Single Player/Endurance Format

[Psyjedi]

Hey Folks,

I'm sure this topic has been covered here before, but I've finished my 2012 LotR TCG related goal of finishing my Fellowship Foil set, so I'm moving on to something else 

I wanted to create a format where a single person can play the game with a high amount of challenge (to make it interesting), diversity (to make it repeatable), and flexibility (so that you could make it two-player if you got the chance and didn't want to play the normal way). Here is my first stab at the format. I'd really appreciate suggestions to make it more interesting!

Endurance Format
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As with the normal format, you represent the Fellowship and have a Ring-Bearer (any one of your choice) and one additional Companion (any one of your choice). You start at Site 1 (any one of your choice).

You have a draw deck that consists of 30 Fellowship cards (they must be unique/only one copy per deck, and may not contain any Companion cards).

You draw 4 cards to start.

Each turn, during the "Fellowship Phase" you may play 1 card from hand. In Endurance Format, you ignore all costs of cards.

When you move to the next site, you randomly choose a site from any site 2.

There is a Shadow Deck that consists of 60 minions (they must be unique/only one copy per deck).

You shuffle the deck and play the top 2 minions from that deck.

You then move to the maneuver phase, the archery phase, and then the skirmish phase as your would in Normal Format.

(QUESTION: How do you handle minions with Maneuver or Archery text in a way that "keeps you honest"? i.e. ensure that you play the minions to their utmost value)

If you have any Maneuver, Archery, or Skirmish events in hand you may play them at the appropriate time for free.

When you have finished the Skirmish phase, if your Fellowship has survived, you move on to the Regroup phase as normal. You do not discard any minions (unless you have a Regroup event or action that allows you to do so).

You may then draw 2 cards, and proceed on to Site 3.

You then repeat the process, getting another Fellowship phase. Except this time, you play 3 minions. At Site 4, you play 4, and so on, until you have reached Site 9.

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So thoughts? I haven't even played this out once, so I have no idea if it's completely rubbish or not. I think you could have quite a bit of fun varying the minion deck, varying the Fellowship deck, playing with what sites are allowed, etc. Happy to hear what people have to say, good or bad.

Thanks!
PJ

[Gil-Estel]

So if I understand correctly your fellowship has 2 companions all the time and the number of minions is equal to the number of the site? So you will face 9 minions, regardless the cost at site 9?
- Do you get to mulligan as in a normal game?
- Do you heal at site 3 and 6?

[Psyjedi]

Hey Gil-Estel,

Yes, you have 2 companions the whole time, and the number of minions is equal to the site PLUS the number of minions surviving from prior sites.

The "Endurance" part is that you have to see how far you can get before dying. (I think I stole that term from video games like Tekken Tag that had an Endurance Mode where you just kept moving forward beating up on bad guys until you got overwhelmed).

Sure, you can Mulligan.

Yes, you can heal at site 3 and 6 and use any Fellowship text form Sanctuaries too.

I have a feeling that without being able to play additional companions you'd get killed pretty quickly. But I also don't want to allow 9 companions in the Fellowship deck that allows you to make it to site 9 and survive without too much effort.

-PJ

[MR. Lurtzy]

I would also change the amount of cards you can play in your fellowship phase. Maybe have that go with the site number as well

[Elessar's Socks]

Random thought: what if minions were played first, and then you use their combined twilight cost to draw/play/something?

Just thinking that without a cost system, the Shadow side especially might degenerate to best-ofs; even if we can't come up with 60 minions of Sauron's caliber, there might just be enough to make the game too swingy.