As the title says, anyone have any last thoughts (for this forum at least) of where they could go next or what we can expect?

For me it’s:

Most likely: more one-off packs like Dreadnaught. Scouring of the Shire is at the top of this list. Keep throwing in Contracts and maybe even official versions of Caleb’s Harder for all the quests versions (Day/Night Mode, Power of Mordor Set, other boss characters hunting you, etc...)

Somewhat Likely: A larger release Journeys in Middle-Earth style where it’s a ton of content at once. So a large box maybe with new starter decks (or just give us the collectors edition again or something similar) and then a new 9 quests all at once. Rohan (Like the Long Expected Party is doing), Northern Sailing, or Shire are the three big areas we could delve into. And would also give new players a “fresher” launching point while giving some of us slightly longer players a reason to buy a second core. And the collectors from the start, they would go for the new art/quests. It’s basically printing money FFG!

Less Likely: Finish off Nightmares. The Sagas at a minimum (though curious what it would look like for Mountain of Fire which is already insanely hard haha). But may not happen if they are done with their in-house card printing.

Anyways those are my thoughts as this medium slowly fades off.

I think they will end up essentially repackaging older content to draw in new blood, remaking the Core set and some expansions, streamlining some cards (see all the recent sneak errata of older cards) and quests (like the Shadows of Mirkwood and Khazad-Dum quests), all while keeping the "new products" compatible with the "old game". Perhaps the occasional new POD/adventure pack for conventions and events, but essentially no great influx of new material.

I mean, honest speculation I still believe the game is done. If they are tired of designing the game and are looking for an out, it's right here.

However, in the name of speculation I do believe if they keep going we will see a 2nd edition of the game. The challenge will be to find a way to incentivize veteran players to buy the new content without discrediting their current collections. Maybe something along the lines of the "conversion kits" they have done for games like X-Wing and Descent in the past.

Here's the thing though. The customizable encounter quest sets (Wizard's Quest, The Woodland Realm, Moria, Escape from Khazad-Dum, and now Hunt for Dreadnaught) were a fairly creative way to rebrand older quest content and add even more of a replay-ability factor. I believe they laid the groundwork for the hero and villain pack distribution that we currently see in Marvel Champions LCG. A key concept in the villain packs is that you get modules of (in LOTR terms) encounter cards and each main villain has their own deck too. You build the difficulty of the scenario up by adding whichever modular encounter sets you want. They recommend not doing too many so as not to dilute the encounter deck but it is a system that works really well and allows the battles between heroes and villains to take on different flavors and scale the difficulty up and down with ease.

I think that is the direction I believe they would go if they decide to keep releasing content for LOTR LCG. I think they launch the idea with a 2nd edition so that they can take the existing encounter card pool and revise it to make the cards work in a modular content format. I don't know exactly what that looks like for LOTR LCG, but I think it's their best bet.

Time will tell. Hopefully if they do stop printing new cards they keep reprinting existing packs because the game has always had a steadily growing player-base. You get over on the reddit and every single day it seems like there are 2-5 posts by new players asking what they should buy next or when certain sets are going to be reprinted. They have to be making a steady stream of income on this game unless it is absolutely mismanaged, and if that were true I don't think the game would be nearly as good as it is.

The trouble as I see it, is that this is a mature game. So how do you keep the veterans or elite players happy, whilst still being accessible for new-comers? Player starter packs, a la Limited Edition (or Arkham's Investigator packs), or more formalised "difficulty rating" as with Hunt for the Dreadnaught are two possible ways forward. And, of course, the custom scenarios. But I fear that FFG are a-changing, and moving away from this precious product. (Hope I'm wrong!)