Am I the only one who prefers to play without a template mat? I like having my cards free flowing around my character sheet. I constantly am adjusting them as I add new things.

I dunno, this had zero appeal to me.

1 hour ago, FrogTrigger said:

Am I the only one who prefers to play without a template mat?

You might be. Kidding of course friend, next round at the Green Dragon on me.

For me, I know initially I'll want a player mat to help keep track of stuff. I mean first glance at those mats, there's a few things going on. If I end up buying the game I figure once I'm used to how it does things I'll make a decision then about whether I want to keep using a player mat or not. I mean let's be honest, using a card-stock mat or not I will more than likely be busting out my beautiful Fellowship event play mats underneath all of it!

My table usually has a seasonally designed table cloth on it, so I appreciate mats and other things to help keep track of things. Even progress tokens from the LOTR LCG can easily get lost in the swirly designs and bright colors.

7 hours ago, Iranon said:

Actually, the more I think about this, the more irritated I get. Specifically regarding two decisions made by FFG:

1) Making what must surely be a very limited supply of these -- without giving fans any advance notice that they would be so limited. "Exclusive to pre-orders" is very different from "exclusive to the first 200 pre-orders" (or however many they made).

2) Making these exclusive to pre-orders via their webstore, not offering them through brick-and-mortar game stores. This squarely goes against FFG's usual approach of supporting local game stores by rewarding direct sales.

The second point in particular represents a new direction for this company. Think about it: when was the last time FFG offered customers a *disincentive* to shop locally?

The LoR LCG Collector's Edition was the same deal. That one I passed on.