The Last Homely House
Middle-Earth => Chamber of Mazarbul => Topic started by: Thranduil on January 20, 2009, 06:29:49 AM
-
I was doing some thinking about my set and decided that I would need some new keywords or mechanics. So I did some brainstorming and thought I'd find out what you guys thought. So here's a list of experiments; you tell me which you like best and suggest improvements for them. Thanks! 8-) :mrgreen:
Threshold - Ability
I have 2 ideas for this one:
1) The ability triggers when the companion's resistance is 0.
2) Threshold X and the ability triggers when the companion's resistance is exactly X, or possibly X or more.
Aura - Ability
The ability affects only your characters with a twilight cost equal to or less than that of the character with the aura. I'm using twilight so that it can be a Shadow and FP keyword, but I was also toying with the aura only affecting companions with resistance equal to or greater.
Foresee X
When you play this card, you may look at the top X cards of a draw deck and replace them in any order.
Omen - X
When you play this card, you reveal the top card of your draw deck. If the revealed card matches the omen card, you may take the revealed card into hand. Ie. this would look like "Omen - The Witch-King" or "Omen - [Elven] condition".
Affinity for X
Each card you play that fulfills X costs -1. Ie. this would look like "Affinity for [Gondor]" making each [Gondor] card cost -1.
Protector
While a protector is assigned to a skirmish, the Ring-bearer is strength +2 (or perhaps the Ring-bearer is strength +1 for each protector assigned).
Assailant
While an assailant is assigned to a skirmish, all protector bonuses are cancelled and/or each event you play costs -1 (or -2 for each assailant assigned).
-
Well, since I may be the best suited to post about this, let me! :D
Threshold - Ability
I have 2 ideas for this one:
1) The ability triggers when the companion's resistance is 0.
2) Threshold X and the ability triggers when the companion's resistance is exactly X, or possibly X or more.
I think resistance 0 is the best choice. However, if you're thinking on using it the same way, "making things bigger", like making characters stronger or cards better, I think you need a different approach so the Shadow player can use it as well. Sure, he'd be able to spot the companions, but then he'd either have to make a deck dedicated to lowering their resistance or count on the fact they would be playing with it. Perhaps counting Shadow/Free Peoples cards in the discard pile (or maybe a specific type of card, for instance, Threshold on minions triggers with minions, on conditions with conditions, so on, so forth) is easier. But I think as it is resistance 0 is the best way to go, so both sides can play with it.
Aura - Ability
The ability affects only your characters with a twilight cost equal to or less than that of the character with the aura. I'm using twilight so that it can be a Shadow and FP keyword, but I was also toying with the aura only affecting companions with resistance equal to or greater.
I think equal twilight cost would be enough, equal or less might prove too overpowered depending on the abilities, and to benefit that many characters I think it'd be easy to make "generic conditions", like "Nazgûl are strength +2" or stuff like this (less messy to keep track of).
Foresee X
When you play this card, you may look at the top X cards of a draw deck and replace them in any order.
I'd like more if you used the whole ability, letting they put any number of them on the BOTTOM of the deck. Might be abusable this way, but I think it's more fun!
Omen - X
When you play this card, you reveal the top card of your draw deck. If the revealed card matches the omen card, you may take the revealed card into hand. Ie. this would look like "Omen - The Witch-King" or "Omen - [Elven] condition".
I think this is not very useful as it is. I think instead of taking it into hand, you could play it for no cost or a reduced cost. Seriously, it might look abusable, but it's not as abusable as it seems. Or perhaps get a REALLY good effect and then either discard that top card or place it on the bottom of the deck (to avoid too much abuse).
Affinity for X
Each card you play that fulfills X costs -1. Ie. this would look like "Affinity for [Gondor]" making each [Gondor] card cost -1.
This is... confusing. It should actually be "This card is twilight cost -1 for each [Gondor] card you can spot. However, it'd be ABSURDLY abusable, unless you costed it like the Ents, (which are STILL abusable, but at least not very much). Or maybe only counting cards of the same type, or only counting companions/minions?
Protector
While a protector is assigned to a skirmish, the Ring-bearer is strength +2 (or perhaps the Ring-bearer is strength +1 for each protector assigned).
I'd actually like to see a bit more flavor, he should give the bonus while NOT assigned to a skirmish (if he's busy fighting, he can't be protecting the R-b, now can he?). This would also make it less abusable, since this way all you had to do was resolve the R-b skirmish first at site 9 and gg. But to be honest, I don't like this particular keyword very much.
Assailant
While an assailant is assigned to a skirmish, all protector bonuses are cancelled and/or each event you play costs -1 (or -2 for each assailant assigned).
I don't like this one very much as well, but the second part is NEAT. I'd refrain from keywording it to prevent abuse, but give that ability as a regularly written ability for some characters anyway, specially minions that like regroup events.
All in all, I like where most of this is going, and I specially like Foresee, I could definitely see it being a great ability with a lot of design space, specially with Omen!
-
Has someone been playing too much Magic lately? LOL wow this all sounds so like Magic. Magic loves turning complex mechanics into keywords and still explain it in every single card (what's the point then? whatever). I like LOTR keywords cause they're very very simple, like fierce or damage+1. I hate Magic's one billion keywords and some of them are in like less than 10 cards, like epic :S so stupid.
I'd toy with unloaded keywords if I was to DC. I think using new keywords makes the cards so not like LOTR, but that's just me. Specially ones that are just equal to ones in Magic like Affinity. BTW Affinity kinda didn't work for Magic, I don't think it would in LOTR; we all seen how powerful toil and toil is far more balanced than the original affinity idea. As for the other keywords, I think you're just turning game text into keywords, so nothing new for me.
-
The only one I like is threshold. sorry.
-
THe idea of keywords is exactly to turn gamte text into smaller words, so that you have extra space on the cards. Also, they only include reminder text for abilities on cards when the abilities are first introduced, or when the card is part of a Core Set (so newer players can have the reminder on them). But I agree, Epic WAS a bad call. ;) And Affinity is crazy mainly because it "cheats" the mana cost of stuff, but since in LotR you basically just add/subtract stuff to pay for costs, it could work. I think toil is the way to go, though. However, thing is, toil is really abusable because a lot of things like wounds being placed or exertions being made, letting toil "combo off". I, for one, would "keyword" Foresee (so it can appear in more cards as even a small bonus, and still leave room for other stuff) and perhaps Threshold, the rest should not appear so much as to justify the trouble of keywording them.
As a downside I should add to the previous discussion, though, that I don't personally like unloaded keywords very much. I mean, sure, Ranger is fine, it makes sense and all, but Besieger? Blech. Unnecessary.
And PS: "Hunter X" is just lame, let's face it. ;)
-
Has someone been playing too much Magic lately? LOL wow this all sounds so like Magic. Magic loves turning complex mechanics into keywords and still explain it in every single card (what's the point then? whatever). I like LOTR keywords cause they're very very simple, like fierce or damage+1. I hate Magic's one billion keywords and some of them are in like less than 10 cards, like epic :S so stupid.
I'd toy with unloaded keywords if I was to DC. I think using new keywords makes the cards so not like LOTR, but that's just me. Specially ones that are just equal to ones in Magic like Affinity. BTW Affinity kinda didn't work for Magic, I don't think it would in LOTR; we all seen how powerful toil and toil is far more balanced than the original affinity idea. As for the other keywords, I think you're just turning game text into keywords, so nothing new for me.
Well I've been having serious trouble thinking up interesting keywords in LotR, which is why I've been using Magic for inspiration because they do have a lot of keywords! :P My problem is that I don't want every keyword to add to strength like most of LotR's keywords (hunter, enduring) so I'm trying other avenues. I also personally think that LotR has more than enough unloaded keywords, they just haven't actually used them for anything except for very few cases. I won't be throwing new ones around specifically, but I will be featuring the preexisting ones because I think they're great design space (like creature types in magic which make you look at each card twice; once for its abilities, and once for its tribal synergy).
Thranduil
-
Threshold - love the idea, though I suspect the name should probably change to make it less magicky. I like the idea of it triggering on resistance 0, but would love to see it appear on FP and Shadow cards. Could it be more of a callout keyword than a proper keyword? eg. 'Threshold - while this companion has resistance 0 he is strength +2', 'Threshold - Shadow: Spot a companion with resistance 0 and exert this minion to draw a card'. Alternatively you could have Threshold only on companions, since shadow cultures already work off low resistance.
Aura - not sure I get the concept. Is it that the character has an aura that benefits characters of lesser stature? If it only worked on characters with the same twilight cost it could really alter deck construction in an interesting way. I think this idea might have some potential.
Foresee - doing this to your opponent might be too powerful and annoying. Doing it to yourself seems fine, might be a nice mechanic especially for Elves. It isn't very showy however.
Omen - I think this could be fun, and would have to be in a set with foresee for it ot have much value. Could make deck construction interesting, which is good.
Affinity - I assume that you deliberately changed this from affinity for magic. Still, I don't much like choke strategies in LotR and am not a huge fan of this idea.
Protector - surely this should be an X ability. Not sure how I feel about this one. Seems just a bit BA9 to me.
Assailant - not a big fan of it as anti-protector, however, I rather like the idea of making shadow events cheaper for each assailant assigned to a skirmish. It could allow for some devastatingly powerful skirmish events at a large costs. Better yet, the FP player can try to deal with it without putting anti-assailant cards into his deck, simply by being careful about skirmish order. This makes it interesting (and way better than something like site control).
Hope that's helpful,
Anvar
-
Threshold - Ability
I have 2 ideas for this one:
1) The ability triggers when the companion's resistance is 0.
2) Threshold X and the ability triggers when the companion's resistance is exactly X, or possibly X or more.
Prefer the second. Dont see why a freeps player should benefit from 0 res.
Aura - Ability
The ability affects only your characters with a twilight cost equal to or less than that of the character with the aura. I'm using twilight so that it can be a Shadow and FP keyword, but I was also toying with the aura only affecting companions with resistance equal to or greater.
Sounds an ok idea but kinda complicated for LOTR.
Foresee X
When you play this card, you may look at the top X cards of a draw deck and replace them in any order.
Meh very bland, just making telepathy more streamlined but i enjoy how telepathy decks work, the mechanism is half the fun without using keywords.
Omen - X
When you play this card, you reveal the top card of your draw deck. If the revealed card matches the omen card, you may take the revealed card into hand. Ie. this would look like "Omen - The Witch-King" or "Omen - [Elven] condition".
Very unuseful keyword. Even if a one in ~60 chance pulls off its hardly very great to have 2 witch kings in your hand.
Affinity for X
Each card you play that fulfills X costs -1. Ie. this would look like "Affinity for [Gondor]" making each [Gondor] card cost -1.
Dont like the actual word itself or the way it is used. Sorry!
Protector
While a protector is assigned to a skirmish, the Ring-bearer is strength +2 (or perhaps the Ring-bearer is strength +1 for each protector assigned).
This one is ok. Giving a keyword to the hunters block rohan companions style is quite cool.
Assailant
While an assailant is assigned to a skirmish, all protector bonuses are cancelled and/or each event you play costs -1 (or -2 for each assailant assigned).
Wouldnt do AND, because i dont like the first bit. I hate how hunters cancel each other out (but thats cos hunter is a crap mechanic with no thought and no imagination). The second bit sounds ok and more feasible.
-
Okay, I think I'm going to run with these for the moment:
Foresee X (look at the top X cards of your draw deck; place those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order)
!Herald X (look at the top card of your draw deck; if the card fulfills the criteria X, you may take it into your hand)
Assault -X (while this minion is assigned to a skirmish, each Shadow event is twilight cost -X)
And I'm looking for some mechanics that deal with my main themes, namely resistance and The One Ring. I have not discarded the idea of Threshold, but I'll have to think on it a bit more to get it to work for FP and Shadow players (I'll only introduce a callout keyword if I can make a theme of them). So, what about these ideas:
!Unyielding
This companion's resistance is not modified by the number of burdens.
Thranduil
-
I like very much the one that DOESN'T let burdens tamper with it. You might be onto something. I'd gladly see that isntead of Heral, which to be honest, is amazingly narrow even with Foresee (which I still think should be more like scry and let you send some cards down to the bottom of the deck).
-
sending cards down would be cool, maybe replace them in any order beneath or on top of your draw deck. IDK. definitly not letting burdens mess with it would be kewl.
-
Shall we have a bit of a sample of what we might be seeing with these keywords?
[2] •!The Mirror of Galadriel, Guide for !the Wise [Elven]
Artifact • Support Area
To play, spot Galadriel.
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may exert a companion with resistance X to foresee X (look at the top X cards of your draw deck; place those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order). Then you may draw a card.
”‘What shall we look for, and what shall we see?’”
L R 27
[2] •Glóin, Dwarven Delegate [Dwarven]
Companion • Dwarf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Damage +1.
At the start of the fellowship phase, you may !herald a [Dwarven] card (look at the top card of your draw deck; if it is a [Dwarven] card, you may take it into hand). If that card is a Dwarf, you may play him; his twilight cost is -2.
“Next to Frodo on his right sat a dwarf of important appearance, richly dressed.”
L R 10
(0) Awoken in the Darkness [Moria]
Event • Shadow
Spot an [Orc] or [Moria] card to foresee 5 (look at the top 5 cards of your draw deck; place those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order). Then you may !herald The Balrog (look at the top card of your draw deck; if it is The Balrog, you may take it into hand).
L U
[1][6] •Sauron, Seeking for the Ring [Sauron]
Minion • Maia
Str: 24
Vit: 5
Sit: 6
Damage +1. Fierce.
If Sauron is heralded, you may play him immediately; his twilight cost is -8.
L R
[4] •Aragorn, Last of His Line [Gondor]
Companion • Man
Str: 8
Vit: 4
Res: 8
Ranger. !Unyielding (Aragorn's resistance is not modified by the number of burdens).
Maneuver: Exert Aragorn to make an unbound companion resistance X until the regroup phase, where X is Aragorn’s resistance.
L R
-
Herald should have to REVEAL the card it it matches the criteria, shouldn't it? I still don't like it keyworded...
-
With the Threshold idea, a companion with resistance 0 being tempted to take the Ring and attacking the Ring-Bearer (kinda like Boromir) could be interesting. It would easily be overpowered so the fellowship could have the option of returning companion with resistance 0 to hand to prevent the attack or something similar.
I like the idea of Aragorn being Indomitable (resistance not modified). There's a few cards that may become more useful with this keyword.
-
Shall we have a bit of a sample of what we might be seeing with these keywords?
[2] •!The Mirror of Galadriel, Guide for !the Wise [Elven]
Artifact • Support Area
To play, spot Galadriel.
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may exert a companion with resistance X to foresee X (look at the top X cards of your draw deck; place those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order). Then you may draw a card.
”‘What shall we look for, and what shall we see?’”
L R 27
Ok.
[2] •Glóin, Dwarven Delegate [Dwarven]
Companion • Dwarf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Damage +1.
At the start of the fellowship phase, you may !herald a [Dwarven] card (look at the top card of your draw deck; if it is a [Dwarven] card, you may take it into hand). If that card is a Dwarf, you may play him; his twilight cost is -2.
“Next to Frodo on his right sat a dwarf of important appearance, richly dressed.”
L R 10
Not very useful. How many of the 8 maximum fellowship phases is there gonna be a dwarf top card? Plus i dont like the word herald it sounds wrong. Id revise phrasing for that mechanic.
(0) Awoken in the Darkness [Moria]
Event • Shadow
Spot an [Orc] or [Moria] card to foresee 5 (look at the top 5 cards of your draw deck; place those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order). Then you may !herald The Balrog (look at the top card of your draw deck; if it is The Balrog, you may take it into hand).
L U
Cool. Ditto herald.
[1][6] •Sauron, Seeking for the Ring [Sauron]
Minion • Maia
Str: 24
Vit: 5
Sit: 6
Damage +1. Fierce.
If Sauron is heralded, you may play him immediately; his twilight cost is -8.
L R
May need a bit more. Overshadowed by other Saurons.
[4] •Aragorn, Last of His Line [Gondor]
Companion • Man
Str: 8
Vit: 4
Res: 8
Ranger. Indomitable (Aragorn's resistance is not modified by the number of burdens).
Maneuver: Exert Aragorn to make a companion resistance X until the regroup phase, where X is Aragorn’s resistance.
L R
Awesome card, really cool, though other gorns may see more usage. Indomitable isnt a very nice word either doesnt roll of your tongue. Resolute or Steadfast or Unyielding are much more lotr-ey words etc...
-
May need a bit more. Overshadowed by other Saurons.
He would obviously have more text; I was just showing how I might use the keyword.
Resolute or Steadfast or Unyielding are much more lotr-ey words etc...
Excellent! I was trying to find good words, but I didn't like any of them much, but I love !Unyielding. :gp:
Thranduil
-
O i see now, fair enough. Glad you like the keyword.
Its a shame you dropped protector. That was your best keyword, espcially as im not a fan of herald (the word mainly but the mechanic aint the most useful).
-
O i see now, fair enough. Glad you like the keyword.
Its a shame you dropped protector. That was your best keyword, espcially as im not a fan of herald (the word mainly but the mechanic aint the most useful).
But you see most people didn't like it! And as I said, I'm trying to have less fighting keywords and more combo keywords. Hmmm.... I'm not sure about herald. I might leave it. :-k
Thranduil
-
Shall we have a bit of a sample of what we might be seeing with these keywords?
[2] •!The Mirror of Galadriel, Guide for !the Wise [Elven]
Artifact • Support Area
To play, spot Galadriel.
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may exert a companion with resistance X to foresee X (look at the top X cards of your draw deck; place those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order). Then you may draw a card.
”‘What shall we look for, and what shall we see?’”
L R 27
I think this is too (i mean TOO) abusable. Exert Frodo to look at the top 10~14 cards of your draw deck and then just do whatever you like seems so overpowered. You can simply choose your next hand, make basicly whatever combo you want, take as many dark approach as you need, and thrown the rest away to the bottom, take enquea and that BNAP that was a few turns away, throw doubles to the bottom... endless possibilities and all of them seem wrong to me. It you say add a burden and exert an elf, I'd say it's a tiny bit more balanced, still looking at the next 6~7 cards and arrange them as you like seems too much for me. Forsee 2, 3 is ok, but more than that seems just crazy for me.
[2] •Glóin, Dwarven Delegate [Dwarven]
Companion • Dwarf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Damage +1.
At the start of the fellowship phase, you may !herald a [Dwarven] card (look at the top card of your draw deck; if it is a [Dwarven] card, you may take it into hand). If that card is a Dwarf, you may play him; his twilight cost is -2.
“Next to Frodo on his right sat a dwarf of important appearance, richly dressed.”
L R 10
I'm with lem0n. What are the odds?
(0) Awoken in the Darkness [Moria]
Event • Shadow
Spot an [Orc] or [Moria] card to foresee 5 (look at the top 5 cards of your draw deck; place those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order). Then you may !herald The Balrog (look at the top card of your draw deck; if it is The Balrog, you may take it into hand).
L U
Again, too much "forsee" for me and the balrog part makes it more OP. So far, the only easy way Decipher provided to play the Balrog was in FOTR, 'cause it's supposed to be a hard minion to play, IMO.
[1][6] •Sauron, Seeking for the Ring [Sauron]
Minion • Maia
Str: 24
Vit: 5
Sit: 6
Damage +1. Fierce.
If Sauron is heralded, you may play him immediately; his twilight cost is -8.
L R
Seems to me like you'd need a lot of forsee and herald in your deck to make this useful... I personally don't like this.
[4] •Aragorn, Last of His Line [Gondor]
Companion • Man
Str: 8
Vit: 4
Res: 8
Ranger. !Unyielding (Aragorn's resistance is not modified by the number of burdens).
Maneuver: Exert Aragorn to make a companion resistance X until the regroup phase, where X is Aragorn’s resistance.
L R
How does this work with the ring bearer? He can't be corrupted at any site 9, no matter what?
-
How does this work with the ring bearer? He can't be corrupted at any site 9, no matter what?
Theoretically, if a Ring-bearer would have this keyword, they would not be corrupted if the number of burdens equalled their resistance. However they would be corrupted if they became resistance 0 through other means. This is why I would be careful not to allow Ring-bearers to gain this keyword, or why it might possibly be better to make the keyword "This companion's resistance is only reduced by the number of burdens."
Thranduil
-
No thran, I mean, what happens if aragorn exerts to make the ring bearer resistance 8 until the regroup phase at site 9? U should make it "unbound companion", shouldn't u?
-
Wow yeah nice catch, as aragorns resistance is invulnerable to burdens he can always make frodo +8 resistance! nice leo.
-
No thran, I mean, what happens if aragorn exerts to make the ring bearer resistance 8 until the regroup phase at site 9? U should make it "unbound companion", shouldn't u?
Ah, sorry; I suspect you're right. :gp:
Thranduil
-
I think LK covered most of it, I think herald is too much of a shot in the dark to make a card based SOLELY on being able to herald it, I'd make it more like a perk, like the cantrips in MtG, you gen a smaller effect AND get to draw a card, so sometimes it's worth to play with them if you don't need a bigger effect. And yeah, Foresee should be limited, the biggest Scry card I say WAS Foresee, and c'mon, it was a 4-mana sorcery that had Scry 4, and it was ALL it did side from drawing cards. I think Foresee in LotR should either come at a high cost or smaller amounts, like 4 TOPS in SPECIALIZED cards. In MtG, aside from dedicated decks, sure, you can stack the top 5 cards of your library with an Index, but let's face it, it means you'll be planning you next 4-5 turns. In LotR, looking at 4 cards gives you an ENTIRE new, almost-perfectly-carved hand due to the amount of card-drawing that takes place.
-
Fair enough, I take all your points. I was just experimenting with how the keywords would work rather than posting cards that were going to be in the set. :gp: to all!
Thranduil
-
I think LK covered most of it, I think herald is too much of a shot in the dark to make a card based SOLELY on being able to herald it, I'd make it more like a perk, like the cantrips in MtG, you gen a smaller effect AND get to draw a card, so sometimes it's worth to play with them if you don't need a bigger effect. And yeah, Foresee should be limited, the biggest Scry card I say WAS Foresee, and c'mon, it was a 4-mana sorcery that had Scry 4, and it was ALL it did side from drawing cards. I think Foresee in LotR should either come at a high cost or smaller amounts, like 4 TOPS in SPECIALIZED cards. In MtG, aside from dedicated decks, sure, you can stack the top 5 cards of your library with an Index, but let's face it, it means you'll be planning you next 4-5 turns. In LotR, looking at 4 cards gives you an ENTIRE new, almost-perfectly-carved hand due to the amount of card-drawing that takes place.
I hardly agree to an entire post of yours but you managed to cover everything I didn't in my post :D :gp:
Herald should be exactly as u said, a sort of bonus and about foresee, well that's it :D
-
[2] •!The Mirror of Galadriel, Guide for !the Wise [Elven]
Artifact • Support Area
To play, spot Galadriel.
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may exert a companion with resistance X to foresee X (look at the top X cards of your draw deck; place those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order). Then you may draw a card.
”‘What shall we look for, and what shall we see?’”
L R 27
I like the idea of foresee as a game verb rather than as a keyword but this would be crazy. I'll exert my Resolute Hobbit with the Ring of Rings to sort out the top 14 cards of my deck! Should definitely say unbound companion, possibly Elf companion.
[2] •Glóin, Dwarven Delegate [Dwarven]
Companion • Dwarf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Damage +1.
At the start of the fellowship phase, you may !herald a [Dwarven] card (look at the top card of your draw deck; if it is a [Dwarven] card, you may take it into hand). If that card is a Dwarf, you may play him; his twilight cost is -2.
“Next to Frodo on his right sat a dwarf of important appearance, richly dressed.”
L R 10
On the other hand I don't like herald as a game verb and would prefer to see it as a keyword. Ie. Gloin could say "Each [Dwarf] event gains "Herald - [Dwarf] card". If you reveal a Dwarf companion using this ability you may play that companion."
(0) Awoken in the Darkness [Moria]
Event • Shadow
Spot an [Orc] or [Moria] card to foresee 5 (look at the top 5 cards of your draw deck; place those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order). Then you may !herald The Balrog (look at the top card of your draw deck; if it is The Balrog, you may take it into hand).
L U
Foresee at more than 4 is probably too much IMO. It slows down the game far too much.
[1][6] •Sauron, Seeking for the Ring [Sauron]
Minion • Maia
Str: 24
Vit: 5
Sit: 6
Damage +1. Fierce.
If Sauron is heralded, you may play him immediately; his twilight cost is -8.
L R
[4] •Aragorn, Last of His Line [Gondor]
Companion • Man
Str: 8
Vit: 4
Res: 8
Ranger. !Unyielding (Aragorn's resistance is not modified by the number of burdens).
Maneuver: Exert Aragorn to make an unbound companion resistance X until the regroup phase, where X is Aragorn’s resistance.
L R
Neat idea. Could be very useful with certain strategies. I like the use of Unyielding here.
-
Okay, I've lost interest in Herald. So the keywords I'm looking at for this set are going to be:
Foresee X (look at the top X cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order)
Assaulter (for each assaulter that is assigned to a skirmish, each Shadow card is twilight cost -1)
!Unyielding (this companion's resistance is not modified by the number of burdens)
Any final comments or thoughts before I run with them?
Thranduil
-
I like those keywords. In which phase do you use Foresee?
-
I like those keywords. In which phase do you use Foresee?
Any phase that the card tells you to. :mrgreen:
As some examples, here are 2 cards that might be in the set:
[2] •!The Mirror of Galadriel, Guide for !the Wise [Elven]
Artifact • Support Area
To play, spot Galadriel.
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may exert a companion with resistance 7 or more to foresee 4 (look at the top 4 cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order). Then you may draw a card.
”‘What shall we look for, and what shall we see?’”
L R 27
[2] Lighting the Way [Gandalf]
Event • Maneuver
Spell.
When you play this card, you may foresee 2 (look at the top 2 cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order).
Exert a [Gandalf] Wizard to make each companion (except the Ring-bearer) !unyielding until the end of the regroup phase (the resistance of !unyielding companions is not modified by the number of burdens).
L C 39
-
With the current wording on foresee, you either ship them all to the top or to the bottom. Is this the intention?
-
[2] •!The Mirror of Galadriel, Guide for !the Wise [Elven]
Artifact • Support Area
To play, spot Galadriel.
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may exert a companion with resistance 7 or more to foresee 4 (look at the top 4 cards of your draw deck; you may replace them on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order). Then you may draw a card.
”‘What shall we look for, and what shall we see?’”
L R 27
Ok doke.
[2] Lighting the Way [Gandalf]
Event • Maneuver
Spell.
When you play this card, you may foresee 2 (look at the top 2 cards of your draw deck; you may replace them on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order).
Exert a [Gandalf] Wizard to make each companion (except the Ring-bearer) !unyielding until the end of the regroup phase (the resistance of !unyielding companions is not modified by the number of burdens).
L C 39
Powerful as heck, why "til the end" of the regroup?
-
With the current wording on foresee, you either ship them all to the top or to the bottom. Is this the intention?
No it isn't. I'll fix that; thanks.
Thranduil
-
I like those keywords. In which phase do you use Foresee?
Any phase that the card tells you to. :mrgreen:
As some examples, here are 2 cards that might be in the set:
[2] •!The Mirror of Galadriel, Guide for !the Wise [Elven]
Artifact • Support Area
To play, spot Galadriel.
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may exert a companion with resistance 7 or more to foresee 4 (look at the top 4 cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order). Then you may draw a card.
”‘What shall we look for, and what shall we see?’”
L R 27
I think its way too good. maybe foresee 2-3.
[2] Lighting the Way [Gandalf]
Event • Maneuver
Spell.
When you play this card, you may foresee 2 (look at the top 2 cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order).
Exert a [Gandalf] Wizard to make each companion (except the Ring-bearer) !unyielding until the end of the regroup phase (the resistance of !unyielding companions is not modified by the number of burdens).
L C 39
I think its ok...
-
Good choice with the Unyielding keyword over Indomitable.
I like the concept of Assaulter but the keyword seems a bit of an oddity. Perhaps STRATEGIST or COMMANDER or something similar.
Using skirmish events is hard to plan for when assigning skirmishes and this could form a nasty deck concept.
-
Good choice with the Unyielding keyword over Indomitable.
I like the concept of Assaulter but the keyword seems a bit of an oddity. Perhaps STRATEGIST or COMMANDER or something similar.
Using skirmish events is hard to plan for when assigning skirmishes and this could form a nasty deck concept.
You're right about assaulter, which is why I have changed it to the following:
Aggressor (for each aggressor assigned to a skirmish, each Shadow card's twilight cost is -1).
This is allowing a lot of scope for playing things during the skirmish phase, not just high cost skirmish events. We'll be seeing some of this in my other thread... :hey:
Thranduil
-
I've been thinking about more stuff (I know, it's terrible! :roll: ).
First, I have an idea which is in part inspired by the Frenzied Fighter/Held discussion:
What if "corrupted" was more general? Currently, "corrupted" is a word that only means something on the Ring-bearer, that the Ring-bearer has resistance 0. I say, why not use the terminology more generally? Could it be used for any companion? I want to say if my Eomer has resistance 0 that he's corrupted, because it's quite flavourful and I'm not sure enough was made out of that 0 threshold. It would also (more as a by-product rather than a purpose) make Held do something on a non-Ring-bearer Frodo; Held says "At site 9, Frodo is corrupted". Using this terminology, that would simply mean "At site 9, Frodo is resistance 0." Do you think this is a useful and/or flavourful terminology?
Something else I've been thinking about is adding new non-character unloaded keywords into the mix. Currently, you have words like:
Search
Stealth
Spell
Tale
but nothing else so general (sure lots of specifics like weather). Could there be any others? What about ancient or shock (I'm just spewing random nouns)? Or could previously character keywords go onto other cards? What about a valiant event? A Southron condition? Twilight is the easiest of these to conceptualise. These might be similar to tribal cards from MTG.
Do you guys have any ideas or thoughts?
-
I like it.
-
I definitely like where you are going with the whole "Corrupted" discussion. I had always thought more should have been made of that dynamic. What would it mean for a Companion to find itself corrupted? They would obviously have succumbed to the pull of the ring, so would they lose some stats? Perhaps lose the ability (or will) to protect the ring-bearer (skirmish). What if the Free Peoples player could no longer assign that Companion to a skirmish, thereby that character would only be able to fight if they are directly attacked (a minion is assigned to them). I'm just sort of tossing some ideas around here but its certainly an interesting concept.
-
I like the corrupted idea. The only problem is that Decipher made some of the resistance reducing cards from shadows rather effective (Take Our Foes Are Weak for example).
Decipher probably did this because getting someone to 0 resistance didn't do anything except for what the shadow player could key off of it with.
It would add several new resistance based shadow decks, and would make some things more interesting.
-
Well... I wasn't necessarily planning to attach any rules to the state of being "corrupted", I was just going to let Shadow cards key off it. Do you think I should make it into a rule?
Thranduil
-
nah. just key off of it. a lot. and powerfully ;)
and than give the freeps cards some good ways to add resistance,