News from GenCon… Star Wars is PvP now and all co-op / solo has been removed.. leaving LoTR as the only one of its kind in the world still.

Honestly, I'm glad.

I'm a big fan of both IP's, and at first was really excited for the Star Wars co-op LCG. But after playing a ton of LotR in waiting for the Star Wars game, they were just too similar. There's no way people would've wanted to play and buy both.

Now I'll definitely get into the Star Wars game but also probably find a way to keep playing LotR as well since it's fun and a different experience altogether.

Very cool.

booored said:

i thought you said netrunner was filling the PvP role for FFG…

Dain Ironfoot said:

Exactly, this is a extremely bad move form FFG imo. I know of at least 5 people that have chosen to go with netrunner over SW and another 12 that are not interested in netrunner but now have no interest in SW. LoTR being the only construction game of its type it is only a matter of time b4 someone makes a new version with a different theme unencumbered by tolkien… If FFG had any sense they would have made the alternative to the fantasy co-op constructed game themselves.. they are just sending money to a different company.

Really bad idea.. someone in their marketing dept needs to be fired.

booored said:

different strokes for different folks. i think you are dead wrong, as their most successful LCG is AGoT, which is competitive and breeds a lot more interest. of all the LCGs FFG puts out, all the FLGS in my area only hold regular AGoT events. I can just as easily say that the folks I know are more excited for it to be PvP and will be playing both LOTR and SW (if not AGoT, as well).

As much as I love LOTR, I'm not so sure it's a sustainable as a co-op game; PvP has much more life, easier to do tournies that bring people out, etc etc.

I don't know a soul that would say "let me play bland netrunner over star wars" it's a lame license (my opinion only, plus that of all my gaming friends) that has no appeal whatsoever. we were probably going to play SW no matter what, to be fair, but all are more excited that it's not co-op.

sometimes you just want to beat your friends.

on edit: i also wonder if people are more upset about losing co-op or losing the solo aspect (if that is indeed the case, which seems most likely)?

Sad news to me an my crew.

We were looking forward to another Co-Op. We play a lot of Co-Ops (and Co-Op+Traitor) in general.

Arkham, Battlestar Galactica, LOTR:LCG, but also others like Panic Station, Pandemic, Shadows over Camelot, Defenders of the Realm etc, etc.

So when we saw the Star Wars game announced, we all jumped.

Now… I don't know. We probably won't buy it.

I have a hard time selling the Card-Games idea as it is. Most of us are RPG-nerds first and foremost, Board Gamers second, and Card Gamers third. To be honest the ONLY Card game we play right now is LOTR:LCG, and I strongly believe that the Co-Op style was a big factor in that.

/wolf

@GhostWolf69: Seems odd to me that even with a buttload of co-ops that you already play, you'd need/want another co-op.

Dam said:

Isn't that almost the same as asking why anyone wants more than one cycle for their LCG? That they have enough already? that's just human. More wants more.

I only got into LOTR LCG about a week ago. And me being bigger fan of LOTR than Star Wars my choice is really simple. I got onto this train a bit late but still I am looking forward to going through all the expansions one by one. I don't think I will be looking for another coop game in the near future. I am currently playing Core set + Hunt for gollum. I don't mind this being the only coop game card game for the moment.

Also I would like to ask you for a bit of advice. Would you advise to get all the expansions as soon as possible and catch up or just taking them slowly one by one? I would like to play them slowly one by one with only cons that I can see now being that it will take me long time to catch up. What would you do?

mr.thomasschmidt said:

That's different from my perspective. New cycle for say LotR means six new quests, that's 60 plays. Because I've already played through all the quests I own so far (visited my FLGS yesterday, but they only had FoS, wanted to grab FoS + SaF at the same time, didn't buy FoS), I haven't played LotR in two months.

Whereas co-op games, especially something like Arkham which basically has a single scenario is to me much more replayable and I don't need more and more stuff to find interest in playing Arkham (although I do have my share of AH stuff), but new stuff isn't needed to provide new experience whereas 10 plays of a quest, I feel like I've seen more than enough of it, no point in rehashing it.

Dam said:

*shrugs* Well, you mean as opposed to all the competitive games I own, and also still want more of? I own close to 300 titles. And I still want more. OUt of those 300 hardly… what 15? are Co-Ops… So HELL YES! I want more Co-Op.

What we don't play anymore is competitive CARD GAMES (where you collect and build your own decks).

Like I said (or thought I said) the only reason I managed to sell LOTR:LCG to my group (it being a card game and all) was that it was Co-op.

…

That being said, I will probably buy Netrunner…. since I own tons of cards to the original and rank it as THE best Card Game ever made… HOWEVER (and this is important) My friends will probably NOT buy that, and I will find it hard to actually get it played. I mean otherwise we would already play the original right?

/wolf

daftpunk9050 said:

GhostWolf69 said:

mr.thomasschmidt said:

Are there some sets that you can no longer buy or are scarce? With speed I am playing it at I will never run out of stuff to play by the looks of it. I played first quest over and over last week to get into the rules and all the steps and phases. I advanced onto the next one. But that one chewed me up and spat me out. Lore + a bit of Leadership works best for me for the moment. Any other beginners here that I could share experiences with or play a game or 2 over the internet? Send me a message.

daftpunk9050 said:

If you convinced that you like the game and wish to buy them all.. then I would buy entire cycles in one go. Some purists think that getting them one at a time is a good way to go and this dose replicate the experience of playing them as they were released with restricted cardpools. Still in truth I really do not think anyone is going to sit here and say the game is less fun with a larger card poll to construct out of.

I would play them in order, but if you are going to buy them anyway.. I would get as many as possible as quick as possible. A good way to do this would be to get each cycle at a time.

GhostWolf69 said:

I'm planning to buy netrunner as well, it is just too good a game and the new FFG version looks really gret as well, I love some of the additions. Still as it is duel… will it ever get played? This is the question.

daftpunk9050 said:

Yes the sets sell out and then you need to wait for a reprint. I have been wating years for CoC. It isn't that bad in LoTR yet as the game is so new.. but 5 years form now when tehre is like 10 cycles out and 6 expantions or w/e then new players will have a hard time completing there collections. bookdepositry is a good place for FFG products. They have a "instock" email you canb get dilivered for FFG products and no shipping costs anywhere in the world. Ebay is the other source.. you cna find pretty much anything there but the shipping can be harsh. The other place is BGG lost of peopel are trading and selling card collections all the time.

Still if you started aGoT right now, there is no way you could find every pack…. and this wil be true for LoTR soon as well.

I recommend picking up the expansions/cycles if you can afford them…you can usually get a deal. I believe Ebay/Amazon has sellers who are selling the core plus every pack at a very decent price. You can always slowly grow into the quests and I personally like deckbuilding with all the cards vs. having to figure out how to use new cards each time they come out. But I'm also a lazy deckbuilder.

daftpunk9050 said:

I'm new to the game. I buy 1 expansion every payday. Every 2 weeks. I have really enjoyed the slow pace. I have time to enjoy and savor the cards before I get more. The joy of this game is the story telling and the experience of the cards and game.

GhostWolf69 said:

Same with me. I like Net runner a lot, but none of mu friend is not going to buy it… In Co-op only one have to have cards and you still can play nicely. In PVP there is allways the need to each to make those decks… and it is very hard when only one plaer make those… It just don't work well.

daftpunk9050 said:

As far as I know you can still buy all AP's. But if you are afraid of missing out on some I'd by the oldes first, maybe all of the first cycle. But I don't think they will disappear. FFG will most likely make reprints. And there's a lot of packs out there outside FFGs store So I'd buy:

1st cycle packs in order of release OR as many as I could afford until I got all.

Then Kazaad-Dum expansion.

Then the Dwerrodwelf cycle pack by pack. Then the Hobbit ect.

OR if you can afford it just buy everything as fast as possible

I'm really glad to hear that Star Wars won't be a co-op game. I don't want LOTR to have to compete with Star Wars for players! I really don't care how the star wars game does, I just want my favorite game to continue to do well!

Narsil0420 said:

I agree. Dividing the player base would not be good for neither of the games. And I think they should do more to make people aware of the games. Because they are brilliant. I am surprised that I only heard about FFG couple of weeks ago for the first time. I fell into the MTG trap about a year ago unfortunatelly. I am done with that now. Coop is much more enjoyable.

dancingdanslc said:

Thanks for your input guys. I like the biweekly payday idea. It will give me enough time to play the new set and also slowly catch up.