What are the different edition/printing indicators?

[5tein]

Does anybody have a full explanation of edition/printing indicators on LotR TCG cards? I didn't find this in the wiki but think it should be an article.

For example, cards from The Fellowship of the Ring have at least 3 different indicators following (C)NLP (C)TE (C)<date> Decipher:

(1) = First edition / first printing. In FotR this is accompanied by a 2001 date.

null = Later edition/printing? In FotR this is accompanied by a 2002 date. FotR cards included in MoM and RotEL starters included these.

A = Unsure — I've seen this only on a few cards (e.g. Uruk Rager, Uruk Soldier, Sam, Son of Hamfast) and am not sure where they came from. In FotR this is accompanied by a 2002 date.

Example: Two copies of Swordarm of the White Tower from 2001 and 2002 with (1) and null indicators:



Example: Two copies of Uruk Rager from 2001 and 2002 with (1) and A:



Here's a weird example that suggests (1) does not simply indicate printing; Saruman's Chill misprint vs normal print, both from 2001 with (1):



Questions:

Does (1) mean edition or printing? I assume it means both, however the Saruman's Chill misprint suggests it's only edition.

What does A stand for and when does it apply?

Which sets had more than one printing, i.e. cards with no (1)?

[JamesCB]

I believe that the cards without a are from the draft packs.

A, I believe, means Alpha revision, meaning something has been changed somehow between the two prints.

I think the case with your two Chills is that they were from the same print, but one was misprinted.

Or, possibly, the isn't supposed to be there and the second, and is in and of itself a misprint.

[Air Power]

'1' indicates that a card is from the first print run of a set.  Most cards have it.

The 'A' means that a card was errata'd, and this is a first errata.  They would have used a 'B' if they reprinted a second errata'd version of a card, but I don't think that they ever bothered.

No '1' means that the card was not from the first print run.  Not all sets have any reprints, and I believe Helm's Deep was the only set reprinted in its entirety.  I'm working on a list of all reprinted cards, but short version:
-All Set 1 rares (they ran out of set 1 starter decks and had to print more, which included printing more rares for the 3 random rares in starter decks)
-All of Set 5
-Any card used in a starter deck for a later set.  E.g. The Set 2 Gandalf starter deck includes Merry, From O'er the Brandywine, a set 1 card.

When they got to Hunters block, they stopped bothering with the '1' at all.

[ket_the_jet]

I would also note, Steino, that you can see the errata on the Saruman's Chill card...sort of. Page 19 of the CRD 4.0 confirms the card is meant to cost ; however, in the image you posted you can see the difference in twilight costs!
-wtk

[5tein]

Brilliant, thank you all. @Air Power, I'm glad you're tracking the reprints. I had started to do this informally but grew bored by the time I got to Two Towers starter decks Will this make it into the wiki somewhere?

I think the Saruman's Chill is the most interesting from a technical perspective. If both cards were indeed part of a true first print run, then there must have been an error in the printing for some (but not all) of that card. Otherwise, there were actually two printings of the first printing, and Decipher didn't want to change the label. As far as I know, Saruman's Chill is the only card with the double twilight cost printing, and it will be consistent, say, in an entire booster box.

"A" remains a mystery to me:

If A = "alpha" why is the print date is later than the (1) printing (see above and below)?

I don't see how A can refer to errata'ed since there are no differences between cards in the few examples I've spotted (let alone that these cards have no reference to errata in the CRD/ruling docs). Here are two examples:



Sam, Son of Hamfast appears to have identical images, text, etc except for the 1|A|null indicator + date.
Same is true for Uruk Rager:



I thought for a moment that perhaps the A indicated cards that came from certain Starters, but I couldn't validate that.

[ket_the_jet]

@Steino, but there is indeed a difference with the Sam cards.

First print: If Frodo *dies*
Second print: If Frodo *dies*
Third print (A): If Frodo *is killed*

There are no rules regarding characters when they "die," but the game has a number of rules regarding characters being killed. The "A" print clarifies the card so that it aligns with the rules of the game.

Similarly, Uruk Rager has a mild errata. The "A" version is definitive proof that women also play this game!

As noted above and here, the A cards are errata'd or feature modified text as the game clarified rules.
-wtk

[Air Power]

Will this make it into the wiki somewhere?

It will probably start with a forum post, and then migrate to the wiki.  Is anyone able to log in to the wiki right now?

Also, note that the errata on the card doesn't have to impact play at all; it just means that they're correcting something about the card:
-Goblin Marksman 1 had reminder text explaining what the Archer keyword does.  Goblin Marksman A removed the reminder text.
-The Tale of Gil-Galad A has slightly different punctuation in the lore-text/flavor-text than the 1 version (double quotes alone in 1 and nested double and single quotes in A).

[5tein]

OMG, @ket_the_jet -- you are 100% right. And yet I swear I read and re-read those cards looking for differences. It's amazing how our brains can filter information that we think we already know

Thanks for referencing the previous thread started by Kreggers, too -- that hadn't come up for me when I searched, and frankly I haven't noticed any B cards in my collection, though now I want to look.

@Air Power, thanks for the elaboration -- so it's errata as text correction/clarification rather than as change.

[Air Power]

Poking around in the Wayback Machine, I found the old index of Fellowship-block second-edition cards:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130511065742/http://trade.mahasamatman.com/Rings/Notes.HTML