I will begin this rant saying I've recently picked up this game, though I knew of its existence as soon as it was announced. At the time, however, I was busy playing Decipher's Lotr, and before that I was playing ICE's Middle Earth ccg. So, as you can see, I've enjoyed and experienced all Lotr themed ccgs made to date and I picked this one up mainly because of the solo play factor and because it just looked like a good game (and it is). However, as a devoted Tolkien fan, I keep seeing some flaws with this LCG. I don't mind the non-canon characters, in fact I enjoy seeing them (Meccg had lots), so that's not the problem I have with this game. The thing that bothers me is how they've made the culture/race/faction spread. I think it looks rather disorganized, and it seems that cards are just disconnected from each other. What I'm saying here is that, for example, all Rohan cards don't really look like they belong in a particular culture/faction, or another example would be Gondor. All these groups of cards, since they're spread in all spheres of influence, have this lore/aesthetical feel of being kind of disconnected, and frankly, I think that the creators of the game don't put much thought when naming and creating the concept for certain cards, or at least when placing them in a particular sphere or set. If the game right now supposedly takes place in the 17 year old period before Frodo leaves the Shire, what is a card named Gildor's Counsel, with that particular art and flavor text doing in a set called The Hills of Emyn Muil? I could list lots of other examples. Everything about the cards feels just so scattered, so out of place. Maybe I'm not the only one who has thought of this. One can't build, say, a consistent, coherent Gondor-themed deck without including at least three spheres of influence, and sometimes just one card of a particular sphere.

I think that maybe this will all be fixed when we get more sets and get to the proper Lotr novels, but then I think another problem may arise. I really enjoyed Decipher's Lotr. The fact that the cards were in fact divided by culture (dwarves, elves, hobbits, etc) made it just feel better organized and "tribal" without it being that it was "necessarily tribal", or that you couldn't mix and splash cultures as you wished when building a deck, but it gave a better visual flavor than just having the word "Dwarf" written above the ability. However, what I didn't like about that game (though I think it couldn't be helped) was the dozens of versions each character had. Will we get this too in Lotr LCG? It seems likely, being that we already have two versions of a bunch of characters already. When we get to the Lotr novels, will we get another Bilbo, or yet another Aragorn, for example? Or maybe we won't and they decided to make Bilbo early in THFG to make hin unnecessary in future sets. I don't know. Also, the fact that characters are divided in heroes and allies also helps the possibility of many versions of the same character. I honestly hope that we'll see at most two cards for each character. More, in my opinion, wouldn't be necessary and feels like it kills the character's "uniqueness".

So I believe most of you now think that I hate this game or something like that. It isn't true. I love it, I like the gameplay, the very concept of the quest card, the illustrations, the visual design, etc. Enough to keep me playing it. It's just some lore and design things that really bother (or maybe will bother) me, and I was wondering if anyone else has felt something similar about them.

Just realized this doesn't belong in this forums. Mods please move it? Thanks.

hi

firstly let me start by saying i am a huge tolkien fan, as people who have been around on this forum for a while will know. i play this game because its lotr, not because im a gamer. so this will probably influence my answer, but with that said here is my reply……….

-i have to say i respectfully disagree with you. i have found the races and cultures very well thought out. the art is of course amazing, and i can tell the designers research at least a fair amount before creating a character.

-i feel that the races and cultures being spread over spheres is a good thing, and stops this game from being stale- after all there is many different people in all cultures, but they specialise in different areas. this i think is well represented in the game. for instance i wouldnt particularly like it if dwarves, being excellent fighters and craftsmen, were put just into tactics. there are of course many other skills that can be utilised. similarly elves are wise in lore, but they also have powerful warriors and leaders.

-remember as well that with the excpetion of dwarves and possibly noldor, no other races have really been expanded on yet

-the game used to go on that 'set in the years between end hobbit and start fellowship' but i really dont think that applies anymore. afterall we are getting thorin in the hobbit pack….someone dead by our game timescale. no, i think it is more of a loose area where ffg are saying 'we're not following the hobbit, and we're not following the trilogy'

due to this the game timescale cant be after the trilogy as sauron had fallen, and the game timescale cant be before the hobbit as many of the character werent alive (thus breaking even more tolkien lore) so that leaves the brief time between the two books as a loose backing for a timescale.

of course this may change- the hobbit was a surprise when it was announced, and even though they are saga packs, we still can use the cards in our decks.

-as for the multiple versions im not sure how many we shall get….remember we only have 2 characters so far who have 2 copies, which i dont think is that bad. granted i would be annoyed if several more came out when there are so many good tolkien characters, but i was one of those people who actually wanted a new glorfindel as i disliked the old one. i agree to an extent when you say it kills the characters uniqueness, and i see what you mean here, but i think as long as both copies offer us both different things when building decks, i dont think its a major problem. the problem comes when say a new copy comes out completely killing the old one- that would be a fail in design of course.

finally i would say dont worry too much…..ive been where you are right now- i love this game, am obsessed with it, and i got really annoyed during the first two packs of dwarrowdelf when ffg gave us about half of the player cards that were useless for solo…..so i messaged them and they replied both 1 and 2 player would get equal amounts of design intention, and true to their word the last 3 packs have had some excellent cards that really helps out a solo player.

hope that all points covered

rich

Gizlivadi said:

i agree this would have gotten more answers in the main section- id just try posting another one in there and leave this and ill repost my answer there

rich

Thanks Rich, and yes, I will repost it in the general board to see what other people have to say and I will reply to your answer.