Next Updates for the Hobbit Draft Game

[Durin's Heir]

- Another Gollum: Alright. Which pack should carry it? I believe it'd bring a strong flavor in the Rivendell pack, along with Sauron: 2 evil Ring-bearers trying to get some Rings back. Paired also with some FP card portraying Bilbo being fated to find the One Ring. That'd need to move the Warg to another pack.

- Noble Intentions: I believe each pack should have 1 card (at least) that boosts this event. The Travellers and Blue Mountains packs would have the Dwarven Cloak and the Handkerchief. If you agree, we'd need to create one for Balin and another for Rivendell.


- Ori: If Ori had no aid cost at all, the decision of attaching him o-r not would be automatic ("free samples? I want one!"), remaining only the decision of to which companion (who needs him more, and who carries less risk of dying and thus losing Ori). But the combo with Balin leans the scale strongly towards him (gathers important resources, which can also be used immedialty to attach other followers), so being costless it'd be almost always an automatic "yes, and to Balin!". So attaching him as the 4th safe follower would need few seconds, while bringing fresh resoures and good synergies.

I dislike your version of the Slingshot, not because of the gametext but because the slingshot couldn't hurt even an Orc in the films (he only annoyed and distracted); wounding any minion (Smaug?) twice is absurd. Direct wounding fits much better for a killing machine like the Iron Hills Chariot (it beheads 6 Ogres in a row!), so I'd exchange it with the current text of the Slingshot (and add some sauce of my own recipe, of course ):

•Ori's Slingshot
Possession • Support Area
You may attach Ori without paying his aid cost, and Shadow players cannot spot him for the total number of followers.
Fellowship: Play Ori from your draw deck.
Skirmish: Discard a event from hand to make a minion strength -2.

•Iron Hills Chariot
Possession • Support Area
You may play To Me! O My Kinsfolk! during the skirmish phase.
Skirmish: Discard a follower to wound a minion (or 2 minions if that follower was attached).
"Hold tight, lads!"

Worded like For the Mark. So TMOMK becomes a wounding event!

Maybe another card using Ori (and Balin)?

I think not. There are no good pictures of the East Gate of Moria, nor any mention of the future colonization. I cannot think yet of another thing about Balin and Ori.


- Dwarven Handkerchief: I'm glad you like the skills. Yes, is a bit ridiculous but couldn't find anything better: must be something to show Bilbo (his Baggins side) that he won't find the comforts of home and will have to fight all along and get his hands dirty. Perhaps a walking stick or a pack on his back... but not a Cloak or the Contract (for obvious reasons). There's not much more in the films, so I guess that dirty handkerchief has a charming side after all.


- Instigated Dispute: Your version blocks Bert/Lemenya but not William/Cantea (that's before maneuver events take place). To cover them it needs to be a Response event. A clearer wording can be "If a minion uses a special ability or an optional triggered action." I believe it's also important to exclude keywords (would be too powerful vs Smaug or Wargriders) and non-optional triggered effects (like Sauron's "Orcs are strength +1 and fierce" or even Smaug's "Discard Smaug if not at a mountain"), which would be erased if this event removes the whole game text.

Instigated Dispute
Event • Response
If a minion uses a special ability or an optional triggered action, exert Gandalf to cancel its effect. That minion cannot use special abilities or triggered actions until the regroup phase.
"That I never did! It was you!"

If you still prefer to erase the gametext (as the "until the regroup phase" part), then your version would be better with the addition of "(except keywords)" to not nullify Smaug so easily (my version cannot target Smaug since he has no action to trigger before regroup).


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- Nori: His skill is simply too expensive. You can create all sorts of OP Shadow possessions to incentivize its use, and still it'll be often unpayable. He barely has the vitality to use it, which creates 2 problems:
 * He must have no wounds at all in order to use it. That means preserving him from archery and regroup wounds, and often from skirmishes since an unexpected pump can disrupt everything (until new healing).
 * He ends up exhausted after using it, becoming an easy victim of Sauron, a swarm or an unexpected pump.

Those add to the total absence of support area Shadow possessions. That means he must expect for a Shadow possession to be played that same turn, and must then ponder if it's strong enough to be worthy of those 2 exertions + ditching a follower. Often the remedy will be worse than the disease (Orkish Bow, Goblin Bow, Goblin Scimitar), and in any case he must wait and preserve his whole vitality... or quit all the expectation and join the battle (as a real Son of Durin would do!).

Fortunately, there's solution for those 2 problems:
- A card that gives him vitality. But not a follower (they return to support area) nor a condition, so must be an item (or perhaps an ally with a text like Little Golden Flower, but lacking the "vitality +1" symbol on the affected character is a bit ugly).
- A mechanism that prevents wound tokens when exerting. Or that heals them immediatly after. In absence of that, a way to protect from that last killing wound (like Bofur), but that's far from ideal.

So merging those with the "Armor of Erebor" meant to boost Balin, we get a card like this one:

Battle Ram
Possession • Mount
Strength +1  Vitality +1
Bearer must be a character.
Each time bearer exerts or wins a skirmish, you may discard 3 cards from hand to heal him.
Skirmish: Exert bearer to make him damage +1.
"...but they held on... and rushed forward to battle."

(The bonuses are like Shadowfax GotM (str+1, vit+1) or Gondorian Steed (str+1, dmg+1); Asfaloth SB heals bearer by ditching resources.)

As with the Armor of Erebor, the healing skill supports self-exerting companions (Balin, Glóin, Dwalin, Kili), but having a vitality bonus gives Nori a much greater degree of action. With an item built like this mount and also new Support Area shadow possessions, Nori's skill will gain much more use and importance.

[-Enola-]

I update the Travellers Pack and the Elrond Pack.

[Dictionary]

Minor issue, but Beorn says: "Each time bearer wins a skimirsh" rather than "skirmish".

Doesn't the wording of Goblin Runner mean he can spot himself? Minions like Gorgoroth Agitator specify "another Besieger".

[-Enola-]

Thanks for the mistake on Beorn.
You're right, it must be "another card".

[Durin's Heir]

True, twice thanks Dictionary!

Now, that's the card image and the intended effect. About the coded version, don't know still, haven't faced a single chance when the Runner is played without another card on the board. We have to keep playtesting it. But seems to me that the coded does what you corrected us: "spot another card."

Confirmed. The Gemp version needs to spot "another card."

[-Enola-]

I made the card images of the Travellers Pack and the Elrond Pack. Most cards could change soon, I'm not completly satisfied about them.

http://hobbitdraftgame.free.fr/LastPacks.html

Moria Swarm seems to be the weakest Shadow at the Championship, we need to add cards which will make Moria Swarm better.

We also have to change Gandalf LoD (too weak). Maybe this

Gandalf, Leader of Dwarves
Cost : 1, Strength : 7, Vitality 4
The twilight cost of each companion is -1
Each time you play a event, you may add a doubt to take a skirmish event (or an artifact) from your discard pile into hand.

[Chrispy77]

Some concept ideas to base some future expansions around- (and a card idea or two for each one)

1. The corruption of the Arkenstone

Consumed
Cost: 2, Condition, Shadow
Plays on Throrin. Followers may not be attached to bearer. Regroup- You may exert bilbo and add a doubt to discard this condition.

One last time
Cost: 2, Event, Free Peoples
Disard the Arkenstone. If you do, all dwarves gain +2 strength and damage +1 until the regroup phase

2. Radagasts Forest

*Radagast's Sled
Cost 2, Possession
Discard this posession to cancel a skirmish involving Gandalf or Radagast.
If a follower or ally is about to be discarded, discard this possession to prevent that.

3. Riddles in the dark

*Times Up
Cost 1, Condition, Gollum
If you can spot more (Gollum) cards than (Shire) cards, Gollum is strength +2 and fierce

*In his pocketses
Cost 1, event, Shire
Put on the one ring to discard gollum and discard a gollum condition


4. Dwarven Feast

Hospitality
Cost 2, event, Shire
You may exert Bilbo and spot X (Dwarven) followers to heal X (Dwarven) companions.

Beyond your front door
Cost 2, event, Shire
Spot Gandalf and add 2 doubts to put a (Shire) Follower, (Shire) possession, and (Shire) event into hand from your draw deck.

[Dictionary]

I'll miss the old Leader of Dwarves, as I kinda like his theme. I don't suppose minor buffs, such as strength 8 over 7 or "Exert a Dwarf and discard a follower" rather than "discard 2 followers" would help?

[-Enola-]

I'll miss the old Leader of Dwarves, as I kinda like his theme. I don't suppose minor buffs, such as strength 8 over 7 or "Exert a Dwarf and discard a follower" rather than "discard 2 followers" would help?

Ok we can make a better Gandalf, but similar to the old one.


Thanks Chrispy, but the new cards will be other supplementary packs. Previous ones are here http://hobbitdraftgame.free.fr/Boosters.html

[Durin's Heir]

I agree with Dictionary, it should be only an enhancement and not a complete new card (that'd also need a much more playtesting). And agree also with his idea of "discard a follower" and exert someone, instead of getting rid of 2/3 of your safe number of support Dwarves.

Another thing is that players don't want to lose Glamdring. So if he got a way to replay artifacts (or ones at least), players will willfully lose him at 5 to remove all wounds from him. So here is my version:

•Gandalf, Leader of Dwarves
Companion • Wizard
Strength 7  Vitality 4
Wise.
Fellowhsip: Exert Gandalf to play a Dwarf from your draw deck (limit 1).
Maneuver: Discard a follower and exert a companion to play Gandalf (or an artifact) from your discard pile.
"You do know my name... I am Gandalf."

The 1st skill was turned from "play a Dwarf companion" to simply "play a Dwarf", to include also followers (isn't he the Leader of all Dwarves in the Company?). Was also turned into a Fellowship phase action, because that way it uses 2 lines instead of 3, so the total gametext uses 6 like the current version (leaving 1 for lore).

The 2nd skill's cost was changed the way Dictionary suggests, while the effect is broadened to artifacts as well. That way, this Gandalf will be the preferred to counter a surprise attack of Riddles in the Dark (The Grey can do so, but this one acts sooner at maneuver and with a lesser cost). Replaying Glamdring is key to make this new version of Gandy appealing.

Note that if you want to play an artifact from discard, you must spot Gandalf (he cannot be in discard).


@Chrispy77: There's now a really scarce room for new cards. Those come in "Supplementary Packs" of 6 new FP cards, 2 new Shadow ones and 1 site (9 different cards, whose copies sum 22 in the Pack). We're working on 4 new such packs, and Enola says those will be the last ever (I disagree with that last part, but well, he's the boss).

[Dictionary]

This is kinda simple, but I might suggest something like this:

•Gandalf, Leader of Dwarves
Companion • Wizard
Strength 8  Vitality 4
Wise.
At the start of each of your turns, you may exert Gandalf to play a Dwarf from your draw deck.
Maneuver: Discard 2 followers and play Gandalf from your discard pile to make each companion strength + 2 until the end of the turn.

If losing Glamdring is the problem, you can make him like Radagast and punish the opponent for discarding him. Buff lasts if you double, which goes with LoD's Follower synergy, as they also stay if you double. +1 strength makes him less dependant on equipment. This gives him more follower/strength synergy and focus, and avoids similarity with The Grey.

I don't know much about your design intent and philosophy, so I apologise in advance if this seems off the mark.

[Durin's Heir]

Interesting idea. But I fear it would use 8 lines if made graphic, so cannot fit into a 7-lines Decipher-style card. Anyway, that can be fixed by changing the skills a bit, or removing unnedeed words.

The "design philosophy" we use needs cards to fit into those 7 lines or less, and also Gandalf (and all Wise allies) is a bit complicated since the Wise keyword uses 1 line by itself alone (Enola doesn't want Keywords sharing the same line with other gametext; cards are easier to read that way). Most of the times, cards should use 5 lines only, to be much easier to read and understand during the Draft procedure.


I use this method to predict a text card's length when turned into graphical (curiously, after 3 years of working as his shieldman, we never talked a word about our methods): Game text lines are compared in MS Notepad (yes, the rusty ol' text editor!) using a standard font, versus a Decipher card line which saturates the whole line room. I chose the 1st of Mighty Steed for that task:

"If Gandalf is not assigned to a skirmish,"  (without the quotation marks!)

That'd be the max text that a line can hold. If a card uses bold text, those words are slightly wider so I add 1 space to them if are short ("Fellowship", "Regroup", "archer") or 2 if are long (like "Assignment:"): "Fellowhship:_" instead of "Fellowship:" and "Assignment:__" instead of "Assignment:".

The same is done with loretext, but cards use a much smaller font for that text. Enola now uses only 2 lines max for loretext (previously used more if gametext allowed, but found 2 lines for loretext are much easier to adjust when creating the graphic card). I like for that task this Decipher line (which comes from Ulaire Nertea Thrall of The One):

""...into their minds a darkness came, and they thought " (without the outter quotation marks!)


So using that primitive method, most of the times my predicitions coincide with Enola's graphic cards' limits and lengths. So you can use it for your card ideas... cards made that way fit (almost always!) into graphic Decipher-format ones, so you might event start your own project and print to play with friends!

[Durin's Heir]

I got this (based on the "Alter2" Gandalf, of yesterday's dialogue):

•Gandalf, Leader of Dwarves
Companion • Wizard
Strength 7  Vitality 4
Wise.
Each Dwarf companion is twilight cost -1.
Each time a Dwarf heals, wound a minion.
Fellowship: Exert Gandalf and a Dwarf companion to play an artifact from your draw deck or discard pile.
"You do know my name... I am Gandalf."

The Fellowship skill is like The Grey's, except that The Grey "adds 2 doubts" as cost and as effect can also play Dwarf companions.

So paired with Radagast/Saruman or AWINL to replay after site 5, he'll return totally healed, and his Fellowship skill will return Glamdring/Wizard Staff. It can also return The One Ring or Sting if lost versus Riddles in the Dark, at a not-so-low cost, but also not so steep as Gandalf the Grey's "add 2 doubts".

[-Enola-]

Ok this could be the best one. I can't answer more yet (have to go to work soon), but I also propose this

•Gandalf, Leader of Dwarves
Companion • Wizard
Strength 7  Vitality 4
Wise.
Each Dwarf companion is twilight cost -1.
Fellowship or Regroup: Discard 2 cards from hand to take a card from your discard pile into hand.
"You do know my name... I am Gandalf."

[Durin's Heir]

I fear that skill will be very hard to use in Draft games: needs you to hold 2 cards (Main Deck has 4 events, and that's all!), which also don't get you more with their own gametexts... curiously, that begins to happen once Gandalf is discarded at site 5 (and stops once he's replayed).

Also, the only FP characters I can see working at some extent for the Shadow side are Thorin and Thrór (Dragon-sickness), Thranduil, the Master of Lake-town and perhaps Saruman. But all under very specific circumstances, and with a short range of evilness. Doesn't make much sense to me that Gandalf should support your Shadow side (although I confess would be great to see for game mechanics).