I enjoy the AGoT LCG and if you would like to read why you can go here and I would like to heard what brought other players to this game.

I used to play CCG games, especially Decipher's Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. A friend of mine was looking for a new game to learn, and had heard good things about Thrones. I'd never read the books (or heard of it), but tried the game, loved it, read the books, loved them, and have been hooked ever since.

The books. Game is fun, but if the characters/feel ever strays too much from the books, I'll stop buying new chapter packs.

jmccarthy said:

How the heck did I never end up playing you in SWCCG? That was exactly what I was going to say!

After Decipher lost the license for SW, I was distraught and looking for a game that was even half as good as it. After having read the A Song of Ice and Fire series, I'd gone into my pseudo-local (was like 50 miles away) card shop and heard some people talking about Tyrion and Cersei, and was like, "Is that a card-game based on the Song of Ice and Fire series?" Sure enough, a guy who I had known already somewhat - Norm was his name and he had also played SWCCG - said, "Sure is", and from that point on I was absorbed. Combine that with the fact that while SW had by far the best mechanics of any game so far, AGOT is still way above the rest, and hence I love the play and the deck building and every piece of it.

WolfgangSenff said:

I've heard that from other people as well. I really have to check out the rules of that game one day.

Have never played a card game before outside of poker, never played any board games before outside of the normal Matel fare but could not get enough of the books. My friends were looking for a way to deepen the experience so to speak so we bought and tried the Board game, which we all hated. I was so disappointed in the board game im surprised i even gave the card game a chance, but i bought the card game and played it for the first time as a 4 player melee. Within 2 weeks i was on a spending spree buying another core set and all the chapter packs and splitting them up based on which houses we liked playing. I had never played a game like it before and was absolutly hooked.

The books. i ahd played MtG back in the mid ninties but quit all card games as too expensive and for sprtingd eplorable competive communities. I saw an ad for this on teh train and just ahd to give ti a chance - back in 2002 and i'm still here.

But if it ever lsot that immersive feel for em - like loB i'd stop supporting it. A Core set alone would give me all i need to entertin me for eyars to come.

I have always enjoyed the challenge of CCG's (although not the expense). I even got a magazine called Inquest that had news on all the different games (it closed down years ago).

I opened it one day to see the first Jaime card staring back at me. The books were easily my favorite of all time, so I begged the store to carry the game day #1 (Westeros Edition). The rest is history.

I have to admit, it was the subject matter that started me, but the rules really are the best I have seen (okay, so I wish there was a chain...other than that). The plot deck is great.

I started playing the game when I started reading the books. The books are what hooked me, but the game was really good and the community was fantastic. The community and subjest material have kept me going during the times when the game didn't quite fit my idea of fun, but overall I've enjoyed the game more than any other collectible game I've played.

Friends and game mechanics did it for me. A bunch of them were playing the game. I was skeptical, having tried Magic and not caring for the "simple" mechanics. They insisted it was different; eventually peer pressure won out and it turned out I liked it. Every person had their "own" House. No one was playing GJ, so they gave me all their GJ cards. If we got a card that wasn't helpful to our House/deck we gave it to the person that it would help. The game was much more affordable that way.

Somehow I managed to play the game for ~1.5 years spoiler-free of what happened in the books. I knew I was pressing my luck, so I picked the novels and absolutely loved them.

When the game transitioned to full blown LCG on the East Coast (NY and Boston played with CCG cards even after FFG made the official switch), I stopped playing since GJ was pretty much non-existent. I came back not long after the GJ box came out and have been playing ever since. If certain people left the game, the community ever became unfriendly (very unlikely), or the card pool failed to live up to the merits of the game's mechanics, I'd quit, but I'm still here

FATMOUSE said:

Ha! Good luck with that, the rules are seriously like 9000 pages long. Decipher's problem is that they tried to fit every aspect of the Star Wars movies into the card game, but often added concepts through long rules documents, instead of card text.

For example, if you wanted to play a character on Hoth, you had to consult the rulebook to determine how the "Hoth energy shield rules" applied, which would restrict character placement. On Dagobah, you again had to consult the rulebook for an entirely different set of placement rules. Even random locations like Tatooine: Bluffs would have a card text that basically read: "Bluff rules in effect here. Go grab your rulebook." Just a mess.

That's just the quick primer. Totally fun game, but massively overcomplicated rules just ruined it.

jmccarthy said:

Haha, I heard about THAT too. Hopefully, I'll be able to find a "general" overview.

Really too bad as well. The original rules for Star Wars were VERY good. They just thought they needed to add more and more (and more) every time. By the time I quit, you could really START with 10-15 cards on the table, which got really stupid.

I will stand by Decipher as one of the best companies to ever making gaming rules (Star Wars, the very unique Lord of the Rings), but just horrible about moving them along (and playtesting...).

The books brought me into the game. At the end of one of the novels I saw an advertisement for the card game. I decided to check it out since I loved the books so much. Have been playing ever since (started at the end of the CCG days with the Iron Throne and Five Kings editions, then transitioned into the LCG).

rings said:

I don't want to argue, I just want to say that:

-SWCCG was the best game ever created (in my opinion), and apparently many people loved it.

-It officially died after ~5 years, just like AGOT CCG, so does that mean FFG is horrible about moving them along too?

-Decipher was defrauded by employee and lost license (not relevant to gameplay)

-I prefer much more complicated SW rules, because I knew them, I had nice booklet with alphabetically ordered rules by card name or by term (quick to find in case if you forgot something). I also had official mailing list, where questions were answered officially. I play AGOT for near 2 years and I still don't know how to play basic things. (And I observe that many AGOT players, even old players have no idea about some really basic AGOT rules). I bet most people would learn all SW rules faster than 2 years.

jmccarthy said:

This is exactly what happened my group of friends at the time. We wandered into the local game store, asked the owner "What's good to play?" and he sat us down and demoed it right then.

I never realized the SWCCG left such a gaping hole in some many people's lives. Such a boon for FFG. Hopefully the LCG keeps the game alive longer than both CCGs before.

scarletnite said:

Yeah, it's pretty interesting. Our very own Erick Butzlaff was himself quite a strong SW player as well, though not as good as me. (Zing.) In my nightly playing, I sometimes change to variants that are similar to SWCCG but use AGOT cards. For example, sometimes my "gold" is activated from my deck. I have battlegrounds on occasion in my games. I also thought attrition was one of the cleverest, strongest mechanics in any game, and really wish we had something like that in AGOT. Oh well.

WolfgangSenff said:

Hm, it just occurred to me that "deadly" is kind of a type of attrition, but it can be handled a little more easily. Still, that is awesome. Good job, FFG!

God I miss SWCCG. I've played alot of CCGs and it holds a special place in my heart for having such awesome gameplay, unfortunately it was ruined by having such stupid rarities, at least until around the time of Cloud City or the EPP packs.

Rogue30 said:

~If you didn't want to argue, why call me out on the internets? j/k

I was thinking more about LoTR when talking about Decipher. But Star Wars was almost as bad, and they were well on their way to closing down that licence (or having it yanked) before the employee (a family member if I remember right) took all that $$. It got less and less popular the more and more rules came out *shrug* LoTR was a huge licence, great rules that were totally different - and they just couldn't help but put out subpar product, not fulfill their promises in their pro tour, ignore playtesting, etc. *shrug*

I don't know, I am still playing aGoT made by the same company that made it in 2001 or 2002 or whenever - using a far inferior (in fans) licence. Heck, I am still playing the same version of Jaime! I think the annuals of card games will show which one lived longer (although I am sure Star Wars sold more consiering the licence). I see you point on the CCG to LCG move, but all game rotate and that was just one...big...tough...rotation.

A decent point on rules though - although that isn't adding more and more rules, just that the base rules are a little counter-intuitive. I know I have been playing since day one, and still get surprised at times! I was hoping on the transition to LCG they would have made the 'chain' or whatever it is called, but oh, well.

rings said:

Pretty much my story as well. Just add in having read novels 2 and 3 a couple months before.

Yes, that's right. Novels 2 and 3. Someone had the first book at the library forever so it was another 6 months or more before I got to read book 1.

rings said:

I see you point on the CCG to LCG move, but all game rotate and that was just one...big...tough...rotation.

~Wait a minute, so previous rotations didn't work? The game had rotations and didn't survive in the old form? How come?

Rogue30 said:

~Because rotation is like one huge mega-ban. The horror.

I think the game was surviving in the CCG days, but it was eeking along, not growing nearly as well as it has since the transition. Honestly, the transition seemed less about changing the game and more about changing distribution. But in order to market the product to a new player base, they didn't want players to have to go out and buy all that old CCG-era stuff, and that's exactly what the advice would have been from existing players to new players (go get the old stuff...you'll need them to supplement the new stuff.) So yeah, it was one massive rotation.

Other than the gold lasting all round, I don't think the game itself changed. In fact, as Rings points out, many of the cards we have are *exactly* the same as back then. ~In AGOT lingo, this was a "soft reset" and not an all-out "Valar" of the field

Unless I'm misinterpreting what you're trying to say, I thought it was a pretty huge reset. We saw a big drop in resource curves and overall power level. In addition to the loss of two Houses (which eventually came back). Much of the mechanics stayed the same, but I think Seasons and the Ravens have altered a lot of the game's feel; especially Shadows. Being able to manipulate the board outside of Marshalling was really only something that could be with events or by Targ. Agendas also seem to be more prevalent now than pre-LCG, but Agendas have always had an influence on the game I suppose.