I think we must wait an official answer because it's too much important and really affects game play.

My humble opinion is that the sentence cannot be separated from the paragraph, and the paragraph is all about active locations.

So the Northern Tracker helps a lot but cannot make locations disappear from the staging area: he loads them with progress tokens, and every turn you choose one of them as the active location and immediately get explored and discarded. No more than one location every turn.

sorty said:

This was exactly my thought as well.....does FFG ever monitor these boards?

I'm currently of the opinion that locations get removed from the Staging Area when they have enough progress tokens. I can see it both ways, and have to pick one before the official FAQ.

However, Mountains of Mirkwood - says that it has an effect if it is removed after being explored. And the rulebook says that If a location ever has as many progress tokens as it has quest points, that location is considered EXPLORED. So, Northern Tracker in placing progress tokens on quests in the SA makes them count as Explored?

I'm still in 2 minds.

Follow-up question:

If the Northern Tracker does not cause lcations to be removed from the staging area, would he still add progress tokens to a location after it has already reached its maximum? If yes, when the location is actually explored by the player and removed, would you add the excess progress tokens to the current quest?

Robert (I'm 42 btw but this is my first LOTR card game)

Good day!

Is it possible to have your version of LOTR CCG solo rules?

Thanks!

sorty said:

From the rules, Phase 4: Travel:

"If a location ever has as many progress tokens as it has quest points, that location is considered explored and is discarded from play." (emphasis not mine, but the rulebook's).

This is clear. Doesn't matter where the location is, and the rules don't need to specify it, because - active location or staging area, if a location ever has as many progress tokens as it has quest points, it's considered explored and is discarded from play.

Drakkenstrike said:

FFG appears to monitor the boards but seldom contributes posts, and never about rules questions. However, you can get a personal ruling from FFG by using the link to "Rules Questions" at the bottom of the web page. Then, if you post both your exact question and the exact answer in this forum, the community will benefit. This happens a lot in the Warhammer LCG forum, where there is a whole thread devoted to collecting these answers and linking to the postings where they are shared.

(Oh yeah, I almost forgot -- turned 40 last month. I'm pleasantly surprised to see so many fellow graybeards!)

I had the same question as many of you, and like many of you I see both sides of the arguement. So I decided to submit my question to FFG on this topic, and here is the official response: