Had an interesting thought today while deckbuilding around the new Fellowship card.

Does playing something like Ranger Summons or Flight of the Eagles bypass the restrictions on Fellowship?

Essentially, do those cards count as "playing or putting into play" a non-unique ally?

If it's a bypass, it's an interesting (if small) corner case to explore.

Thoughts? I obviously want it to work, but I'm a little biased.

Cool question! The RR defines playing quite precisely, then leaves putting into play more up to card text [< http://www.lotr-lcg-quest-companion.gamersdungeon.net/#Rule564 >]. You're certainly not playing the Encounter allies, and they are just as certainly entering play (from the encounter deck). But did you put them into play?

I don't think so! As I just said, putting into play is pretty much defined by card text, and the When Revealed abilities of the Ranger/Eagle of the North don't even have the word "put" on them. Indeed, if anyone put them into play (not clear to me this is true, but for the sake of argument), it wouldn't be you anyway—it'd be the encounter deck, and the contract specifically says, " You cannot play or put into play…"

So I think you actually can bypass the restriction in the way you stated.

Cool! That was basically my line of reasoning as well. Sometimes the fine print really is on our side.

Time to make the Grey Company Fellowship deck with 3 extra characters!!

Interesting, would this also mean that cards which say “put into play under any player’s control” could also bypass this if they are coming from another player (as it is not “you” putting them into play)?

I don’t even know if it would be helpful, but it’s interesting to know.

yeah that rohan guy that removes shadowcards? How would he work with fellowship if Player A has fellowship with nine uniques and Player B removes a shadow sending this guy over?

Nothing prohibits another player sending a character over, unique or not. And those characters would have the +1 to all attributes. Further, if a non-unique character were lost, it would flip over, still have nine uniques, and flip back.

I recently played with a deck designed to give its allies away to stay under the Strider limit -- it didn't work very well, but in conjunction with a fellowship deck it might be interesting!