Something our group have been puzzling over with the Conflict at the Carrock and Journey to Rhosgobel Quests:

Wilyador's card says "The first player gains control of Wilyador, as an ally."

And Grimbeorn's says "If Grimbeorn The Old has 8 or more resource tokens on him, he joins the first player as an ally."

now, does this mean that whoever is 1st player at teh start of the game gets Wilyador, whoever is first player when Grimbeorn gets his 8th resource gets Grimbeorn, and they keep them for the rest of the game

OR

does it mean that the 1st player takes them, and at the end of the round, they pass to the next player, and so on.

After playing Carrock and then AJtR, I asked myself exactly the same

If you take the wording pretty literally, it would mean that because Grimbeorn's constant effect is "evaluated" any time, he would behave like Wilyador. But I don't take it that literal, for two reasons: First, the wording of Grimbeorn is other than Wilyador (join vs. gain control). If they wanted the same behaviour, FFG would have chosen the same text. Second, in the sheet for Carrock, no change of control of Grimbeorn is mentioned, in contrast to the sheet for AJtR, where they explain that Wilyador always is controlled by the first player and thus changes control.

(Perhaps it would've been better to make the text "When Grimbeorn the Old has 8 ... he joins..." to indicate that it is a one-time joining and he stays with that player).

Greetings,

Pete

I'd say Wilyador is carried along by whoever happens to be first player at the time like the baton in a relay race and Grimbeorn remains with the player he "joined." So far, I've only played solo so it hasn't been an issue for me - I don't even know what I did with my "First Player" token!

I assume they move to whoever is the current first player each turn.

I agree that they follow the first player token.

The way I interpretted it is that Wilyador changes control each turn to whoever controls the first player token and that Grimbeorn stays with whoever is first player once the 8th resource token is placed on him. Nowhere in the text does it indicate he changes control from turn-to-turn, whereas Wilyador does.

My playing group also came accross this issue the first time we played "A Journey to Rhosgobel".

I ruled at the time that Wilyador would stay in control of whomever is the first player on the first turn, for the entire game.

I compared Wilyador to some current cards in the game such as "Unexpected Courage". That cards first line of text is "Attach to a hero". There is no Forced, Response or any other text qualifier prior to this text and its text resolution is only performed at the time it is played.

Not sure what the intent of Wilyador was when he was created, but until we hear otherwise this is how my group will be playing this card.

Happy to hear other peoples thoughts on this.

Cheers!

After looking over the cards again, I believe that both cards follow the first player around

The papers that come with the Adventure packs explain:

Re: Wilyador - "This card has a constant effect that reads, 'The first player gains control of Wilyador, as an ally.' This means that the first player takes control of Wilyador, and can use him in the same manner he would use any ally he controls. At the end of each round, when the first player token passes to a new player, the new first player also gains control of Wilyador."

Re: Grimbeorn - "If the players claim Grimbeorn the Old (as instructed by his card text), he becomes an ally under the control of the first player. The first player may then use Grimbeorn in the same manner as he would use any ally he controls."

Wilyador moves to the next first player each round, Grimbeorn stays with the player who was first when he was claimed.

Edit to elaborate: Only Wilyador is said to have a "constant effect." Grimbeorn's is not said to be constant. If he was intended to move around like Wilyador we'll have to wait for an updated FAQ.

boardgamegeek.com/article/7357715#7357715

Marlow said:

What papers are these? my adventure packs only had cards in them

Mighty Jim said:

Instructions that came along the card in the APs

If you miss them you can download them here: www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp

Veybo said:

Veybo, you posted a very interesting idea, I thought some time about it. Next to just referring to the AP sheet, I tried to find something in the game mechanics to prove this reasoning wrong. But I really couldn't A search in LotR rules and FAQ also dind't yield anything. But I found this in the CoC FAQ, p. 3:
"Attachments
Cards with the Attachment subtype are followed by the term in the card text box “Attach to X.” (For example, attach to a character you control). This term is not a card effect, but rather an additional requirement to play the card. The requirement must be met, regardless of if the Attachment enters play from hand or through a card effect."
So "Attach to X" is not the same type of effect as Wilyador's effect (it's no effect at all), and so it's no problem that Wilyador changes its controller every turn. Because both games were designed by Nate French, and the mechanics seem to be similar, I think this errata will be applicable for LotR. Perhaps this CoC errata will be interesting for you, too.