With nothing to do while waiting Shadow and Flame and The Hobbit saga expansion I thought it would be a fun exercise to postulate on some cards for what I am calling "The Shire" cycle after The Hobbit saga expansion. So I dont have any rules really for this cycle other than try to stick to the Shire, Arnor, and Grey Havens, and basically the west geographically.

I'll start with a card I would very much like to see:

Hero:

Farmer Maggot (Lore? Maybe Tactics)

Farmer

Threat 7, Will 1, Att 1, Defense 1

Text: While Farmer Maggot is the defending character any Nazgul's Att is reduced to 0.

No attachments except Fang, Grip and Wolf.

Attachment:

Fang (Cost 1or 2)

Creature

Text: Attach to Farmer Maggot only. While attached Farmer Maggot gets +1 Att.

If Fang and Grip and Wolf are attached Fang provides Farmer Maggot with a total +2 Att.

Grip

Creature

Text: Attach to Farmer Maggot only. While attached Farmer Maggot gets +1 Will.

If Fang and Grip and Wolf are attached Grip provides +1 Will and Farmer Maggot does not exhaust to quest.

Wolf

Creature

Text: Attach to Farmer Maggot only. While attached Farmer Maggot gets +1 Def.

If Fang and Grip and Wolf are attached Wolf provides +1 Def and Sentinel.

What do you think?

What are your ideas for "Shire" cards?

i was discussing this the other day (should still be on the 1st page) and i think that the shire cycle will take us on 'frodos path'

1.hobbiton/woody end etc

2.old forest

3.barrow downs

4.breeland

5. maybe then into lone lands/ weathertop

6. then either trollshaws or….and im not sure from here, but id like to see something about defending the crossing at sarn ford against enemies and spies, so perhaps a journey south west after bree for a climatic finish

id like to see also:

fatty bolger (hero) : has some ability allowing him to act as a distraction to enemies to protect other hobbits

maggot (hero) : something similar to what you said with his dogs, probably tactics

merry and pippin : merry - leadership with his horn that he gets in the return of the king that can summon allies, and pippin tactics, sam spirit who should have around 4 willpower and an ability to bring frodo back from death

bombadil as a gandalf style ally….maybe…still undecided

rangers….THIS should be THE cycle for the dunedain

Bill the pony who allows a hero to carry an extra restricted attatchement whilst he is in play

cant wait for locations…..so many epicly beautiful ones….

enemies: old man willow who can put your heros to sleep

barrow wights should force fear onto characters which is a new key word that makes the immune to damage if you discard a card and it is a treachery

spies who can draw extra threat and enemies

bill ferny who is similar to spies just a higher level (he's alo nasty to ponies)

An Old Forest adventure should also carry over the "lost" effects from the Dwarrodelf cycle.

To riff off of Fatty Bolger, how about:

Ally:

Lobelia Sackville-Baggins (Neutral)

Cost 3, Will 3, Att 0, Def 0.

Text: Exhaust Lobelia to discard the top 3 cards of the encounter deck. If one of the cards is "Grima Wormtounge" add it to the staging area.

Boss:

Lotho Sackville-Baggins

Engagement Cost: 50, Threat 3, Att X, Def 4, HP 4.

Lotho cannot be optoinally engaged. Adding "Grima Wormtounge" to the staging area defeats Lotho, and he is then removed from the game."

If Lotho is in the staging are during the refresh phase search the encounter deck and discard pile for any "Men of Isenguard" and add them to the staging area if able. If unable raise your threat by X.

X is the threat in the staging area.

Objective

Grima Wormtounge

Text: Once Grima Wormtounge is added to the staging area discard Lotho Sackville-Baggins from play.

Of course this needs a quest card to say "Once players have explored the quest card and Grima Wormtoung is in the Staging area the players have won the game".

i suppose it all depends on if youre talking about pre-sauron's downfall shire, or post sauron's downfall shire…..big difference, however i was hoping for a more traditional shire, and maybe a scouring of the shire pack later on in the life of the game. both i think require very different approaches and theres enough there for two cycles i think

rich

They have done so much stuff in the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood, and the Lord of the Rings takes place so much in the south, that I guess I just hope there is a slew of stuff from the north and west independent of time frame. I guess I'm just excited to see everything from Dunedain Rangers, to Sons of Arnor, to Grey Havens Elves, to Blue Mountain Dwarves. So much potential.

flightmaster101 said:

there is…but it will take a stretch on ffgs behalf to create some side storylines….do you play LOTRO online game? if not take a look at it- they did alot in the west in ered luin and lindon, but they had to create some evil dwarves attacking thorins people to make it work- and it did work, so i wouldnt have a problem with that

they also did an evendim one with annuminas taking on an osgillaith stlye warzone

rich

I like the thread very much. I will try and add a little more to the discussion. For now I will just say I think it is better when the ability is not too specific, like working only against Nazgul, etc. With all the respect, you cannot think Farmer Maggot was anti-Uluroki agent specialist, right? Haha. It would (should) be lovely to see all these characters. And especially the locations, I really hope this cycle comes next, and that we also get a glimse or two in the Hobbit. Perhaps the first quest will have bits from the Shire.

just remembered some aspect sim also looking forward to - pipeweed and the shire post! get out your pipes heros……..

OldToby

attatchment- spirit

cost 2

attatch to a hobbit character. character gains:

Refresh action. Exhaust Old Toby to heal 4 damage on attatched character. after you exhaust old toby attatched character's willpower is 0 for the rest of the turn

Longbottom Leaf

attatchment - spirit

cost 2

attatch to a hobbit character. character gains:

refresh action. Exhaust Longbottom Leaf to heal 4 damage on attatched character. after you exhaust longbottom leaf attatched character's defense is 0 for the rest of the turn

also how about

Shire postmaster

ally - spirit

cost 3

WP 3

attack 0

defence 1

HP 1

exhaust Shire Postmaster to switch an attatchment from one character to another eligble character

Post satchel

attatchment- spirit

cost 2

attatch to a hobbit character

attatched character may have +1 restricted attatchment. if post satchel leaves play discard a restricted attatchment from the character

now a location…..

Shire Post Office

threat 1

progress points 5

after travel to shire post office search your deck for Shire Postmaster and put him into play

Shire Quick Runner

ally - spirit

cost 2

Wp 2

attack 0

defense 0

exhaust Shire quick runner to give him + 3 willpower until the end of the phase. Shire quick runner then must remain exhaust for an entire turn before readying

i've been thinking about how they will end up doing the shire, when there aren't as many enemies around to fight,

how about a quest or two where there is no fighting? it's not as silly as it sounds. you could have quests where your characters just have to do a series of tasks (each of which carry victory points), and the "enemies" are people like farmer maggot, who dont kill you, but rather just get in your way, and hold you up. instead of threat acting as "threat", you could think of it more as a timer -- and you have to complete all the tasks before the timer runs out. so if people like farmer maggot defeat you, you dont die, but they increase your threat, which means that they are holding you up, preventing you from getting your tasks done in time. and the same with the sackville bagginses. if you run in to them they make you waste more valuable time

maybe they could have a quest like Bilbo's 111th party, and you are trying to get it ready, and you have to go around getting victory points for doing all these tasks, whilst avoiding people like the sackville bagginses and farmer maggot

the 'tasks' could be things like delivering pies to someone, so first of all you have to dig through the encounter deck for the pies, and attach them to someone, then you have to travel to a location to deliver them. but there should be loads of little different tasks -- about 10 or more -- each of which carries victory points, and when you've got enough points you win the quest

i just think something like that would make a refreshing change from quests which all revolve around fighting

i actually think a couple of quests like that would fit very well into the shire - its peacefullness and lightheartedness.

though i also think there's plenty of potnetial for some real danger quests. as with other cycles we wont stay just inside the shire- we shall see other areas that are dangerous such as the old forest and downs, so thats two packs already. and then we could go as far as breeland. we could help the dunedain repel some attackers- perhaps an invasion of wolves or goblins, or maybe help a passing party of elves going west to the havens

i think theres plenty to do in the shire area, but i would personally love a quest like you said- it can be as difficult as ffg want it to be, afterall theres many dangers delivering post and pies!

on LOTRO there were some quests doing exactly that- delivering mail and pies before the time ran out and you had to avoid nosy hobbits- that would be great…..though i dont think its everyones cup of tea, but not everyone likes fighting…..

i think if done well they could add a whole new aspect to the game (or if done poorly they could just as well be aweful….but hey its not up to us…we got to wait and see )

richsabre said:

I like the ideas very much, especially the ability of the Postmaster, quite neat.

richsabre said:

you could have a few locations like the Green Dragon as well (is that the name of the pub in Hobbiton?). whenever that came up, you should be forced to travel there and raise the timer by 2, to simulate all the time you wasted away supping ale in the pub.

they could do a bit of farming as well… start with a couple of empty field/meadow cards in the staging area, contributing their threat to the timer every turn, and you cant remove them until you find an objective card like a plough, or something like that, and travel there. after you've done that you could then claim your 'pipeweed' or carrot cards, or something, which you then have to deliver to another location

I like that idea. The Green Dragon represents threat due to procrastination rather than more traditional methods.

Reading back a bit, I really like the dogs, the mechanics and cooperation, it would be the first time attachments cooperate, right?

And I agree, I feel this area of Middle-earth has the greatest potential, as it connects well with both Dunedain and the two Elven havens. Of course, Rohan and Gondor will be another treat.

Good ideas for cards. I like the suggestions for Maggot and his dogs, the Old Forest, Bombadil (who I would LOVE to see), and "missions" rather than quests (similar to the ones in LOTRO). I think "missions would work well for a cycle in the Shire, although I would worry that a "lighter" cycle might alienate some players and depart too much from the core mechanics of the game. I'm interested in others' thoughts on the last point…

John85 said:

thats a good point - i think the bilbo type players would love it (i certainly would) pippins would be on the fence and boromirs would hate it. perhaps theres a comprimise somwhere between lightheartedness and peril- places like the downs and old forest are like this i think

or perhaps the first two could be light hearted in the middle of the shire and the other 4 could steadily get more dangerous- that progression would be very faithful to the books

rich

richsabre said:

Great idea! I hope Caleb reads these…