Some Random DCs

[ket_the_jet]

Yes and he is resistance 5.

I forgot his name though. Sam, Bearer of Great Need, maybe?
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

... it's only the name, cost, picture and culture that need to match.

Definitely find a clearer picture than the Sam, Great Elf Warrior picture! I originally thought that you intended on making him an ARB, which would be an interesting idea.

I just thought that Sam as an aid would be sweet (not a virtual card):
•Sam, Hobbit of Tales and Legends
Aid • Hobbit
Strength +2, Resistance +2
Bearer must be the Ring-Bearer.
Aid- Remove X burdens and add X threats.
If Bearer is Frodo, discard Sam to wound a minion he is skirmishing (or wound that minion twice if it is a minion.

Okay, he'd probably cost way more than !
-wtk

[MR. Lurtzy]

No aid at all?

[ket_the_jet]

No aid at all?

I don't know what you mean by that? I suppose I had the cost of playing him as removing the same amount of burdens and threats. I guess that doesn't work anyways.
-wtk

[MR. Lurtzy]

You could remove 0 burdens to add 0 threats.

[Thranduil]

•Dain Ironfoot, Slayer of Azog
Companion • Dwarf
St:  7
Vi:  3
Re: 6
Damage +1.
While you can spot a Dwarf, Dain Ironfoot is twilight cost -1.
Each time a Dwarf loses a skirmish involving an Orc, Dain Ironfoot is strength +2 and damage +1 until the regroup phase.

Hilarious! I would be tempted to lose the initial damage bonus in favour of making it work for any minion - yes it's more flavourful, but unfortunately a bit too narrow to be used. Or, you could do a compromise, something like "Each time a Dwarf loses a skirmish involving a minion, Dáin Ironfoot is strength +2 (and damage +1 if that minion is an Orc) until the regroup phase.

•Glorfindel, Elrond's Messenger
Companion • Elf
St:  6
Vi:  3
Re: 8
Ranger.
Response: If the ring-bearer puts on the One Ring, exert Glorfindel twice to make the move limit +1 this turn.

Interesting...  I feel like 2/6/3 is too small for one of the greatest Elf lords of the Third Age - he sits much more comfortably at his usual 4/9/3, and you could then have a cost reduction, like "While the Ring-bearer has resistance 8 or more, Glorfindel's twilight cost is -2". Nice card otherwise.

•Aragorn, Wielder of the Blade Reforged
Companion • Man
Strength 10, Vitality 5, Resistance 8
Damage +1.
Aragorn may not bear hand weapons. Anduril may not be played. Add 1 to the number of artifacts you can spot.

•Eomer, Firefoot's Rider
Companion • Man
Strength 8, Vitality 3, Resistance 7
Valiant.
Eomer may not bear a mount. Firefoot may not be played. Add 1 to the number of mounts you can spot.
At the start of each skirmish involving Eomer, each minion skirmishing Eomer must exert.

I think a better way to go about these would be something like this:

•Éomer and •Firefoot
Companion • Man • Mount
Str: 8
Vit: 3
Res: 7
Defender +1. Valiant.
At the start of each skirmish involving Éomer, each minion he is skirmishing must exert.

So you see I've solved several problems here: 1) now Éomer and Firefoot are mentioned explicitly in the title (it probably should have a subtitle as well) meaning that you cannot play either card again, because a version of each is in play. 2) I've lost some text by putting "Mount" in his type line. This would mean that he can't bear another mount and counts as a mounted companion, again saving you a lot of text. You could do Aragorn similarly:

•Aragorn and •Andúril
Companion • Man • Hand Weapon

Just a thought to make your life easier! Star Wars did something similar - it had a built-in weapon icon.

•Fredegar Bolger, Fatty (V)
Companion • Hobbit
Str 3, Vit 3, Res 7
While at a the fellowship is at a dwelling, Fredegar Bolger cannot be overwhelmed unless his strength is tripled.
Skirmish: Discard Fredegar Bolger to cancel a skirmish involving another hobbit. Any shadow player may remove a threat to prevent this.

Excellent flavour, but he's very powerful - he cancels 2 skirmishes, and if you're playing expanded you can combo him with the Towers unbound Hobbit discard like Knocked on the Head, Treebeard, Earthborn and Gandalf, Greyhame. I think a good fix would be "If Fredegar Bolger is not assigned to a skirmish, discard him to..." Then I think the combo potential is good, but no longer too good.

•Sam, Great Elf Warrior (V)
Companion • Hobbit
Str 3, Vit 4, Res 10
Ring-bound.
For each free peoples culture you can spot, minions skirmishing Sam are strength -1 (limit -4).

•Sam, Great Elf Warrior (V)
Companion • Hobbit
Str 3, Vit 4, Res 10
Ring-bound.
For each free peoples artifact or possession borne by the ring-bearer, minions skirmishing Sam are strength -1 (limit -4).

I do also like the first one best, but both are fun. I also hate limits, and in each case there's no real reason why the limit is necessary and so I would remove it - the original GEW doesn't have a limit, and he's just as good as these guys.

Thranduil

[ket_the_jet]

I also hate limits

I hate Pippin, Steadfast Friend.

But, Thranduil is right. When it comes to the first one, how many free peoples' cultures are there? , , , , , which you already have out with Sam. So by playing more than four, the free peoples player is becoming susceptible to Ulaire Enquea, Lt. of Morgul, Greed, and similar cards. Just saying...
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

You could remove 0 burdens to add 0 threats.

Haha...I thought of that after you brought up your first point. I'll be honest, I don't know anything about how an aid works, I was just goofing off and thought a Sam aid who shows up just at the nick of time in the Shelob's Lair was a cool idea.
-wtk

[DáinIronfoot]

•Fredegar Bolger, Fatty (V)
Companion • Hobbit
Str 3, Vit 3, Res 7
While at a the fellowship is at a dwelling, Fredegar Bolger cannot be overwhelmed unless his strength is tripled.
Skirmish: Discard Fredegar Bolger to cancel a skirmish involving another hobbit. Any shadow player may remove a threat to prevent this.

I like Thran's suggestion about limiting the skirmish ability to when Fatty is not already in a skirmish. Also, watch out: you have an extra "at a" in the first line of text. Oh, and always capitalize race names (so "Hobbit", in this case).

•Sam, Great Elf Warrior (V)
Companion • Hobbit
Str 3, Vit 4, Res 10
Ring-bound.
For each free peoples culture you can spot, minions skirmishing Sam are strength -1 (limit -4).

•Sam, Great Elf Warrior (V)
Companion • Hobbit
Str 3, Vit 4, Res 10
Ring-bound.
For each free peoples artifact or possession borne by the ring-bearer, minions skirmishing Sam are strength -1 (limit -4).

Both are good, but I too like the first one better. I think you can remove the limit IF you change it to "For each Free Peoples culture you can spot in the fellowship...", similar wording as found on the ultimate Nine Walkers companion, Friend of the Shirefolk. Or just go with "For each race you can spot in the fellowship...". Culture is probably better, though, to get the max use out of cultures like and .

[eomund]

Thranduil, I like your second suggestion for Dain Ironfoot. And I decided later in the thread to juice Glorfindel up to his usual stats, I just didn't take the time to edit the original post. Maybe I will sometime ...

I didn't even think of the double skirmish prevention on Fredegar ... I had to look at the card a couple of times to see it  ... It shall be changed.

Dain, I'm confused as to why Sam needs to say "in the fellowship" ... I think possessions and conditions should help him out just as much as companions of other cultures. And his limit shall be removed .... I forgot to consider the hoops the FP player would have to go through to actually get more than five cultures out.

[eomund]

It's taken me a bit of time, but I've fleshed out this idea enough to make it worth posting (I think). I'm sure a bunch of people have tried out things like this, but here is my interpretation of multiculture cards. As in cards that are two cultures at once. I've only come up with companions so far, but there's a bunch, so I don't feel I'm skimping out on this post at all.

Just to be clear, the rules for these guys are simply that they count as a companion of each of their cultures. For example, the first Aragorn is an Man, an Companion, a Man, and a Companion. And for what it's worth, I imagine the background of the card to be split down the middle (line drawn top to bottom), with one culture's colours on one side and the other culture's on the right. Like hybrid cards in Magic, for anyone who knows what they look like.

•Aragorn, Estel
Companion • Man
Str 7, Vit 4, Res 8
Each time an Elf wins a skirmish, make Aragorn strength +1 until the regroup phase.

Estel, meaning hope, is the name given to Aragorn by Elrond when he was accepted into Elrond's household. He's a little smaller than usual partly because of his strength boost, and partly because this is a younger Aragorn.

•Aragorn, Thorongil
Companion • Man
Str 8, Vit 3, Res 8
While you can spot another Man, Aragorn is defender +1.
While you can spot another Man, Aragorn is damage +1.

Again, I felt a younger Aragorn shouldn't be quite as beefy as the in-his-prime (considering he lived to 200 (?), 85 seems to be in his prime) version of the books. And I can't think up a better name for him, so let me know if you can.

•Eomer, Renewer of Oaths
Companion • Man
Str 7, Vit 3, Res 6
While you can spot a Man, Eomer's twilight cost is -1.
Skirmish: Exert Eomer and a Man to make a Man strength +3, or exert Eomer and a Man to make a Man strength +3.

If I understand the rules correctly, the way this is worded allows Eomer to exert twice to pump a companion, and allows Eomer to pump himself. The oath referred to is Eorl's oath to the stewards, which Eomer renewed to the newly crowned King.

•Gandalf, Master of Fireworks
Companion • Wizard
Str 7, Vit 4, Res 7
Fellowship: Exert Gandalf and add to play a tale from your draw deck.

I'm not really sure how powerful his ability is ... maybe it should cost nothing or ?

•Gandalf, Steward of Men
Companion • Wizard
Str 7, Vit 4, Res 7
Response: If a Man would exert, exert Gandalf to place no wound for that exertion.

Same comment as above.

•Gandalf, Stormcrow
Str 7, Vit 4, Res 7
Fellowship: Exert Gandalf twice to discard a Shadow condition (and if that condition was borne by a companion, heal that companion).

And again. Also, I think this name is okay since Stormcrow has been used on two cards (according to the database), neither of which look tournament legal. But other names are welcome anyway.

•Gimli, Elf-Friend
Companion • Dwarf
Str 6, Vit 3, Res 6
Damage +1.
Skirmish: Exert Gimli to make an Elf strength +1 (or +2 if that Elf is Legolas).

I think Gimli and Legolas (see if you can guess his game text without looking ) are the simplest two of the multiculture companions ... they work best in a deck of the opposite race, and are able to spotted by (some) cards of both cultures.

•Legolas, Friend of Dwarves
Companion • Elf
Str 6, Vit 3, Res 6
Archer.
Skirmish: Exert Legolas to make a Dwarf strength +1 (or +2 if that Dwarf is Gimli).

Were you right?

•Smeagol, Stoor of Gladden Fields [gollum]
Companion • Hobbit
Str 3, Vit 4, Res 5
Stealth events and conditions are twilight cost -1.

Finally, we have this guy. Notice that he's also been given a race ... too many shire cards spot Hobbits to make him effective otherwise. And if an Elendil card can be made, a Smeagol card set a far shorter time in the past can also be made.

Let me know what you think. I'm going to try to come up with a few non-companion cards, and possibly some shadow cards. If any of you have your own takes on this type of cards, I think it could be interesting to compare, so feel free to post them too.

[ket_the_jet]

To me, this is a cool and original idea; however, I don't know how great it is in application. Just a few thoughts off of the top of my head:

Gimli, Elf-Friend and Legolas, Friend of Dwarves have nearly the same game-text of Gimli, Unbidden Guest and Legolas, Elven Comrade. I know you can do better than that!

As for Smeagol, Stoor of Gladden Fields (great subtitle, by the way), he should still have the stipulation, "To play, add a burden." I don't think he should be a hobbit because of the work that Decipher did setting up the game to prevent him from being a universally used companion...just my opinion.

Gandalf, Stormcrow is incredibly powerful. I would be more inclined if it was just discarding conditions borne by companions instead of any condition. Or:
Fellowship: Exert Gandalf twice to discard a condition (or exert Gandalf once to discard a condition borne by a Free Peoples character).

Gandalf, Master of Fireworks is a pretty lame sub-title. But I like the idea of playing tales. I would like him better as a just because there are so many great tales in , , and subsets...I wouldn't want to be a spot-able race when using him in a Council of Elrond deck, let's say.

Eomer with a built-in stronger version of Help in Doubt and Need. I don't think you need to make it +3. And why not just twilight -1 while you can spot any man as opposed to just ?

Aragorn, Estel is a very cool card. But I think that I like him better as a companion that would be in Elven decks. I think you can get away with him being strength 8. Another thought, why not make him work with Elven Telepathy decks, similar to Elrond, Venerable Lord and other Mount  Doom elves? Like:
At the start of each skirmish involving Aragorn, you may reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is an card, heal a companion. If it is a card, wound a minion.

Something like that would be a very cool card for Mount Doom Elf-type decks.

Aragorn, Thorongil (your version) should still be vitality 4. Or, make him a 7/3 companion. But I'd just prefer him maintaining his 8/4 statistics.

Gandalf, Steward of Men is, alas, a lame subtitle. Also, it is basically a built-in version of Strength of Spirit...I feel like you could probably come up with something a little more creative.

Anyways, to recap (sorry for reviewing these out of order...I was kind of coming up with thoughts and changing others as I went), I am not sure I am cool with multi-cultural companions (although it creative). I think I'd just prefer companions like Faramir, Wizard's Pupil and Aragorn, Defender of Free Peoples and other similar companions that work with multiple cultures.

Or, maybe I'll just start packing Orc Insurgent in all of my decks again like I did in Towers Standard where every deck seemed to be of the Rainbow variety!
-wtk

[Thranduil]

It's taken me a bit of time, but I've fleshed out this idea enough to make it worth posting (I think). I'm sure a bunch of people have tried out things like this, but here is my interpretation of multiculture cards. As in cards that are two cultures at once. I've only come up with companions so far, but there's a bunch, so I don't feel I'm skimping out on this post at all.

Just to be clear, the rules for these guys are simply that they count as a companion of each of their cultures. For example, the first Aragorn is an Man, an Companion, a Man, and a Companion. And for what it's worth, I imagine the background of the card to be split down the middle (line drawn top to bottom), with one culture's colours on one side and the other culture's on the right. Like hybrid cards in Magic, for anyone who knows what they look like.

•Aragorn, Estel
Companion • Man
Str 7, Vit 4, Res 8
Each time an Elf wins a skirmish, make Aragorn strength +1 until the regroup phase.

Estel, meaning hope, is the name given to Aragorn by Elrond when he was accepted into Elrond's household. He's a little smaller than usual partly because of his strength boost, and partly because this is a younger Aragorn.

•Aragorn, Thorongil
Companion • Man
Str 8, Vit 3, Res 8
While you can spot another Man, Aragorn is defender +1.
While you can spot another Man, Aragorn is damage +1.

Again, I felt a younger Aragorn shouldn't be quite as beefy as the in-his-prime (considering he lived to 200 (?), 85 seems to be in his prime) version of the books. And I can't think up a better name for him, so let me know if you can.

•Eomer, Renewer of Oaths
Companion • Man
Str 7, Vit 3, Res 6
While you can spot a Man, Eomer's twilight cost is -1.
Skirmish: Exert Eomer and a Man to make a Man strength +3, or exert Eomer and a Man to make a Man strength +3.

If I understand the rules correctly, the way this is worded allows Eomer to exert twice to pump a companion, and allows Eomer to pump himself. The oath referred to is Eorl's oath to the stewards, which Eomer renewed to the newly crowned King.

•Gandalf, Master of Fireworks
Companion • Wizard
Str 7, Vit 4, Res 7
Fellowship: Exert Gandalf and add to play a tale from your draw deck.

I'm not really sure how powerful his ability is ... maybe it should cost nothing or ?

•Gandalf, Steward of Men
Companion • Wizard
Str 7, Vit 4, Res 7
Response: If a Man would exert, exert Gandalf to place no wound for that exertion.

Same comment as above.

•Gandalf, Stormcrow
Str 7, Vit 4, Res 7
Fellowship: Exert Gandalf twice to discard a Shadow condition (and if that condition was borne by a companion, heal that companion).

And again. Also, I think this name is okay since Stormcrow has been used on two cards (according to the database), neither of which look tournament legal. But other names are welcome anyway.

•Gimli, Elf-Friend
Companion • Dwarf
Str 6, Vit 3, Res 6
Damage +1.
Skirmish: Exert Gimli to make an Elf strength +1 (or +2 if that Elf is Legolas).

I think Gimli and Legolas (see if you can guess his game text without looking ) are the simplest two of the multiculture companions ... they work best in a deck of the opposite race, and are able to spotted by (some) cards of both cultures.

•Legolas, Friend of Dwarves
Companion • Elf
Str 6, Vit 3, Res 6
Archer.
Skirmish: Exert Legolas to make a Dwarf strength +1 (or +2 if that Dwarf is Gimli).

Were you right?

•Smeagol, Stoor of Gladden Fields [gollum]
Companion • Hobbit
Str 3, Vit 4, Res 5
Stealth events and conditions are twilight cost -1.

Finally, we have this guy. Notice that he's also been given a race ... too many shire cards spot Hobbits to make him effective otherwise. And if an Elendil card can be made, a Smeagol card set a far shorter time in the past can also be made.

Let me know what you think. I'm going to try to come up with a few non-companion cards, and possibly some shadow cards. If any of you have your own takes on this type of cards, I think it could be interesting to compare, so feel free to post them too.

I've done similar things in the past. What I've sometimes ended up doing is the concept of a "culture keyword"  - this is mainly for virtual cards when you can't change the background colour of the card - which makes any extra cultures part of the card's game text. What I've also done is simply off-culture characters, like Aragorn, Defender of Rohan, which indeed we'll eventually see in my DC set. And I've also made straight dual culture cards, as well as cards that gain the cultures of other cards (like Friend to Gandalf which grants the culture to a companion, The Mouth of Sauron which comes into play and gets the culture of another Shadow card and other similar ideas). Obviously these different approaches have their merits, and yours is very clean. It also allows you to do interesting things like slapping toil on your multiculture cards, and any other keywords that care about culture (you could make a version of MTG chroma or conspire, for example).

As for individual cards, if Thorongil has vitality 3, then your flavour also justifies that Estel has to have the same (given that he's an even younger version of Aragorn than the former).

Big fan of Éomer.

Master of Fireworks probably ought to be once per fellowship phase or at the start of the fellowship phase, and you might want to specify "condition" just so we don't get into complicated things with NFFatRoD and similar tale events.

I love Steward of Men, and Stormcrow looks fine because it's a fellowship action.

Gimli and Legolas are OK, but as ket says you could think of something more interesting! My cross-culture versions of Legolas/Gimli normally swap round archer and damage +1 and have triggers like "Each time Gimli wins a skirmish, you may make an companion strength +2 until the regroup phase".

I think Sméagol is fine being a Hobbit, but I do think he should still add a burden (or possibly exert a companion) to play.

Altogether, great stuff!

Thranduil