My attempt at some Hobbit cards

[sickofpalantirs]

Thanks guys for all the input.  I could still use some more ideas for Orcrist I just cant find a build i really like.  In the mean time here are some Dwarven tales.

•Adventurers
Condition • Support Area
Tale. When you play this condition place a  token here for each  Instrument you spot.
Skirmish: Remove a token from here to make a dwarf strength +1 (and Damage +1 if the fellowship has moved more than once this turn). (limit 3)
Regroup: Exert a Dwarf bearing an instrument twice and discard this condition to make the move limit +1 for this turn.
"Far over the Misty Mountains cold To dungeons deep and caverns old"
fine.

Treasure Hunters
Event • Fellowship
Tale. Spot X  instruments to draw X cards.
"We must away ere break of day To seek the pale enchanted gold."
fine.

•Exiles
Condition • Support Area
Tale. Each Dwarf at a Mountain or Underground site is Resistance +2.
At any other site each Dwarf is Resistance -1.
Fellowship: Exert a Dwarf bearing an instrument to make the current site gain Mountain until the regroup phase.
"The mountain smoked beneath the moon; The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom."

like a portable thorins harp.  wait a second, that doesn't help at all. fellowship phase is BEFORE you move correct?

[Braler]

Finally, here is an Orcrist i think might work.

•Orcrist, Biter
Possession • Hand Weapon
Str: 2
Bearer must be Thorin.
Each time Thorin wins a skirmish you may exert a minion (or wound an orc).
"They had called it Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver, but the goblins called it simply 'Biter'."

Ok, now for some Elves.

•Thranduil, Woodland King
Companion • Elf
Str: 7
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Each of your other Elves is twilight cost -1.
Each time the fellowship moves in the regroup phase, draw a card.
"The king had ordered them to make haste."

Ok, so Legolas isnt in the book but this is his home so i wanted to make one anyway.

•Legolas, Woodland Prince
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Archer.
While you can spot another Stealth companion, Legolas gains Stealth.
While you can spot a Stealth condition, each minion skirmishing Legolas is strength -1.
Each time Legolas wins a skirmish you may take a Stealth event into hand from your discard pile.

[Thranduil]

•Orcrist, Biter
Possession • Hand Weapon
Str: 2
Bearer must be Thorin.
Each time Thorin wins a skirmish you may wound an orc.
"They had called it Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver, but the goblins called it simply 'Biter'."

I think this is very limited and will not see a lot of play. Firstly, it seems a shame not to confer a damage bonus on a possession. Secondly, I don't think it would be too good if it was "Each time Thorin wins a skirmish, you may exert a minion (or wound an Orc)."

•Thranduil, Woodland King
Companion • Elf
Str: 7
Vit: 3
Res: 5
Woodland.
Each of your other Woodland Elves is twilight cost -1.
Each time the fellowship moves in the regroup phase, draw a card.
"The king had ordered them to make haste."

I do not like this keyword one bit - it restricts your deckbuilding potential for no good reason. Why shouldn't Thranduil work with other Elves that are not from Mirkwood? He's on the White Council (arguably), he obviously does not care only about his people. And I think he's wiser than you're currently giving him credit for in the resistance stakes.

•Legolas, Woodland Prince
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Woodland. Archer.
Each time Legolas wins a skirmish, heal a Woodland Elf.

Quite right, Legolas should be here. However, I still hate the keyword. Make it any Elf, it really doesn't seem like a problem to me.

Thranduil

[Braler]

Ok, so here is my problem maybe you could help me a bit.  I wanted to add a dynamic to the elves from this story.  I was looking to do a bit of a revival with the Stealth key word.  I was hoping to add some tricks but i was worried about them being too powerful if you played them with all the other elves that are out there.  Perhaps I should rethink it a bit?

[Thranduil]

Ok, so here is my problem maybe you could help me a bit.  I wanted to add a dynamic to the elves from this story.  I was looking to do a bit of a revival with the Stealth key word.  I was hoping to add some tricks but i was worried about them being too powerful if you played them with all the other elves that are out there.  Perhaps I should rethink it a bit?

I understand what you're doing and Decipher has done the same thing many times with things like Southron, Easterling, Corsair, Ranger, Knight etc. But, I think that while these keywords are smaller than a culture, they are a waste of time. Ie. while the only Knights are Men, cards which reference knights would I think do better to reference Men because then you as a player have a very free reign to make any deck you want. If you have and and knights as well, then it becomes a bit of a different story as it's a keyword which unites a whole range of different peoples.

Similarly, while Woodland is restricted to Elves, I think it's just stifles creativity in design and deckbuilding too much. If you were to extend it to some vast multicultural strategy, then I would see the point. I doubt that any tricks you make will be too powerful with old cards.

Thranduil

[Braler]

Ok, im thinking of taking an underused keyword and expanding it.  Currently the keyword Stealth is basically used for events and conditions.  I would like to see it be applied to Characters as well.  I see it in this capacity as applying to characters who are particularly good at hiding and moving unseen.  Obviously there would be a whole host of cards that could play off this keyword on all sides of the game.  So here is how it might look on a card for my set.

•Legolas, Woodland Prince 
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Archer.
While you can spot another Stealth companion, Legolas gains Stealth.
While you can spot a Stealth condition, each minion skirmishing Legolas is strength -1.
Each time Legolas wins a skirmish, you may take a Stealth event from your discard pile into hand.

[sickofpalantirs]

way overshadowed by other legolases.  possibly at the start of each skirmish involving him you may wound a minion while you can spot 2 other stealths?

or you could go burrito with while you can spot 1, each minion skirmishing him is minus 1
2 others, he's an archer
and 3 others and the aforementioned wounding ability?

[Thranduil]

•Legolas, Woodland Prince 
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Archer. Stealth.
While you can spot another Stealth companion, each minion skirmishing Legolas is strength -1.

Certainly interesting. I might consider something like "Each minion skirmishing Legolas is strength -1 for each other stealth companion you can spot", or something more powerful, or like Staunch Defender make him lose archer and just make minions strength -1 for each other stealth card - that would be a bit crazy!

Thranduil

[lem0nhead]

SoP is right its currently underpowered, just need to make him a bit better.

[Braler]

ok, i modified Legolas, not sure if i might have overdone it now. i would appreciate any input. anyway, here are a couple more cards.

Woodland Cloak
Possession • Cloak
Bearer must be an elf companion.
Bearer gains Stealth.
If bearer uses a special ability, bearer loses Stealth until the regroup phase.

Mirkwood Hunter
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Hunter 1.
At the start of each skirmish involving Mirkwood Hunter, reinforce a token on a Stealth condition.

[Thranduil]

ok, i modified Legolas, not sure if i might have overdone it now. i would appreciate any input. anyway, here are a couple more cards.

Without the 3rd ability, I think he's fine - with the 3rd ability he seems crazy powerful.

Woodland Cloak
Possession • Cloak
Bearer must be a non unique companion.
Bearer gains Stealth.

Why non-unique? Why can't a unique Elf wear a cloak? Maybe this could have something else like discarding it to cancel a skirmish (and with a way for a Shadow player to prevent it, perhaps).

Mirkwood Hunter
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Hunter 1.
At the start of each skirmish involving Mirkwood Hunter, reinforce a token on a Stealth condition.

Maybe give this guy Legolas' third ability instead so that they don't do the same thing. If you do, I'd suggest bringing this guy's strength down to 5.

Thranduil

[Gerontius]

ok, i modified Legolas, not sure if i might have overdone it now. i would appreciate any input. anyway, here are a couple more cards.

Woodland Cloak
Possession • Cloak
Bearer must be an elf companion.
Bearer gains Stealth.
If bearer uses a special ability, bearer loses Stealth until the regroup phase.

The drawback seems a little extreme, unless you plan to make Stealth a very powerful keyword. Maybe have a special ability as part of the effect, and then have you lose stealth until the regroup phase if you use it?

Mirkwood Hunter
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Hunter 1.
At the start of each skirmish involving Mirkwood Hunter, reinforce a token on a Stealth condition.

I'm not a big fan of the Hunter keyword, but this looks okay.

[Thranduil]

Woodland Cloak
Possession • Cloak
Bearer must be an elf companion.
Bearer gains Stealth.
If bearer uses a special ability, bearer loses Stealth until the regroup phase.

I think the way this card captures stealth as a concept is so awesome that it doesn't matter if it might be a bit too much! Nice one!

Thranduil

[Braler]

Alright, thanks goes to all of you who have been reviewing these cards, especially the newer ones, while i was trying to get a feel for just what i wanted out of these elves but i think i have it now.  I would appreciate some thoughts on what i think is now a finalized Legolas. 

•Legolas, Woodland Prince 
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Archer. Stealth.
Each time Legolas wins a skirmish, you may take a Stealth event from your discard pile into hand.

Now i have some more elven cards to post.

•Galion
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 5
Each time you play an possession, you may draw a card.

Hidden Movements
Event • Fellowship/Regroup
Stealth.
To play, exert an companion.
Stealth companions do not add to the number of companions when calculating movement costs until the end of the phase.

Hidden Shot
Event • Archery
Stealth.
Spot two stealth companions (or a stealth elf) to make the fellowship archery total +1.

[Thranduil]

•Legolas, Woodland Prince 
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Archer.
While you can spot another Stealth companion, Legolas gains Stealth.
While you can spot a Stealth condition, each minion skirmishing Legolas is strength -1.
Each time Legolas wins a skirmish, you may take a Stealth event from your discard pile into hand.

I think he has too much text. I think that in order to make so many lines of text work coherently, they all need to be connected in a burrito. So I might want a third line that was something like "While you can spot a stealth X", where X is something else that could be stealthed (maybe possession? stealth tokens? I dunno) or make something like "While you can spot another stealth companion... While you can spot 3 stealth companions..." etc.

If not that, then I think I would make him stealth straight out and just keep your third line of text. That would be a nice, clean and fun card IMO.

Galion
Companion • Elf
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 5
Play an possession to draw a card.

Galion needs to be unique, surely? And have a subtitle? And the ability needs to have a phase attached, presumably Fellowship:, though I suppose Elves like drawing cards at different times so I can see it at Maneuver: maybe a bit more.

Hidden Movements
Event • Fellowship/Regroup
Stealth.
To play, exert an companion.
Stealth companions do not add to the number of companions when calculating movement costs until the end of the phase.

I like this idea, but I think you could represent the flavour more cleanly with "Remove for each stealth companion".

Hidden Shot
Event • Archery
Stealth.
Spot two Stealth companions to make the fellowship archery total +1.

Awesome. Perhaps "Spot 2 stealth companions (or a stealth Elf)..." would be cool.

Thranduil