Although I love LotR LCG, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to allocate time for it. It's a lot easier to fire up the latest RPG, action game, strategy game, or roguelike, knowing that if I get interrupted 15 or 30 minutes later, it's okay, I can quickly save, and tend to Real Life.

With kids, the frequency of Real Life interruptions is much higher than it ever was back when I was a kid or a bachelor. Back then, I played much more time-consuming games than LotR LCG without fear of getting interrupted. Finding a 3 or 4 hour stretch of "me-time" was easy. Back then. But things are different now, and it's rare than I get more than 30 minutes at a time, if that. And, given my slow progress in LotR LCG, 30 minutes is too short a time to finish a scenario.

Unfortunately, with LotR LCG, there's no such thing as "quickly saving". Sure, if I were playing on a table, I could try to finish the round, and then put a marker indicating where I am in the game. And hope the kids don't mess with the cards. But I'm not playing on a table. I'm playing in OCTGN, and there's no save feature in OCTGN. Even if there were, I don't really trust OCTGN to keep track of where I am in a turn, and of course it's impossible to "save" my mental state, the current patterr of who-quests and who-defends, the memory of cards played. Sure, I could later look through the discard piles but what's the fun in that? And there's really no video game equivalent of looking through a discard pile. At least, I never look through old messages for video games. Talk about wasting precious me-time!

So I've been wondering: what would it take to make LotR more interruption-friendly? So that you could comfortably "save" your progress through a scenario, without worrying about kids or breezes messing up cards, or wading through discard piles? And what would it take to get the scenarios to play faster, so that your chances of finishing a scenario in, say, 30 minutes, is greatly increased? (And I'm not talking about "practice practice practice" or "easy mode").

For OCTGN, a save feature would definitely help. So would things like:

- a clearer, more strongly-enforced representation of where in a turn you are

- which characters have taken actions (because you can't always tell by just seeing which characters are exhausted)

- which cards are in the victory pile (so don't have to switch to another screen to see which "boss" enemies you've killed)

- what characters you used to quest or defend last turn

- errata

- total threat in staging area

- markers for indicating "boosts" to enemies

- automatic adjustments to resource allocations, readying, etc. based on card effects

If you are playing 2-handed, it would help if you didn't have to load up 2 instances of OCTGN. And the whole end-of-turn readying and card drawing could be made a lot more reliable (I keep running into problems where one hand gets double-draws and double-resources at the end of a turn.)

[speaking of interruptions, the kids just came home, so my time is almost up.]

Anyway, there are probably many more features which would make OCTGN more "save"-friendly, in the sense that it would be able to better represent the *entire* state of the game, so that you don't have to rely on keeping things "in your head". In other words, I'd like to see OCTGN (and the LotR plugin) do more of the "heavy lifting", so that interruptions are much less painful than they are now.

Of course, that's probably asking too much of OCTGN, which is designed to support all sorts of card games, not just LotR LCG.

So, maybe the only way to get a truly interruption-friendly version of OCTGN is to develop a dedicated computer version from the ground up. If Magic the Gathering can have decent computer versions (and I can only assume the Planeswalkers games are at least decent, as I've never played them), then wouldn't it be nice if LotR LCG could get the same treatment?

Has anyone tried? Does anyone think FFG is involved in the creation of such a thing right now? Is anyone else out there daydreaming of doing it themselves? Time permitting, of course. (The sad irony is that those of us who are most in need of a computer version have the least amount of time to create one.)

Pray for Tragic to find the time to update LackeyCCG?

Seriously, it has a fully functional save feature, relatively painless 2-handed solo support, and a little indicator for what phase you're currently in. It mostly just needs a card pool update (last included expansion was Voice of Isengard).

I feel you man, having my daughter really put a damper in my game time! I used to be addicted to video games but have since kicked the habit. I find that I don't really miss it that much and playing something IRL doesn't give me that BLAH feeling you get when you play video games for a long time. Also it gives you the opportunity to interact with real people which they say is psychologically healthy or something
What I did was set up a table in my garage so I can leave the game set up if I want, it really helps. If you have an office or some other room that you could shut the door, that could work as well. Best of luck finding a way to balance your life areas! Don't give up on the game!

I try to balance both. I do play more video games than I play LotR LCG, but that's been the case long before the game was a twinkle in Nate French's eye. Video games are my passion, I love them. I've played them my whole life. But I realize too much of one thing is never good so I try to balance out my video games with other means of entertainment. I've been a fan of card games and tabletop RPGs and I try to balance my time and attention.

But yes, I agree this game requires more of a time investment, especially if you want to finish a game, win or lose. No way to "quick save" is really not an option for a physical card game. Sometimes it's just easier to fire up a game and go. I tend to play LotR LCG when I want to do something a littler slower, and methodical. But as much as I like this game, it will never beat video games for me, and not just because of the convenient factor. I like video games more. Always have, always will.

But LotR LCG is a phenomenal card game so I will devote time and energy to this great game as I feel it's worth it. And I just like the feel of cards in my hands. Can't really get that with a video game.

Now if you excuse me, I'm going to play some LotR LCG before Fallout 4 drops, give it some loving before I just go hardcore on Fallout and forget LotR exists for a short while haha.

I have a piece of plywood board the size of two playmats. Nice and big enough to accommodate a game and you can lay it in front of you on the bed or on the table etc.

If you have somewhere you can put it flat (under the bed, top of the wardrobe etc) you can break off a game easy. When finished, it slots down the back of the wardrobe.

Only about 24" x 28" perfect size.

I find best place to pause a game is your turn just after you deal a new card, but leave your new card face down next to your hand, so revealing it will be your next action and its an easy pickup point.

I was addicted to MAME, but when i found out LOTR-LCG i forgot that. ^^. Sometimes i wish Lotr ends, and return to normal life.

On a side note, I would love an actual digital installation of LotR LCG (I know of OCTGN, don't worry).

I was addicted to MAME, but when i found out LOTR-LCG i forgot that. ^^. Sometimes i wish Lotr ends, and return to normal life.

MAME is awesome (guessing you mean multi-arcade-machine-emulator)

I grew up with arcade machines through the 1980s and MAME is truly awesome to recreate that (I am a huge fan of nostalgia and have a massive nostalgic collection of emulators, computer games, comics, magazines, cartoons, tv etc etc).

MAME is truly awesome. I have it on Kindle Tablet as well as PC

Do the MTG Planeswalker games do a good job of handling all the MTG rules? I'm not a huge MTG fan but it would be interesting to try to see how Magic is handled virtually.

I feel you man, having my daughter really put a damper in my game time! I used to be addicted to video games but have since kicked the habit. I find that I don't really miss it that much and playing something IRL doesn't give me that BLAH feeling you get when you play video games for a long time. Also it gives you the opportunity to interact with real people which they say is psychologically healthy or something

What I did was set up a table in my garage so I can leave the game set up if I want, it really helps. If you have an office or some other room that you could shut the door, that could work as well. Best of luck finding a way to balance your life areas! Don't give up on the game!

Wow, this seems pretty reflective of my life. I love video games, but man I hate the way I feel when I play them all afternoon. But yeah, with 3 kids, it gets hard to get in play time. Saturday and Sunday afternoons tend to be my bread and butter. I recently cleared off an old dining room table in our basement so I could have a space to play and leave it set up, but then my wife also cleared some stuff out and put down an old rug. So our kids have moved to a play area down there as well. This wouldn't be an issue if my 2 year old didn't have a habit of getting hold of anything on a table surface and running off with it. So, at least for now, it's still quitting partway through some days and packing it back in the box.

In the meantime, Hearthstone has become my in-between game: a video game and card game at once. It's not everyone's thing, but I'm not really spending much on it besides time, and I can play it on my iPod easily when setting up a whole card game on a tabletop isn't possible.

I feel you man, having my daughter really put a damper in my game time! I used to be addicted to video games but have since kicked the habit. I find that I don't really miss it that much and playing something IRL doesn't give me that BLAH feeling you get when you play video games for a long time. Also it gives you the opportunity to interact with real people which they say is psychologically healthy or something

What I did was set up a table in my garage so I can leave the game set up if I want, it really helps. If you have an office or some other room that you could shut the door, that could work as well. Best of luck finding a way to balance your life areas! Don't give up on the game!

Wow, this seems pretty reflective of my life. I love video games, but man I hate the way I feel when I play them all afternoon. But yeah, with 3 kids, it gets hard to get in play time. Saturday and Sunday afternoons tend to be my bread and butter. I recently cleared off an old dining room table in our basement so I could have a space to play and leave it set up, but then my wife also cleared some stuff out and put down an old rug. So our kids have moved to a play area down there as well. This wouldn't be an issue if my 2 year old didn't have a habit of getting hold of anything on a table surface and running off with it. So, at least for now, it's still quitting partway through some days and packing it back in the box.

In the meantime, Hearthstone has become my in-between game: a video game and card game at once. It's not everyone's thing, but I'm not really spending much on it besides time, and I can play it on my iPod easily when setting up a whole card game on a tabletop isn't possible.

I have enjoyed Hearthstone but having a collection of the original Warcraft TCG does mean you notice where it has been cut down and simplified a lot. Still a nice game, but sad it ended the life of the superior actual card game.

Nice game though

I feel the struggle as well, as a parent of a 1-year old, which is why I shifted towards playing almost exclusively on OCTGN. A save feature would definitely be most welcome, but it seems like that's a long way off. As for OCTGN, some things that might help are:

- Use the notes feature. Right click and create a note and write down anything you need to remind yourself later.

- Victory display: I usually just drag cards in the victory display and line them up on the right of the screen (as I would on a tabletop) to keep track instead of actually using the add to the victory display function. This helps you see what's there.

- Boosts: You can actually add willpower/threat/attack/defense boost tokens to enemies and characters to keep track of how they have been boosted. This is manual, of course, so takes some work, but can help to remind you. Just right click on a card and you'll see the option there.

Other digital options:

- CardWarden for iPad: The problem here is you have to upload everything into the program, which can take ages. If you can do it, it's a great program for busy gaming parents!

- Lackey for iPad: This one has a save feature and stuff is built into it already. The problem is that it is not updated. If someone ever takes over the updates for Lackey, this will be in a much better spot.

To me, the lack of a save feature is the most frustrating thing about OCTGN. Sometimes I think the only reason they don't implement it is they want to entice more subscribers. I'm getting to the point where I think I will stop my OCTGN subscription, especially since the only functionality it gives me (that I use) is the ability to save filters in the deck editor, and there seem to be nicer deck editors out there. So, I'm thinking OCTGN is a dead end, for me at least.

I've tried LackeyCCG in the past, but it has its own limitations. However, those limitations seem to be mostly involving the deck editor, so might not be a factor anymore. The fact that Lackey hasn't been updated in a while is mildly concerning. I'm still back in the Dwarrowdelf Cycle, so have a ways to go before I get through all the scenarios that Lackey supports. At the same time, though, I'm a little hesitant to invest time in re-learning Lackey if it, too, has the air of a "dead end".

I wish I had time to help either OCTGN or Lackey with their development (or to create my own LotR LCG program). However, the whole problem is lack of time. For those of us who care about finding better ways to squeeze LotR LCG into our busy, interruption-prone schedules, why would we spend what little free time we have doing more "work", if we could instead spend it playing video games?

As much as I appreciate the benefits of a 'real-life' game situation, getting older means that priorities shift and distractions (such as gaming) become an extra ball to juggle. It can be a tough pill to swallow..

My vote is for FFG to make a dedicated app (a la Elder Signs) for this game!

It would be sublime to set up a game, play a turn or two, put the kids to bed and pick it up when the coast is clear. The presentation of that particular app is clean, simple, and if you are playing solo is actually more efficient than the physical board game (which features lots of little pieces, mechanics, etc).

Playing with others is obviously a better experience, but as with most hobbies, time, time time..

That would be awesome!

How about an app whereby those FFG proof of purchase chitties can be exchanged for in game codes to get the cards you have bought and all new packs will contain a code, so it doesnt hurt card sales.

Then for those not wanting to store cards you could purchase packs discounted within the app..

?

I've been there. My kids are now at uni and college so they don't mind so much now. I Play smaller games like this on a smallish board on the coffee table or a puffet while the rest of the family watch TV. This way I can get in my game and socialise with the family. How did I manage when the kids were growing up.... By always having one night a week put aside for gaming with my mates. Drink and snacks turned it into a social night. Kids in bed by 7.30. You gotta set aside me time... It's not selfish of you... it will keep you satisfied and in a happy family environment.

How about an app whereby those FFG proof of purchase chitties can be exchanged for in game codes to get the cards you have bought and all new packs will contain a code, so it doesnt hurt card sales.

Then for those not wanting to store cards you could purchase packs discounted within the app..

?

Yes! This needs to happen.

Rewarding both crowds with incentives to play the game 'in-person' or 'on the go' is a brilliant idea!

They could even get the guy who does the tutorial videos to do the voice!

Totally know that feel.

If you're lucky enough to have a dedicated game table, just keep your game there and ring it with booby traps to keep the kids away.

Fallout 4 absorbed all the time I would normally have for this game and only in the last week or so have I started to come back to LOTR LCG or the forums. This is usually the case when a big video game comes out and this game ends up getting "shelved" while I play the new video game. The thing is though, a year from now I will probably have zero interest in fall out 4 whereas I will most definitely still be playing this game and will be getting ever closer to Mount Doom in my epic campaign.