[OT] Lord of the Rings TCG

this is a great page!

 

Sure is. Personally I stopped after reading the first couple of sections. Filled with spoilers.

R'Bolt

 

Oops! Guess I should have mentioned that!

 

Hi guys, I play LOTR but I have no money to ever buy any. SO, I was wondering if any one woulb be willing to give my some Lorien Elf and Elven Bow Cards?? PLEASE!!!!!

 

blah! My local guys aren't joining the R.F.

Hey, I bought my firrst lot of RotEL . I got the starters, and four packs.

Funny that my first pack had Horn of Boromir, Bill the Pony and Fireworks all in the one pack. Weren't they topurnament promos a while back?

Anywho, I am very pleased with my pulls so far, and will be getting more packs soon.

LotR continues to be a great game, and roll on TTT

 

Speaking of TTT...

More from Kyle Hauer

Hey there everyone,

Joe Alread (one of the TCG lead designers on The Two Towers expansion) and
I are currently in London attending Gen Con UK and I had an opportunity to
talk with him about some of the new cultures that are on their way for The
Lord of the Rings TCG. I can't give many details, but here is a short bit
about the new "Raider" culture courtesy of Joe.

"The Raider culture (this is the tentative name of this culture) currently
consists of two 'sub-cultures' the Easterlings and the Southrons. The
Easterlings are all about burdens. Many minions from their culture have the
ability to add burdens, while others gain many powerful skirmish bonuses
if enough burdens can be spotted. They will be the reason you're not going to
want to bid too high in a Two Towers block tournament.

The Southrons have two basic themes: Expensive (and powerful) skirmish and
response abilities along with 'referee' cards. Many Easterlings have strong
abilities (such as wounding a companion he is skirmishing) by spending X
amount of pool. Along with expensive abilities on their minions, their verbs
are equally expensive (and even more powerful...). How is a culture supposed
to afford such abilities? We'll save that for later. Along with their main
abilities described above, the Southrons have many minions that gain
powerful abilities while they can spot X amount of minions on the table.
Some of these abilities are comparable to Ulaire Enquea - these minions
alone will stop you from loading up on companions and keep the same kind
of
pressure on that Enqueua provided in fellowship block, only this time there
are many minions accomplishing this task, not just one or two."

Good stuff, sounds almost like two cultures in one! Hope you enjoy. When
I
get back into the office I'll probably get a lot more good inside info, talk
to you soon. Cheers!

 

Sounds pretty neat BPJ. Can't wait to see card images. I just love what Decipher has done with the card design and image selection. Top notch.

If I'm not mistaken the set releases in November. May be a bit soon, but I would imagine Decipher will start to post some spoilers in the not too distant future. I know a couple of tourney directors who play test for Decipher. They're not spilling the beans though!

R'Bolt

 

Because of the early release, we may not have Gollum or other CGI characters in the game, unless t6hey use a pic from TFotR.

It was the same with the Balrog, there was to be NO images of the Balrog before the release of the film, so it needed to go into the second expansion, which was after the movie.

EDIT:

Just checked my mail from the LotR Mail list. Chuck Kallenbach (game designer)
"For now, you can consider "unbound" to mean "not Frodo or Sam."
It was later added to consider Faramir with them as well. I assume Gollum will be ring bound too. (Then again, when you assume you make an ass out of u and me [ass being a donkey])

Hmmmmm

 

Some information about the new release from an e-mail list my son belongs to.


Two Towers Expansion Sneek Peek Info!
-------------------------------------

There are two more new cultures coming (in addition to Rohan). Actually, while I'm at it, the two new cultures are currently called
the Dunland culture (made up of Dunlendings) and the Raider culture (made up of Southrons and Easterlings). Quite a bit of bad men to give your Fellowship a hard time. These names may change depending on what New Line and the Tolkien Estate say.

Today's info is also about "Loaded" and "Unloaded" keywords

A "Loaded" keyword is one that has a built-in rule behind it, such as Fierce or Damage +1. An "Unloaded" keyword is one that has no built in function, it's just that other cards will key off the keyword, such as Ranger or Twilight.

What I have for you today is a list of all the new Loaded and Unloaded keywords from The Two Towers expansion. While I can't tell you what the new Loaded keywords do yet, I can tell you what they are. Here you go!

Loaded keywords:
Ambush
Ring-bound
Unhasty

Unloaded keywords:
Battleground
Easterling
Ent
Machine
Southron
Valiant
Villager

--- Kyle Heuer - Decipher, Inc.

 

Hey, reporting from the E-mail loist is my job

TTT is looking great.

 

>>The Raider culture (this is the tentative name of this culture) currently
consists of two 'sub-cultures' the Easterlings and the Southrons. The
Easterlings are all about burdens. Many minions from their culture have the
ability to add burdens, while others gain many powerful skirmish bonuses
if enough burdens can be spotted. They will be the reason you're not going to
want to bid too high in a Two Towers block tournament.

I wonder how well the Easterlings will mesh with the Nazgul, the old-skool burden culture. The idea kind of makes sense, since Ulaire Attea was the King of the Easterlings until he became a Ringwraith. I know I'd love to use Ulaire Enquea, Twilight Nelya, and Ulaire Toldea in a deck that can add burdens as easily as it sounds like the Easterlings can. Not to mention Dark Whispers, which nearly always worth a dead companion once you've got 6 burdens.

 

If anyone is unsure about what will happen to the site path in TTT, read this

My first attempt at at LotR dream card...

Gwaihir, The Windlord
Ally . Home 4 . Eagle Gandalf Culture
Twilight: 2, Strength: 6, Vitality: 3

Gwaihir may not be assigned to skirmish and may not take wounds in the Archery phase at underground sites

Response If Gandalf was just killed, exert Gwaihir twice to discard Gandalf instead.

"'...Gwaihir the Windlord, swiftest of all eagles, came un-looked for to orthanc... and he bore me away' "

 

Is anyone aware of other forums for discussing LotR: TCG besides the Decipher one. I kinda feel guilty talking about ti here.

 

No reason to feel guilty, guys. As I stated before, LOTR is one of the forerunners of all fantasy (which Star Wars has a lot of) which is why I am allowing it here. Great discussion going here anyway. TT looks like it's really going to change the game's landscape nicely.

 

A new Pippin card has been spoiled, but the internet kiosk I am on isn't cut and pasting. From what I remember it goes like this:

Pippin, Just a nuisance
Gandalf Signet (?) Shire culture
Same stats as the FotR versions (3/4)
GT says something about Uruks.
Sorry I cant be more help.

There will be three starters: Aragorn/ Dendeland(sp?), Theoden/ Isengard and a gandalf deluxe starter (with beads and extra 11 card pack)

TTT is going to be sweet.

 

Does any bady want a "The Pale Blade" cards??? Im trying to trade it.

 

From my son's e-mail list (this is not the Decipher list to my knowledge):

************
The first card from the Two Towers expansion was spoiled today.

<5> *Easterling Captain [Raider]
Minion - Man
S{11} V(3) HS[4]
Eastering, Fierce
Skirmish: Spot 2 burdens and remove (2) to make an Easterling strength +2.
Skirmish: Spot 4 burdens and remove (2) to make an Easterling strength +3
Skirmish: Spot 6 burdens and remove (2) to make an Easterling strength +4
4R[no card number yet]
***************

R'Bolt

 

Ladies and gentlemen, we have achieved cut and paste (now that I'm on my usual computer)

"The moment you have been waiting for, the first of The Two Towers spoilers,
is upon us. The actual first spoiler went up on www.decipher.com in today's
RFD broadcast, so you should go check that out. Before I get to your spoiler
I want to talk about the packaging for The Two Towers.

Here is a list of all the products that will be coming out for The Two
Towers on November 6 (unless you are going to DecipherCon where we will be
pre-releasing The Two Towers):

63-card Starter Decks: $10.99 USD
Aragorn/Dunland and Theodin/Isengard will be the deck themes.

Deluxe Starter Deck: $20.00 USD
Gandalf/Raider theme deck, an 11-card Booster Pack, and glass tokens.
There are three different boxes for the Deluxe Starters. Elf, Isengard, and
Rohan.

11-card Booster Pack: $3.29 USD
1 rare, 3 uncommon, and 7 common cards in every pack.
A foil will replace a common card in every sixth pack on average.

We are also investigating the possibility of doing additional products, but
we aren't ready to make those announcements just yet



Now on to today's spoiler for The Two Towers!

Today's card comes to us from the ever lovable Shire culture.

Pippin, Just a Nuisance
1 Twilight
Shire Culture
Companion, Hobbit
Strength - 3
Vitality - 4
Gandalf Signet
(card numbers and rarity have not yet been assigned)

Skirmish: If Pippin is not assigned to a skirmish, discard him to remove
an
Uruk-hai from a skirmish involving an unbound companion.

"'What good have I been?... a passenger, a piece of luggage.'"

Cool card, first you can stealth your Pippin along the first part of the
site path, then you can discard him to stealth for your other companions
the
rest of the way. Then you can play Pippin again next turn and do it again."

 

When is DecipherCon????

 

That Easterling looks Nar-ar-ar-ar-ar-asty

Beware anyone with many burdens and a big twilight pool.

 

DecipherCon is OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 3, 2002 in Chesapeake, VA
DecipherCon

R'Bolt

 

How did you find a picture of a Esterling card?????

 

Not a picture, it was spoiled on Radio Free Decipher

EDIT: WE HAVE A SPOILER, PEOPLE!!!!!

Man, these emails are coming fast and furious these days aren't they!

That's because I have more cool spoilers for you and more info about upcoming stuff. Today, I am splitting this email into two parts again. The first part is about some upcoming products that you will be excited to hear about. The second is a new spoiler from the upcoming The Two Towers
expansion for The Lord of the Rings TCG!

Part 1:
DRAFT PACK

Hot off the presses this info comes to you. Decipher has just finished the design and has started production on the first of a new kind of product for The Lord of the Rings TCG, the Draft Pack.

What is the Draft Pack you ask, we'll let me tell you. Booster draft format
tournaments are one of the most exciting kinds of sealed deck tournaments
you can play in. Each player sits around a table and opens a single pack
of
cards, takes the one card out of that pack they like, then passes the rest
to one of the other players. That player then picks one of the remaining
cards and passes the rest, and so on until the pack is empty. Then the next
pack begins. Players are choosing the cards they pick from these packs to
build a deck to play with.

The Draft Pack assists the booster draft process. The draft pack is a pack
of cards that you must have to begin the tournament. Each pack contains 29
random cards that you will need to play and one rare card (price has yet
to
be determined but it probably will not go over $5 USD). After each player
opens the Draft Pack (of which they keep all the cards), they then begin
to
draft three other Lord of the Rings TCG booster packs. Each player also
brings a Frodo, One Ring, and set of nine sites to the table and then begins
play.

Decipher is planning on releasing two Draft Packs in the near future, the
Fellowship Draft Pack (might release as soon as DecipherCon), and the Tower
Draft Pack (will release in December). The Fellowship Draft Pack is to be
used with Fellowship Block booster packs, and the Tower Draft Pack is used
with Tower Block booster packs.

I have played this format in the office already, and I can say that it is
incredibly fun! I look forward to drafting with many of you in the future

Look for more info on this on decipher.com soon.


Part 2:
The Two Towers SPOILER

I was sitting here thinking of what I should spoil... Minions and Companions
are cool as they are the characters of the game, but there were two of these
kind of cards spoiled last week. What about a possession... Nah... They are
limited if you don't know anything about the characters they go on. One of
the cards with the new game mechanics? Well, you don't know what all the
new
mechanics really do yet. I wanted to find something that was either a theme
card of a deck or culture, or something that screamed "My God, that is
beautiful"

This is what I came up with:


Well Met Indeed
5 Twilight Cost
Gandalf Culture
Event

Fellowship: Spot an Elf, a [Gondor] Man, and a Dwarf to play Gandalf from
your dead pile.

"'And what may you be doing in these parts? An Elf, a Man, and a Dwarf, all
clad in Elvish fashion.'"



Like last time, I don't have a rarity or number for you yet. Maybe it's not
beautiful, but it represents one of the best parts of the books. The
reappearance of Gandalf to his weary friends. Sorry if this spoiled anything
for you

Hope you liked this one. Talk to you soon.

 

What?! Gandalf comes back from the DEAD!?! Aw, man, you just spoiled the whole movie for me....







(just kidding!)

 

Well now, two emails in two days. Am I sending them too fast? Want me to
slow down? (um... This is a rhetorical question, I don't want 3,000 emails
saying you want the emails to keep coming, I know you want them to keep
coming

Anyway, on to the good stuff...

I want to give you an insight into the new Dunland culture today. First,
these guys are sort of a dirty, ragged race of men. The card template looks
like it was stitched together out of burlap and leather (sort of a dark
brown color). The culture symbol is a raven (if you have a copy of the Lord
of the Rings RPG Core Book, the symbol is in the middle of the bottom border
of the cover).

Secondly, These guys have quite a few cards in their culture that are based
around one of the new mechanics in the game called 'Site Control'. In order
to better explain what this is, I have copied the rules straight out of the
new rule book (shhh... don't tell anyone). Here you go.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Site Control

Shadow players may now take control of sites on the adventure path and the
Free Peoples player may liberate controlled sites. Various card effects
refer to these controlled sites as well.

Control

Shadow players may now use card effects to take control of sites. A Shadow
player may only take control of a site on the adventure path that has been
passed by all players. A site has been passed when all player markers are
on
sites with higher site numbers.

When all player markers are at site 2(T) or higher, you may take control
of
site 1(T).

When a Shadow player takes control of a site, the site on the adventure path
with the lowest site number must be selected.

An opponent controls site 1(T) and all player markers are at site 4(T) or
higher, so you must take control of site 2(T).

When you take control of a site, place that site in your support area,
lengthwise. Many card effects in The Two Towers base set depend upon the
number of sites you control.

A site you control is always active, and its game text functions like it
does on the adventure path. A site you take control of during another
player¹s turn is still active during your turn.

Liberate

A Free Peoples player may have a card effect that allows him to liberate
a
site. Only a site that is controlled by another player (in another player¹s
support area) may be liberated. You may not liberate a site on the adventure
path, a site in any adventure deck, or a site you control.

When you liberate a site, place it back on the adventure path. Any cards
on
that site are discarded. You must liberate the site with the highest site
number controlled by one of your opponents first, regardless of which
opponent controls that site. (If you control the site with the highest site
number, you must liberate the next highest site controlled by an opponent.)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The (T) right after the site number refers to The Two Tower sites.

Now, the Dunland culture has quite a few surprises in store for for the Free
Peoples with their Site Control. Check this out:

First, it is not that hard to take control of a site (and not that hard to
liberate a site either). Example:

Hillman Tribe
3 Twilight Cost
Dunland Culture
Minion, Man
9 Strength
1 Vitality
3 Site Number

Each time this minion wins a skirmish, you may spot another (Dunland) minion
to take control of a site.

"'They will not quail at the sun... the wild man of the hills.'"



Nice cheap cost - high strength minion, with a kick. And with all the
strength adders for the Dunland culture, this guy should stick around. I
also did some math, the minions in the Dunland culture have an average
strength of 9.3! That is huge! I think only the Nazgul have a higher average
strength. They also have low vitality in general (only 5 minions out of 20
have more than 1 vitality).

The Dunland minions get even nastier with one of the craziest cards I have
seen. Talk about forcing your opponent into doing something