"I want to meet the person who designed the game and ask them why they would give all the gold, card draw, and kneel effects to the same house."

-Chris S "ianmclaren", who was not his usual chipper self during our league match last night.

Perhaps they wanted to make that house a target?

After all, the Lannisters are rich (Gold), resourceful (card draw) and powerful (kneel).

JerusalemJones said:

I would argue the gold goes to lannister, the draw to martell (doran is the schemer) and kneeling to baratheon, who are the ruling house.

Ah, yes, but Robert only wants to drink and wench, Stannis is too iron the folks to bow down to and Renly just doesn't get it.

I agree witht the bit about Doran -- he's one of my favorite characters after Feast. I could actually see Martell getting some sort of game effect based on number of plot cards used to show his patience and scheming. Martell has gotten good draw effects in the past, so we have to wait and see what happens to House Martell in the LCG environment.

Bara does have the most renown of the houses, and there is ALOT to be said about that. Compare Vigilant and Vengeful over Infamy, and you'll see which house got the least from the House Specific keywords.

A plot interacting Doran would be awesome. In the Standard world I'd want something that interacted with plot traits.

====
* Doran Martell
5 Gold
4 STR

Lord.

Intrigue
Power

When an opponent has a Military Battle plot revealed Martell characters cannot be bypassed by stealth.

When there is at least one Power Struggle plot revealed Doran Martell does not kneel to attack or defend.
====

This is Doran as the schemer, finding a way to turn with the tide.

Another idea would be

====
* Doran Martell
5 Gold
4 STR

Lord.

Intrigue
Power

Response: when you win a challenge by four or more STR kneel Doran Martell to reveal a new plot card

Response: when you lose a challenge by four or more STR kneel Doran Martell to choose a plot in your used plot pile and one in your unrevealed plot deck and swap them.
====

I just love the idea of Doran as a master plotter, someone who takes a long range view and has more irons in the fire than anyone knows.

Those are pretty sweet ideas, and if the latter two were around I'd be hard pressed to decide what Doran I'd run in a *cough* Standard deck. Yeah, I could really see Doran as a plot deck manipulator.

Hey look! Sithlord started a thread that people actually repsonded to!

Don't worry, I have my Lannister answers all set for the next League night.

Well, Sithlord and others would actually have "friends" if they ever decided to check and update their profiles.

Besides, this wasn't a Darkside Discussion.

Stag, in true new york fashion btw, has decided he needs no friends and can go, well, stag. He disdains any attempt at a paltry 'forum feature friendship' and grumbles and mutters to himself, if you were truly my friend you'd know how to contact me, by the seven!

This reminds me of an instruction manual i once read: How to hunt Deer and make friends at the same time...

JerusalemJones said:

it's called the darkside DISCUSSION for a reason.

But I'd might as well start calling it the Darkside Edict

Mmmm...venison...it's just so tasty...

I assure you, it will be a cold day in hell before I ever use a "friending" or "social networking" function anywhere, anytime.

*blink blink*

You don't have a cellphone with a contact list? Or an email client of some form?

Or forum sites that you frequent?

Your life must be sad indeed, Stags.

Anyway, I really like the sound of "Darkside Edict." Sounds much darker that way.

Kennon, I followed your link. That is a very good and succinct introduction to the LCG concept. I'll be checking back to see what you have to say about League play (I've found myself enjoying League more than I expected to, and I was fairly optimistic about it before it started).

So I suppose I should defend myself a little. First of, a bad day for me, work was long and tedious and I had very little sleep that weekend.

Second, I feel like everytime I face off against the lannister, they outdo me in everything. I think most people who have played CCG's understand that card draw is the single most powerful effect you can have. aGoT tried to mitigate that with the draw cap, which is good, but a better solution would be to have a max hand size.

other games handle card draw in different ways:

Magic- has both a max hand size and has card draw that is usually draw/discard. So you draw some cards, but then discard some. Or the card draw has other limitation or a very high cost.

L5R- has very little card draw in general, most of it is draw a card/discard a card, or it is a neutral effect that anyone can use.

I wouldn't have a problem with lannisters having this card draw (well, its still a little excessive) if they didn't also have the resources to play everything. Those two factors make them powerful. Not necessarily going to win every game, but as we're starting to see (and as I hope league play will show) Lannister has an edge over other houses.

Combine on top of that the control elements that Lanni has (kneeling, intrigue) and some pretty strong effects in other areas (a lanni pays his debts, Payne, I'm you writ small etc) I feel they are the strongest house right now.

I hope that the designers will follow the league play, and if it turns out that I'm not just being paranoid and dramatic, and that lannister is dominating, then they will tone down their design or focus it on just one aspect or something.

I have no list in my cell phone.

It makes calls and it tkaes calls and that's it. I wouldn't even have the **** thing if it wasn't for the Trials of the Mad King.

i enjoy written correspodence and actual phone calls during the evening. All else is needless.

And the only reason LGR is having fun wiht League play is because he is actually finsihing over .500 for the first time since he started playing.

Stag Lord said:

Hmmm, well we haven't had that many joust matches against each other over the past several months, but let me see if I can remember some of them...

Played you with some slapdash Stark deck I was just starting to develop on your last evening of fine tuning your Targ deck before Origins (at which you finished third --there, I saved you having to remind us ) and beat you.

Played you at Black Friday IV and beat your Bara deck so bad that the ghost of Robert asked you to please play another House.

Last played you during the League night prior to last and *yawn* beat you again.

So I guess it's nice to have a winning record against the NYC crew generally and not just you. Teehee.

But enough of this smacktalk, it's distracting us from the real problem: our two Lanni players (Sithlord and Red Terror) racking up League wins and casting their votes in favor of Thorns Tywin!

Stag Lord said:

To clarify, LGR is lets go red, or Jason from our meta.

The implications of this unprovoked attack are huge. Prior to this, the political state of the NYC meta had been an open, conventional war of smack talk between staglord and myself, exclusively. Damage unto other entities had been considered "splash injury", or collateral damage. And thus others in the group have stayed largely, and wisely, neutral in our battle of attrition.

And now Staglord has projected his aggression DIRECTLY onto someone different. Beyond sheer insanity or lack of insight, could Stag's initiation into a two-front war have a meaning? The obvious theory: Stag has conceded defeat to the master and is currently setting his sights onto a less experienced and unprepared adversary. Similar to Russia's concession to the United States after a brutal cold war, Russia focuses on forcefully reacquiring its numerous satellite states in order to consolidate whatever leftover power still remains. The drawbacks? Stag has not likely studied his enemy, and who knows what guerilla tactics LGR may employ, if not a full blown jihad. There is also the possibility of my taking advantage of Stag's overextended state by continuing my barrage of unadulterated smack. Though admittedly this is not likely, as even Darth Vader was capable of showing mercy during his final moments.

Or perhaps Stag's motivations are more insidious... by militarizing a third party to act as buffer or interference between our open battle. By aggravating LGR, he will undoubtedly respond by targetting Stag, but who knows where else the violence may spill over to? The assassination of archduke ferdinand led to conflict between not only austria-hungary and serbia, but throughout the entire world. Likewise, Emperor Palpatine's Order66 created a well orchestrated chaos between the Jedi, Trade Federation, and Clone Troopers.

Indeed, this earth shattering insult labels him as either a madman or the true Dark Lord. Nomatter which, he should be feared.

LetsGoRed said:

Well played sir.... well played.

@Stags,

Wow, now you're making my life sad.

Still, written correspondence qualifies, I think- be it digital or analog. It need not be high tech to be social networking. Handwritten or typed address books and the phonebook are in essence social networking.

P.S. Man, it feels good to call you Stags again. I just realized that I hadn't done that in a long time.

@Let's Go Red,

Take a look at the site again in the next day or two. I've decided to hold off on my league thoughts until the first league is finished this Saturday, but I did just send in a look at the Call of Cthulhu Core Set that should be up in a day or two. I'm glad to know that someone is bothering to read my often rambling writings.

I read it too, and felt it was well written. I just didn't think you needed the pat on the back, since you already know how good you are.

You don't mind if I borrow it to put on our Message Boards, do you? The LCG concept is still pretty new, but those who understand it are starting to get it, and hopefully soon get into it.

Lannister is not running away with our league. The lannister player in our legaue has gotten a vote here and there, but never finished in first.

JerusalemJones said:

By all means, go right ahead.

Lars said:

If so, your lannister player is a noob.

I'll inform him of your kind words.