Next Updates for the Hobbit Draft Game

[-Enola-]

I just replace the Athelas in the Mirkwood pack by the Emeralds of Girion, and I will add the Black Arrow in the Esgaroth pack.

Athelas : Cost (1). [Dale] Possession • Support Area. Fellowship: Spot an Elf and discard this possession to heal a companion and discard a Shadow condition.

• Black Arrow : Cost (2). [Dale] Possession • Ranged Weapon. Strength +1. Bearer must be Bard. If Smaug is killed by a special ability involving Bard, remove him from the game. Skirmish: Exert Bard to wound a minion skirimishing a [Dale] man.

[Durin's Heir]

Great, thank you! Elrond and Ancient Knowledge can replace Athelas' usefulness.

The idea of Athelas was to show the healing side of Tauriel. She might have added a second sentence with something like "Regroup: Exert Tauriel to heal a Dwarf (or to discard a Shadow condition borne by a Dwarf)" or so, considering she can't heal herself like Elrond does. That's not necessary, though it would be useful. Things look good as they are now.

The Esgaroth Pack looked a bit overpowered with Emeralds of Girion: Elrond healing 2 wounds per turn from the Volunteers, Bain or Bard. Or from The Master, providing a huge and cost-free cycling machine. Now it's better I think. The Emeralds can serve in the Mirwood Pack to either heal Bard, or to allow Thranduil to skirmish...

[-Enola-]

Thank you for your comments.
I made all the FP cards and more ^^.
Enjoy .

[Durin's Heir]

Awesome my friend!
These cards look so beautiful!
CHEERS!

I'll comment some of them tomorrow.

[Durin's Heir]

My friend, the work looks very professional! Still has a small bunch of little text errors, so I hope this helps:

Main Deck:
- Watchful Orc: "... each site on the adventure path gains..." is wrong, it should be "gain" instead. See Thorin's Harp as an example.
- Goblin Footman still doesn't include artifacts.

Mirkwood Pack:
- Elf Army: A little mistake at the end of this sentence, with punctuation: "...in archery fire and skirmishes until the regroup phase. ."

Thorin Pack:
- Great Barricade: Lacks the "fortification" keyword.
- The Arkenstone: "Take a card stacked here into your hand." Or "into hand".
- Oakenshield: In the lore text, lacks a space between the comma and "wielding". "rent,wielding".
- Mithril Coat: Not a mistake but a possibility. If you make the first and second lines ("Bearer must..." and "Each minion...") join together as one, you'd free a line that might be used for lore text. Something like "Cast off your old coat and put on this!", as Thorin says in the book.

I found these 3 quotes from the Hobbit book regarding the Mithril Coat, if you wish to take a look:

[The] talk turned to the great hoard [of Smaug] itself and to the things that Thorin and Balin remembered. They wondered if they were still lying there unharmed in the hall below [the Lonely Mountain]:... coats of mail gilded and silvered and impenetrable; the necklace of Girion, Lord of Dale, made of five hundred emeralds green as grass, which he gave for the arming of his eldest son in a coat of dwarf-linked rings the like of which had never been made before, for it was wrought of pure silver to the power and strength of triple steel.

The Hobbit, Ch 12, Inside Information

'Mr. Baggins!' [Thorin] cried. 'Here is the first payment of your reward! Cast off your old coat and put on this!'

With that he put on Bilbo a small coat of mail, wrought for some young elf-prince long ago. It was of silver-steel which the elves call mithril, and with it went a belt of pearls and crystals. A light helm of figured leather, strengthened beneath with hoops of steel, and studded about the brim with white gems, was set upon the hobbit's head.

'I feel magnificent,' he thought; 'but I expect I look rather absurd. How they would laugh on the Hill at home. Still I wish there was a looking-glass handy!'

The Hobbit, Ch 12, Not At Home

"Bilbo Baggins!" [the Elvenking] said. "You are more worthy to wear the armour of elf-princes than many that have looked more comely in it. But I wonder if Thorin Oakenshield will see it so. I have more knowledge of dwarves in general than you have perhaps. I advise you to remain with us, and here you shall be honoured and thrice welcome."

The Hobbit, Ch 16, A Thief in the Night


Esgaroth Pack:
- Black Arrow: "If Smaug is killed by a Bard's special ability" is slightly but importantly different than "...killed by a special ability involving Bard": the first is triggered only by Bard's regroup ability and excudes the Black Arrow's skirmish one, while the latter includes each ability which spots or exerts Bard (NOT Iron-forged weapon). The Black Arrow's skirmish ability is much weaker than the regroup one, and requires Smaug to be skirmishing a Man, which may not happen often; that is meant to prevent the FP player from killing Smaug too easily before he deals his damage. But if that happened, I think the Black Arrow shold still remove Smaug from the game. If you support that idea, the second option should be used.

Wizard Pack:
- Wizard Staff: Not an error, but a great change here! An Artifact, and vitality +1 instead of strength bonus. Nice!
- The Eagles Are Coming: This one lack the part that allows an ally to fight. I believe you thought it was too much text, and that's a good possibility as the current version consists of 5 lines. But if we remove an unnecessary word like Dwarf in "Dwarf companion" (the Eagles rescued Gandalf and Bilbo too), and if we use the first line with more text than just "Spell" (just like Saruman's Snows and other spells do), the resulting version might have 6 lines and still have a remaining line for lore text.

I believe it's important to make Radagast a fighter in moments of need, as every other Pack has some ally fighting support (except Thráin, which has strong items); even Bilbo has Skillful Negociator (for Bard and Elrond).

 - Current Version:
Eagles Are Coming
Event • Maneuver
Spell.
Exert Gandalf to play a follower
from your draw deck or discard pile
and attach it to a Dwarf companion
(without paying the aid cost).

 - Proposal:
The Eagles Are Coming
Event • Maneuver
Spell. Exert Gandalf to either play a
follower from your draw deck or discard
pile and attach it to a companion (without
paying the aid cost), or to allow a ally
to participate in skirmishes until the
regroup phase.


That's all.

[-Enola-]

Thank you a lot for all your precious work. I change most of the the cards according with your corrections.

- Mithril Coat : In LOTR TCG, all the "bearer" game text is always in a first independant line + some sentences corresponding to abilities "when you play..."
- Watchful Orc : I change it, I also remove "underground", which is not use.
- Black Arrow : I only wanted the regroup ability as the "removing Smaug" ability. It's more simple to understand, I change the text to be more clear. Otherwise, it could be a real NPE against a player playing the Smaug Shadow.
- Eagles Are Coming : In Saruman Snows and others spells, the other costs of the cards are on the first line. But there are no other cost for an event. With the ally ability, the text of the card is too dense. I think this event could be more about the Eagles rescue at the Wooded Cliff. I remove the companion part.


Thank you!

PS : I also change the Gollum text, it was too easy to win skirmishes against Bilbo.

[Durin's Heir]

Thank you a lot for all your precious work. I change most of the the cards according with your corrections.

It has been an honour, my friend!

Agree with your thoughts about Black Arrow and Eagles Are Coming. Simplicity is of vital importance, and the new text for Black Arrow is much clearer; your reasoning about the regroup phase is actually very good as Smaug should always deal some skirmish trouble, and he might be exhausted by Kili and Gandalf's Dawn Take You All. Or by losing the first skirmish to Thorin bearing Orcrist and Bombur.

But I believe the ally reinforcement in the Wizard Pack is very important, and JUST PERHAPS, might be added to Wizard Staff as an ability: "Maneuver: Exert bearer twice to make him strength +3 and allow him to participate in skirmishes until the regroup phase." Useful too with Gandalf and Saruman...

About the Mithril Coat, that's a general rule about items but there are some exceptions: Well-Crafted Armor being the most notable, which includes its most important sentence in the same line as "bearer must be", and even starting that sentence with the word "each" (just like your version of Mithril Coat). I believe that general conventional rule was made to give beauty, and the idea of adding a lore text is meant to do just the same (but using story flavour instead of graphic aesthetics)...

Three versions of Anduril/Narsil have the damage bonus in the first paragraph, after "bearer must be": Flame of the West, Sword That Was Broken and Forged By Telchar. Anyway, it's just a matter of beauty/lore and not one of gameplay.


In regards of Gollum, it's a good change because Bilbo won't have as much support as Frodo has in LOTR (Bilbo starts with 3 strength instead of 4). But given Gollum's new text doesn't accord with 5R25 Stinker, perhaps it's a good idea to give him a new subtitle to match his role and lore in the Hobbit book: something like "Fond of Riddles" or "Small Slimy Creature".


PS: I was wondering about Elrond's self-healing text and his role as host of the White Council meeting at Rivendell. "At the start of each of your turns, you may heal once an ally whose home site is 3 (or heal Elrond twice)." That way, Galadriel and Saruman might get some optional healing.

[-Enola-]

Unfortunately, the text of the Wizard Staff will be too dense and not clear. And the "spell search" ability is really useful.

For the Blades, the "Each time" ability is at a new line. For Well-Crafted Armor, I think it's a mistake, like the "Orc" text of Orkish Invader, Black Land Commander... (cards from sets 15 and more). I prefer to keep a card easy to play (the text of Mithril Coat is long).

Ok I just change Elrond and Gollum's subtitle.

Thank you !!

[Durin's Heir]

Unfortunately, the text of the Wizard Staff will be too dense and not clear. And the "spell search" ability is really useful.

I believe the spell searching action in the Wizard Staff is indeed very important. But there are only 2 spells out of 4 events in the Main deck (both are offensive: Take Up Arms and Dawn Take You All), while the Wizard and White Council Packs provide 2 more spells and 1 non-spell event. I feel the best way of using the potential of Wizard Staff is by playing Balin in the early game. Why is it unique? There are 3 staves in the movies, and Gandalf's staff is seen with Radagast's in a scene of An Unexpected Jouney, and with Saruman's in another. With only 2 copies in the Wizard Pack, it might not be a great unbalance even if a single player grabs both of them.

I would like the Staff to search for more than only offensive tricks, but that might be very overpowered with Balin recycling tricks like A Wizard Is Never Late and He Gives Me Courage. It still has some space for a small, simple skill. What about "Skirmish: Exert bearer to make him strenght +2"? Or "Regroup: Exert bearer twice to heal a companion" (showing Radagast and Gandalf's healing skills; remember the Hedgehog, and Thorin at the Carrock)?

In respect of He Gives Me Courage, the text refers to Elrond while the picture shows Galadriel... What if it gets changed to "(or 2 doubts if you can also spot Galadriel or Elrond)"?


About Saruman, I really like the defender bonus to Gandalf as it can be interpreted as a reflect of his cunning ways to deal with multiple troubles with a single move (including his long-envied rival: "let Gandalf face them, and if his strength is not enough to match his foolhardy self-commanded tasks, and let's say, he DIES... well, even better for me!"). But besides that part he looks like a poorman's version of Radagast's skill to recover Gandalf. I mean, at Dol Guldur Elrond defeats the Nazgul very fast and skillfully but only one at a time, while Saruman is seen facing 3 or 4 of them at the same time as if he was taking a walk in the park!

Saruman must have been a great threat to the Nine Nazgul, as he was much more powerful than Gandalf the Grey who fought the Nine alone at Amon Sûl and survived. He also looked very harmful at Dol Guldur, damaging the fortress itself where they fought. And the card has enough spare room for a short additional skill, something like "Skirmish: Exert Saruman to make a or character strength +2 and damage +1". Paired with Galadriel's skirmish ability, it might help to fight Nazgul (countering Danger Wrapped in Shadows) and even dispatch them at the cost of exhausting the White Council.

Ok I just change Elrond and Gollum's subtitle.

Thank you !!

EDIT: Added some new ideas and arguments.

[-Enola-]

I agree with the non-unicity of the Wizard Staff, but the power is really huge. And I think only "agressive" events must be Spells, otherwise we could have an easy set up or an easy way to remove massive number of doubts with Staff+Balin.
The text of the Staff will be to dense with more text. It's ok like this.

I let only Elrond now on He Gives Me Courage. But I will probably change after the next paytest.

This ability of Saruman is too strong. Do you want to remove the ability of playing Gandalf back from the discard pile ? In order to have clear text cards, no more than one active ability+one passive ability per card is a rule .

[Durin's Heir]

I agree with the non-unicity of the Wizard Staff, but the power is really huge. And I think only "agressive" events must be Spells, otherwise we could have an easy set up or an easy way to remove massive number of doubts with Staff+Balin.
The text of the Staff will be to dense with more text. It's ok like this.

I let only Elrond now on He Gives Me Courage. But I will probably change after the next paytest.

Ok about that. The Wizard Staff is indeed very powerful. I just felt the lack of a healing skill for the two humble Wizards, and thought the addition of a short ability wouldn't hurt too much... In the first movie we can see Radagast healing "Sebastian" the hedgehog with his magic, and at the end we see Gandalf too healing Thorin from battle wounds and unconsciousness...

Though not depicted by Decipher or by Peter Jackson in LOTR, Gandalf the Grey was indeed a great healer: he and Elrond healed Frodo from the Morgul Blade wounds and the Black Breath (after Elrond removed the Blade Tip), and his friendship with the Lord of the Eagles was based on an arrow wound he cured. They only show Gandalf the White healing Théoden from madness, but that was actually mental relief...

This ability of Saruman is too strong. Do you want to remove the ability of playing Gandalf back from the discard pile ?

That's right, as Saruman shouldn't really reincorporate Gandalf to the Quest of Erebor; to counter Gandalf's discarding the FP player should use AWINL, being the only exception the Wizard Pack. In the book Gandalf isn't captured, doesn't need help and retuns by himself; in the movies Radagast AND Galadriel release him... But Galadriel has enough abilities.

The skirmish ability is meant to be very strong, but it's use can be restrained in the same way as Galadriel's: "Skirmish: Exert Saruman and discard a Shadow card from hand to make a or character strength +2 and damage +1". Galadriel's and Saruman's skills sharing the same resource, thus both skills won't be abused in the same turn. Or at least the chances will be minimal.

In order to have clear text cards, no more than one active ability+one passive ability per card is a rule .

Agree with that one, more or less: we must keep in mind that general rules might have some reasonable exceptions. Like the Arkenstone or Smaug's Awakening: each has 2 active abilities but those are different parts of the same function. And others like Emeralds of Girion and Twisted Gold of Dragon: 2 active and 2 passive abilities, respectively...

[-Enola-]

Ok, I agree that Saruman can be a bit changed. An ability using the same ressource as Galadriel is a great idea, but I think a different phase ability would be great. It's a bit redundant with Galadriel now, any idea ?

[Durin's Heir]

Saruman just won't remove twilight, wounds nor doubts. He might discard Shadow items and conditions, but that may make him overpowered like Lady Redeemed. Interesting options are wound prevention (Intimidate) and exertion wound tokens prevention (Strength of Spirit) to and characters, and recovering a event just played into hand (Into Dark Tunnels). Apart from that, maybe direct exertions to minions. But the strenght and damage of his power were his resources once the fight had started. And strength and damage addition will be extremely important to the White Council.

Those skirmish actions are indeed very different (keeping in mind skirmishes are always about surviving or killing). The White Council will be composed of strength 8 allies at best, and given the abundance of Shadow pumps (Danger Wrapped, 3x Anger, Toldea) a strength addition will be much more important than a strength reduction to the other side; just look at Galadriel: strength 3, and her only help will come from her own exertions (Former Herald and her ability) besides the Gathering of the Three Rings. She WILL need strength support and the cost must be payed by another one, or else she will be overwhelmed or killed by a single wound. Sauron will take advantage of that point and assing a heavy Nazgul to her. "Are you in need of assistance, my lady?"

Same goes for Gandalf, Elrond and Saruman himself. Strength 8 is easily overwhelmed if Toldea or Danger Wrapped in Shadows are present, and will be present very often, besides 3x Anger. Gandalf will often face beasts like Trolls, Wargriders, and Sauron or Smaug themselves. The defender bonus for Gandalf will be of more utility if he has some strength support. Strenght +2 is very useful but not abusive at all.

The damage bonus is very important too. Many strong minions are fierce (everyone in Dol Guldur), and the strength reduction will last only for the first skirmish and they won't be restrained in the second; Galadriel can exert only twice. There is a great need to kill them before there is a second skirmish, and the only option besides damage is a very fragile situation called overwhelming; Danger Wrapped in Shadows will make sure that overwhelming won't happen. Dwarves will have damage bonuses but Sauron can and will assign Nazgul to the White Council (or weak companions) to get rid of their tricks (and weaken Gandalf too)...



The pumps provided to both sides will make the Battle at Dol Guldur very amusing. The idea reminds me the "Duel of Wizards" at Orthanc in FOTR. I wish Decipher had made the pump part of Saruman's Ambition usable by any minion, and Saruman's Staff a card of set 3 instead of 4, but nope, they made him an awful fighter instead... Here we have a good chance to depict Saruman as a towering and frightening foe.


You still haven't said anything of the points I made about The Nazgul shadow. You have been busy, I know, but I believe that should be the next step by now.

I know this has nothing to do here, but Radagast doesn't have a passive text and was Gandalf's closest confident and ally. Saruman gives him a defender bonus, Galadriel heals him and Elrond heals everyone. I think a short text like "Gandalf is strength +1" might be added to Radagast if there is room...

Another loose idea: if Saruman won't replay Gandalf from discard (and he shouldn't), and moreover if Gandalf was Jailed when they arrived, Former Herald shouldn't need to spot Gandalf really...

[-Enola-]

Ok, it's a good idea to give to all "Wises" (except Elrond who heal the others) a different ability for Gandalf.

I will change Radagast and Saruman, in your way, after our playtest thursday .

Tell me if you see another problem. I will print the final cards (except for the new Shadows packs) after this playtest.

[Durin's Heir]

Ok, it's a good idea to give to all "Wises" (except Elrond who heal the others) a different ability for Gandalf.

I will change Radagast and Saruman, in your way, after our playtest thursday .

That's the idea, to show a direct support from his fellows of the White Council . What if you add to the Wise a new Wise unloaded keyword (like Ranger or Knight distinguishes some guys)? The White Council were also called "The Wise": Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast, Elrond and Galadriel would use it, and that would distinguish Wise Elves from common ones like Thranduil or his son. And would reduce greatly the length of the text of Sauron or those Nazgul that allow the White Council to fight.

Cards that need to spot or exert a "Wizard or Elf" might be changed to spot or exert a wise. Former Herald might say "Exert a wise ally. Until the regroup phase, that ally is strength +3 and participates in skirmishes", and would also include Radagast, in the rare case those 2 packs meet if 4 or more players play. Or even "Exert a wise. Until the regroup phase, that character is strength +3 and..." to pump Gandalf himself.

Tell me if you see another problem. I will print the final cards (except for the new Shadows packs) after this playtest.

- Narya: it's response action is helpful at site 5 but I don't see anything else that might discard him, besides himself if you pick randomly Friend of Thorin (great combo!); Leader of the Company can't use that ability at all. It still has plenty of room for a passive skill. What about "At the start of each of your turns, you may draw a card"? Like the Grey Pilgrim, the version that depicts best Gandalf as a wanderer...

- Eagles Are Coming: Looks good in you haven't played your 2 followers, but after that it's completely useless. But I have an idea to allow it to attach followers already in play. It's clear and simple, and might use only 1 line more than the current version. I made a cheap version with MS Paint (really!), see below and laugh if you want to :

Eagles Are Coming
Event  • Maneuver or Skirmish
Spell.
Exert Gandalf to play a follower from your draw deck or discard pile. You may then attach a follower to a companion (without paying the aid cost).

If there are no followers to play, the rest of the text still aplies. That way, you may use Gwaihir twice at the same site, or Beorn twice (nice with Take Up Arms). As a skirmish action, preserves the surprise factor of skirmish events. Beorn might pick this event back and help in repeated skirmishes like the frightening bear of the book, as far as he (and his bearer) wins his skirmish AND Gandalf has vitality to keep exerting (but watch out with the twilight!).


I don't see any other problem by now, besides the fact Former Herald shouldn't require to spot Gandalf as said before. Well, there is one: actually the Lord of the Eagles in The Hobbit was a different character than Gwaihir in LOTR, but I'd prefer Tolkien made them the same Eagle. Let it as it is!