A mechanic for Back to the Light...

[DáinIronfoot]

Briefly on the subject of multiculture:

I think anyone that's followed my DC sets for a while knows that I am BIG into multiculture, on both sides. But it has to make sense. A couple of the examples ket made are prime examples of why you have to be careful...or risk absolutely ruining the flavor. The new Shadow cultures still stick in my craw, too, especially and . Come on...what sense does it make to have Grima, Dunlendings, Easterlings, and the Men of Bree all in the same culture? How stupid is that?! And I HATE how the culture breaks down all the cool flavor Big D had built up with , , and then and Orcs. Those all had their own subtleties that made them great divisions of the same race, and then Decipher decided to just tear all that down. Stupid stupid stupid. And they wonder why their fanbase started to fall apart.

Anyway, there IS multiculture that makes sense. and make a rather natural pairing, for example. Elves and Dwarves make some sense. and , certainly. For Shadow, there is tons of sense in uniting and , or and , or and . Storywise, these all make perfect sense.

So, in short, having cards that unite certain cultures together are a-okay by me. I would argue against others like, say, and , or and . So I would sour on ideas like your Alliance, Thran, because they're simply too open. Something like the alliance idea someone else had a little while back (I think it was Menace) that unites certain culture together...that I would strongly endorse.

Okay, end rant. Moving on to some cards....

•Siege Commander, Lieutenant of Mordor
Minion • Orc
Str: 12
Vit: 3
Sit: 4
Besieger.
When you play Siege Commander, you may take into hand an engine from your discard pile.
While you can spot 3 engines, each besieger is strength +2.
While you can spot 5 engines, each besieger is fierce.
T R 69

Well, not a huge fan of , as I already said above. But...this ain't bad. Not too bad at all. I'm on board with this one.

Spies in His Service
Condition • Support Area
While you can spot a traitor, the roaming penalty for your minions is -2.
Skirmish: Discard this condition to make a traitor strength +1 for each culture you can spot.
B R

With it being non-unique, I'd make the roaming -1, so as to make you work a little harder for it. I also think this needs to cost . Nice overall idea, though. I forget: traitor in unbound, right?

Savage Strength
Event • Skirmish
Spot a minion to wound a skirmishing companion. If that companion has resistance 5 or less, wound that companion again.
L C 94

Not really multiculture, but okay.

Swarms of Orcs
Event • Skirmish
Spot an minion to make minion strength +2 (or +1 for each minion you can spot if that minion is skirmishing a companion with resistance 4 or less).
L C 126

Oh, I see now. They can target companions skirmishing minions of ANY culture. Gotcha. You're missing an "a" in there, but otherwise seems okay.

[Thranduil]

Briefly on the subject of multiculture:

I think anyone that's followed my DC sets for a while knows that I am BIG into multiculture, on both sides. But it has to make sense. A couple of the examples ket made are prime examples of why you have to be careful...or risk absolutely ruining the flavor. The new Shadow cultures still stick in my craw, too, especially and . Come on...what sense does it make to have Grima, Dunlendings, Easterlings, and the Men of Bree all in the same culture? How stupid is that?! And I HATE how the culture breaks down all the cool flavor Big D had built up with , , and then and Orcs. Those all had their own subtleties that made them great divisions of the same race, and then Decipher decided to just tear all that down. Stupid stupid stupid. And they wonder why their fanbase started to fall apart.

Anyway, there IS multiculture that makes sense. and make a rather natural pairing, for example. Elves and Dwarves make some sense. and , certainly. For Shadow, there is tons of sense in uniting and , or and , or and . Storywise, these all make perfect sense.

Yeah, I completely understand these points. But I think I would answer these flavour problems by saying that sometimes you have to treat the game in the abstract, like when Elendil and Aragorn are in the same fellowship. What you have to say is that there's Elendil fighting in the 2nd Age which has results that somehow help Aragorn's fellowship in the 3rd Age. Elendil and Aragorn are mechanically similar and so often lend themselves to similar decks, but you have to be abstract in interpreting the results.

Similarly, multiple Shadow cultures may be mechanically complimentary but the flavour might be problematic. What I think you have to say here is that these are 2 different groups of people that just happen to be helping each other. So you'd have something like those Orcs fighting Faramir over there are keeping him from helping his brother who is being beset by Gríma. I think this is ultimately what you have to do, partly because, as you said, the cultures changed, so while Orcs and Nazgûl always made flavour sense, Orcs and Nazgûl don't necessarily. (Incidentally, this is one problem that the tribal approach solves. You can make all besiegers make mechanical and flavour sense from different cultures, or trackers or traitors etc. And while I remember, yes traitor is unloaded DI).

So, in short, having cards that unite certain cultures together are a-okay by me. I would argue against others like, say, and , or and . So I would sour on ideas like your Alliance, Thran, because they're simply too open. Something like the alliance idea someone else had a little while back (I think it was Menace) that unites certain culture together...that I would strongly endorse.

Yes, I remembered menace's alliance and I checked it out, and it's very clever. But I don't think I'm going to do it! It's a bit narrow for what I want, I think, and you don't really need a keyword to do what he was doing in Lands of Shadow.

Anyway, thank you very much for your thoughts! I may be posting some other crazy ideas in the future here, and any other opinions on the subject of flavour or mechanics of multiculture will be greatly appreciated.

Thranduil

[Anvar]

There will always be people happy to play multi-cultural fellowships, as there have been since the beginning of the game (this is why there is vastly more punishment for rainbow FPs than shadow sides). This is due to the fact that you can start with companions in play, and they stick around for several turns. I can splash a single copy of the Long-Knives of Legolas into my rainbow deck, because I know that I start Legolas and so the card will (almost) never be a redundant draw. Compare this to splashing for a copy of Lurtz and his sword.

On the other hand, shadow cards have spotting requirements that are much harder to fulfill. So there are a few things that would make playing multi-culture shadow easier.

1] Aim for people to be playing 2-3 cultures but no more (unlike rainbow fellowships that can be up to 5 or 6 sometimes).
2] Make sure that cultures have access to card-cycling allowing them to get rid of/make use of otherwise unusable cards. Bear in mind that the average deck size may need to increase to support multi-culture play.
3] Make cards with few to no spotting requirements, especially support area conditions/possessions/artefacts that can be played straight from hand.
4] Make alternate spotting requirements (eg. spot a card, spot a minion in the discard pile etc.)
5] Have a vague plan as to which cultures overlap with which and how they might support each other. I suppose this isn't as important but is good to think about for drafting especially. What is the overlap between Uruks and Orcs? Is there one? What would a Wraith / Evil Men draft deck be trying to do?

Hope that's helpful,
Anvar

[Thranduil]

1] Aim for people to be playing 2-3 cultures but no more (unlike rainbow fellowships that can be up to 5 or 6 sometimes).

Yep, that was always my plan!

2] Make sure that cultures have access to card-cycling allowing them to get rid of/make use of otherwise unusable cards. Bear in mind that the average deck size may need to increase to support multi-culture play.

This is very interesting, and not something I had considered nor taken into account. Though, foreseeing fulfils this role reasonably well... I will probably try to make more Shadow cantrips to accommodate this (sorry for using yet more MTG terms - a cantrip is a card that has a little extra benefit tagged onto the end, normally "Draw a card").

3] Make cards with few to no spotting requirements, especially support area conditions/possessions/artefacts that can be played straight from hand.

Spotting requirements on minions is something I've essentially done away with, because otherwise drafting doesn't work. I've been trying to make events and conditions as general as possible, though I am well aware that the number of support area cards is seriously lacking compared to events. This is mainly because events are more fun to design, more fun to play and work within my aggressor Shadow theme (and toil sub-theme - toil fits much better on events than conditions), which is one of the ways I've been trying to promote large cards and multicultural Shadows. I'll give some examples of general events below, but I will have to make a conscious effort to make more conditions.

4] Make alternate spotting requirements (eg. spot a card, spot a minion in the discard pile etc.)

I've been making cards that spot [Culture] cards, especially for small cultures like or . Discard pile is an interesting avenue as it's always there. Certainly something I will be considering.

5] Have a vague plan as to which cultures overlap with which and how they might support each other. I suppose this isn't as important but is good to think about for drafting especially. What is the overlap between Uruks and Orcs? Is there one? What would a Wraith / Evil Men draft deck be trying to do?

I haven't done this as such, but I've been letting the flavour will sort this out for me. For example, if I know I'm making a Breelander, then he will automatically (if I'm doing my design job correctly) come out looking mechanically similar to a card.

Okay, so examples of how I'm trying to let rainbow Shadow grow:

Most cards only need to spot 1 thing to play, as in the examples above. Some things require nothing to play, such as:

Saruman's Craft
Event • Shadow
Engine. Toil 3.
Take a Shadow artifact, engine or spell into hand from your draw deck.
T U 48

Dismay
Event • Regroup
Toil 3.
Exert each companion with resistance 5 or less (or wound that companion if he or she is corrupted).
T U 53

Other cards are built as splashes anywhere, such as:

•Freca, Dunlending Chieftain
Minion • Man
Str: 9
Vit: 1
Sit: 4
Aggressor. Besieger. Fierce (for each aggressor assigned to a skirmish, each Shadow card is twilight cost -1).
Each time Freca wins a skirmish, you may play a minion from your hand. If you do, that minion is fierce until the regroup phase.
T C 55

•Muzgash, Orc of Cirith Ungol
Minion • Orc
Str: 7
Vit: 2
Sit: 6
Aggressor. Traitor.
Muzgash is strength +2 for each wounded minion you can spot.
L R 115

Other cards are going to be built specifically for dual culture decks, like the following subtle cards (notice that the cultures and spotting requirements are different):

CARDNAME
Event • Skirmish
Toil 2.
Spot a minion to make the Ring-bearer wear The One Ring until the regroup phase. The Free Peoples player may add a burden to prevent this.
B C

CARDNAME
Event • Skirmish
Toil 2.
Play a minion from your hand; it is strength +3 and fierce until the regroup phase.
B C