An Unexpected Journey: Cancelled.

[Cw0rk]

Which culture to start with? I'll vote for Shire.

[Ringbearer]

Mirkwood. A new culture.

[menace64]

I figure Cw0rk has a good point. Starting with a few Bilbo cards is the best way to go. But Mirkwood will be next!

•Bilbo, Baggins of Bag End
Companion • Hobbit
Strength 3
Vitality 4
Resistance 10
Ring-bearer. Ring-bound.
At the start of each fellowship phase, you may exert a Dwarf companion to heal Bilbo.
"As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains..."
H1C252

This is the young Bilbo, not quite a burglar yet but with all the potential we see later on. Right now he depends entirely on the Dwarves for physical and emotional support, but as the sets progress I reckon we'll see Bilbo's position begin to change, and eventually it'll be Bilbo exerting to benefit others.

•Bilbo, Ring-winner
Companion • Hobbit
Strength 3
Vitality 4
Resistance 10
Ring-bearer. Ring-bound.
Response: If Bilbo is about to take a wound, add a burden to wear The One Ring until the end of the regroup phase.
"'What have I, I wonder?' he said to himself, as he panted and stumbled along. He put his left hand in his pocket. The ring felt very cold as it quietly slipped on to his groping forefinger."
H1R253

I've been thinking about a Ring-bearer like this for some time. I like the idea of being able to wear the Ring whenever you really need it, and this first rare Bilbo seemed like the appropriate place to try it out. Since the ability is unique, I'm not quite sure if it's balanced as-is, but if you think it would require anything more I might just scrap the idea and go with something else.

[hsiale]

•Bilbo, Baggins of Bag End
Companion • Hobbit
Strength 3
Vitality 4
Resistance 10
Ring-bearer. Ring-bound.
At the start of each fellowship phase, you may exert a Dwarf companion to heal Bilbo.

Similar to Frodo, Son of Drogo, who, even with his ability being a fellowship action (and thus repetitive) turned out to be rather useless. On the other hand, Ring-winner looks less powerful than Old Bilbo's Heir or Reluctant Adventurer, so maybe those two Bilbos will be balanced against each other.

•Bilbo, Ring-winner
Companion • Hobbit
Strength 3
Vitality 4
Resistance 10
Ring-bearer. Ring-bound.
Response: If Bilbo is about to take a wound, add a burden to wear The One Ring.

Definitely interesting idea. Is effect duration (till the end of current phase) intended? Ability being balanced or not depends on rings available, so it's hard to say anything about this now.

By the way, should those cards be looked at together with any previous sets, or does "Hobbit Standard" format rotate all Decipher-made cards?

[menace64]

I definitely took inspiration from Son of Drogo when writing this first common Bilbo. It feels right to make them rhyme with each other. As for Ring-winner, if you think he's sort of lacking right now, what about if I raised his strength to 4? It'd be kind of cool to illustrate through strength Bilbo's gradual growth as a valuable companion.

By the way, should those cards be looked at together with any previous sets, or does "Hobbit Standard" format rotate all Decipher-made cards?

That is a fantastic question, and I wasn't planning on bringing it up for a little while. My intention for The Hobbit sets is to introduce the Hobbit Format, similar (if not exactly the same as) Episode One cards from SWCCG. The cards in these sets are being designed with internal vision only, but if someone wants to they can mix up Hobbit cards with Lord of the Rings cards.

I'm definitely not changing any rules though. Hobbit sets are going to be just like any other LotR set, with the only exception (initially) being the change of the term fellowship to company - meaning that a card like Buckleberry Ferry would say "While only Hobbits are in the company..." instead of what we know it says. This is just a thematic shift, and a card targeting "2 companions in the fellowship" would also target 2 companions in the company. The Fellowship Phase is still called the Fellowship Phase.

[ellesar]

bilbo, baggins of bag end looks indeed a lot like the useless son of drogo. But It use will be depended by the need of healing bilbo. I'm thinking maybe about some (dwarven) conditions/posessions/events that need to exert bilbo to play. In which case his ability can be usefull.
But is there a special reason you don't make it a fellowship action?


I like bilbo ring-winner. But like hsiale says it all depends on the ring being used. And i would make it also untill the end of the fase. Otherwise it can become complicated when you put on the ring during the regroup fase. As for his strength I would leave it on 3. but that's just me :-)

[hsiale]

I think I would choose Old Bilbo's Heir or Reluctant Adventurer over Ring-winner. But, if Hobbit cards are meant to have their own format, this is not important, it's more important that the ring-bearers in this set are balanced against each other (Son of Drogo could get more playing not only by being made more powerful, but also by making two other FotR block Frodos weaker). And I think currently it seems they are - though to have the full picture we need to see the rings.

As for Ring-winner, if you think he's sort of lacking right now, what about if I raised his strength to 4?

Definitely not. I think Frodo with basic strength 4 and no ability at all would be easily the most popular one in any LotR format (except maybe Hunters with their highly powerful cards). Just look at how popular Resolute Hobbit is, even though resistance is not as important as strength.

[menace64]

bilbo, baggins of bag end looks indeed a lot like the useless son of drogo. But It use will be depended by the need of healing bilbo. I'm thinking maybe about some (dwarven) conditions/posessions/events that need to exert bilbo to play. In which case his ability can be usefull.
But is there a special reason you don't make it a fellowship action?

There may or may not be considerable emphasis placed on exerting Bilbo. I don't always design cards to be particularly useful, and occasionally I write something that I know might never be utilized in any decent way. Not every card can be awesome! As for why I limited the healing to 1 per turn (since it's not a fellowship action), it's to balance the fact that any of your Dwarf companions can take the exertion, as opposed to only companions with a certain signet for Son of Drogo.

I like bilbo ring-winner. But like hsiale says it all depends on the ring being used. And i would make it also untill the end of the fase. Otherwise it can become complicated when you put on the ring during the regroup fase. As for his strength I would leave it on 3. but that's just me :-)

Since the rule for putting on the Ring is that it stays on until the start of the regroup phase, I'll go ahead and add "until the end of the regroup phase" into his effect. I prefer forcing the FP player to keep it on.

Thanks for the input you two. Good stuff!

Here are a few more simple utility cards for the culture before I get into some technical stuff.

Birthday Party
Event • Fellowship
Exert a Hobbit to play a Hobbit ally from your draw deck.
Drawn to adventure by fate or perhaps something greater, both Bilbo and young Frodo Baggins began their journeys across Middle-earth in the year of their fiftieth birthday.
H1C255

A few clever glances at the production videos shows that they've recreated the sets of Bilbo's big birthday party that we see at the beginning of Fellowship. A broadened functional reprint of Practically Everyone Was Invited, I opened it up a bit more to allow any Hobbit to make the exertion since there are considerably less of them to choose from this time around (just Bilbo as a companion and 7 allies, all unique).

Hobbit Sword
Possession • Hand Weapon
Strength +2
Bearer must be a Hobbit.
"It would have made only a tiny pocket-knife for a troll, but it was as good as a short sword for the hobbit."
H1C267

Reprint!

Thoughts of Home
Event • Skirmish
Make a Hobbit strength +1 for each dwelling site in region 1.
"So he sat himself down with his back to a tree, and not for the last time fell to thinking of his far-distant hobbit-hole with its beautiful pantries."
H1C284

Tried to keep it simple, themed, and also not an automatic strength booster since Hobbits themselves aren't naturally inclined to combat.

[Komitadji]

I'm curious, what will the One Ring for your Hobbit set look like? I think that could help considerably in evaluating Bilbo as a character card.

[TelTura]

And, in fact, would it be borne at the beginning or would you have to wait until site 4 to wield?

[menace64]

I'm not going to bother making things more complicated than they need to be. I'm not concerned with the flavor of Bilbo starting in Bag End with the Ring, and if flavor here is your chief concern, just keep in mind that - technically - the film opens with an older Bilbo in the Shire, already possessing the Ring!

Now to be truthful, I don't have anything more in mind for this set's rare Ring than a broad 'deal with shadow cards' theme. So I'll just throw something out and see if it sticks:

•The One Ring, The Precious
Skirmish: Wear The One Ring until the regroup phase to make a minion skirmishing the Ring-bearer lose all strength bonuses until the regroup phase.
While the Ring-bearer is wearing The One Ring, each time he or she is about to take a wound, add a burden instead.
"'Losst it is, my precious, lost, lost! Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!'"
H1R1

Like I said a second ago, this is just the first pass. I don't want to put any static strength/vitality/resistance bonuses on this Ring, as (in my mind) this version of the Ring comes from a time before it awakens to Sauron's call, meaning its power should be more subdued. I think this one is pretty freakin weak, especially since the rare Bilbo cares only about the Ring he's got.

Also, with the way this is currently worded, using Bilbo's ability to wear the Ring outside of the skirmish phase won't allow you to cancel a minion's bonuses.

•The One Ring, The Ruling Ring
Strength +1
Response: If the Ring-bearer is about to take a wound in a skirmish, he or she wears The One Ring until the regroup phase.
While the Ring-bearer is wearing The One Ring, each time he or she is about to take a wound in a skirmish, add a burden instead.
"One Ring to rule them all..."
H1C2

Now, Bilbo can also use the old reprinted Ring to his advantage, making it no longer limited to just a skirmish at the cost of an additional burden.

[TelTura]

•The One Ring, The Precious
Skirmish: Wear The One Ring until the regroup phase to make a minion lose all strength and damage bonuses until the regroup phase.
While the Ring-bearer is wearing The One Ring, each time he or she is about to take a wound, add a burden instead.
"'Losst it is, my precious, lost, lost! Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!'"
H1R1

that seems hideously broken.  As a skirmish action, can't it be activated multiple times? Also, even if it's only able to be activated once, we're talking about a fellowship full of dwarves, here.  Guaranteeing that a chosen dwarf wins his skirmish via innate strength alone is kind of bunk.  How about "to make a minion skirmishing Bilbo..." instead?

[menace64]

I was under the impression that you could only perform the action of wearing the Ring once, therefore limiting the action to once a site. But I hadn't considered too deeply how the effect might influence the sway of battle in quite the way you pointed out, so I agree that it should be limited to Bilbo's skirmish (plus, it makes sense).

EDIT: I also removed the strength-killing aspect of it, because given more thought on the matter this Ring really would be a guaranteed site-9 victory in its current form. I'm not even sure its new incarnation is balanced. Again, I might scrap this and try something else.

[Thranduil]

•Bilbo, Baggins of Bag End
Companion • Hobbit
Strength 3
Vitality 4
Resistance 10
Ring-bearer. Ring-bound.
At the start of each fellowship phase, you may exert a Dwarf companion to heal Bilbo.
"As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains..."
H1C252]

I agree with whoever said that Son of Drogo could do this repeatedly and that was perfectly fine. If you want to parallel Son of Drogo, then I would do so as explicitly as possible.

•Bilbo, Ring-winner
Companion • Hobbit
Strength 3
Vitality 4
Resistance 10
Ring-bearer. Ring-bound.
Response: If Bilbo is about to take a wound, add a burden to wear The One Ring until the end of the regroup phase.
"'What have I, I wonder?' he said to himself, as he panted and stumbled along. He put his left hand in his pocket. The ring felt very cold as it quietly slipped on to his groping forefinger."
H1R253

I love what you're trying to do here. But it feels weird to me that you are making duplicate copies of the same text or very similar text on your Ring-bearer and Ring. Don't know what could be done about this or whether it's worth thinking about... I think this guy would be incredibly snazzy if he didn't add a burden to use that ability. Strength 4 would really look out of place.

Birthday Party
Event • Fellowship
Exert a Hobbit to play a Hobbit ally from your draw deck.
Drawn to adventure by fate or perhaps something greater, both Bilbo and young Frodo Baggins began their journeys across Middle-earth in the year of their fiftieth birthday.
H1C255

A basically worse version of Practically Everyone Was Invited. This is not a problem, but I wonder why it isn't just the former given that the Hobbit must be a set that's about Bilbo!

Hobbit Sword
Possession • Hand Weapon
Strength +2
Bearer must be a Hobbit.
"It would have made only a tiny pocket-knife for a troll, but it was as good as a short sword for the hobbit."
H1C267

This is the most broken card I've ever seen. I can't believe you would ever consider printing this card. I mean, a +2 strength bonus to ANY Hobbit? Utter madness! Great lore—shame this card will be banned so fast...

Thoughts of Home
Event • Skirmish
Make a Hobbit strength +1 for each dwelling site in region 1.
"So he sat himself down with his back to a tree, and not for the last time fell to thinking of his far-distant hobbit-hole with its beautiful pantries."
H1C284

Being pedantic, I don't think that when you're referring to terrain keywords you normally bold them. But I'm a big fan of this card.

•The One Ring, The Precious
Skirmish: Wear The One Ring until the regroup phase to make a minion skirmishing the Ring-bearer lose all strength bonuses until the regroup phase.
While the Ring-bearer is wearing The One Ring, each time he or she is about to take a wound, add a burden instead.
"'Losst it is, my precious, lost, lost! Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!'"
H1R1

An interesting way to capture invisibility, which is certainly what the ring is about in the Hobbit much more than the Lord of the Rings. This sort of ability could cause confusion in some people about events so you might want to think about restricting it to strength bonuses from cards in play, but this is not necessary.

Thran

[Komitadji]

Just a thought, but, one thing you could do, as opposed to having The Precious grant a bonus to Strength or Vitality... would be to have it grant, say, +2 to Resistance. This fits well as far as theme goes; Bilbo bore the ring for almost a hundred years with very few ill effects. In gameplay terms, it would allow you to use both the Ring and the rare Bilbo more often. Given that he knows of no reason not to wear the Ring until a hundred years later, this seems fitting.