Hi there,

I admire LOTR LCG and everything linked with that. I'm playing this game since 2016, so I'm not some veteran, who remembers "Dawn of LOTR LCG", but despite that I've played many games. I like 2-players game, however I am playing as the second player myself, because for my mates the game is "too hard and complicated".

I love reviews, not only player cards but even encounter cards. However, I haven't found any blog, which would follow up the reviews at one place. I know, that exists some reviews on pages (Ringsdb, Cardgamedb, Tales from the Cards etc.), but it is "only" in form of commentaries under card from different players, or there are reviews only for some random cards. I imagine some site or blog with reviews of cards from the beginning (so Aragorn, Théodred, Gloin etc.), where the review itself would be in form of article (so no reviews in 3 sentences "yes it is cool, 3 Attack is super, and I love his ability"). And as I said not only players card, but even encounter cards (that's missing completely). It would mainly help new players.

Mitch & Matthew from Progression series are closest to my vision - but their work is in form of videos / podcasts, not articles.

In these days I'm writing by myself the reviews of cards from the beginning. It's in form deep analysis (with at least 350 words to every card) and in "progression style" - if I'm talking about some synergies, combos etc. I'm using cards published in those days (so cards from Core set = combos, synergies or reflections in Core set environment). If it is necessary to mention card from next adventure packs or expansions, I've marked that information with !SPOILER! alert.

And because I have no experiences with making of blog or website yet, I would like to ask, if someone with his own blog would't cooperate with me and make some good review blog? I would appreciate to spread interest about LOTR LCG in this form.

Thanks all in advance for tips (or offers :))!

Silblade

Wow this is an impressive endeavor! Unfortunately, I have no blog-experience; so I can only wish you the best.

21 hours ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

Wow this is an impressive endeavor! Unfortunately, I have no blog-experience; so I can only wish you the best.

Thanks! I know your reviews from ringsdb, I like them, good points.;)

I have no experiences with creating blogs neither. And I don't want to create another blog from other hundreds. But I really think it could be useful for new players and simultaneously interesting reading for current players.

I would encourage you to give WordPress.com a try. It's actually pretty easy to create an account and get started, and you get a bunch of features that make it easy for people to follow your blog and see how many people are reading it.

It's fun and doesn't take long to set up--less than an hour if you aren't too picky about your layout and stuff.

14 hours ago, Authraw said:

I would encourage you to give WordPress.com a try. It's actually pretty easy to create an account and get started, and you get a bunch of features that make it easy for people to follow your blog and see how many people are reading it.

It's fun and doesn't take long to set up--less than an hour if you aren't too picky about your layout and stuff.

I was thinking about it too, however after stuffs like Private Policy, notifications about cookies and maybe licences of pictures (= cards) I'm afraid that such a blog wouldn't be "GDPR comply" and would be deleted.:( Although I don't wanna any sponzoring, making an e-shop or registration to my web.

It's very tempting to create my own blog with my own idea and articles though.

If you're not collecting readers' data (which you wouldn't be) you don't have to worry about GDPR. If you're not making money off of your blog, you likely won't have to worry about anyone hassling you about it.

Just reading this now, I don't venture on these forums a lot.

If you are looking for a medium for posting these reviews of individual player cards, my blog Vision of the Palantir might be able to help. I am currently doing scenario analyses and trait analyses, but have not yet done anything on individual cards or decks. If you want, I can make you an author on the blog and give you a platform for making these articles. I myself will not be involved in any other way besides reading the articles myself, as the rest of the blog takes up enough time already.

If you are interested, you can check out the blog here: https://visionofthepalantir.com/2018/06/19/a-call-to-arms/

Feel free to message me via any outlet in the community, and maybe we can work something out. Otherwise, I would advise you to start with a simple blog of your own on Wordpress as mentioned above. I started my blog the same way and it has grown from there. Be aware that hosting a blog can be quite time consuming though. Especially if you are going through the entire card pool.

22 hours ago, Durins_Father said:

Just reading this now, I don't venture on these forums a lot.

If you are looking for a medium for posting these reviews of individual player cards, my blog Vision of the Palantir might be able to help. I am currently doing scenario analyses and trait analyses, but have not yet done anything on individual cards or decks. If you want, I can make you an author on the blog and give you a platform for making these articles. I myself will not be involved in any other way besides reading the articles myself, as the rest of the blog takes up enough time already.

If you are interested, you can check out the blog here: https://visionofthepalantir.com/2018/06/19/a-call-to-arms/

Feel free to message me via any outlet in the community, and maybe we can work something out. Otherwise, I would advise you to start with a simple blog of your own on Wordpress as mentioned above. I started my blog the same way and it has grown from there. Be aware that hosting a blog can be quite time consuming though. Especially if you are going through the entire card pool.

Hey, Durins_Father, thanks for your response!

You may not believe it, but I have met your blog before and attentively read some articles. I had an idea to write you about cooperation, but then I realized that I don't want to disrupt your work by some duplicates. I mean, that you have very good Scenario Analysis, something like walkthrough the scenarios with describing some enemies, locations and treacheries. And that is partially my aim too. Don't know if directly scenario walkhtrough, but similar to card review make review for cards from encounter deck. That is something I'm missing at any blog about LOTR LCG, excluding Tales from the Cards, where they have stopped at Hunt for Gollum.

Both ways has own positives and negatives. Own blog could be just amazing, but there are some obstacles, which can make it harder for a such personal project. I don't mean now the working in Wordpress, with which I have 0 experience, but primarily time-consuming of creating such blog and, and that is even more important, regular maintenance of blog. This is negative for me. On the contrary, cooperation with author of already existing blog would be far more easier from this point of view. Then it is question, in your concrete case, how to not duplicate some informations, if you have Scenario Analysis with partially some kind of review of encounter cards.

I'm still working, almost every day, on writing new and new reviews about cards (chronologically). My aim is describe cards in at least 450 words and more. So I try to describe it deeply and fairly, so that even new players can understand it. That is also my aim. Extend interest about this game among new potential players, because I think it's great board game that deserves attention.

EDIT: If you want contact me personally and talk about it more, you can also write me a personal message here on FFG, or on BGG, where I have same nickname (Silblade).

51 minutes ago, Silblade said:

Hey, Durins_Father, thanks for your response!

You may not believe it, but I have met your blog before and attentively read some articles. I had an idea to write you about cooperation, but then I realized that I don't want to disrupt your work by some duplicates. I mean, that you have very good Scenario Analysis, something like walkthrough the scenarios with describing some enemies, locations and treacheries. And that is partially my aim too. Don't know if directly scenario walkhtrough, but similar to card review make review for cards from encounter deck. That is something I'm missing at any blog about LOTR LCG, excluding Tales from the Cards, where they have stopped at Hunt for Gollum.

Both ways has own positives and negatives. Own blog could be just amazing, but there are some obstacles, which can make it harder for a such personal project. I don't mean now the working in Wordpress, with which I have 0 experience, but primarily time-consuming of creating such blog and, and that is even more important, regular maintenance of blog. This is negative for me. On the contrary, cooperation with author of already existing blog would be far more easier from this point of view. Then it is question, in your concrete case, how to not duplicate some informations, if you have Scenario Analysis with partially some kind of review of encounter cards.

I'm still working, almost every day, on writing new and new reviews about cards (chronologically). My aim is describe cards in at least 450 words and more. So I try to describe it deeply and fairly, so that even new players can understand it. That is also my aim. Extend interest about this game among new potential players, because I think it's great board game that deserves attention.

I have been thinking about increasing the articles (at least my first scenario analyses) with more in-depth encounter card analysis. What we could do is to have you send me the parts on the individual cards, and I paste them into the article where that card was first featured (to avoid repetition on the 5th time you've Necromancer's Reach).

You can also add all cards from one encounter set into a separate article, and post it on the blog in the tab with the scenarios. That way, you can have a scenario analysis, and a separate encounter set analysis. This would mostly include the encounter sets used in multiple scenarios, as the quest-specific cards would be dealt with in the scenario analysis itself. For these separate analyses, you could use the format that was used on Tales from the Cards, which is where I based my analysis on as well. Talk about each card individually, and maybe a paragraph on any synergy between the cards, or what it tries to achieve. For example: the Orcs of the Harad cycle deal with the willpower of attacking and defending characters, and maybe go into depth on that aspect a little.

For the player cards, I can make tabs underneath the specific scenario (like I'm doing with the Nightmare versions) for the player cards of that expansion. This would probably be best to have all cards into one article, with a general description of how vital these cards are to specific decks, and if players should pick it up sooner rather than later. A bit like the buying guide from Ian, but more in depth of the specific cards in the pack. For larger packs like the Core Set, it is probably best to split it up in the four spheres, like what Mitch has done with his progression videos as well.

We can at least try this structure if you want a place for your own articles. If you later decide to go with your own blog, that is fine, I will be happy to link people to your blog for further card analysis. Let me know what you think, and if you have any other suggestions to make this work. It would be a shame to see all of this hard work stay on your own computer, while I believe the rest of the community could really use it.