Correct about Tom.

There are one or two objective allies who have shadow effects written on their cards, so those would get resolved when they pop up as a shadow.

On a side note: thread necromancy! man. There's nothing quite like pulling up the forums, seeing a thread with 2 pages that says "Tom Bombabil confirmed!" and thinking "did I miss something ??" ... expecting to see a post about a new Tom player card, and then being disappointed because the thread is actually going on a year old and about an encounter card that I already know about.

Sorry, but i just got the package and i searched for a tom bombandil thread

Correct about Tom.

There are one or two objective allies who have shadow effects written on their cards, so those would get resolved when they pop up as a shadow.

On a side note: thread necromancy! man. There's nothing quite like pulling up the forums, seeing a thread with 2 pages that says "Tom Bombabil confirmed!" and thinking "did I miss something ??" ... expecting to see a post about a new Tom player card, and then being disappointed because the thread is actually going on a year old and about an encounter card that I already know about.

Even though I started this thread I had more or less the same expectation that there was some new Tom Bombadill ally or hero

Oh good, the star of my favorite chapter to skip, and my favorite omission from the films.

I think that if we're ever going to have a Bombadil player card at all is if it was an ally with the encounter keyword. Yeah, remember that? We were promised cards with the encounter keyword in the current cycle by the fact that Ranger of the North was supposed to introduce it. I think it would work great, though he would need a good shadow effect, and hopefully not surge. That'd be neat, and I say that if we ever see this character as a player card, it would have to be in this cycle.

We have to get Tom Bombadil as a player card. I mean, we have got to. I absolutely demand it! with all the powerlessness that grows within me. Oh, and Goldberry, too, of course!

Having Tom Bombadil as a generic player card that could be taken against any quest you choose would make very little sense, because Bombadil doesn't venture outside his own borders, which is where most of the quests take place. Objective ally for Old Forest and Barrow Downs makes sense, because those are two places he can be expected to potentially be.

Admittedly, that thematic weirdness can already arise a little bit with the Ho! Tom Bombadil! boon in campaign mode, but that's a one-off.

While I respect the point about flavor, the whole game shuts down by that logic. Elrond barely leaves Rivendale. Galadriel barely leaves Lorien. You shouldn't use Treebeard for quests in Moria. Steward of Gondor can go on any hero. The Gildor ally in lore sticks around, even though he should go away like core Gandalf or ally Elrond. I don't have a problem with a Tom player card. Just make the flavor work. That's all.

It's true that various characters never leave their own homes in the books, but they could if they so wished, whereas the implication of what is said about Tom Bombadil is that at the very least he never would leave his borders, or possibly even that he cannot do so. While it's highly improbably that Elrong, Galadriel or Treebeard would have left their respective homes to root out Gondorian conspiracies or pal around with the Dunlendings, they could have done so if they chose, whereas from what is said at the Council of Elrond, Bombadil has set his borders many many years ago and will not set foot outside them for any reason.

Unprobable, yes, impossible, hardly so. I would go as far as getting the impression from the Lord of the Rings that Tom used to leave the area he took care of during the years of the story. Certainly that area had undergone great alternations and thus the boundaries to which the text refers (as the Hobbits bid Tom to go with them to the Prancing Pony) must have changed as well. Further, the fact that other characters, like Maggot or Butterbur, know Bombadil personally would imply that Tom is not just living within the borders of the Old Forest, as it is more probable that he met the farmer or inn-keeper within their grounds rather than his own.

At this point I don't think it really matters whether Bombadil left his land or not, or when or how or whatever. The basic principle is, this is a living card game about Middle Earth. "Good" stuff is represented by player cards, "bad" stuff by encounter cards. So I would expect a player card version of Bombadil and Goldberry at some point in the game, even if he has bifg restrictions, as he should. That's why a card with the encounter keyword would be the best way IMO to represent them.

^Yeah. Let them stay for a round like the other allies of the kind: Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, the biggies.