MODERN UPDATE:This thread is the freight train for bringing Allies back as a fundamental card type; and beyond, revamping the entire
Lord of the Rings TCG rules system, something I internally refer to as
Second Quest, because in addition to Allies returning, there's also:
Quests. This as-yet-unrevealed new card type (I'm still fiddling with it) expands the scope of your game, for the first time enabling players to haul the Ring all the way from
Bag End to
Mount Doom. I've been playing around with this idea since
Reflections was announced and I feel like I almost have it right.
Dwellings. The second new card type, and I suppose the spiritual successor to Thranduil's old
monument concept, shines
a new light on the interactive terrain of Tolkien's world. Dwellings aren't Conditions though, even if they feel and play exactly the same way. I won't have a concrete example to show you for a little while longer, mainly because I need to test the card type in every culture before I feel like it's good to go, and there's a bunch of new cultures for me to develop from scratch, too!
The Adventure Area is a new-designated zone where all Sites, Dwellings, Allies, and Adventure Area-playing cards live. The Adventure Area is a shared area between all players. Expect the Adventure Area to get busy as the War rages on.
Three New Cultures - Arnor - Fangorn - MorgulArnor is the new home of all the Northern Kingdom of Men, focusing chiefly on the Free Peoples of Bree and the roving Rangers of unspoken lineage. Arnor is an excellent early-game Freeps culture, offering the stout and ready support of Aragorn and those who may rally to his banner. But Arnor relies heavily on Allies (typically without regard for culture, making it an easy-to-splash culture) and as you'll see the Shadow has plenty of ways of punishing a fellowship for relying too heavily on outside support.
Arnor also suffers as the game wears on - most players will have made the switch to an
Aragorn in his Companion persona, but the fellowship quickly leaves Eriador and, thus, much of what fuels Arnor as a culture.
Fangorn is my reckoning with a 16 year old chip on my shoulder, all the way back to BoHD. The Ents deserve better than a silly pointy hat!
Fangorn is slow. Very slow. So slow that they don't have access to a single Event, reliant entirely upon Condition-based card plays. But, being as old as they are, oftentimes Ents (and Trees) require very little to play and offer savory destructive power to any player willing to toss a few Hobbits into the Forest. And you'll want their support, since site 8[T] will be an absolute bloodbath if you're forced to go it alone without Treebeard's army.
Morgul encompasses not only Minas Morgul (the Home Site of the Nazgûl), but also the Dark Host led by The Witch-king to the
Pelennor Fields. Morgul specializes in terror, horror, and giant murderous siege weapons commanded by Orcs with skulls nailed to their heads.
Below you'll find the start to all of this: an Ally card for each of
The Nine Walkers. Before too much longer I'll start posting cardlists.
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•
Gimli, Envoy of Erebor Ally • Home 3[F] • Dwarf
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Frodo Signet
Damage +1.To play, spot a Dwarf and 3 Free Peoples cultures.
While the fellowship is at a mountain or underground site, Gimli participates in archery fire and skirmishes.
"'...and Gimli son of Glóin for the Dwarves... willing to go at least to the passes of the Mountains, and maybe beyond.'"(Update 1: Added lore, removed overformatting.)
•
Legolas, Messenger of Mirkwood Ally • Home 3[F] • Elf
Strength 6
Vitality 3
Frodo Signet
Archer.To play, spot an Elf and 3 Free Peoples cultures.
While the fellowship is at a forest or river site, Legolas participates in archery fire and skirmishes.
"'...they shall represent the other Free Peoples of the World: Elves, Dwarves, and Men. Legolas shall be for the Elves...'"(Update 1: Added lore, removed overformatting.)
These first two allies are fairly vanilla, but still good. Their home site allows them to be targeted by Rivendell-centric cards and once you get them into play they become active at certain sites - note that this is non-optional!
•
Gandalf, Wandering Wizard Ally • Home 1[F] & 5[T] & 3[K] • Wizard
Strength 6
Vitality 4
Aragorn Signet
Ranger. To play, add
or spot 3 Shadow cultures.
While skirmishing a fierce minion, Gandalf is strength +2.
Response: If the twilight pool has 12 or more twilight tokens, exert Gandalf and add
to allow him to participate in archery fire and skirmishes until the regroup phase.
"'Wherever I have been, I am back,' he answered in the genuine Gandalf manner. '...This is a perilous night, and I must ride fast. But the dawn may be brighter; and if so, we shall meet again.'"(Update 1: Added lore, removed overformatting. Bumped up Gandalf's cost from 3 to 4. Changed Assignment to Response, upped the spot from 10 tokens to 12, and added 3 more following the exert.)
Gandalf the Ranger! He won't stick around very long to help, but he'll pop out naturally a couple of times, and if things get dire enough you can expect to see him show up looking for a scrap!
•
Aragorn, Protector of the Shire Ally • Home 1[F] & 2[F] & 3[F] • Man
Strength 8
Vitality 4
Gandalf Signet
Ranger. Defender +1. To play, exert Gandalf or Elrond
Response: If your Hobbit (or ally whose home site is 1[F] or 2[F]) is about to take a wound, exert Aragorn to prevent it.
"'It would take more than a few days, or weeks, or years, of wandering in the Wild to make you look like Strider,' he answered. 'And you would die first, unless you are made of sterner stuff than you look to be.'"(Update 1: Added lore, removed overformatting.)
I originally had Aragorn doing something else but changed him to healing because he's a healer. This ability covers every Hobbit ally and companion, along with anybody else who lives in the area - I'm imagining some hypothetical ally versions of Halbarad or Gildor utilizing this shadowy protector's ability to absorb damage, but
Goldberry and
Tom Bombadil qualify too!
•
Boromir, Champion of Gondor Ally • Home 3[K] & 6[K] • Man
Strength 7
Vitality 3
Denethor Signet
Knight. Valiant. To play, exert Denethor or spot no cards in your dead pile.
While the fellowship is at a battleground site (or if you spot 3
cards), Boromir participates in archery fire and skirmishes.
"'...less than a year ago they won back the crossings, and many of our best men were slain. Boromir it was that drove the enemy at last back from this western shore, and we hold still the near half of Osgiliath.'"(Update 1: Added lore, removed overformatting.)
I added
valiant and the dead pile bit to give him a few degrees of splashability - I figure if you're exerting Denethor you're already playing
, in which case you'd prefer Boromir as a companion over his ally form.
So now any FP deck can run him, but only if he's on the front line. And if you can get into some battles or if you're facing the darkness of Mordor, Boromir will be there to help!
•
Frodo, Favored Relation Ally • Home 1[F] • Hobbit
Strength 3
Vitality 3
Gandalf Signet
Ring-bound. To play, spot Bilbo bearing The One Ring.
At the start of each fellowship phase, exert the Ring-bearer (or add a burden) to play a
ally from your draw deck.
Regroup: Exert Bilbo and Frodo to make Frodo a companion and the
Ring-bearer (resistance 5), then discard Bilbo.
"'For it is, of course, also the birthday of my heir and nephew, Frodo. He comes of age and into his inheritance today.'"(Update 1: Added lore, removed overformatting. Dropped vitality from 4 to 3.)
Weird card! This Frodo is the Sam to
Bilbo BoTB; and yet I also wanted him to feel a little bit like Smeagol, so I wrote a mostly-positive-
but-mandatory effect that put a constant pressure on old Bilbo. Basically, as long as Bilbo hangs around the Shire it blossoms despite his increasing
menace, and eventually he has to leave or become corrupted; in either case Frodo receives the Ring - but because he's fresh into the (R/r)ing and has troubles of his own leaving the Shire, the maybe-bad effect continues.
•
Merry, Shrewd Conspirator Ally • Home 1[F] & 2[F] • Hobbit
Strength 3
Vitality 3
Frodo Signet
To play, spot Frodo and 3 Hobbits.
Each time you play a
stealth card, you may exert Merry to remove
(limit once per phase).
"'We have been terrified that you might give us the slip, and go off suddenly, all on your own like he did. Ever since this spring we have kept our eyes open, and done a great deal of planning on our own account. You are not going to escape so easily!'"(Update 1: Added lore, removed overformatting. Dropped vitality from 4 to 3.)
•
Pippin, Young Conspirator Ally • Home 1[F] & 2[F] • Hobbit
Strength 3
Vitality 3
Frodo Signet
To play, spot Frodo and 3 Hobbits.
Each time you play a
possession, you may exert Pippin to remove
(limit once per phase).
"There was a terrific splash, and a shout of Whoa!
from Frodo. It appeared that a lot of Pippin's bath had imitated a fountain and leaped on high... 'Lawks!' said Merry, looking in. The stone floor was swimming. 'You ought to mop all that up before you get anything to eat, Peregrin.' he said. 'Hurry up, or we shan't wait for you.'"(Update 1: Added lore, removed overformatting. Dropped vitality from 4 to 3.)
Both Merry and Pippin look simple but I feel like they've got some nasty choke potential, especially when used multiple times per turn... and in tandem.
•
Sam, Reluctant Conspirator Ally • Home 1[F] • Hobbit
Strength 3
Vitality 3
Frodo Signet
Ring-bound. To play, spot Frodo.
Fellowship: Exert Sam and play a
tale to heal Frodo or remove a burden.
"'Here's our collector of information! And he collected a lot, I can tell you, before he was finally caught. After which, I may say, he seemed to regard himself as on parole, and dried up.'"(Update 1: Added lore, removed overformatting. Dropped vitality from 4 to 3.)
Sam is a slightly different sort of conspirator, his nose to the ground, and absent is his ability to take the Ring in the event of a Frodo-corpsing; instead Sam comes with diverse nursing potential as long as there's a story being written.
•Stinker, Ensnared Ally • Home 8[K] & 9[K]
Strength 8
Vitality 4
Enduring. Lurker. To play, discard a
minion from play.
At the start of each fellowship phase, each player reveals a card at random from hand.
Response: If the Ring-bearer takes a wound, discard Stinker to play a minion named Gollum from your discard pile; he is
damage +1 and
fierce until the regroup phase.
(Update 1: Removed overformatting. Dropped cost from 6 to 3. Swapped Ambush for Enduring. Changed card-revealing text from movement-based to the start of the fellowship phase. Added damage +1 to the Response effect.)
And I had to do something really weird to finish. This
Gollum costs 6 because his inception actually signified a dramatic shortfall in Sauron's influence over Middle-earth, further illustrated by the to-play text.
I wanted Gollum to do something omni-unhelpful for all players regardless of side, and I wanted Gollum to be able to summon the genuine
version of himself in a pinch - I figure right whenever the Ring-bearer is weakest seems best.
Also this Shadow ally can skirmish, but only from Gorgoroth onward.