The CG rules have finally been posted (a mere six weeks after printing) and are somewhat disappointing to someone who has been waiting for the campaign game for two years. [i jumped into the LOTR LCG to experience the LOTR story via campaign mode, so the following critique is unlikely resonate with those who are happy just to be playing scenarios set in Middle Earth using Middle Earth characters. For me everything up to Black Riders has been one long trailer to the main event.]

A bit of praise is in order before I turn to criticism. I am very happy with the Boons/Burdens concepts...it adds both cool new mechanics in the form of a RPG-style way to improve characters and very much improves the overall thematic experience. I even like the idea of "life" for Frodo as corruption was such a big part of the story. (I interpret life as more ability to resist the Ring)

But the rules otherwise fall short in two ways:

The first is the strange penalty for wanting to use a new hero. As a veteran of military campaign games I endorse the decision to incentivize playing for tomorrow's scenario by making loss of a hero permanent, but would argue that knowing that your group will never again get to use a rock star like Glorfindel or Hirluin is penalty enough. (hello Fortune or Fate) Adding a permanent threat penalty to using a new hero seems like overkill while also having the surely unintended consequence of discouraging players from using many of the beloved characters from the story.

The second is that much of the suspense of a campaign game is lost if you know that there is no penalty for playing a scenario poorly as long as you don't lose a hero. A permanent threat increase penalty for losing a scenario makes much more sense than for using a new hero.

Welcome others thoughts in hope that there is perhaps some nuance to the current rules that I am missing...

Steve

I have also been greatly anticipating campaign mode, and am a bit disappointed by the rules. I am, however, delighted with The Black Riders and with campaign mode in general.

For thematic reasons, I want to include Glorfindel and Asfaloth in Flight to the Ford, but only in Flight to the Ford. According to the campaign rules, I would have to permanently increase my starting threat by two for all later scenarios, once for switching to Glorfindel and once for switching him out.

I intend to house-rule this, but I would have appreciated it if the official rules allowed for me to recreate the Fellowship's journey without excessive threat gain.

I also have a question about heroes with the same name. The rules clearly say that you can't use include a hero if a that hero's name is on the list of fallen heroes. If Aragorn (Lore) is dead, you can't use Aragorn (Leadership). The rules also say that you "must use the same heroes for each scenario with two exceptions." The first exception is when a hero dies, and the second is when "a player wishes to trade a hero he controls for a hero with a different name." Does this mean that if you start with Aragorn (Lore), you can never switch to Aragorn (Leadership)? He'll need the Noble trait to use the Palantir...

If switching to another hero with the same name is permitted, then a further, nit-picky question: if Aragorn (Lore) has a permanent boon attached to him, and he is replaced by Aragorn (Leadership), would the permanent boon now be attached to Aragorn (Leadership)? The rules speak about the "specific hero" the boon is attached to: I don't know whether another hero with the same name would qualify.

Sorry to focus on the small details: I only care about them because I'm looking ahead with excitement towards the culmination of the saga journey at Mount Doom.

Philip

I can partially answer this - In response to a different question ^* Caleb responded in " You can exchange a hero you control for the same hero (by title) from a different sphere without penalty. " Extrapolating from the "with no penalty" I'm guessing that boons/burdens stay attached.

^* For the curious, the question I asked was whether, when there is more than one player, could players exchange heroes without threat penalty (e.g. start with hobbits controlled by one player with the other player doing non hobbits ... and then at some mix things up a bit). His answer: " I'm afraid the rules do not allow for the players as a group to change control of their heroes without incurring a threat penalty. "

I think is a cool idea (threat penalty for dead or switch heoes). is very thematic and also make a sense for take care a hero all through all campaign. I dont know about idea for change deck between quests since is make game much more easy when you can buid up your deck specific against every quest. But maybe the game is so difficult and there no way to win if you dont do it? I still didn get BR to make my mention about it.....Hope next week