Middle Earth : The Rewrite
Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 12:38 pm
I included a brief introduction in the rules section, but I'll go a little more in-depth here:
While working on the Universal Rules Document, it occurred to me that the game is fundamentally flawed.
It is flawed in the sense that it requires 124 pages of clarifications, examples, rulings, and commentary in order play. It is further flawed in the sense that by the rules, more than a few cards don't actually work as intended.
Forget balance for a moment: new players have to learn a tome of rules. This is worse than 2nd edition AD&D.
After the URD, I decided to rewrite the game from the ground up. Instead of presenting people with a tome of rules, I moved many of the rules on to existing cards. I tightened up terminology. And since reducing the rulebook to 29 pages meant rewriting approximately every card in the game, I redid some cards that weren't working (either mechanically or in the sense of never being used, and, most often, both). My priorities were as follows:
1) Mechanical consistency. Terminology should stay the same across the entire product. No more of this "declare an effect" or "a series of declared actions is called a chain of effects." Timing rules should now mean that cards actually do what they're supposed to do (e.g. In the Heart of His Realm). More uniform iconography, and numbers in the same spot now mean the same thing, most notably corruption point values.
2) Thematic consistency. Any game in which Éowyn gets CvCC bonuses against the Balrog needs looking at.
3) Usability. A card that is pointless should not exist, nor should totally redundant cards exist.
4) Balance. Hero play, Fallen play, Ringwraith play, and Balrog play should all feel different and be mechanically different, but no form of play should outstrip the others.
The main point here, though, is that the rulebook is only 29 pages long and should cover everything.
If it doesn't, let me know.
I therefore present Middle Earth : The Rewrite.
Please comment on inconsistencies in terminology, loopholes in cards, overpowered cards, or missing rules.
Notable changes from the basic game:
* Avatar parity was created by buffing weak avatars rather than nerfing strong ones; Hoarmurath can still do his canceling thing, but the Witch-King will be much more of a RW-leading maniac.
* It's no longer a whistle and a stroll for hero companies to get to Mountain Doom. Mordor in general is much more dangerous for hero companies
* Generally increased the playability and viability of long-events while maintaining the long-event phase. Resource Long-Events should now all roughly be worth it, while hazard long-events tend not to be duplicable by a given player, meaning you run the risk of your opponent also playing one and hitting you with twice as much.
* Starter movement tends to be safer from hazard events than other forms of movement; special movement is clearly noted as such.
* Strengthened Balrog-specific characters in the event of Balrog-bouncing.
* Several forms of FW cheeze and imbalance cut, while at the same time opening up more resources/sites to FW play.
* More open map (companies may start at a declared avatar's home site).
* More uniform iconography (as an example, a faction's influence number is essentially used as mind, so that's where I put it).
* More efficient play of minor items.
* No more multiple copies of sites, but better haven functionality.
* On that note, a site in the Bay of Belfalas. I've always missed not being able to move to that region.
* More strengthened and varied hazard play. Hazard long-events have been buffed as noted above, while several creatures received body values to make them more appealing for use. The only real toning down was that of Nazgûl being utility hazards vs. Ringwraith players, which made no thematic sense and also tended to mean the same hazards were showing up in everybody's hazard portion.
* 10 creature minimum instead of 12, with creatures that can be played as events counting as whole creatures, and events that cannot be played as creatures not counting as such at all.
* More variety and usability of prisoner-taking cards.
Here is a link to the rules file (if I've accidentally allowed editing, please let me know and don't abuse the privilege in the meantime ):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nch ... s1aFA/edit
Here is a link to a document going over the changes in more depth and explaining the reasoning behind them; it should be helpful to get someone started if they're interested in playing/playtesting.
.xmls and graphics are done for GCCG use; you'll have to look further in the thread to find them, or simply download the latest from SVN. These do not overwrite anything in your installation; they merely point to the alternate files and are the alternate files used by the client. The .bat gets installed wherever your metw.bat file is (the .xmls are named to not overwrite anything); the graphics archive should be unzipped wherever your metw graphics happen to be.
Think of this as VCs on steroids.
While working on the Universal Rules Document, it occurred to me that the game is fundamentally flawed.
It is flawed in the sense that it requires 124 pages of clarifications, examples, rulings, and commentary in order play. It is further flawed in the sense that by the rules, more than a few cards don't actually work as intended.
Forget balance for a moment: new players have to learn a tome of rules. This is worse than 2nd edition AD&D.
After the URD, I decided to rewrite the game from the ground up. Instead of presenting people with a tome of rules, I moved many of the rules on to existing cards. I tightened up terminology. And since reducing the rulebook to 29 pages meant rewriting approximately every card in the game, I redid some cards that weren't working (either mechanically or in the sense of never being used, and, most often, both). My priorities were as follows:
1) Mechanical consistency. Terminology should stay the same across the entire product. No more of this "declare an effect" or "a series of declared actions is called a chain of effects." Timing rules should now mean that cards actually do what they're supposed to do (e.g. In the Heart of His Realm). More uniform iconography, and numbers in the same spot now mean the same thing, most notably corruption point values.
2) Thematic consistency. Any game in which Éowyn gets CvCC bonuses against the Balrog needs looking at.
3) Usability. A card that is pointless should not exist, nor should totally redundant cards exist.
4) Balance. Hero play, Fallen play, Ringwraith play, and Balrog play should all feel different and be mechanically different, but no form of play should outstrip the others.
The main point here, though, is that the rulebook is only 29 pages long and should cover everything.
If it doesn't, let me know.
I therefore present Middle Earth : The Rewrite.
Please comment on inconsistencies in terminology, loopholes in cards, overpowered cards, or missing rules.
Notable changes from the basic game:
* Avatar parity was created by buffing weak avatars rather than nerfing strong ones; Hoarmurath can still do his canceling thing, but the Witch-King will be much more of a RW-leading maniac.
* It's no longer a whistle and a stroll for hero companies to get to Mountain Doom. Mordor in general is much more dangerous for hero companies
* Generally increased the playability and viability of long-events while maintaining the long-event phase. Resource Long-Events should now all roughly be worth it, while hazard long-events tend not to be duplicable by a given player, meaning you run the risk of your opponent also playing one and hitting you with twice as much.
* Starter movement tends to be safer from hazard events than other forms of movement; special movement is clearly noted as such.
* Strengthened Balrog-specific characters in the event of Balrog-bouncing.
* Several forms of FW cheeze and imbalance cut, while at the same time opening up more resources/sites to FW play.
* More open map (companies may start at a declared avatar's home site).
* More uniform iconography (as an example, a faction's influence number is essentially used as mind, so that's where I put it).
* More efficient play of minor items.
* No more multiple copies of sites, but better haven functionality.
* On that note, a site in the Bay of Belfalas. I've always missed not being able to move to that region.
* More strengthened and varied hazard play. Hazard long-events have been buffed as noted above, while several creatures received body values to make them more appealing for use. The only real toning down was that of Nazgûl being utility hazards vs. Ringwraith players, which made no thematic sense and also tended to mean the same hazards were showing up in everybody's hazard portion.
* 10 creature minimum instead of 12, with creatures that can be played as events counting as whole creatures, and events that cannot be played as creatures not counting as such at all.
* More variety and usability of prisoner-taking cards.
Here is a link to the rules file (if I've accidentally allowed editing, please let me know and don't abuse the privilege in the meantime ):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nch ... s1aFA/edit
Here is a link to a document going over the changes in more depth and explaining the reasoning behind them; it should be helpful to get someone started if they're interested in playing/playtesting.
.xmls and graphics are done for GCCG use; you'll have to look further in the thread to find them, or simply download the latest from SVN. These do not overwrite anything in your installation; they merely point to the alternate files and are the alternate files used by the client. The .bat gets installed wherever your metw.bat file is (the .xmls are named to not overwrite anything); the graphics archive should be unzipped wherever your metw graphics happen to be.
Think of this as VCs on steroids.