Council of Elrond

What do you guys think about starting with a pre-selection of whole the suggestions made to start thinking on a VC2 set???

references here and here and here

As I've said before, I'd rather see faction battling done correctly than some gimped version that doesn't have large amounts of troops doing their best to exterminate one another.

Just in case, here are the links for Fixing Fallen Saruman and Helping Ring Play Proposals.

I'm not sure how big the putative set 2 should be, but here goes:

Hero Resources:
Virtual Ringlore from the Helping Ring Play thread.
Jambo's site suggestion for Favor of the Valar
The White Council, with Boder's amendment about avatars being revealed.
Magic Ring of Nature from the helping Ring Play thread.
All the Bells Ringing

FW Resources/Characters:
Obviously the Fixing Fallen Saruman suggestions
Spells Born of Discord (Jambo's version)
Gnawed Ways/Delver's/Earth Eater
Blind to All Else
Ringbearer's Fortress of Isen

Minion Resources:
Thorsten's ideas for White Mountain Cavern-Ways and Ash Mountain Deeps
Sojourn In Shadows
Steeds
The Black Council
Faithless Steward
World Gnawed by the Nameless
Hold Rebuilt and Repaired

I'll throw in the hazards I like later; that'll be a much more varied list, I believe.

Hazards:

Events:
It'll need rewording, but Leon's Trouble On All Borders
Flooding Middle Earth
Shadow Out of Dark
Jambo's second Which Might Be Lies
Fool's Bane is a must.
The "both players" version of Jambo's News of Doom
Improving Rogrog and Gothmog
Something Else At Work from the ring play proposals.
The Will Of The Ring from the same.

There was also discussion of Earth attacks/helping giants, but I don't recall where.

Also, I would push for some kind Virtualization of Pallando the Soul-Keeper to aid an underused creature strat.

my favourites:

- giants + earth attacks, 2
- fix fallen saruman
- avatarless balrog
- king under the mountain (map to mithril)
- some representative manifestations of unique cards (like eowyn, army of deads, guthwine, the mouth , the fiery blade, gothmog & rogrog, etc)
- bridge
- flood
- gold chains in the wind
- steeds
- trouble on all borders
- Poison of his voice/ white light broken/ Honey on the tongue
- with some modifications, ben's map to mithril
- with a bit more work, hoard well searched
- great bats
- narya
- fair travel in free domains, the tap a diplomat version to cancel a "lost" card
- i know much about you (don't remember wich was the last version, the one that was inteded to be at VC1 before orc mounts and swag made it to the final version)

i also like some of the ones that ben mentioned but there are so many virtual suggestions that i can't keep all of them in my head...

Also, I would push for some kind Virtualization of Pallando the Soul-Keeper to aid an underused creature strat.

yeah me too

Incidentally, Marcos, could you hurry up and get an internet connection so we can playtest some of these ideas on GCCG?

i got my connection already!!! I got it yesterday after 2 months and a half of looooooooooooong waiting... So we can play whenever you want

I forgot to mention:

Virtualizing Underused Sites

Regarding Agus's idea for a "Lord of Moria" themed quest:

Map to Mithril:
Dwarf only at a site where Information is playable. Tap the Dwarf and the site. Discard this card if the Dwarf's company contains any non-Dwarf character. Tap this card to allow a Dwarf to play Mithril at the Under-Gates regardless of Mithril's normal playability requirements. Discard Mithril if it is not in the same company as Map to Mithril (unless Mithril has been stored).

Balin:
7 Mind Warrior/Diplomat/Sage Dwarf
2 DI
6 prowess/8 body
+2 DI against Dwarfs and Dwarf factions. +1 prowess against Orcs. All manifestations of the Balrog with no body have 9 body. If Balin's company defeats a manifestation of the Balrog, Moria becomes a Dwarf-hold and Mithril and/or Book of Mazarbul may be stored there.
Home Site: Moria

Hopefully, this would make Mithril feasible without making it too easy. Using the Virtual Map to play Mithril precludes using a wizard to Sac of Form the Balrog (since Map would be dwarves only), while using Balin to be able to store Mithril at Moria makes the Balrog tougher with a 9 body.

And Agus's map to mithril (previously called King under the mountain) becomes:

into dark tunnels?
dwarven hoard?
Secret Entrance?
Misty Mountains?
The dwarves are upon you?

or wich other???

i like your ideas Ben...

What about adding: If Balin is at moria, controlling player may keep 1 more card in hand. -2 MPs if killed???

Agus' original theme was to reward Balin for staying at Moria. After thinking of potential cards, I thought perhaps the best method was to simply create a Virtual Balin which can complement Mithril and/or Balrog slaying.

I like the extra card in hand while at Moria thing. I'm not sure about the -MPs if eliminated; if anything, that honor should go to Thorin.

another idea came to my mind while thinking on this theme, what about returned exiles playable if the balrog gets killed?

Potentially, but that starts making for an awful lot of text. Besides, Dwarves can already get a lot of MPs out of Moria/Under-Gates (Durin's Axe/Arkenstone if nothing else).

but it looks soooooooooooooo thematic...

Hey guys, sorry for being absent so long. My teaching semester started at the end of August so I've been in a different mode.

I think we should prioritize two things at this point: getting the virtual set #1 finished, and a second matter which I need to post about and invite all you to please contribute your thoughts to. That matter has to do with expanding our community and saving the game from dying out completely. At Worlds I saw firsthand evidence of people who had left and people who were barely staying in the game, full of depression and frustration towards the ways things have gone. Thus, I see this second issue--creating a community, and keeping the community we already have--as more important than future V-Card sets. To put it another way... there were only 6 people in the Worlds Virtual Tourney, and many of the other weekend attendees had not even looked at the cards! So, who are we doing all this work for, anyway?

That being said, I do understand that we are full of creative energy, and it can be a wonderful feeling to keep working on new cards when we have bouts of free hours. SO, let's carry on with slowly thinking about V-set #2, but I hope I can count on all you guys, as the most creative and dedicated people left in the community, to help plan and think about this second great issue. I will post about it soon in a very long letter.

Frodo