Hi all – I have spent a lot of time pondering an action plan for the players committee. It is not my idea, but a collection of all ideas on these forums. It is terribly long and likely needs to be amended. Please take a read and give me feedback.
I propose 8 steps.
The first four steps are all about generating interest, increasing the player base, getting tournaments going, and supporting the community. I hope these steps will be supported by everyone and would expect little opposition.
The last four steps provide some obstacles and have met with some opposition. These steps can only be put into place once the first four steps are well established.
Players Committee Action Plan1) The Future of LOTR – As voted by the expanding community at The Last Homely HouseBefore we really get started we need to make some decisions about the future of LOTR. I propose we do this via polls on the Last Homely House Forums so that everyone on these forums has their say – this hopefully will make everyone feel included.
Most importantly, what format/s of LOTR should we initially promote to new players? Introducing new players using all cards, and exposing them to broken cards and combos without errata, rules support, updated banned / restricted lists in my opinion would be a mistake. Using a smaller card base hopefully will pose fewer problems with rules, banned and restricted cards. Introducing new players must be easier with a smaller card pool.
The formats to vote on are as follows. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Note banned and restricted cards as listed at
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,120.0.html• Fellowship Block (Sets 1-3) – already we have a lot of support for this
• Towers Block (Sets 4-6)
• King Block (Sets 7,8,10)
• Movie Block (Sets 1-10)
• War of the Ring (Sets 11,12,13)
• Hunters Block (Sets 14,15,17)
• Standard Format (Sets 7-19)
• Expanded Format (All sets)
• Open Format (All sets)
2) Marketing Team – Everyone can help!Let us spread the work about Lord of the Rings TCG. We want as many people as possible playing this great game. We need to promote The Last Homely House
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/ as a place for people to meet. We need to get new players playing the game and the experienced players to come back and start playing again.
• Create a new topic "Promoting/Marketing the game" on the forum boards for people to discuss ideas and talk about the success they may have had in promoting the game.
• We need flyers (these need to be designed and approved by the PC – perhaps by a poll on the forums) to go out to Hobby Stores, conventions, etc.
• We have a LOTR magazine in development by Sete. Any support he can get would be appreciated in making this project a reality.
• We need to hit other websites and let people know that LOTR TCG is still going at
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/ (this is happening).
• Players need to go to Hobby Stores and demo the game in an attempt to get new players playing the game.
• Other ideas appreciated!
Any good publicity that helps get more people playing LOTR and this is good for everyone.
3) Tournament Team – We will need Tournament Directors!To aid in getting people playing the game again players need somewhere to play.
• Volunteer Tournament Directors need to setup tournaments in their local area, supporting the chosen format/s for new players as decided at step 1. Tournament directors will need to be passionate about the game and be willing to locate prize support, etc. It will not be about running tournaments to make a profit.
• Tournaments can be promoted on this site at
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/board,5.0.html. Correct me if I am wrong about the location on the forums. Perhaps we need a link on the forums that is more obvious if that can be arranged.
• I recommend that the most successful areas setup leagues tables for their local playing groups to generate interest amongst the most competitive players.
• A tournament system should be established, with tournament support (player sheets, tournament guidelines, tournament rankings etc). This may be ambitious because we will need a website that supports this, an agreed tournament system, with someone willing to collate the results. More work will be required for this to become a reality.
4) Rules Team – We will need experienced players with an excellent knowledge of the rules on the rules team which should be composed of more than one player. • Rules questions can be posted at
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/board,2.0.html• There are people at The Last Homely House will excellent knowledge of the rules, hopefully they are willing to help.
• The rules team will be responsible for making critical decisions about the future of the game. They will need the support of the playing community.
• New broken cards and strategies will appear with people playing the game again, and the problems that arise will be addressed by the rules team.
• The rules book will need to be updated periodically.
• The rules team will need to add cards to the current banned and restricted pool
in the event that a serious problem with a card is encountered.5) Web team – We need someone capable of designing and updating content on a website.• At some point the Players Committee will need a website that provides a place that information can be downloaded for free (Rules Updates, Tournament materials, etc). If The Last Homely House can provide us with that – fantastic! If not the PC can establish a website that provides free downloads of critical resources. The Last Homely House can be promoted as the place to discuss LOTR (forums) and to view cards (the database). The PC is not trying to get rid of The Last Homely House – without them the PC has less chance at all of getting off the ground and we love that it is a place to meet with other people that enjoy LOTR TCG.
• We cannot generate profit from this. A website with a .org is the only way to proceed beyond this point. The Star Trek players committee may be able to provide us with that as a joint venture. This may only be necessary if we move to stage 6 and 7
6) Legal team – We need someone capable of pitching the idea of a not-for-profit organisation to Decipher, New Line, Tolkien Estate. Someone with a reputation would help!• If we have a product to pitch to these companies it will help. Steps 1-5 are critical before moving to steps 6 and beyond.
• To create new material using Decipher's template we would need their approval.
• To use images from the movies we would need New Line's approval.
• To use names and lore from the books we would need Tolkien Estate approval.
• Legal approval is only necessary if we move to stage 7 and design v-cards.
• Note it has been suggested that it may be possible to avoid step 6, or avoid some approvals by modifying the way we do step 7. Examples – Half slips (as per Star Wars design) and new templates.
7) Design team – We need experienced players/designers to design v-cards and errata cards.• Banned and restricted cards could be redesigned with errata so they can be reintroduced to the playing community.
• V-cards could be designed to expand the current cards available.
• V-cards can be designed to work within a range of formats – example – they may expand the card base for the Fellowship block – sets 1-3 compatible. This will make the experience of playing different formats fresh, and hopefully exciting. In doing so, the goal is to attract new players.
• Of course, players have the option of not using these cards. Tournaments can be created that ban the use of v-cards.
• The expansion of LOTR TCG has met with some resistance. The PC does not want to destroy the game by introducing unbalanced cards or to ban or create errata on good cards. The goal is to provide new playing experiences with a growing product. If successful, in time we may be able to create a new playing format, v-format using virtual cards only (Star Trek is moving closer to this after 2 years of having a PC).
• New cards (errata or v-cards) will never be designed to players lacking the experience or skill and must be approved by play-testers (step 8).
8) Play-testing team – We need experienced playing groups to play-test v-cards and errata cards.• Play-testing groups will become more accessible as the people return to LOTR so all of the above steps must be put into place to get to steps 6, 7 and 8.
• Play-testers will need to try-out new cards in the appropriate formats and report back with feedback. Cards will be modified and retested before they are released for tournament / general use.
• I have a different model for play-testing cards. The design team releases Beta cards for the community to test. Everyone reports back to the design team. Modifications are made as required. Only cards that meet minimal opposition and have not been found to create broken loops are released and become tournament legal. This model involves the whole community. The amount of feedback may become overwhelming.