The Last Homely House
Middle-Earth => Chamber of Mazarbul => Topic started by: Creator on September 16, 2011, 09:50:25 PM
-
Using the powers of my imagination (and Photoshop), I'm in the process of designing a new card set that ultimately will be able to be played in GCCG with custom card images. This card set would essentially be an addition to Movie Block format-- ignoring Shadows and everything after it while keeping the original 10 movie block sets. The purpose is to create some variety for Movie Block players without fundamentally changing or breaking the format.
I will not be adding new keywords, and the only real gameplay change will be with sites. (More on that at the bottom.)
I plan to add new cards to this thread on a semi-regular basis until the entire set is completed. But for now, here are the first cards in the set including the new One Ring, completed for your viewing pleasure and critique:
•The One Ring, Unbearable Temptation (http://bayimg.com/fAKFCAADE)
[Wraith]
•Bill Ferny, Cruel Owner (http://bayimg.com/FAKFHAADE)
Hidden to All But Him (http://bayimg.com/faKFLaaDE)
•Morgul Finisher (http://bayimg.com/FaKFmAaDE)
•Morgul Invasion Force (http://bayimg.com/LakOnAadP)
Nazgul Cloak (http://bayimg.com/FaKFoaade)
Panic (http://bayimg.com/LAkOMAaDp)
Poisoned Arrows (http://bayimg.com/LaKokaADP)
Shadow Realm (http://bayimg.com/GakFbAADe)
Terrible to Behold (http://bayimg.com/gAkFcaaDe)
•The Witch King, Twilight Lord (http://bayimg.com/FaKFfAaDe)
They Do Not Die (http://bayimg.com/lakoOAaDP)
•Ulaire Attea, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/gAKFfAaDE)
•Ulaire Cantea, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/gaKFgAAdE)
•Ulaire Enquea, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/GAkfhAadE)
•Ulaire Lemenya, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/gaKFIaaDe)
•Ulaire Nelya, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/GAkFJAADE)
•Ulaire Nertea, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/GAkflAADe)
•Ulaire Ostea, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/GaKFMAAdE)
•Ulaire Toldea, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/GaKfNAADe)
[Moria]
•Cave Troll of Moria, Enraged Monstrosity (http://bayimg.com/faKFDAAde)
[Gondor]
•Company of Rangers (http://bayimg.com/lAkoGAadp)
Stone of Minas Tirith (http://bayimg.com/MAKOaAAdP)
[Elven]
•Haldir, Defender of Helm's Deep (http://bayimg.com/DaKpeaadC)
[Dwarven]
•Gimli, Orc Killer (http://bayimg.com/LaKOhAAdP)
•Gimli, Honorable Warrior (http://bayimg.com/LAkojAADP)
[Isengard]
•Grima, Traitorous Coward (http://bayimg.com/faKfiaade)
[Raider]
Evil Intentions of Men (http://bayimg.com/fAkFjaaDe)
[Rohan]
•Theoden, Valiant King (http://bayimg.com/makoBaAdp)
•Eowyn, Willing to Battle (http://bayimg.com/MaKOEaAdp)
•Eomer, Fearless in Battle (http://bayimg.com/MakOFAadP)
First Shot (http://bayimg.com/MAkOgAADP)
Deeping Wall (http://bayimg.com/MAkOhaaDP)
Fearless Charge (http://bayimg.com/mAkoIAadP)
(NOTE: these card images are works in progress and subject to adjustment)
Instead of only using King block sites, the new Power And Temptation sites will have region numbers instead of site numbers. Sites with a region number of one can ONLY be played in region one; sites with a region number of two can ONLY be played in region two, etc. This provides some variety on the site path without having some of the insane jumps that Shadows had. So yes, it would technically be possible for site 1 to be Rivendell and site 3 to be the Shire; however, site 4 would HAVE to be a region two site, something like Moria Stairway or maybe the Peak of Zikrazigil. This prevents insane jumps from Hobbiton to Mount Doom in one move.
The purpose of me making this set is because I feel like the number of cards available to Movie Block is significantly less varied and interesting than the cards available to Standard players. I want to give Movie Block players the option to mix things up a little bit, without having to totally rearrange the format, add mechanics they aren't used to, or banning cards.
-
I only glanced at the images, but I'll get around to reviewing 'em in the next day or so. You already have a fan.
-
This sounds awesome; always fun to see cards with images haha
-
I love it, especially the images, how did you make them? I've been working on an online version of LotR, where server takes care of all the rules, and having card templates (backgrounds) would be great if I wanted the client to always display current stats of the characters.
And going forward, if this set will be wildly accepted I might add the cards to the game. For now I have all FotR cards and should be adding sets every 2-5 weeks (depending on set size) once the game is well tested and stable.
-
Amazing! Great choice of images. I'm not an expert but Shadow cards seem a little overpowered to me. The cave troll is enduring and can be exerted 3 times at will, and it can play its chain (very easily once one copy is in the discard pile) to make free peoples archery almost useless.
Anyway, your work is impressive. I'm excited about it.
-
I love it, especially the images, how did you make them?
Scraping pixels in Photoshop. I took the original card images for each culture and literally scraped at pixels with the eraser and the clone stamp tool. That's a simplified explanation, but that's essentially what it amounts to. It's incredibly painstaking work, but once a template is done, all I have to do is put my own text in. I still haven't blanked out all the cultures yet. I still have to do Shire, Rohan, Raider, and a few others. It takes a good 5-9 hours to properly blank a card, depending on how detailed the template is. The Moria one took me forever because I had to be careful erasing around all those little spiky glass pieces in the image frame.
Amazing! Great choice of images. I'm not an expert but Shadow cards seem a little overpowered to me. The cave troll is enduring and can be exerted 3 times at will, and it can play its chain (very easily once one copy is in the discard pile) to make free peoples archery almost useless.
Anyway, your work is impressive. I'm excited about it.
Obviously these need to be playtested before they're considered finalized-- that's actually something I'm going to need help with here soon, so if anyone wants to volunteer to playtest these I'd be very appreciative-- but I thought about the Cave Troll's text very carefully.
First, you have to actually be able to play the Chain from your discard pile to exert him, you can't just exert him three times for no reason. If you do have the Chain in your discard pile, you can still only exert him once because the Chain is unique and can only be played once. Granted, you now have a strength 19 Fierce minion in play who is basically immune to archery fire, but he's NOT immune to direct wounding like Terrible and Evil, since that occurs in the Maneuver phase. If you exert him to play the chain, all Gandalf has to do is exert 3 times to kill him.
The only problem with this is that he's still a little too cheap, given his game text. I might raise his twilight cost to 14 or 15 to make it less likely that the Shadow player will be able to play other minions in addition to the Cave Troll. That's sort of the point of this card-- you can play a single massive minion, and you can even play him cheap if you discard a ton of orcs from hand, but that's all you'll be likely to play. The risk is that if the Free Peoples player kills him, that's the only minion you have out.
As I said, these will all continue to be adjusted as things go along, but I am trying to keep things balanced while also adding new risks to the game. For the record, Company of Rangers is most definitely going to receive some modifications both visually and with its text in the near future. I might reduce its strength to 9 and make it an Archer instead of Defender +1-- sort of the Ranger version of Garrison of Gondor.
Now for a bit of an explanation on the set's Themes.
The title "Power and Temptation" sort of gives it away, as does the game text of the One Ring. It's really about high risk/high reward for a lot of these cards, especially the Shire cards. You can use the One Ring, Unbearable Temptation on Frodo, Resolute Hobbit and still have a resistance 11 Ring-bearer (or 12 or more if you have The Scrolls of Isildur and some [Gondor] artifacts out). With a Hobbit Sword or Sting, and wearing the One Ring, Frodo can be strength 9 plus whatever other pumps you can manage for a skirmish-- this gives him good odds of not only surviving skirmishes, but winning them (which is unusual unless you've got an alternate Ring-bearer).
That combined with Sam, SoH to peel burdens every other turn makes for a very potent fighting Frodo. The major risk--aside from easier corruption-- is that lots of Shadow cards punish the Ring-bearer for using the Ring (Return To Its Master, for example). There will be similar such cards in this set. So yes, even Frodo can kick #$&*@! in a skirmish with this Ring, but he's also exposing himself to greater danger and more burdens. Ultimately if you're using that strategy, the success of your Fellowship will really depend on what Shadow side you're facing.
Each culture is going to have a kind of sub-theme, as well. I've always felt that cultures like Moria ran themselves into a corner because they were so homogenized for one gameplay tactic: swarm. Yes, they are the possibly best swarm culture, but they don't get used for much else. I want to give Moria a bit of a revival in the opposite direction; instead of lots of little minions that end up stacked on Goblin Swarms, this set will focus on giving Moria large, powerful minions that come out by themselves to do harm, like the Balrog. In fact, much of this set's Moria cards will focus on the Balrog. With large minions, the strategy changes, because they're frequently unique. Instead of pounding the Fellowship every turn with lots of little guys, you send out one big guy every other turn to act as a road-block to moving, or trap the Fellowship at an inconvenient site.
The Wraith culture will be very focused on the recursion of Twilight minions as a competitive shadow side that no longer clogs and isn't so much focused on corruption as on weakening the Fellowship. The Sauron culture will be a more "uniting" Shadow culture designed to glue other cultures together for unusual combinations, such as [Raider] and [Wraith]. [Dunland] and [Raider] cultures will have new cards that offer cooperative cultural opportunities very similar to the Evil Men culture, without lumping them together (giving strength bonuses for spotting other minion men, etc.). The Shire culture will have an emphasis on slightly stronger Hobbits and a fighting Frodo, with the offset of increased vulnerability to burdens. And so on.
-
Actually I think you would be able to keep exerting the troll as it's the cost effect rule. I can exert him for no reason and then get the card I want. And terrible and evil is one of the very few cards that would do anything to it. Everything else is really good you just need to think of a better way to word this card.
-
I would make Haldir strength 6 or extend his text to make him +2 if you can spot Aragorn or Theoden. I just don't think I would use him to get the archer keyword on it's own. I can get his game text from Gildor without the spotting restriction.
gk
-
There is no good reason to wear "Unbearable Temptation" as opposed to "The Great Ring". They do essentially the same thing, but the Great Ring can be used multiple times, while Unbearable temptation takes your resistance and can only buff yourself once.
-
Remember, this is an addendum to movie block in which there is no great ring. I think it is a nice addition personally.
-
Actually I think you would be able to keep exerting the troll as it's the cost effect rule. I can exert him for no reason and then get the card I want. And terrible and evil is one of the very few cards that would do anything to it. Everything else is really good you just need to think of a better way to word this card.
I didn't realize that. I'll have to change his game text to avoid that loophole. Maybe if it says "At the start of the maneuver phase, you may exert Cave Troll of Moria to play Cave Troll's Chain from your discard pile." That in addition to making its twilight cost 1 or 2 higher should make it pretty balanced.
I would make Haldir strength 6 or extend his text to make him +2 if you can spot Aragorn or Theoden. I just don't think I would use him to get the archer keyword on it's own. I can get his game text from Gildor without the spotting restriction.
gk
There's no Gildor in Movie Block, and there is going to be a cross-cultural emphasis on Rohan/Elven bonuses-- sort of a Helm's Deep flavored theme. There will be more Rohan and Elven cards that support archery and strength bonuses based on spotting.
Although I may boost Haldir to strength 6 because I feel that 5 is pretty low for an Elf...
There is no good reason to wear "Unbearable Temptation" as opposed to "The Great Ring". They do essentially the same thing, but the Great Ring can be used multiple times, while Unbearable temptation takes your resistance and can only buff yourself once.
As Zombie said, there is no Great Ring in Movie Block. I was trying really hard to keep this Ring from being overpowered. I think I'm going to make it a strength +4 bonus instead though. I don't know, we'll see. These still need playtesting.
-
There is no good reason to wear "Unbearable Temptation" as opposed to "The Great Ring".
Unbearable Temptation gives additional all-time cost-free +1 strength bonus. And you can wait longer with the decision if you wear it or not - which sometimes may help. Of course on the other hand you can't use UT to soak up archery wounds, which makes GR better in some situations, but still UT can be your choice sometimes.
-
Two new cards for today:
They Do Not Die (http://bayimg.com/DAkPGaAdC)
•Gimli, Orc Killer (http://bayimg.com/DaKphaADc)
They have been added to the original post. Also, updates have been made to the Witch-King, Cave Troll, Haldir and Company of Rangers, reflecting the changes discussed in this thread.
I should note that the little ring icon on the right hand corner of the game text box on each card is the "set symbol". All cards with this ring icon indicate that they belong to the Power and Temptation set. My reason for this is simple: in GCCG, decks are built based on the code assigned to each image (ex: 1R1 ). In order to add custom cards to GCCG and have it recognize them in a deck, a new code must be assigned (ex: 20R1 ). I don't want to start adding new set numbers, so instead I will simply put a ring icon on all of these cards and only have the rarity and card number at the bottom (ex: R12 ). However, GCCG still requires a unique code for each card, so the actual title of the card in the card images folder will be PTR12 (PT standing for power and temptation).
PTR12 is way too cluttered to type into the little rarity box at the bottom of the card, hence me using the set symbol instead.
I'm also hoping to program GCCG to have booster packs and a starter deck for this set, but that I will not be able to do on my own...
-
None of the links appear to be working.
gk
-
^indeed.
-
Bayimg appears to be down. It should be back up soon.
-
Bayimg has been down for over 32 hours and I'm tired of waiting for it to come back up, so I'm going to migrate all of the card images over to another image hosting site that is more reliable. In the meantime, here are three more cards (minus the images):
[1] Evil Intentions of Men [Raider]
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot 3 men of 3 different Shadow cultures.
Skirmish: discard this condition to make each minion man in a skirmish strength +3.
R
(An entire deck could be built around this card. Several minion men in the Power And Temptation set will have strength bonuses for spotting other minion men; you could very easily form a herd of men and boost every single one of them to strength +6 in one skirmish with 2 of these cards. The balancing effect is having to spot 3 men of 3 Shadow cultures, which forces you to have either Grima or Ferny in play. Speaking of which...)
[2] • Bill Ferny, Cruel Owner [Wraith]
Minion • Man
Str. 4
Vit. 2
Site. 2
Discard Bill the Pony.
Bill Ferny is strength +1 for each man you can spot.
Shadow: exert Bill Ferny to draw a card.
R
(This is a rather unique case because he can spot not only minions, but also men in the Fellowship to boost his strength. It might be overpowered-- needs rigorous playtesting.)
[3] •Grima, Traitorous Coward [Isengard]
Minion • Man
Str. 4
Vit. 3
Site 4
When you play Grima, the Free Peoples player may exert a companion to return him to your hand.
Grima is strength +2 for each minion man you can spot.
R
(Similar thing to Bill except he only spots minions.)
All three of these cards could combine to form a very nasty deck.
-
That Grima seems a bit to weak and a bit to powerful. In one case a player exerts and you lose the pool and can no longer play a potentially deadly minion. In the other case a player exerts and then you continue to play him until you can't play him anymore. I see the first being the most abused but I'd change the cost of returning him to hand to A) exert 2 companions B) discard some cards from hand, mirroring the EoF dunlending men.
-
Evil intentions of men should be worded like this:
Skirmish: discard this condition to make each man minion assigned to a skirmish strength +3 until the regroup phase.
-
Interesting. Just a small wording issue: to keep consistency I think you should write "Man minion" (or "Man" in case of Ferny") - on LotR cards race is always written in uppercase and race/culture comes before companion/minion/ally etc word :)
By the way, what X-list do you plan to use in your format (which I guess is sets 1-10 together with your set)? I ask because Bill the Pony is on Movie Block X-list, so, if you stay with this list, to make Ferny's first text usable, you need to have a new Bill the Pony in your set.
-
You could change the Grima exertion to a maneuver action and increase the exertion to twice. Another option would be to restrict the exertion to a companion man.
gk
-
Wow, some [Raider] site control + some [Dunland] site control + some [Isengard] men would be so strong with this conditon :D.
-
Evil intentions of men should be worded like this:
Skirmish: discard this condition to make each man minion assigned to a skirmish strength +3 until the regroup phase.
I see what you mean, I will adjust the text on the card. I just want to avoid people thinking that if a fierce minion man in a skirmish gets the boost, that the strength boost will carry over to the fierce skirmish. That is not what I want. The boost should only apply to one skirmish per minion. Adding the regroup clarifier might create that confusion.
That Grima seems a bit to weak and a bit to powerful. In one case a player exerts and you lose the pool and can no longer play a potentially deadly minion. In the other case a player exerts and then you continue to play him until you can't play him anymore. I see the first being the most abused but I'd change the cost of returning him to hand to A) exert 2 companions B) discard some cards from hand, mirroring the EoF dunlending men.
I might make his strength spotting bonus the same as Bill's to keep him a little more balanced-- "Grima is strength +1 for each man you can spot." It also goes with the flavor of him being able to use any and all men to his advantage.
Interesting. Just a small wording issue: to keep consistency I think you should write "Man minion" (or "Man" in case of Ferny") - on LotR cards race is always written in uppercase and race/culture comes before companion/minion/ally etc word :)
By the way, what X-list do you plan to use in your format (which I guess is sets 1-10 together with your set)? I ask because Bill the Pony is on Movie Block X-list, so, if you stay with this list, to make Ferny's first text usable, you need to have a new Bill the Pony in your set.
I'll have to see if I can find other examples of that capitalization rule for the term "Men"-- I haven't noticed it before.
As for Bill the Pony, yes, I have already written a new one for this set titled Bill the Pony, Patient Beast of Burden. Haven't posted it yet because I haven't finished blanking the Shire culture cards.
Wow, some [Raider] site control + some [Dunland] site control + some [Isengard] men would be so strong with this conditon :D.
Yeah, for sure. But you'll see very soon that with the other cards in this set, many of the [Dunland] and [Raider] minions will also have spotting bonuses. There are at least 2 cards in each culture that have the text "this minion is strength +1 for each minion man you can spot", and they're fairly cheap. The idea is to get a small mob going and get them all pumped up off of each other.
Bayimg is still not working properly, but I've yet to migrate the card images over. It's on the to-do list.
-
Bayimg is back up. Bill, Grima, and Evil Intentions have all been modified, here are the card images (Also added to the original post:)
•Bill Ferny, Cruel Owner (http://bayimg.com/LakbbaaDd)
•Grima, Traitorous Coward (http://bayimg.com/LAkbGaaDd)
Evil Intentions of Men (http://bayimg.com/LakBLaAdD)
Now that bayimg is back up, don't forget to check out the new Gimli, Orc Killer, and They Do Not Die!
-
I see what you mean, I will adjust the text on the card. I just want to avoid people thinking that if a fierce minion man in a skirmish gets the boost, that the strength boost will carry over to the fierce skirmish.
With current wording it does carry over. As long as the man is assigned to some skirmish when the card is activated and discarded.
If I understand correctly, you want the bonus to work for all Men minions assigned to a skirmish at the moment of using the condition, but either only for normal skirmishes (if activated during one of those) or during fierce skirmishes (if activated during one of them). If this is the case, I would word the card "... +3 until you can't spot a companion or ally assigned to a skirmish." - this way the bonus will finish either at the start of regroup phase or at the start of fierce assignment phase.
-
[2] • Bill Ferny, Cruel Owner [Wraith]
Minion • Man
Str. 4
Vit. 2
Site. 2
Discard Bill the Pony.
Bill Ferny is strength +1 for each man you can spot.
Shadow: exert Bill Ferny to draw a card.
R
Should be:
[2] • Bill Ferny, Cruel Owner [Wraith]
Minion • Man
Str. 4
Vit. 2
Site. 2
Discard Bill the Pony.
Bill Ferny is strength +1 for each man you can spot.
Shadow: Exert Bill Ferny to draw a card.
R
As should all the other ones that forget the capitalization. But otherwise, not bad on the designs.
-
Just a small wording issue with the Bill Ferny should be: "When you play Bill Ferny, discard Bill the Pony"
-
I can't get the Cave Troll's link to work...
-
Massive Update:
Most of the Wraith culture is now complete minus a couple of cards I haven't finished. I also updated all of the other cards based on all of the feedback in this thread. Check through them all and see if you can spot mistakes or quibbles, etc.
I still need to move the cards images over to imageshack, but I haven't yet because I'm a lazy bum.
[Wraith]
•Bill Ferny, Cruel Owner (http://bayimg.com/FAKFHAADE)
Hidden to All But Him (http://bayimg.com/faKFLaaDE)
•Morgul Finisher (http://bayimg.com/FaKFmAaDE)
•Morgul Invasion Force (http://bayimg.com/FakFNAAdE)
Nazgul Cloak (http://bayimg.com/FaKFoaade)
Panic (http://bayimg.com/FaKFPaADE)
Poisoned Arrows (http://bayimg.com/gaKFaAade)
Shadow Realm (http://bayimg.com/GakFbAADe)
Terrible to Behold (http://bayimg.com/gAkFcaaDe)
•The Witch King, Twilight Lord (http://bayimg.com/FaKFfAaDe)
They Do Not Die (http://bayimg.com/fAKfGAADe)
•Ulaire Attea, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/gAKFfAaDE)
•Ulaire Cantea, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/gaKFgAAdE)
•Ulaire Enquea, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/GAkfhAadE)
•Ulaire Lemenya, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/gaKFIaaDe)
•Ulaire Nelya, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/GAkFJAADE)
•Ulaire Nertea, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/GAkflAADe)
•Ulaire Ostea, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/GaKFMAAdE)
•Ulaire Toldea, Servant of Shadow (http://bayimg.com/GaKfNAADe)
-
Interesting cards. Some comments :)
They Do Not Die
First action should be response, not skirmish. And the limit is worded unclearly. I guess you want to make it impossible to stack multiple minions here. So it should be worded like Flung Into the Fray. Response: If no minion is stacked here and your twilight minion is about to be killed in a skirmish, stack that minion here.
Hidden to All But Him
Do you want it to work also when the Ring-bearer puts on The One Ring during a fierce skirmish (and losing fierce doesn't hurt at all as fierce assignments are already done)? If not, add "Cancel all fierce skirmishes involving a Nazgul." to the card. But maybe it's not needed, card may be not overpowered as it is. This needs playtesting.
Morgul Invasion Force
Would sound better this way: If the fellowship is at a battleground site, exert this minion to add two threats. Also the phase where you can use this action is missing. I think it should be regroup (and definitely by no means skirmish), so that combo with Morgul Destroyer isn't too good.
Panic
This also needs playtesting, but this may need to be made unique. Or at least get "Limit 1 per character" like Blade Tip.
Poisoned Arrows
This card has completely no cultural enforcement. Maybe "Spot 5 archers and a [Wraith] Orc", or "Spot 5 archers and 2 [Wraith] cards"? Events (that can never be spotted so no multiculture hate can be fueled by them) IMO should always have some cultural enforcement.
Gimli, Orc Killer
As you don't use resistance, I think he should have a signet. Each pre-Shadows Gimli (except the Ring-bearer one) had a signet.
Company of Rangers
It should be "spot 3 [Gondor] companions", not "spot 3 Gondor companions".
Nazgul: interesting theme, would definitely be worth trying in a deck. You may think about moving abilities a bit between them a bit, so that Enquea gets one of the better ones, to make it a hard choice between this, enduring, twilight and shotgun ones. I don't know if combining those Nazgul with Morgul Brute, It Wants to be Found and Gollum, DaD won't be too powerful corruption, especially with The One Ring, Ring of Rings not allowed.
And one more thing about using uppercase: on LotR cards, after a phase name, the following text starts with uppercase. For example "Skirmish: Exert this minion to add [2]", not "Skirmish: exert this minion to add [2]"
-
Thanks for the feedback!
They Do Not Die:
I will make that adjustment, thanks. Because I don't have the exact fonts that Decipher used sometimes it's hard to squeeze everything into the text box.
Hidden to All But Him:
I don't want it to work in a fierce skirmish. I have to leave the Freeps player room to get out of it. Besides, the response action is basically just flavor-- the real bonus there is the strength +1 for twilight minions. Two or three of these out in one turn-- even if they get discarded the next turn-- really gives you an advantage, especially with wisp of pale sheen or dead ones.
Morgul Invasion Force:
You're probably right. I'll make that adjustment. I didn't think about Morgul Destroyer.
Panic:
It'll have to be unique, especially since it can be repeatedly transferred during the Skirmish phase from one companion to another. Have 2 or 3 of these in play would be overpowering if they all end up on a single companion, and I can't fit any more text on there anyway. If its unique it'll be more balanced, so if the Shadow player does transfer it to a companion, they run the risk of losing the condition since the companion can exert to get rid of it if necessary. The real purpose of this is to work with They Do Not Die and Hidden to All But Him. If you have 2-3 copies of TDND out and launch 2-3 Corpse Lights or Dead Ones, PLUS 1-2 twilight nazgul, you can get some serious boosts happening.
Poisoned Arrows:
Forgot to add cultural reinforcement.
Gimli, Orc Killer
I haven't gotten around to photoshopping the signets yet. It's on the to-do list. He will definitely have one.
Company of Rangers
Same thing with the Gondor symbol; just haven't photoshopped it in yet.
Nazgul:
I agree that Enquea should be altered to make it a more difficult choice, but remember that all this resistance reduction is only until the end of the regroup, and you have to have twilight nazgul in play to make it happen, which tends to be expensive. I figure the maximum amount of resistance reduction you could do in 1 turn would be 4-5, and while that's a lot, that's assuming you have a perfect hand and enough twilight, and you still have to have 5 burdens on the Ring-bearer for that to equal corruption. It's certainly possible, but I'm not sure it would be any easier to corrupt that way than a normal corruption deck. You can only make the deck so big.
-
I apologize for the delay on updates, I moved recently and I'm also drowning in homework. This will have to be on hold until the semester is done.
-
Managing to get a little bit of work done on this. The following cards have been updated: They Do Not Die, Hidden to All But Him, Morgul Invasion Force, Panic, Poisoned Arrows, Gimli, Orc Killer, and Company of Rangers.
The following cards have been added:
[Dwarven]
•Gimli, Honorable Warrior (http://bayimg.com/LAkojAADP)
[Rohan]
•Theoden, Valiant King (http://bayimg.com/makoBaAdp)
•Eowyn, Willing to Battle (http://bayimg.com/MaKOEaAdp)
•Eomer, Fearless in Battle (http://bayimg.com/MakOFAadP)
First Shot (http://bayimg.com/MAkOgAADP)
Deeping Wall (http://bayimg.com/MAkOhaaDP)
Fearless Charge (http://bayimg.com/mAkoIAadP)
[Gondor]
Stone of Minas Tirith (http://bayimg.com/MAKOaAAdP)
Comments welcome.
-
Interesting. Hard to say if those are balanced before we see whole cultures, though new version of Poisoned Arrows seems extremally hard to pull off for me.
Few minor issues:
- on LotR cards races are written beginning with uppercase, but keywords not. So it should be Orc (new Gimli) but villager (First Shot). There already is a card Deeping Wall. Stone of Minas Tirith mentions Catapult - I guess you don't mean this card but a new unloaded keyword. It should be changed for another one to avoid confusion with already exisiting card. Is there a reason for it not to be just fortification?
-
Trebuchet is another kind of catapult ;)
-
Interesting. Hard to say if those are balanced before we see whole cultures, though new version of Poisoned Arrows seems extremally hard to pull off for me.
Few minor issues:
- on LotR cards races are written beginning with uppercase, but keywords not. So it should be Orc (new Gimli) but villager (First Shot). There already is a card Deeping Wall. Stone of Minas Tirith mentions Catapult - I guess you don't mean this card but a new unloaded keyword. It should be changed for another one to avoid confusion with already exisiting card. Is there a reason for it not to be just fortification?
You're right about Poisoned Arrows-- I'll reduce the spotting cost to only 2 archers. That seems much more reasonable. Archer minions tend to be smaller anyway and don't usually survive until regroup.
As for Stone of Minas Tirith... I was thinking that it would be kind of flavorful to have to stack the projectile on a Catapult (yes, I mean the card Catapult, not a new keyword) and have to "launch" it during the Regroup or Maneuver phase, but that might be too confusing. I'll probably just change it to a fortification or something. Though I really like the idea of stacking projectiles on fortifications to throw them at minions... :P
I forgot about the Deeping Wall site... I'll have to change the title now. Thanks for reminding me.
-
As for Stone of Minas Tirith... I was thinking that it would be kind of flavorful to have to stack the projectile on a Catapult (yes, I mean the card Catapult, not a new keyword) and have to "launch" it during the Regroup or Maneuver phase, but that might be too confusing.
If worded correctly, it won't be confusing at all :)
[4] Stone of Minas Tirith [Gondor]
Condition • Support Area
Fellowship: If no other cards are stacked on Catapult, stack this card there.
Maneuver or Regroup: If stacked on Catapult, discard this to wound a minion twice (or three times if that minion is roaming).
-
As for Stone of Minas Tirith... I was thinking that it would be kind of flavorful to have to stack the projectile on a Catapult (yes, I mean the card Catapult, not a new keyword) and have to "launch" it during the Regroup or Maneuver phase, but that might be too confusing.
If worded correctly, it won't be confusing at all :)
[4] Stone of Minas Tirith [Gondor]
Condition • Support Area
Fellowship: If no other cards are stacked on Catapult, stack this card there.
Maneuver or Regroup: If stacked on Catapult, discard this to wound a minion twice (or three times if that minion is roaming).
Thank you! That's what I was trying to do...
EDIT: by the way, the general purpose of this card is basically the same as Terrible and Evil. Obviously the setup requirements are a bit more difficult-- you have to have a Catapult in play, which demands having at least 2 knights, and you have to play this card in Fellowship before you can use it (thus giving the opponent more twilight), but it could potentially offer some protection from Shotgun Enquea. Even if he's not roaming, wounding him twice means he only gets to wound a companion once. Plus you could have multiple Catapults and Stone of Minas Tirith in play so hypothetically you could launch 2 or even 3 of those suckers at your opponent all in one Maneuver phase and kill a couple of big minions.
Are there any cards that would allow you to take [Gondor] cards into hand from your discard pile? Because if so, this might be a bit overpowered...
-
Continuing in the spirit of siege weapons, here are some [Sauron] cards for review:
(Note: from now on, I'm going to post the card text for comments before creating the actual card. It'll save me time that way in case I need to change the card text.)
[3] Siege Towers [Sauron]
Condition • Support Area
Engine.
To play, spot a [Sauron] engineer.
Minions stacked here may not take wounds or participate in archery fire.
Shadow: If there are fewer than 3 minions stacked here, spot your [Sauron] Orc to stack it here.
Assignment: Make the Free Peoples player assign a [Sauron] Orc stacked here to skirmish a companion.
U
[3] Siege Trebuchets [Sauron]
Condition • Support Area
Engine.
To play, spot a [Sauron] engineer.
Skirmish: Remove 2 tokens from here to exert a companion not assigned to a skirmish.
R
[3] •Grond, The Wolf’s Head [Sauron]
Possession • Support Area
Engine.
To play, spot a [Sauron] Orc.
Response: If the Fellowship moves during the Regroup phase, you may remove X tokens from here to discard X cards from the top of the Free Peoples player's draw deck (limit 4). Discard this possession.
R
[1] Giant Beasts [Sauron]
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot a [Sauron] Orc.
Shadow: Play an engine from hand; its twilight cost is -2. Discard this condition.
C
[6] Catapult Troll [Sauron]
Minion • Troll
Str. 13
Vit. 3
Site 6
Besieger.
Shadow: Exert this minion to add a token to an engine that already has a token on it.
R
[2] Orc Repairer [Sauron]
Minion • Orc
Str. 6
Vit. 2
Site 6
Engineer.
Shadow: Exert this minion and spot another engineer to add a token to an engine.
C
[2] Orc Engineer [Sauron]
Minion • Orc
Str. 6
Vit. 3
Site 6
Engineer.
To play, spot a [Sauron] Orc.
Shadow: Exert this minion to add a token to an engine that does not already have a token on it.
C
[2] Orc Encroacher [Sauron]
Minion • Orc
Str. 6
Vit. 2
Site 6
Engineer.
Shadow: Exert this minion to add a token to an engine.
C
Thoughts?
-
[3] Siege Towers [Sauron]
Condition • Support Area
Engine.
To play, spot a [Sauron] engineer.
Minions stacked here may not take wounds or participate in archery fire.
Shadow: If there are fewer than 3 minions stacked here, spot your [Sauron] Orc to stack it here.
Assignment: Make the Free Peoples player assign a [Sauron] Orc stacked here to skirmish a companion.
First problem is that this card bends the rules a lot. Does the minion stay here during its skirmish? What happens if it's overwhelmed?
Second problem is that this is extremally powerful. It's non-unique and loading this with minions is easy as it happens in shadow phase (I think there is no card that allows to stack a minion somewhere earlier than during a skirmish). And you need no twilight to use it once it's loaded. Which means very powerful swarm, using any minions you like, for every FP that doesn't have good condition discard. All other cards that stack minions work the other way: you stack late, then have to fire early and paying the costs, so that your minion needs to fight for its life for the stacking to work.
[3] Siege Trebuchets [Sauron]
Condition • Support Area
Engine.
To play, spot a [Sauron] engineer.
Skirmish: Remove 2 tokens from here to exert a companion not assigned to a skirmish.
Interesting. Needs checking if it won't make the UTWE - Hate - Orc Bowmen deck too strong. But probably not, too many cards needed to get tokens here.
[3] •Grond, The Wolf’s Head [Sauron]
Possession • Support Area
Engine.
To play, spot a [Sauron] Orc.
Response: If the Fellowship moves during the Regroup phase, you may remove X tokens from here to discard X cards from the top of the Free Peoples player's draw deck (limit 4). Discard this possession.
The problem for each [Sauron] Grond is that you need to think, if it will ever be played when you can choose Hammer of the Underworld. This one could be played only by discard decks, but those will have no way to get tokens.
[1] Giant Beasts [Sauron]
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot a [Sauron] Orc.
Shadow: Play an engine from hand; its twilight cost is -2. Discard this condition.
Takes a spot in the deck, saves you just one twilight, has playing requirement. And useless in sealed deck/draft playing. I think it can easily get some more power.
[6] Catapult Troll [Sauron]
Minion • Troll
Str. 13
Vit. 3
Site 6
Besieger.
Shadow: Exert this minion to add a token to an engine that already has a token on it.
I think all [Sauron] trolls are fierce.
About tokens: they are culture tokens and text of each card must mention the appropriate culture before the word "token".
-
Really appreciate the feedback.
First problem is that this card bends the rules a lot. Does the minion stay here during its skirmish? What happens if it's overwhelmed?
The idea here is that you have to play Orcs in Shadow then stack them on this card, then during the assignment phase, unstack them to be assigned to a skirmish. I think I need to make that a mandatory action. So you're not really getting a swarm going-- you're just protecting whatever minions you would normally be able to play so that they don't get murdered during maneuver wounding or archery. That's really all this card is supposed to do--which admittedly is still very powerful--but it's not supposed to be a swarming mechanic.
So again, what I'm trying to make it do (and can't seem to word it right) is this:
1. You play a minion during shadow (paying its twilight cost).
2. You stack up to 3 [Sauron] orcs on this card.
3. They are immune to wounds during Maneuver or Archery.
4. They "deploy" during assignment phase and fight normal skirmishes.
I'm trying to give it the flavor of a bunch of orcs climbing into a siege tower, rolling through maneuver and archery, then jumping out for an attack during assignment.
Interesting. Needs checking if it won't make the UTWE - Hate - Orc Bowmen deck too strong. But probably not, too many cards needed to get tokens here.
Frankly I'm not even sure if this is powerful enough. You need a lot of [Sauron] engineers in a deck to really get lots of tokens on the engines you need, plus the spotting requirements for playing the engines. Realistically that means having 3-4 of each engineer, plus 4 of the Catapult Trolls to pump the engines that already have tokens. That's a lot of cards already, and most of the engineer minions are going to be really small and weak. They probably won't be winning skirmishes. So I feel like I need to offset that fact by making the engines do all the dirty work that minions normally do. If so few of your minions are winning skirmishes (maybe with the exception of the trolls), you need those engines to do damage and slow down the Fellowship.
I'm wondering if I should change the wording to this:
Skirmish: "Remove 2 [Sauron] tokens from here to make the Free Peoples player wound a companion not assigned to a skirmish."
Takes a spot in the deck, saves you just one twilight, has playing requirement. And useless in sealed deck/draft playing. I think it can easily get some more power.
You're right. I was super cautious about making this overpowered. How about this:
"The twilight cost of the first engine played each Shadow phase is -3".
That way you only need 1-2 of these in a deck for it to be useful. I feel like there needs to be a card that offers reduction in twilight cost for these engines because they are (purposefully) very expensive.
I'll make the Troll fierce. I think I just forgot to add it.
-
For siege towers, make it as follows:
Engine.
To play, spot a engineer.
Shadow: If there are fewer than 3 minions stacked here, spot your [Sauron] Orc to stack it here.
Assignment: Put a [Sauron] Orc stacked here into play.
At the start of the regroup phase, discard all cards stacked here.
That would get your intent out of the card without changing the rules of the game or breaking the card. I'd add an additional requirement to either stack or play from it, like discarding a card from hand.
-
[6] Catapult Troll [Sauron]
Minion • Troll
Str. 13
Vit. 3
Site 6
Besieger.
Shadow: Exert this minion to add a token to an engine that already has a token on it.
R
I think all mordor besiegers have a site number 5
1 Giant Beasts Sauron
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot a Sauron Orc.
Shadow: Play an engine from hand; its twilight cost is -2. Discard this condition.
C
What if you change it to:
play an engine from your hand or discard pile; it's twilight cost is -2. Discard this condition.
that way you can get your grond back (and other engines) from you discard pile.
Or does this make it to strong? maybe change "To play, spot a Sauron Orc" into "To play, spot a engineer"
-
How are you supposed to get tokens onto Grond?
-
How are you supposed to get tokens onto Grond?
I believe he posted several cars that do, even in the same post...
-
My bad, misread the orc engineer.
-
Anxiously awaiting the next update (it's been over a month)!
Whaddya doin', Creator -- living a life OUTSIDE this game? :)
-
So, it's obviously been a long time since I worked on this, due to school and work, etc.
I just wanted to let everyone know I haven't forgotten about this. Unfortunately, I recently did a backup and lost a few files on my computer, including a couple of the templates I had worked so hard on. After that I was really demotivated to keep working on it.
I might be able to get the templates back, but unfortunately something I did lose was the fonts for the cards. I had literally spent weeks searching for those fonts before using them, and now they're gone! Sooo, another reason to put this on hold, because I don't feel like hunting them down all over again.
That said, if anyone wants to help me, and they have the fonts I need, they could send them to me...or rip them off a torrent them for me. :) I have the names of the fonts if you want to help.
-
Creator, another idea is teaming up with the Magic Set Editor (magicseteditor.sourceforge.ne t) folks. It seems to me that what they actually needed was the blank cards. I think they had an even better matching font. I'd love Love LOVE to have a LotR template in there. Then we could all make cards, and you'd be my best friend for at least a month, possibly forever.
-
Creator, another idea is teaming up with the Magic Set Editor (magicseteditor.sourceforge.ne t) folks. It seems to me that what they actually needed was the blank cards. I think they had an even better matching font. I'd love Love LOVE to have a LotR template in there. Then we could all make cards, and you'd be my best friend for at least a month, possibly forever.
+1
-
I actually got inspired to do all of this work based on the folks over at MSE. When I first started doing this, I was cross-posting my work over there.
The first problem is, they couldn't really do anything until all the photoshopping was done. Realistically, all I wanted were the templates for Movie Block-- I wasn't going to do the Uruk-Hai template, Evil Men, etc. which conflicts a little bit with some people's desire to make cards from every template. (For the record, they didn't actually have the fonts available-- just the names of them. I had to actually go finding the fonts myself.)
The second problem is, photoshopping this stuff is very, very time consuming. I've developed a fairly good system, but depending on the culture, it can still take me several hours to get all the cards for that culture ready to use.
In fact, the template work that was done over at MSE was even better-quality than mine, because they scanned hi-res images of the cards and then edited those scans (which I stole some of). That's way, way harder than what I did, which was to take the lower-res images off of this site's card library and then edit them (which is still a very slow process). I didn't plan on doing any high-res printing of these things, so I only wanted to make these cards available online-- and the highest resolution really necessary for online play is the resolution of the cards on the database.
So, as much as I want to spread the love around, I chose to ignore the many, many requests I got for the templates for two reasons: 1) I haven't finished them all, and 2) I worked my butt off to make these templates, find the fonts, get the pictures, assemble the cards, and put them on display for critique. While I do eventually plan to release the templates I make, it would be very, very frustrating to hand out my work before the Power and Temptation set is complete, flooding the forum with people making their own image-based card sets and drowning out my own.
Call me selfish, but after all that time spent, I wanted to give my set first priority to be finished before I gave it to anyone else.
That said, once this is done, I will be giving out the templates. I think currently almost all of them are complete, except for the couple that I lost, along with the fonts. Once all the templates are done, making the cards is the easy part.
If I can get the Rohan templates back, and get the fonts back, I can slowly start making progress on this again. But as I said, the fonts... I just don't want to go hunting for them again.
-
Good work! :)