What I'm Thinking of Doing for My Local Area...

[Hobbiton Lad]

I know that there are lots of people in my neck of the woods who would love to play some LOTR, but are hesitant to get back into a tournament scene because they dropped out after movie block. The prospect of all new shadow cultures and learning the new strategies from post-Reflections onward tends to keep them away. This got me to thinking about how to inject fresh life into the game...

This is going to take some work, but I think there is definitely an interest in "rebooting" the game down here. What do I mean? I'll try to explain as best I can with the ideas I've come up with so far in this regard.

Essentially, organized tournament play would start over entirely. At launch (or re-launch, as it were) the only legal cards for tournament play would be those from the Fellowship of the Ring set. There are a couple of reasons for taking this approach. First, it allows new players a clean entry point to learn the ins and outs of the game. Nobody wants to pick up a new card game only to have to learn hundreds of cards, what they do, how to counter them, etc., while still trying to master the basic gameplay mechanics. Everyone starts on the same level. Second, it gives retailers in our area incentive to host these events, as new players (and old ones who have sold off all their old cards) will be around to purchase back stock that is merely taking up space. In my area in particular, this will be a compelling argument for shop owners to sponsor league play and tournament events.

So you might be saying to yourself, "Okay, but we know how tournament play worked early in the game's life. How is this time around going to be any different?" -- and that's an excellent question.

One of my first tasks will be to put together a small group of experienced players in my area to look at the first set and issue errata for certain overpowered cards that never got addressed (i.e., Aragorn's Bow) and look at the overall strategies to see what changes could be made to make other strategies more viable while still maintaining balance, such as the Sauron culture in FOTR. Any erratum would be posted on a website that I would maintain for our local area players so they can keep abreast of changes and current rulings.

Subsequent sets (Mines of Moria, Realms of the Elf Lords, Two Towers, etc.) would be placed on a tentative release schedule and undergo similar processes to ensure continual balance in gameplay as far as the competitive tournament environment is concerned. Again, this will give the newer players a chance to follow the game in a natural progression as far as the development cycle goes, while still giving veterans something to look forward to by anticipating what cards will receive errata or virtual versions to create new game strategies.

Basically, this is playing the game under "house rules" on a much grander scale in my local area. With the right structure and committed leadership, however, I feel this is a concept that has a lot of potential. I'm certainly not suggesting that the soon-to-be-formed Player's Committee take this approach at all. Mainly, I just wanted to put this out there to get feedback from you guys about what you think the pros and cons of doing something like this might entail, and any suggestions you might have to tweak or improve this sort of idea.

So please, chime in!

[Gil-Estel]

I like the idea, especially because the first sets were the ones that got a lot of people interested in the first place. I think for a local area this could work just fine. About balancing cards, I don't know. I think Aragorn's Bow isn't overpowered and the thing is, by taking 1 thing away, something else will be more viable.

[Vroengard]

gil is right, back then in my former times, it was, but nowadays the cards are not good...they are crazy strong, so you cannot shock anyone with an bow any longer, sadly. But I still think of them as expensive cards, as they has been 2002/03

[HawkeyeSPF]

You should hook up with fishfleas and verba - they are doing some prelim work (with Vince and Chris?) on getting some sort of structure for a PC put together. The main sticking point, if you want to have the PC be fully "ok'd", will be New Line Cinemas and Peter Jackson.

[Hobbiton Lad]

Aragorn's Bow was just a card I thought of quickly as I was typing. With FOTR, the majority of work would be in re-tooling the Dwarf and Sauron cultures to be more viable. And I wasn't really looking for this kind of thing to be incorporated on a PC-level, just something I wanted to do in my own area.

[Gil-Estel]

But I really think that Fellowship is balanced. Maybe you can start with the first 3 sets?

[Hobbiton Lad]

But I really think that Fellowship is balanced. Maybe you can start with the first 3 sets?

That's an option I was thinking about. Realms would need a ton of work, but it would offer a lot of options to players at the start of the game for sure.

[MR. Lurtzy]

The only problem I see is that cards from the first block would be hard to come by for new players.

[Gil-Estel]

I don't think so. Fellowship is still cheap at wholesalegaming.com, as is mines of moria.