The Way Into Mordor - Shire (9/30: Well-earned Comfort & Wonderful Folk)

[DáinIronfoot]

Advil is indeed usually a good helper, Foresight. I'll go back and review your comments and make further changes (as necessary) shortly. But right now, I have a backlog of Frodo/Sam cards that I'm itching to get up. I may have been away from the forums again for a bit, but this time, I've still been DCing in the background. Got a bunch today before we transition to the Merry & Pippin side of the culture, but you've got the weekend to chew on them. Enjoy!

•What A Fix!
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot 2 Hobbits.
Each time the fellowship moves to a site in region 1, draw a card.
Each time the fellowship moves to a site in region 2, draw a card and then discard a card from your hand.
Each time the fellowship moves to a site in region 3, discard a card from your hand.
"‘That's the one place in all the lands we've ever heard of that we don't want to see any closer; and that's the one place we're trying to get to!'"

This is one of those cards where I took the title and lore and the text just kind of wrote itself. I think I was partially inspired by the old-school cards that forced you to discard...they were centered around the Tower of Barad-dur, I believe, so as I thought of Frodo and Sam approaching Mordor, I subconsciously thought back to that theme.

•A Brave Deed
Condition
Bearer must be a Ring-bound Hobbit.
Each other Ring-bound companion is resistance +1.
Each time the fellowship moves to a river or marsh site, exert bearer.
"‘He's not alone. Sam went with him.'"

Always loved that little scene where Gandalf smirks when learning of Sam keeping his promise to stick with Frodo ("don't you lose him, Samwise Gamgee!"). This is another card where I started with that, and the rest just wrote itself.

Great Tales
Condition • Support Area
Tale. To play, spot 2 Ring-bound Hobbits.
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may discard a tale from play to choose a Shadow player who must remove or a burden.
"‘I wonder if people will ever say, ‘let's hear about Frodo and the Ring.' And they'll say ‘yes, that's one of my favorite stories. Frodo was really courageous, wasn't he, dad?' ‘Yes, my boy, the most famousest of hobbits. And that's saying alot.''"

Not a ton of tales in this set, but there are plenty throughout my sets on the whole. Is the maneuver ability too much, though?

•Cliffs of Emyn Muil (updated reprint)
Condition • Support Area
Response: If the fellowship moves from a mountain site in region 1 and you can spot a Ring-bound Hobbit, discard this condition to remove up to 2 burdens.
Skirmish: Discard this condition to wound a minion skirmishing a Hobbit companion.
"...away from the steep edge of the Emyn Muil, down the broken stony slopes towards the vast fens below. They faded swiftly and softly into the darkness."

I reprinted the Tower block cards like Forests of Ithilien and Ruins of Osgiliath, tweaked in a manner similar to this one, and people seemed to like those a lot. So I decided to do the same here: update an old favorite to make it viable in this post-Shadows world. Like it?

Now some stealth, which will be a big theme with Merry and Pippin but also plays into Frodo and Sam's journey. After all, both Sam's Cloak and Frodo's Cloak, Grey Elven-cloak (found on Page 2) deal with stealth cards already.

Sprawled On The Ground
Event • Assignment
Stealth.
Prevent a Hobbit from being assigned to skirmish minions with strength less than that Hobbit's resistance until the regroup phase.
"Not even an eagle poised against the sun would have marked the hobbits sitting there, under the weight of doom, silent, not moving, shrouded in their thin grey cloaks."

I realized I had already used this lore for the aforementioned Grey Elven-cloak, so I went back and changed that to free it up here. Too cool a lore not to use somewhere!

Give Him The Slip
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Choose one: cancel a skirmish involving a Hobbit bearing an artifact or cloak; or make a Hobbit strength +3.
"Drawing his grey hood well over his face, Sam crept stealthily towards the cliff."

Those cloaks are a big part of what make Frodo/Sam stealth work in this set, and artifacts like the various versions of Mithril-coat keep them going in other sets, so I wanted to reward their use. I know the canceling won't work with a Frodo or Sam (or Bilbo) bearing the Ring, so I opted to make the alternate strength boost work in that case as well rather than the typical "at any other site" or "otherwise" type text usually found on cards like this.

EDIT: Since no one's posted anything yet, I also redid the much-maligned Little Stranger version of Frodo from last time. Upon further review, I just dropped the second line and made him like a beefed-up Frodo, Tired Traveller.

•Frodo, Little Stranger
Companion • Hobbit
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Ringed Resistance: 10
Ring-bearer. Ring-bound.
Fellowship: Play a companion whose race you cannot spot to heal Frodo and remove a burden.
"And here he was a little halfling from the Shire, a simple hobbit of the quiet countryside expected to find a way where the great ones could not go, or dared not go."

Have a good weekend, and look for Merry and Pippin on Monday!

[Gerontius]

Don't have time to review them all now, but should What a Fix be a condition?

[FM]

You know, I actually think Great Tales should be something that GAVE "Tale" to stuff, and perhaps even NOT be a tale itself, just for the lulz of it.

[DáinIronfoot]

Don't have time to review them all now, but should What a Fix be a condition?

Doh! Yes. Yes it should.

Felipe, I did it that way as a sort of cousin to A Dragon's Tale. On steroids. But your idea intrigues me, and I'll have to see if I can make a card like you suggest in the future....

[Thranduil]

•What A Fix!
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot 2 Hobbits.
Each time the fellowship moves to a site in region 1, draw a card.
Each time the fellowship moves to a site in region 2, draw a card and then discard a card from your hand.
Each time the fellowship moves to a site in region 3, discard a card from your hand.
"‘That's the one place in all the lands we've ever heard of that we don't want to see any closer; and that's the one place we're trying to get to!'"

Certainly interesting, especially because discarding a card is not always bad. I like it, I think it makes an elegant and solid card. Nice one! A tiny bit strange in though...

A Brave Deed
Condition • Support Area
Bearer must be a Ring-bound Hobbit. Limit 1 per bearer.
Each other Ring-bound companion is resistance +1.
Each time the fellowship moves to a river or marsh site, exert bearer.
"‘He's not alone. Sam went with him.'"

It seems that you forgot to remove the "Support area" sub-type! Apart from that, I'm worried about the ability stacking. I think I would prefer it as unique and cost with "Bearer must be Sam".

Great Tales
Condition • Support Area
Tale. To play, spot 2 Ring-bound Hobbits.
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may discard a tale from play to choose a Shadow player who must remove or a burden.
"‘I wonder if people will ever say, ‘let's hear about Frodo and the Ring.' And they'll say ‘yes, that's one of my favorite stories. Frodo was really courageous, wasn't he, dad?' ‘Yes, my boy, the most famousest of hobbits. And that's saying alot.''"

Well you could argue this card is about making just regular tales into great tales! Seems like it's expensive - could be .

•Cliffs of Emyn Muil (updated reprint)
Condition • Support Area
Response: If the fellowship moves from a mountain site in region 1 and you can spot a Ring-bound Hobbit, discard this condition to remove up to 2 burdens.
Skirmish: Discard this condition to wound a minion skirmishing a Hobbit companion.
"...away from the steep edge of the Emyn Muil, down the broken stony slopes towards the vast fens below. They faded swiftly and softly into the darkness."

Yeah, fair enough.

Sprawled On The Ground
Event • Assignment
Stealth.
Prevent a Hobbit from being assigned to skirmish minions with strength less than that Hobbit's resistance until the regroup phase.
"Not even an eagle poised against the sun would have marked the hobbits sitting there, under the weight of doom, silent, not moving, shrouded in their thin grey cloaks."

This brings up rules questions. What happens if the minion's strength is subsequently boosted? I think the snapshot rule would mean that it only counts minions with strength less than his resistance when the card is played, but I'm not sure. It also seems a bit too dangerous to be used. Essentially, I think my problem with this card is that it may as well be Crouched Down which is more reliable, simpler and doesn't give me a rules headache!

Give Him The Slip
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Choose one: cancel a skirmish involving a Hobbit bearing an artifact or cloak; or make a Hobbit strength +3.
"Drawing his grey hood well over his face, Sam crept stealthily towards the cliff."

Wow, very cool!

•Frodo, Little Stranger
Companion • Hobbit
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Ringed Resistance: 10
Ring-bearer. Ring-bound.
Fellowship: Play a companion whose race you cannot spot to heal Frodo or remove a burden.
Skirmish: Exert Frodo and add a burden to make a roaming minion strength -2. Limit once per skirmish.
"And here he was a little halfling from the Shire, a simple hobbit of the quiet countryside expected to find a way where the great ones could not go, or dared not go."

I still think a RB with in-built burden removal, healing and strength pumps is ludicrously powerful. Why would I use any other Frodo? I still say you should choose one of the abilities and stick with it, or do something entirely different.

Thranduil

[DáinIronfoot]

A Brave Deed
Condition • Support Area
Bearer must be a Ring-bound Hobbit. Limit 1 per bearer.
Each other Ring-bound companion is resistance +1.
Each time the fellowship moves to a river or marsh site, exert bearer.
"‘He's not alone. Sam went with him.'"

It seems that you forgot to remove the "Support area" sub-type! Apart from that, I'm worried about the ability stacking. I think I would prefer it as unique and cost with "Bearer must be Sam".

Well, seeing as how there are only 3 RB Hobbits (I haven't added more), you're looking at a max of +2 resistance for each of them.

Hmmm. You know what, even that is likely too much considering all the other resistance boosters I've made in this set. I think I'll go with your idea after all.

Sprawled On The Ground
Event • Assignment
Stealth.
Prevent a Hobbit from being assigned to skirmish minions with strength less than that Hobbit's resistance until the regroup phase.
"Not even an eagle poised against the sun would have marked the hobbits sitting there, under the weight of doom, silent, not moving, shrouded in their thin grey cloaks."

This brings up rules questions. What happens if the minion's strength is subsequently boosted? I think the snapshot rule would mean that it only counts minions with strength less than his resistance when the card is played, but I'm not sure. It also seems a bit too dangerous to be used. Essentially, I think my problem with this card is that it may as well be Crouched Down which is more reliable, simpler and doesn't give me a rules headache!

Well, it is a touch better than Crouched Down since it lasts until regroup...CD is a one-time shot, after all. I don't see why it's such a big rule-bender, though...once the assignment phase is done, any strength modifiers don't matter anyway since assignments are already done. If someone modifies strength before the end of the assignment phase, then that would come into play, yes, but I still don't see why that's such a mind-blowing thing. Am I just missing something obvious?

•Frodo, Little Stranger
Companion • Hobbit
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Ringed Resistance: 10
Ring-bearer. Ring-bound.
Fellowship: Play a companion whose race you cannot spot to heal Frodo or remove a burden.
Skirmish: Exert Frodo and add a burden to make a roaming minion strength -2. Limit once per skirmish.
"And here he was a little halfling from the Shire, a simple hobbit of the quiet countryside expected to find a way where the great ones could not go, or dared not go."

I still think a RB with in-built burden removal, healing and strength pumps is ludicrously powerful. Why would I use any other Frodo? I still say you should choose one of the abilities and stick with it, or do something entirely different.

Sigh. Alright, I relent: I'll drop the second line. for your persistence even if it pains me. I think I'll have to go back and make a card that ties Frodo and Sam in with roaming minions later, though. That's still a connection I want, to help tie them in a touch more with the RB rangers.

[Thranduil]

Sprawled On The Ground
Event • Assignment
Stealth.
Prevent a Hobbit from being assigned to skirmish minions with strength less than that Hobbit's resistance until the regroup phase.
"Not even an eagle poised against the sun would have marked the hobbits sitting there, under the weight of doom, silent, not moving, shrouded in their thin grey cloaks."

This brings up rules questions. What happens if the minion's strength is subsequently boosted? I think the snapshot rule would mean that it only counts minions with strength less than his resistance when the card is played, but I'm not sure. It also seems a bit too dangerous to be used. Essentially, I think my problem with this card is that it may as well be Crouched Down which is more reliable, simpler and doesn't give me a rules headache!

Well, it is a touch better than Crouched Down since it lasts until regroup...CD is a one-time shot, after all. I don't see why it's such a big rule-bender, though...once the assignment phase is done, any strength modifiers don't matter anyway since assignments are already done. If someone modifies strength before the end of the assignment phase, then that would come into play, yes, but I still don't see why that's such a mind-blowing thing. Am I just missing something obvious?

Thing is, I'm not sure that modifying strength before the end of the assignment phase does change this cards effect. Basically, my problem with this card is that I don't understand its implications, and that's a bad thing for a card. Plus it's exceedingly dangerous because, depending on whether subsequent strength boosts apply or not, it could end up forcing you to assign a massive minion to your Ring-bearer. And it does effect the fierce assignment phase, and I'm not sure how. It's just giving me a headache all round.

I also don't see why you need to make such a complicated card when Crouched Down explores essentially the same concept and is ready and ripe for reprinting. But I'm sure that's just me.

Thranduil

[DáinIronfoot]

Probably NOT just you, actually. Hmmmm. I'll kick it around in my head and see if I can think of something else to do with it.

[lem0nhead]

•What A Fix!
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot 2 Hobbits.
Each time the fellowship moves to a site in region 1, draw a card.
Each time the fellowship moves to a site in region 2, draw a card and then discard a card from your hand.
Each time the fellowship moves to a site in region 3, discard a card from your hand.
"‘That's the one place in all the lands we've ever heard of that we don't want to see any closer; and that's the one place we're trying to get to!'"

Interesting, each could have its advantages and disadvantages. I think it could easily cost 1 or maybe 0. Dont think it justfies a cost really.

•A Brave Deed
Condition
Bearer must be a Ring-bound Hobbit.
Each other Ring-bound companion is resistance +1.
Each time the fellowship moves to a river or marsh site, exert bearer.
"‘He's not alone. Sam went with him.'"

Because of the exert i think this could cost 1.

Great Tales
Condition • Support Area
Tale. To play, spot 2 Ring-bound Hobbits.
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may discard a tale from play to choose a Shadow player who must remove or a burden.
"‘I wonder if people will ever say, ‘let's hear about Frodo and the Ring.' And they'll say ‘yes, that's one of my favorite stories. Frodo was really courageous, wasn't he, dad?' ‘Yes, my boy, the most famousest of hobbits. And that's saying alot.''"

Hey I like it. Not sure about its non uniqueness. Though more than 1 tale per turn is quite a cost. Probably fine.

•Cliffs of Emyn Muil (updated reprint)
Condition • Support Area
Response: If the fellowship moves from a mountain site in region 1 and you can spot a Ring-bound Hobbit, discard this condition to remove up to 2 burdens.
Skirmish: Discard this condition to wound a minion skirmishing a Hobbit companion.
"...away from the steep edge of the Emyn Muil, down the broken stony slopes towards the vast fens below. They faded swiftly and softly into the darkness."

Yeah its sound. Need to be a rare again though as it approaching OP for a 0 cost.

Sprawled On The Ground
Event • Assignment
Stealth.
Prevent a Hobbit from being assigned to skirmish minions with strength less than that Hobbit's resistance until the regroup phase.
"Not even an eagle poised against the sun would have marked the hobbits sitting there, under the weight of doom, silent, not moving, shrouded in their thin grey cloaks."

Seems ok, not quite sure how useful it would be though. I suppose ring bearer applications would be ok especially against swarm.

Give Him The Slip
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Choose one: cancel a skirmish involving a Hobbit bearing an artifact or cloak; or make a Hobbit strength +3.
"Drawing his grey hood well over his face, Sam crept stealthily towards the cliff."

Wow, hobbits have no good standard legal pumps then whamo this comes along and is both awesome and versatile. not sure if this shouldnt cost 2 its so useful.

•Frodo, Little Stranger
Companion • Hobbit
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Ringed Resistance: 10
Ring-bearer. Ring-bound.
Fellowship: Play a companion whose race you cannot spot to heal Frodo or remove a burden.
"And here he was a little halfling from the Shire, a simple hobbit of the quiet countryside expected to find a way where the great ones could not go, or dared not go."

Meh, hes ok, probably ok to change 'or' for 'and'.

[DáinIronfoot]

Good to have you back, juicy fruit!

Alright, made some tweaks to the last batch (though I still have to figure out what to do with Sprawled On The Ground...when I figure that out I'll re-post it). For now, though, I promised Merry and Pippin on Monday, and lo and behold, it's Monday! So here they are. Enjoy!

You know I'm not big into rarities, but I know for certain that the other versions of Merry and Pippin in this set are rare, so these two are probably...hmmm...uncommon.

•Merry, Young and Brave
Companion • Hobbit
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Signet: Gandalf
Pippin may not be overwhelmed unless his strength is tripled.
Maneuver: Discard Merry to return a non-minion Shadow card to its owner's hand (or 2 such or cards). Any Shadow player may remove a threat to prevent this.
"‘The fires of Isengard will spread and the woods of Tuckborough and Buckland will burn. And all that was once green and good in this world will be gone.'"

•Pippin, Very Small
Companion • Hobbit
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Signet: Gandalf
Merry takes no more than 1 wound during each phase (except archery).
Maneuver: Discard Pippin to return a non-minion Shadow card to its owner's hand (or 2 such or cards). Any Shadow player may remove a burden to prevent this.
"‘The closer we are to danger, the farther we are from harm. It's the last thing he'll expect.'"

As you can see, the discarding-and-replaying strategy is big with our unbound Hobbits in this set, just as it was way back in Tower block. But unlike those versions of our little Hobbits (which never took off too well since they were, frankly, pretty lousy for the most part), these have a very nice built-in bonus as well: paired up, they become very difficult to kill. Because of this, I almost made their abilities regroup instead of maneuver, but decided that it would probably do more good earlier in the turn.

So what do you think? Do they capture the flavor of the originals without being utterly useless like the originals as well?

[lem0nhead]

Good to have you back, juicy fruit!

Ditto nice to see u posting DC's again.

•Merry, Young and Brave
Companion • Hobbit
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Signet: Gandalf
Pippin may not be overwhelmed unless his strength is tripled.
Maneuver: Discard Merry to discard a non-minion Shadow card (or 2 such or cards). Any Shadow player may remove a threat to prevent this.
"‘The fires of Isengard will spread and the woods of Tuckborough and Buckland will burn. And all that was once green and good in this world will be gone.'"

Erm yeah ok not too shabby.

•Pippin, Very Small
Companion • Hobbit
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Signet: Gandalf
Merry takes no more than 1 wound during each phase (except archery).
Maneuver: Discard Pippin to discard a non-minion Shadow card (or 2 such or cards). Any Shadow player may remove a burden to prevent this.
"‘The closer we are to danger, the farther we are from harm. It's the last thing he'll expect.'"

Yeah u captured it well DI and yes they are more useful for sure!

[Thranduil]

•Merry, Young and Brave
Companion • Hobbit
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Signet: Gandalf
Pippin may not be overwhelmed unless his strength is tripled.
Maneuver: Discard Merry to discard a non-minion Shadow card (or 2 such or cards). Any Shadow player may remove a threat to prevent this.
"‘The fires of Isengard will spread and the woods of Tuckborough and Buckland will burn. And all that was once green and good in this world will be gone.'"

•Pippin, Very Small
Companion • Hobbit
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Signet: Gandalf
Merry takes no more than 1 wound during each phase (except archery).
Maneuver: Discard Pippin to discard a non-minion Shadow card (or 2 such or cards). Any Shadow player may remove a burden to prevent this.
"‘The closer we are to danger, the farther we are from harm. It's the last thing he'll expect.'"

Hmm... Given that these guys support condition or possession discard, it seems like they ought to be rare at minimum. But at uncommon, I feel like these guys need abilities more common in the culture. I would suggest returning minions to its owner's hand (like Make Haste).

Thranduil

[DáinIronfoot]

Hmm... Given that these guys support condition or possession discard, it seems like they ought to be rare at minimum. But at uncommon, I feel like these guys need abilities more common in the culture. I would suggest returning minions to its owner's hand (like Make Haste).

Two options: I can do something like you suggest and change "discard a non-minion Shadow card" in each of their texts to "return a non-minion Shadow card to its owner's hand", OR I can leave them common and change THIS version from the planned rare to an uncommon instead:

•Merry & •Pippin, Little Shirelings
Companions • Hobbits
Strength: 6
Vitality: 4
Signet: Frodo
Each hunter companion is strength +1.
The twilight cost of each pipeweed and stealth card is -1.
Skirmish: Exert Merry & Pippin to make each Ent and Tree strength +1 until the regroup phase.
"‘Our friends are out there. They need our help. They cannot fight this war on their own.'"

Yes, one of my fabled dual-character cards. (If you forget the gist of how such cards work, just ask.) This one is quite versatile, able to help out most of the main fellowship types from this set (hunters, stealthiness, pipeweeds, or Ents/Trees). None of those abilities are super-powerful, though, so the more I think about it, the more I think uncommon might be better than rare anyway.

What do you think, though?

[Thranduil]

•Merry & •Pippin, Little Shirelings
Companions • Hobbits
Strength: 6
Vitality: 4
Signet: Frodo
While in your starting fellowship, Merry & Pippin's twilight cost is -1.
Each hunter is strength +1.
The twilight cost of each pipeweed and stealth card is -1.
Skirmish: Exert Merry & Pippin to make each Ent and Tree strength +1 until the regroup phase.
"‘Our friends are out there. They need our help. They cannot fight this war on their own.'"

I'm afraid that I think that dual characters are so complicated that they should always be rare, just like MTG planeswalkers and legendary creatures - it doesn't matter how complicated their texts are, having that card type means they are rare, because they are also good to collect.

To review this guy, I definitely feel he has too much text. I would certainly make them cost without the starting fellowship reduction (which seems a little bit of a waste of space to me) and I also don't see why Merry & Pippin should help your opponent's hunters, and so I would remove that line too. Then you're left with a very coherent card that hearkens back to the In the Bloom of Health Hobbits - 1 pipeweed ability, 1 Ent ability.

Thranduil

[DáinIronfoot]

Dropped the cost and starting reduction, which is actually how it was originally written before I began fretting that was too good. As for the hunter thing, I want to leave that for now because, at least to me, it DOES make sense for hunters on both sides. Hunter is focused in this set on three main groups: the Three Hunters (and Gandalf), the Orc/Uruk trackers that capture the Hobbits, and the Rohirrim. Since Merry and Pippin are really at the center of all of those groups' "hunting", I figured it made perfect sense to have them boost all those aforementioned hunters. If you think it's just too powerful or something, then we can certainly discuss based on that. But as far as story goes, I personally think it fits very well.

I'll keep the dual-character at rare, which means Merry YaB and Pippin VS will stay uncommon and be scaled back a bit in the way you recommended. Thanks, man!