.
- I needed an unique minion to make the minion who will discard followers, so it was Yazneg.

I noticed there are some points to fix... I haven't printed those beautiful cards and have no one to play them, but there are some loose ends that can be seen somewhat easily with mere theory:


1. Smaug Resurrects!: Given the current texts of Smaug and Battle of the Five Armies, the Shadow player can bring Smaug back to life at Site 9 even if he was killed previously by Bard or anyone else. Either Site 9 should say "Remove 2 doubts to play a minion from your discard pile (except Smaug)", or Smaug should say "To play, the fellowship must be at a mountain site. Smaug may not be played from discard pile". Or even better: "If Smaug gets killed, remove him from the game".

In respect of Smaug, I would add a maneuver ability to him in order to represent his eagerness for vengeance and destruction. "Maneuver: Exert Smaug to discard a non- ally or follower (except Bard)." Not just a mere big minion often killing 2 companions, but a Dragon bringing fire and ruin to entire cities, and forcing everyone else to hide behind their walls. Just like artillery blocking the coming of reinforcements.

Smaug can't be play at site 9, only at site 7 and 8. The fellowship must be at a mountain site to be played, but in the case the fellowship make 7-9, he will stay on the board.
"If Smaug gets killed, remove him from the game". is a good point, but I will keep it simpler even if he is killed at site 7. Maximum 2 sentences on a card and I will consider: "Maneuver: Exert Smaug to discard a non-[Dwarven] follower or a non-[Dwarven] ally (except Bard)." The modeling of your ability is also good.  

2. Boxing Dwarves: There is not a single generic hand weapon for dwarves (or anyone in the FP side), therefore Thorin would be the only dwarf with a chance of not fighting with bare fists. That may be fixed by creating non-unique weapons; an "Axe of Ered Luin" or something like that should be enough, several copies of it might be added to Main Deck/Booster Deck.
    I would love to see the Deathless as an alternative to Orcrist (the latter could be instead of that way). And a diversity of weapons like hammers, bows, axes, spears; Men bearing Swords, or even Dwarves bearing weapons of Men... But I know the current small card pool won't offer that possibility.

In a first version, I made Dwarven Axes and Dwarven Bracers, then I replaced them by 2 events to have all the events in one copy and to bring the total number of FP cards in the main deck to 30 cards.

We can replace some quantity of FP events in the main deck by general weapons:  hammers, bows, axes, spears. But which event have to be removed? The role of these 10 events is to take care of all kind of match-ups.

The followers can boost the companions, but maybe the cost of the aid of some followers is too heavy?
Maybe also stop the restriction to Thorin? But I don't want some prolonged maneuver phases due to a lot of followers.

Dwarves neither have any Damage Bonus mechanism. That generic hand weapon might say something like "If bearer is at a mountain or battleground site, he is Damage +1" to counter that deficiency. Other cards like events or followers can be adapted to give damage bonuses (Bombur seems like a very damaging fellow!)... The Arkenstone might say "Skirimish: Discard a card from hand to make a Dwarf companion strength +2 and/or Damage +1"... Just suggestions.

There are 4 companions with an initial Damage+1 abilitiy. Moreover, Thorin is Damage+2 with Orcrist. If there is a lack of Damage+1, this will be fixed during playtest.

Balin, Brother of Dwalin seems too weak. I mean, he fought in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, 42 years later accompanied Thrain in the first Quest of Erebor, 100 years later was the second leader of Thorin's Company, and swept the Orcs of Moria 47 years after that. He was not only strong but wise, and in my opinion little of those attributes are present in the card. Just an opinion.

Yes, Balin is really weak in strength, but he can recycle the suitable FP event of your match-up ("wise side") and Ori is a really good way to draw good event cards (maybe draw 3 cards rather than 2 cards?).
It's a good point, I will put him at the same level as his brother Dwalin: Cost 3 Strength 7 Vitality 3 but no Damage+1.

3. If there is a Door, there must be a Key!: The Key of Erebor is missing... The map is useless, and the quest futile, without a key to pass the secret door. It is a crucial object, even more important than The One Ring to the Quest's purpose.

I really don't know what to suggest here. Should it be a possession/artifact in the draw deck, or a card you start like The One Ring in LOTR TCG? What attributes should it give: strength, vitality, defender or damage bonuses?

I remove the Map now. In order to keep 30 cards in the FP side, starting with the Key seems great. But the Key needs a necessary ability for Bilbo. Maybe the ability of Bilbo to avoid Smaug ? And create different Bilbo (like different Gandalf I created) to bring different startings ?

By the way, The One Ring and The Arkenstone should be artifacts.

I know, but I haven't the High-definition templates for and artifacts. I keep them possessions and could still be discarded by William.

I can think about two card titles related to that Key: Thrain, Yearner (Follower - Dwarf) and Thror's Door (Site 8, Mountain). There are pictures of a captive Thrain in the expanded version of The Desolation of Smaug.

Right, it will release soon ^^. But Thrain doesn't follow the company, maybe I can use the image of Thrain for a event. Thror's Door is also good, maybe to replace one of the sites 7: Dale or Erebor ? Site 8 has to be for Smaug (like site 5 FOTR for the Balrog).

4. Shotgun Marauders: Orkish Marauder is a little bit too much, in my opinion. It's a steroid-aided version of Shotgun Enquea: it's non-unique, can be played from discard pile with Host of Thousands and Hatred Rekindled (and Site 9), earns vitality with Wargs (and fierce keyword), you can even exhasut Thorin and assign Marauder to him with Threatening Warg... The only drawback is the Shadow player can't force its trigger. Anyway I'd make it unique at least...

You are probably right. I really want a strong crowd-control, 7 companions seems too big and with more than 4 followers the maneuver phase could be really long. There are many manners to take back the Shotgun Marauders. The only way for the FP player to do something is Battle of Azanulbizar and Lore of Imladris, but not enough if this minion comes back at every site. Maybe only vitality 3? And keep it non-unique.

That's all, at least by now. If you want to expand the card pool, my axe is at your service!

Thank you a lot for your help, it's a pleasure to work on this game with you.

[Cw0rk]

Awesome work. If these were on GEMP, or even some older platform like SdA, I would try it for sure.

[-Enola-]

Thank you for your support Cwork.

I take into account some proposals of Durin's Heir.


Update 09/11/2014   http://hobbitdraftgame.free.fr/Updates.html

• Balin, Brother of Dwalin   
Cost:3 Strength:7

• Smaug,   The Golden   
Maneuver: Exert Smaug to discard a non-[Dwarven] follower or a non-[Dwarven] ally (except Bard).

Orkish Marauder   
Vitality:3

[Durin's Heir]

Thank you a lot Durin's Heir for your compliments and support .

It's a honour, thanks to you!

In France, we still play tournaments every 2-3 months, and one National each year. I wanted to make a Hobbit TCG cardgame playable in tournament. Since I can't produce cards and boosters to make a TCG, I decided to make a complete boardgame...

... I wanted to be closer to the book than the movies, which used other books, new characters and new situations...

This is for now, but all these cards could be in a next Hobbit draft game extension.

Congrats to you all french people! That looks like a good reason to emigrate there, haha!

I was waiting to hear that, sir! An extension would be the ideal scenario to add all those loose ends (most of them from the movies). The release of the last movie would change many things if you had oriented it towards the movies, but little given your fidelity to the book, almost exclusively.

Thranduil could be a Shadow follower, bearable by companions (like Black Breath)... That would be amusing!

Your idea of making a complete board game is way better than a trading card one. The current pool of your first draft is very accurate with the book, and as a board game it needs to be limited.

By the way, as you don't possess Decipher's rights, you should erase those codes at the bottom right corner. Your new cultures don't have it, but previous cultures as Shire, Dwarven and Gandalf do.

Smaug can't be play at site 9, only at site 7 and 8. The fellowship must be at a mountain site to be played, but in the case the fellowship make 7-9, he will stay on the board.
"If Smaug gets killed, remove him from the game". is a good point, but I will keep it simpler even if he is killed at site 7. Maximum 2 sentences on a card and I will consider: "Maneuver: Exert Smaug to discard a non-[Dwarven] follower or a non-[Dwarven] ally (except Bard)." The modeling of your ability is also good. 

Hmmmm.... I was thinking about this point and you are right, Smaug can't be played at site 9 as he needs a mountain. But there are some cards that can bring him back if he gets killed previously, and I can identify at least 2 scenarios: Troll Campfire can play any minion from discard, and site 8 Smaug's Den can play him from discard even if he was eventually played and killed at site 7.

Given that, the line "To play, the fellowship must be at a mountain site. If Smaug gets killed, remove him from the game" seems to be the best option to prevent his resurrection. You can shorten that line and still preserve your ideal of only 2 lines per card, just look at The Balrog, Flame of Udun: First line is "Damage +1. Fierce. To play, spot a Orc. Discard The Balrog if not underground" while the second explains his Shadow ability. The first line contains 2 brief sentences, so you would only need to abbreviate the text...

Current line:
"Damage +2. Fierce.
To play, the fellowship must be at a mountain site."
Flame of Udun (as a reference):
"Damage +1. Fierce. To play, spot a Orc. Discard The Balrog if not underground"

First proposal:
"Damage +2. Fierce. To play, the fellowship must be at a mountain site. If Smaug gets killed, remove him from the game."
Shortened proposal:
"Damage +2. Fierce. To play, current site must be a mountain. If Smaug dies, remove him from the game."

Second line:
Flame of Udun (reference again):
"Shadow: Exert The Balrog and remove to play a Orc from your discard pile."
Smaug (current proposal):
"Maneuver: Exert Smaug to discard a non- follower or a non- ally (except Bard)."
Smaug (shortened proposal):
"Maneuver: Exert Smaug to discard a follower or ally (except a card or Bard)."


Site 9 Battle of the Five Armies might be a mountain as part of the battle happens in the slopes, or there might be an alternative site 9 called "Slopes of the Lonely Mountain" or so... Adding the "dead = removed" text, there wouldn't be a problem. Smaug might even be part of the Battle if he survives.

In a first version, I made Dwarven Axes and Dwarven Bracers, then I replaced them by 2 events to have all the events in one copy and to bring the total number of FP cards in the main deck to 30 cards.

We can replace some quantity of FP events in the main deck by general weapons:  hammers, bows, axes, spears. But which event have to be removed? The role of these 10 events is to take care of all kind of match-ups.

The followers can boost the companions, but maybe the cost of the aid of some followers is too heavy?
Maybe also stop the restriction to Thorin? But I don't want some prolonged maneuver phases due to a lot of followers.

As for the Events being replaced by Weapons: I think there are two events that might merge into one: Battle Fury can be absorbed by To Me! O My Kinsfolk! The latter looks as a battle cry, so it could have a direct battle use:
Battle Fury
Event - Skirmish
Make a Dwarf strength +3 (or +4 if he bears a follower).

To Me! O My Kinsfolk!
Event - Fellowship
Play a follower from your discard pile.

Merged version:
To Me! O My Kinsfolk!
Event (no specific phase here)
Fellowship: Play a follower from your discard pile.
Skirmish: Make a Dwarf strength +3 (or +4 if he bears a follower).

Just look at both card images, there's plenty of space! Even for a lore text.
That way, there would be an available slot for a generic weapon, and replaying a follower from discard would be a little more expensive than playing from hand (just like A Wizard Is Never Late)... The generic weapon might have different altenative images each with different hand weapons (axe, spear, sword, hammer) and be called "Weapon of Ered Luin", for Booster Pack (and amusement) purposes. And obviously have the exact same text. That would exclude ranged weapons (bows and Ori's slingshot), but would be a good achievement given the limited card pool...

A rough draft:
Weapon of Ered Luin
Possession - Hand Weapon
Bearer must be a Dwarf.
While bearer is at a mountain or battleground site, he is Damage +1.

As for the Followers: Those are very expensive, 4 require to exert a companion while the other 2 require adding a doubt. There are scarce resources to remove doubts and wounds, and both will naturally acumulate by Shadow player's craft and The Ring. None of them adds twilight or discards a or Free Peoples card from hand to be transferred, that is an alternative cost you might consider...

Orkish Marauder can prevent prolonged costless maneuver phases for the FP player, if the cost of spotting 4 followers remains.

Bifur, Bofur and Bombur shouldn't be bearable by only Thorin in my opinion, but be bearable by anyone (the Company is a brotherhood) AND require to either spot Thorin or pay something additional... "Aid X (and spot Thorin or Y)"; while X is the fixed cost you consider best, and Y is the additional one, which may be adding , discarding a card from hand, discarding 2 cards from hand, adding a doubt, exerting a companion, discarding 2 cards from the top of the deck... That way the honour link with Thorin remains and there's more freedom of use.

And big, fat Bombur should give Damage +1 to bearer. He's just too heavy to give only slaps to the faces of enemies...

There are 4 companions with an initial Damage+1 abilitiy. Moreover, Thorin is Damage+2 with Orcrist. If there is a lack of Damage+1, this will be fixed during playtest.

That's right, playtesting will tell...

Yes, Balin is really weak in strength, but he can recycle the suitable FP event of your match-up ("wise side") and Ori is a really good way to draw good event cards (maybe draw 3 cards rather than 2 cards?).
It's a good point, I will put him at the same level as his brother Dwalin: Cost 3 Strength 7 Vitality 3 but no Damage+1.

I like that change! He's old (no damage bonus) but can and WILL swing an axe with skill and great power! I was thinking about giving him strength 6 and recycling 2 cards instead of 1 with an exertion ("wiser"), but your idea is better. Both increments might be too much, I think.
As for Ori, it depends on the cost of transferring him. I'd replace his text with "When transferred, draw a card (or X cards if bearer is Balin)", while X is the chosen number...

I remove the Map now. In order to keep 30 cards in the FP side, starting with the Key seems great. But the Key needs a necessary ability for Bilbo. Maybe the ability of Bilbo to avoid Smaug ? And create different Bilbo (like different Gandalf I created) to bring different startings ?

The Key should be borne by Gandalf or a Dwarf, BUT give a special ability involving Bilbo.

Here's another rough draft:

Thror's Key, Heirloom
Possession - Key
+1 Strength
Bearer must be Gandalf or a Dwarf companion. Cannot be discarded by Shadow cards.
Response: If bearer is about to be killed or discarded, exert a companion to transfer this to another elegible bearer.
Skirmish: Exert Bilbo twice or add 3 doubts to cancel a skirmish involving bearer or Smaug. A minion in that skirmish may exert to prevent this (except Smaug).

That way Bilbo, Expert Burglar will have more space for another special ability... And you can also create other versions of Bilbo to provide diversity and gameplay.

I know, but I haven't the High-definition templates for and artifacts. I keep them possessions and could still be discarded by William.

The Arkenstone, and moreover The One Ring, shouldn't be discarded by a silly Troll, even if it's an intellectual gifted in respect to his race (according to Tolkien)...

By the way, The One Ring's ability is too expensive in my opinion, as it doesn't give strength unless Bilbo wears it. It should give +1 strength by bearing, and additional +1 by wearing... Or Bilbo should be resistance 10 instead (he was younger then).

Right, it will release soon ^^. But Thrain doesn't follow the company, maybe I can use the image of Thrain for a event. Thror's Door is also good, maybe to replace one of the sites 7: Dale or Erebor ? Site 8 has to be for Smaug (like site 5 FOTR for the Balrog).

I don't have the Extended Edition of The Desolation, but there is a pic of captive Thrain here:
http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Thráin_II
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140921182515/lotr/images/a/af/Thrain_.png

Hmm, you're right, Thror's Door fits well as a site 7 and it's a good idea to have the site 8 always bringing the beast to the feast. Anyway, where does The Forges of Erebor fit here? Site 8 or 9? It's such an epic fight that happens there (in the movie) to let the place outside this card game! Thror's Door should be Site 7 then, but don't know what site 7 should be removed... Likely Dale as they don't tread there.

Allow me to suggest this:
The Forges of Erebor (Oh, there are so many wonderful pictures for this scene!)
Site 8. Shadow Number 11 (REALLY!)
"Mountain. Underground. Maneuver: Play (or make an opponent play) Smaug from a Shadow player's deck or discard pile, to heal each companion."

Maneuver action usable by BOTH the FP and the Shadow player. That way Smaug will always be played if it's possible (same as Smaug's Den), and can be (forced to be) played by the FP player to get some benefits from that (unless Shadow player plays him in Shadow phase)... The much higher Shadow cost is to compensate that benefit to dwarves...

If this is to end in fire, then we will all burn together!

You are probably right. I really want a strong crowd-control, 7 companions seems too big and with more than 4 followers the maneuver phase could be really long. There are many manners to take back the Shotgun Marauders. The only way for the FP player to do something is Battle of Azanulbizar and Lore of Imladris, but not enough if this minion comes back at every site. Maybe only vitality 3? And keep it non-unique.

Or exert companions/allies instead of wounding. Or make the FP player decide who gets wounded (like Orcs)...

Thank you a lot for your help, it's a pleasure to work on this game with you.

The pleasure is reciprocal.

EDIT: I wrote "big, fat Bofur" when I meant Bombur...

[-Enola-]

I was waiting to hear that, sir! An extension would be the ideal scenario to add all those loose ends (most of them from the movies). The release of the last movie would change many things if you had oriented it towards the movies, but little given your fidelity to the book, almost exclusively.

Yes, it could be many new cards, but we will probably work on this particular point after the 3rd movie. We try now to create a complete boardgame only with this limited card pool.

By the way, as you don't possess Decipher's rights, you should erase those codes at the bottom right corner. Your new cultures don't have it, but previous cultures as Shire, Dwarven and Gandalf do.

Yes, I know. I have to do this as soon as possible.

Hmmmm.... I was thinking about this point and you are right, Smaug can't be played at site 9 as he needs a mountain. But there are some cards that can bring him back if he gets killed previously, and I can identify at least 2 scenarios: Troll Campfire can play any minion from discard, and site 8 Smaug's Den can play him from discard even if he was eventually played and killed at site 7.

Given that, the line "To play, the fellowship must be at a mountain site. If Smaug gets killed, remove him from the game" seems to be the best option to prevent his resurrection. You can shorten that line and still preserve your ideal of only 2 lines per card, just look at The Balrog, Flame of Udun: First line is "Damage +1. Fierce. To play, spot a Orc. Discard The Balrog if not underground" while the second explains his Shadow ability. The first line contains 2 brief sentences, so you would only need to abbreviate the text...

Current line:
"Damage +2. Fierce.
To play, the fellowship must be at a mountain site."
Flame of Udun (as a reference):
"Damage +1. Fierce. To play, spot a Orc. Discard The Balrog if not underground"

First proposal:
"Damage +2. Fierce. To play, the fellowship must be at a mountain site. If Smaug gets killed, remove him from the game."
Shortened proposal:
"Damage +2. Fierce. To play, current site must be a mountain. If Smaug dies, remove him from the game."

Second line:
Flame of Udun (reference again):
"Shadow: Exert The Balrog and remove to play a Orc from your discard pile."
Smaug (current proposal):
"Maneuver: Exert Smaug to discard a non- follower or a non- ally (except Bard)."
Smaug (shortened proposal):
"Maneuver: Exert Smaug to discard a follower or ally (except a card or Bard)."

Perfect! I will take the shortest version with the same syntax as LOTR TCG. So (as for Freca "killed" more than "dies") :

Damage +2. Fierce. To play, the fellowship must be at a mountain site. If Smaug is killed, remove him from the game.
Maneuver: Exert Smaug to discard a follower or ally (except a card or Bard).

Site 9 Battle of the Five Armies might be a mountain as part of the battle happens in the slopes, or there might be an alternative site 9 called "Slopes of the Lonely Mountain" or so... Adding the "dead = removed" text, there wouldn't be a problem. Smaug might even be part of the Battle if he survives.

I prefer to keep Smaug out of the Battle of the Five Armies, even if he was not kill in a previous turn. The site 9 battle has too be epic, and not only one big minion. I don't know yet about all this point. It's possible I will eventually add "mountain" on the site 9.

We can create another site 9 "Slopes of the Lonely Mountain", but it will be more for the extension or by replacing one of the additional site ?

As for the Events being replaced by Weapons: I think there are two events that might merge into one: Battle Fury can be absorbed by To Me! O My Kinsfolk! The latter looks as a battle cry, so it could have a direct battle use:
Battle Fury
Event - Skirimish
Make a Dwarf strength +3 (or +4 if he bears a follower).

To Me! O My Kinsfolk!
Event - Fellowship
Play a follower from your discard pile.

Merged version:
To Me! O My Kinsfolk!
Event (no specific phase here)
Fellowship: Play a follower from your discard pile.
Skirimish: Make a Dwarf strength +3 (or +4 if he bears a follower).

Just look at both card images, there's plenty of space! Even for a lore text.

The phase of the events is not in the textbox but above the textbox. In LOTR TCG, since ROTK all events are made in this way and there are only these events with 2 phases: Still Far Ahead, One Good Turn Deserves Another, Well-traveled, Traveled Leader, Nimble Attack, Poisonous words. But it's the same action for both phases.

... The generic weapon might have different altenative images each with different hand weapons (axe, spear, sword, hammer) and be called "Weapon of Ered Luin", for Booster Pack (and amusement) purposes. And obviously have the exact same text. That would exclude ranged weapons (bows and Ori's slingshot), but would be a good achievement given the limited card pool...

A rough draft:
Weapon of Ered Luin
Possession - Hand Weapon
Bearer must be a Dwarf.
While bearer is at a mountain or battleground site, he is Damage +1.

Yes this will be great, and if we can find another slot, maybe include another kind of weapon ?
I prefer 0 or 2 generic weapons rather than one, otherwise the draws will be too random.

As for the Followers: Those are very expensive, 4 require to exert a companion while the other 2 require adding a doubt. There are scarce resources to remove doubts and wounds, and both will naturally acumulate by Shadow player's craft and The Ring. None of them adds twilight or discards a or Free Peoples card from hand to be transferred, that is an alternative cost you might consider...

Bifur, Bofur and Bombur shouldn't be bearable by only Thorin in my opinion, but be bearable by anyone (the Company is a brotherhood) AND require to either spot Thorin or pay something additional... "Aid X (and spot Thorin or Y)"; while X is the fixed cost you consider best, and Y is the additional one, which may be adding , discarding a card from hand, discarding 2 cards from hand, adding a doubt, exerting a companion, discarding 2 cards from the top of the deck... That way the honour link with Thorin remains and there's more freedom of use.

I think the addition of twilight cost is too easy for the FP player, except if it's a large amount of twilight like (3). But the mechanism of discarding card is nice  , I will add this to some followers. And also, if you have other idea of aid cost ? ^^ Like exerting an ally twice ?

I will stop the restriction on Thorin.

And big, fat Bofur should give Damage +1 to bearer. He's just too heavy to give only slaps to the faces of enemies...

You're right! I will change this. With only Thorin, it wasn't so helpful.

I like that change! He's old (no damage bonus) but can and WILL swing an axe with skill and great power! I was thinking about giving him strength 6 and recycling 2 cards instead of 1 with an exertion ("wiser"), but your idea is better. Both increments might be too much, I think.
As for Ori, it depends on the cost of transferring him. I'd replace his text with "When transferred, draw a card (or X cards if bearer is Balin)", while X is the chosen number...

Thank you, yes I think it's ok now, and he is similar as hiw brother. I will think about your point on Ori.

The Key should be borne by Gandalf or a Dwarf, BUT give a special ability involving Bilbo.

Here's another rough draft:

Thror's Key, Heirloom
Possession - Key
+1 Strength
Bearer must be Gandalf or a Dwarf companion. Cannot be discarded by Shadow cards.
Response: If bearer is about to be killed or discarded, exert a companion to transfer this to another elegible bearer.
Skirimish: Exert Bilbo twice or add 3 doubts to cancel a skirimish involving bearer or Smaug. A minion in that skirimish may exert to prevent this (except Smaug).

That way Bilbo, Expert Burglar will have more space for another special ability... And you can also create other versions of Bilbo to provide diversity and gameplay.

Gandalf is discarded at site 5, it's difficult to play it, or by transferring the key to another Dwarf when Gandalf leaves play ?

But I will go simpler on this point. We can consider it for the extension rather for the complete boardgame.

The Arkenstone, and moreover The One Ring, shouldn't be discarded by a silly Troll, even if it's an intellectual gifted in respect to his race (according to Tolkien)...

By the way, The One Ring's ability is too expensive in my opinion, as it doesn't give strength unless Bilbo wears it. It should give +1 strength by bearing, and additional +1 by wearing... Or Bilbo should be resistance 10 instead (he was younger then).

Yes, right . But I have to make artifact templates, I will see this point.

I prefer to keep many references on LOTR TCG with the same skills for all the characters. The only corruption deck is Gollum, and we have to test it to see if 8 is too low.

The Ring is the same as ATAR with less vitality : in case Gollum comes back often, Bilbo has to wear the Ring. But we can do a much simpler version of the Ring.

I don't have the Extended Edition of The Desolation, but there is a pic of captive Thrain here:
http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Thráin_II
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140921182515/lotr/images/a/af/Thrain_.png

Hmm, you're right, Thror's Door fits well as a site 7 and it's a good idea to have the site 8 always bringing the beast to the feast. Anyway, where does The Forges of Erebor fit here? Site 8 or 9? It's such an epic fight that happens there (in the movie) to let the place outside this card game! Thror's Door should be Site 7 then, but don't know what site 7 should be removed... Likely Dale as they don't tread there.

Allow me to suggest this:
The Forges of Erebor (Oh, there are so many wonderful pictures for this scene!)
Site 8. Shadow Number 11 (REALLY!)
"Mountain. Underground. Maneuver: Play (or make an opponent play) Smaug from a Shadow player's deck or discard pile, to heal each companion."

Maneuver action usable by BOTH the FP and the Shadow player. That way Smaug will always be played if it's possible (same as Smaug's Den), and can be (forced to be) played by the FP player to get some benefits from that (unless Shadow player plays him in Shadow phase)... The much higher Shadow cost is to compensate that benefit to dwarves...

If this is to end in fire, then we will all burn together!

Ok for Dale, I will replace it by Thror's Door. But I still like the picture on Dale site ^^.

Site 8 is great! And your site is awesome, we will see during playtest if it's well balanced. But maybe for the extension? Or by replacing one of the additionnal site?

Or exert companions/allies instead of wounding. Or make the FP player decide who gets wounded (like Orcs)...

For the Orkish Marauder, I think with 3 vitality it's more soft but still impressive to avoid big fellowship.

[dmaz]

Hi!

So I tried printing one out on my printer here to start play testing, but my printer is pretty cheap (mostly good for black and white documents only), so for me to be satisfied I'm going to take the files to a local place and have them print it in high quality on some nice stock

A couple questions before I do this.

I noticed that there have been several updates since your original posting. Are all of these updates applied to the original dropbox links as follows?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ly7dsozr24d9avl/Boosters_4_players.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/w07lu5eb31di9xn/Main_deck.pdf?dl=0

Also, when I printed them out in standard 100% format on a sheet of A4 paper, they came out a little smaller than the original cards. Is there a certain percentage larger they need to be printed at?

Lastyly, do you plan on any more updates in the very near future? That way I can wait for at least that update before getting them printed out professionally

Thanks again!

[Durin's Heir]

Yes, it could be many new cards, but we will probably work on this particular point after the 3rd movie. We try now to create a complete boardgame only with this limited card pool.

It will be ok after the 3rd Movie, prior to that too much speculative work will end up in the garbage can (inaccurances). I think the Expansion Set should be another Booster Deck, thus in Expanded games players should build a deck from a Main Deck, the First Booster Deck and a Second Booster deck... Just an idea.

Perfect! I will take the shortest version with the same syntax as LOTR TCG. So (as for Freca "killed" more than "dies") :

Damage +2. Fierce. To play, the fellowship must be at a mountain site. If Smaug is killed, remove him from the game.
Maneuver: Exert Smaug to discard a follower or ally (except a card or Bard).

Great! Your point with Freca is a good one; a little room gets freed. I was thinking about an even shorter version for the first line, but don't know if it accords with Decipher's syntax...

Current version:
Damage +2. Fierce. To play, the fellowship must be at a mountain site. If Smaug is killed, remove him from the game.
New proposal:
Damage +2. Fierce. May only be played at a mountain site. If Smaug is killed, remove him from the game.

This would only matter if there's no room on the card, or if the small size of the text distorts its beauty...

I prefer to keep Smaug out of the Battle of the Five Armies, even if he was not kill in a previous turn. The site 9 battle has too be epic, and not only one big minion. I don't know yet about all this point. It's possible I will eventually add "mountain" on the site 9.

We can create another site 9 "Slopes of the Lonely Mountain", but it will be more for the extension or by replacing one of the additional site ?

You can add mountain to site 9 Battle of the Five Armies by adding "Battleground. Mountain. Shadow: Remove 2 doubts to play a minion from your discard pile (except Smaug)". Yes, Slopes of the Lonely Mountain should appear in an extension pack instead, as there aren't too many card slots in the current set...

The phase of the events is not in the textbox but above the textbox. In LOTR TCG, since ROTK all events are made in this way and there are only these events with 2 phases: Still Far Ahead, One Good Turn Deserves Another, Well-traveled, Traveled Leader, Nimble Attack, Poisonous words. But it's the same action for both phases.

There is already an event with different texts for different phases: Eye of Barad-Dur. Decipher made it!

The inclusion of "phase" above the textbox for events, and "support area" too for most conditions and some possessions/artifacts was introduced to allow more room for the gametext. Also, the inclusion of new rules and gameplay dynamics required more use of textbox: site controlling, card stacking, tokens, threats, initiative, enduring... none of them are present here.

The merged version I posted has enough space for both phase actions and even for the lore text of the original "To Me! O My Kinsfolk!". Just look at both card images, they fit without text abbreviation/size reduction.
You can include both phases in the bar above the textbox (separated by a "/"), but won't provide the effect for what Decipher planned that change. And it won't need it either.

Weapon of Ered Luin
Possession - Hand Weapon
Bearer must be a Dwarf.
While bearer is at a mountain or battleground site, he is Damage +1.

Yes this will be great, and if we can find another slot, maybe include another kind of weapon ?
I prefer 0 or 2 generic weapons rather than one, otherwise the draws will be too random.

Your point is absolutely right, only 1 weapon would give little chances of getting it, and therefore too much advantage to the player who gets it. The second one can be a hand weapon bearable by Men or Dwarves, or even the Deathless itself (bearable by any Dwarf companion, giving more benefits if bearer is Thorin or Balin)...

The ranged weapons (Ori's Slingshot and the bows) would have to find room at the Expansion Set/Pack...

I think the addition of twilight cost is too easy for the FP player, except if it's a large amount of twilight like (3). But the mechanism of discarding card is nice  , I will add this to some followers. And also, if you have other idea of aid cost ? ^^ Like exerting an ally twice ?

I will stop the restriction on Thorin.

That's good, I believe the restriction to Thorin would render almost useless those followers, as most of the times Thorin would bring down whatever he is skirmishing without any help. The link between those followers and Thorin may remain: Aid X (and either spot Thorin or Y), as explained in the previous post... X is the fixed cost, Y the cost of not spotting Thorin.

Your idea of exerting an ally twice seems good, except it should be a single exertion. Only Elrond can heal himself, there are no multiple copies of allies to heal by discarding, and exerting allies is a heavy cost (except for Radagast and Elrond again). By the way, The Master can only use his skill once, unlike Ottar with Elrond, LoR. If you think he should heal himself, add any of the following options: "At the start of each turn, heal The Master" or "At the start of each turn, heal each ally whose home site is 6 (except Bard)". You can increase his vitality to 3 too...

Your other idea, adding or more, is very good too, seems perfect for big, fat Bombur.

My ideas for aid costs are:
- Discard a card from hand. (This one will limit the power of The Arkenstone, a considerable cost)
- Discard a card from hand. (If the follower is bound to Gandalf/Esgaroth/Eagles/Beorn/Breelanders)
- Discard 2 cards from hand.
- Discard 2 cards from the top of your deck.
- Heal a minion. (Not likely to be suitable)
- Transfer/discard/return to hand a Free Peoples possession. (Return and Transfer might be very amusing!)

And big, fat Bofur should give Damage +1 to bearer. He's just too heavy to give only slaps to the faces of enemies...

I meant Bombur really, and I'm glad you liked that idea. He might give +2 strength, Damage +1 to Gandalf or even Bilbo...

Thank you, yes I think it's ok now, and he is similar as hiw brother. I will think about your point on Ori.

Ori should be a chronicler with or without Balin, except with Balin he should have better material to register...

Gandalf is discarded at site 5, it's difficult to play it, or by transferring the key to another Dwarf when Gandalf leaves play ?

But I will go simpler on this point. We can consider it for the extension rather for the complete boardgame.

That's the idea, the Response ability is to protect the Key amongst the Company. "Response: If bearer is about to be killed or discarded, exert a companion to transfer this to another elegible bearer".
According to Tolkien, first bearer was Thror, second was Thrain II, third was Gandalf (at Dol Guldur, 91 years prior to Thorin's Quest, when Thrain passed away) and fourth was Thorin. The possible starting fellowships are either Gandalf alone, Thorin alone, 2 Dwarves or Gandalf and 3 Dwarves. Thus it should be bearable at the starting fellowship...

It might give the ability to play the fellowship's next site... by means of a heavy cost, of course. Maybe discarding it.

You are right, it should be a card for the Expansion. And I think it shouldn't even be a possession, but the "Key card" as The One Ring is just "The Ring", without class, and is played at start of the game with the ringbearer. Some blogs or forum threads (can't remember) talk about the key-bearer, just as the ringbearer, and doubts are put on the keybearer instead of Bilbo... Discussion for the Expansion set anyway.

I prefer to keep many references on LOTR TCG with the same skills for all the characters. The only corruption deck is Gollum, and we have to test it to see if 8 is too low.

The Ring is the same as ATAR with less vitality : in case Gollum comes back often, Bilbo has to wear the Ring. But we can do a much simpler version of the Ring.

The only corruption culture is Gollum, yes, but many FP cards add doubts, they can just pile up until they reach 8 and Bilbo would flee even if he doesn't face Gollum. If Bilbo faces Gollum, he can use The Ring to gain +2 strength and survive, but Gollum gains +1 strength that way and can build 2 more doubts if he wins that skirmish (1 for his text, 1 for wound), AND a 3rd if Underground Lake is in play. 4 in a single fight; Underground Lake can be discarded to add 2 doubts more... 6 in a single site.

The One Ring should either give better strength attributes, or have a gametext like The Ruling Ring. And would be useful to give it a subtitle, to make an alternative version in the Expansion.

Ok for Dale, I will replace it by Thror's Door. But I still like the picture on Dale site ^^.

Site 8 is great! And your site is awesome, we will see during playtest if it's well balanced. But maybe for the extension? Or by replacing one of the additionnal site?

Dale might be included in the Expansion Set. It's a very good picture! The text is very good too, it looks like many cards in the Expansion will be very powerful...

The idea of the Forges of Erebor was born when writing about the role of site 8. "Is there another possible way of playing Smaug from discard/draw deck with Site 8's text?!" Head started to ache, fortunately inspiration came to rescue...
It's a site meant to be epic, representing an epic challenge. There will be need for playtesting to fit the correct Shadow number, in bare theory I think 11 can be a good cost; can be even higher. To give it full strength it should be accompained by a FP card that plays the fellowship's next site, like Speak Friend and Enter or Pathfinder in FotR... or Thror's Map. Maybe Thror's Key/Key of Erebor should allow to play/replace the next site. That is a matter for the Expansion Set anyway...

I would like to include it in the First Set, as that site has such a strong epic feeling in my opinion. But don't know what site should be excluded. Great Goblin's Cavern seems to me the less useful, because culture just can't rely on a site for that whole twilight gameplay. Orkish Footman and Goblin Swarms/Hatred Rekindled should be enough. In my opinion Site 4 should always bring the One Ring, the way Site 8 should always bring Smaug to the party...

And there are only 2 cards to be replayed: Goblin Scimitar and Troll Knife, while FotR Block has 14: 6 for , 3 for , 3 for and 2 for .

Sites 6 Esgaroth and Lake Town should be both a river. Or lake, but that site keyword doesn't exist in LOTR TCG; and every lake must and does have a river. Sites 7 Dale and Erebor too should be rivers.

For the Orkish Marauder, I think with 3 vitality it's more soft but still impressive to avoid big fellowship.

That looks great, it has my vote! But I think the final vote will be in playtesting's hand...

[-Enola-]

Hello dmaz & Durin's Heir,

dmaz: Yes, all the pdf images are currently updated. I also printed 3 main decks, the card size is normallly the same size as LOTR TCG. But if it's a little bit smaller, you can put it easily inside card sleeves .
I will playtest with 3 other members of my LOTR TCG group thursday 11/13. So all the major improvements will be done at this time.

Durin's Heir: Sorry but I will be too busy today, I'll answer all your proposals tomorrow or tonight . Thanks a lot.

[Durin's Heir]

I really like the idea of using Followers for the purpose of Companions, by-passing that way problems like the Rule of 9, overcrowding and the need of big, fast drawing builds to play and support those 13 Dwarves in the same deck. Pretty clever!

Anyway, since my first post in this thread I've had an almost insane idea between hands, to adapt these LOTR TCG rules to a Company of 13 Dwarves + Burglar + Wizard, each as a single companion in the fellowship, without generating big imbalances... It would be only an option for an Expansion of this Hobbit Draft Game, as the cards in the First Set just can't support that.


It's not about just removing the Rule of 9, which would generate significative distortions, but replacing it with a new rule to compensate those distortions. It would require to limit anyway the maximum of companions, by means of 1 of these 2 scenarios:
1) There wouldn't be any character as a possible companion, except for Gandalf and The Company of 14; that way The Rule of 9 would be just eliminated. No replacement.
2) If there are some characters from outside Thorin's Company as new companions (Legolas, Tauriel, Bard, Dain II...), there should be a new Rule of N replacing the old Rule of 9 (to "limit the maximum number of companions at both the fellowship and the dead pile to N", N being a big number like 13, 14 or 15)...

In both scenarios there would be a fixed limit to companions. Then, a new rule would be created: the Rule of 5: "Each time the fellowship moves, for each companion in the fellowship or the dead pile over 5, each Shadow player may take a card from his/her discard pile and put it at the bottom of the draw deck, then draw a card".

That means, if there are 8 companions, at Shadow phase each Shadow player would have 11 cards at hand (9 comps... 12 cards; 13 comps... 16 cards), and those extra cards wouldn't punish small Shadow deck builds, as the discard pile would feed the draw deck preventing the emptying; I know Draft Games don't have the option of building (clever) decks of 40/40 cards or more, so the drawing effect should help instead of punish small decks. At every site, a large Company would be countered by a large horde of enemies... You wanted to have hordes at site 9:

"The Site 9 battle has to be epic, and not only one big minion."

To reap more gameplay benefits from that eventual rule introduction, we can take these guidelines for the designing of new cards (those can be followed even without the "Rule of 5"):

1.- Having ways of playing many Dwarves at the start of the game, or at the first part of it: sites, a version of A Wizard is Never Late, twilight reduction effects appliable (and cumulative) at starting fellowship, perdurable drawing mechanisms like Book of Mazarbul or The Grey Pilgrim... In order to allow the Company to be broad with small decks and 1 copy of each Dwarf.
2.- No matter how big the Company is, the Shadow has always 2 (or 3) fixed goals: killing/corrupting Bilbo and killing Thorin (and killing/discarding Gandy too). That way, many Shadow cards can be designed to assign minions directly to Bilbo, Thorin or Gandalf, possibly with expensive costs to prevent that assignment; basically the same as you did with Orkish Sneak and Threatening Warg. Or special abilities, events, followers and bearable conditions to punish those key characters. A version of Thranduil might be a Shadow follower transferrable to companions, giving more punishment if bearer is Thorin...
3.- Provide enhancement to card cost/effect if there are X or more companions: not that old crowd control of Shotgun Enquea or Southron Commander, but instead many minions might say "If you can spot 7 companions", "this minion's twilight cost is -1", or "you may draw a card", or "this minion is strength +3", or "Damage +1" or so (to bulk up minions or swarming). And so with cards at support area, also with the "each time the fellowship moves" mechanic. Even FP cards might provide benefits from high companion numbers, to make it an interesting option and turn it into a gamble...
4.- To have no FP mechanism to discard (or return to hand) companions as a cost or an effect, as that possibility would turn the fellowship into a circus of wound soaking like Pippin, WoBaS...

That's all. I said it was almost insane, and maybe I was wrong with the word "almost"...


Whatever road is taken, I would love to see some Dwarf companions from the First Set being turned into Followers in the Expansion/Second Set... not Thorin obviously, but folks like Nori, Gloin and Thorin's nephews. And those previous dwarven Followers becoming Companions, to give more diversity. Even a version of Gandalf might be a Follower, as he supports them but doesn't join them as a permanent member.

Hope you all enjoyed this circus of speech.

[Lauben]

Hi folks,

just want to let you know that there others in this wide world interested in a hobbit game similar to lotr tcg!!!
I'm from Germany and together with my brother and a good friend we still play sometimes on gemp or with our physical fotr and ttt block cards.

When the first Hobbit movie came out, we started to develop our own ideas and made a lot of card lists ect but never quite finished it!

We will surely download your set and play test it! Thank you for the great work on these!! Maybe we can use your set as a basis for our ideas and combine them? That would be great... of course i will post some of our cards here if you want! Or we could help expand your game.

We would really like to have a similar game to lotr tcg with a wide card pool and some more cultures (i think of course of some white council and some woodelves stuff.. also we wanted to divide shadow into a "gundabad, a misty mountains and a dol guldur/necromancer culture much like the original uruk, moria and sauron)

Again, really enyojed your cards!
Greetings from Germany,
Lauben

P.S. i hope my english is at least understandable..