new Lure Promo - card design

[thorondor]

There is going to be a new Lure promo card, replacing the old one.
While thinking about what this cards could do, i thought i could as well let the community be part of the card design process.
Two things should be considered: a bonus for attending Lure many times. And it should be dragon-themed (because an illustrator is already working on the artwork).

Several ideas came to my mind this afternoon, see below. Please add your suggestions, dont hold back with comments. And of course feel free to make new proposals.

On January 10th i need to have the final text.

[thorondor]

Lured by the Dragon
Hazard Short Event
Unique. Does not count against the hazard limit. Playable on a character facing a Dragon/Drake attack. The character receives -X prowess. X is the number of Lure participations divided by 3 (min of 1, max of 5). If this Dragon/Drake attack is defeated, it gives +2 MP (only +1 if more than 15 Lure participations).


Dragon-lure
Hazard Permanent Event
Unique. Playable on a Dragon manifestation in play that attacks in regions by name. It receives +X regions adjecent to a region on the Dragon card. X is the number of Lure participations divided by 3 (min of 1, max of 4).
If associated Dragon manifestation leaves play, you may assign Lure of the Dragon to another Dragon manifestation in play.
If 20+ Lure participations, the Dragon attack also receives +1 prowess.

S´talekk
Ally
2 MP
Sage, Ranger
Unique. Playable at any site containing a hoard.
May only move up to 2 regions (up to 3 if 20+ Lure participations).
During the organization phase, if the company is moving: choose 3 cards from your hand and set them aside. From the rest you may discard 1 random card to move an extra region this turn (up to 3).
X is the number of Lure participations divided by 2 (round up, max of 10).
Prowess: X
Body: 8


Hoard of Stahleck
Legendary Item
3(5) MP, +2 Corr
Unique. Hoard Item.
For every 5 Lure participations you receive 1 of the following bonuses (max of 3). Choose when Hoard of Stahleck is played.
+1 card to your hand size.
Tap bearer to give +2 Corr to another character company (till the end of the turn).
Tap bearer to give the Sage skill to another character in the company (till the end of the turn).
Tap bearer to decrease the hazard limit by 1 (till the end of the turn).
Tap bearer to discard an on-guard card.
If you have 20+ Lure participations you may store this card for 5 MPs.


Hoard of Stahleck
Resource Permanent Event
1(2) MP
Unique. Sage only at a site where information is playable. Tap the site and the sage.
Tap Hoard of Stahleck to modify any burglary attempt by X (till the end of the turn). X ist the number of Lure participations divided by 3 (min of 1, max of 7).
Discard Hoard of Stahleck, when you have no unwounded Sage in play.
If 20+ Lure participations, Hoard of Stahleck gives 2 MPs.

[KakitaBen]

My two cents about Lure promo in general: it's a nice idea to provide some bonuses to regular participants. However, since it is tournament-legal, it gives a significant advantage to veteran players and might discourage newcomers if the advantage is too unbalanced—similar to how the Lure promo in MECCG completely undermined corruption hazard strategies. So beware !

Lured by the Dragon
Seems to be balanced and I like the enhancement on dragon hazard strategy
By the way, it could ruin some progressive scénario like Bard the Bowman

it gives +2 MP (only +1 if more than 15 Lure participations)

.
Why not using a rule that take care about opponent numbers of participation too ?
like : 1MP and +X MP for defending player number of participations divided by 5.
So you will think of it twice before playing it on a veterant.

Dragon-lure
Sounds fun and powerfull with a summon from a log sleep. Once again it dynamise dragon hazard strategy. I like it.

S´talekk
Dual alignement ?

May only move up to 2 regions (up to 3 if 20+ Lure participations).

Better : Discard if compagny movement path has more than 2 region. Or something like that.

Hoard of Stahleck first
Too complicated/powerfull for me. I don't like it.

Hoard of Stahleck second
I prefere the hazards but it's ok.

[gollum51]

Great work Wolfgang.
I especially love dragon lure.

[Gamling the Old]

My first thoughts were along the line of Morranon but then Castle Stahleck

A Permanent Resouce, unique (not site card so little penalty) ruins and lair playable in any wilderness or shadowland. It replaces the original Site card and cancels any creature attacks that were keyed to it (as Farmer Maggot) ability.

For every player in the game that has been to the Lure all character get a +2 when at the site and +1 when leaving or moving too.

When untapped a player may play a tournament by make a dice roll and tap the site and play an item (something like this, but not sure if balance is ok)

2: Any Dwarven ring on a Dwarf or Magic RIng on a Man character. Any other character only Lesser ring
3 : any or the not-site specific palantirs
4 : an untested ring Item
5 - 8 : any minor item (hoard include)
9 -10: Any major item (hoard include)
11 : Greater items (hoard included)
12 : any special item non-ring, non-palantir item

When leaving the site, a company must make a dice roll and add 1 for every corruption giving card. If the roll is greater than 8 the company has fallen for "the Lure of Stahleck" and cannot move. This will untap the site for the player to go for another tournament.

Another company may move to the Lure when he reveals another Castle Stahleck and discards this in his site phase.

[Khamul the Easterling]

Great idea to bring in a new Lure Promo!

I share the concerns of KakitaBen that the new card be not too powerful. Though being one of the veterans, I'd rather not make the card's bonuses stronger for long-time attendants. All regular participants should receive the same bonuses.

As for the proposals, I best like Dragon-lure and Hoard of Stahleck (event). As for Dragon-lure I'd limit the extra regions to +2 (maybe +1 is already enough) and no free-domains, though.

Gamling's proposal also looks promising, though it suffers a bit form the long text necessary to put on the card. As an alternative, the text for tournaments might come as an extra general rule.

If the name of Stahleck will come up, why not think of making an elvish name of it. The Silmarillion provides a number of words that could be used, like ang(a) - iron, maeg -sharp/piercing, til - point/horn, ras - horn (for mountains), minas / barad - tower, ost- fortress. Stahleck could be Minas Angras, for example

And last of all, one more suggestion for a card text:
Dragon's invasion - Permanent hazard event. Playable on a ruins/Lairs (Border hold if Doors of Night is in play). When played, immediately play a unique Dragon or Dragon ahunt manifestation with it. The site has an additional automatic attack as given on the Dragon card (-2 prowess, +1 body). The site is considered to contain a hoard.

[Gamling the Old]

As I said the "tournament" prizes werent really balanced out (or checked for text length). You could keep it way simpler. Just stick to weapons (2/12, special; 3/11greater; 4/10; Major else Minor).

Castle Stahleck could be Cardhon Angnas (Cardhon castle, Ang iron and Nas is corner)

in essence my idea is to create on "The Lure" tournament in game

Like morannon I think an unique resource works best. As said this take up one spot in the resource deck (which is always crowded already). But your opponenent may want to come to (hence play and discard allows him to join too)

You need to get the to the castle (ruins and lairs fits best) in wilderness/shadowland (Well we all know Germany is mostly that )
The farmer maggot thing doesnt have to be on the card as the effect of changing site canceling a a site-targetted attack is established.

There is a tournament. Just 2 dice and decide on a price (card needs to be untapped and gets tapped else you can keep trying)

You dont ever want to leave so a dice roll. And every corruption card just keeps luring you in. But if you can't move at least you have time to play another tournament

[thorondor]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I reconsidered the idea of a bonus for veterans.
While i ike the idea of honouring loyalty, it shouldnt take away the fun from players that havent had the chance to be part of the party for many times yet. As Khamul said the veterans can live without this bonus, so let´s do without it.

I just recently played a Morannon deck in Hamburg, so of course i like Gamling´s idea. I thought about it, what about this:

Cardhon Angnas
Permanent Resource (dual alignment)
Unique. Playable at the beginning of the movement/hazard phase on a Ruins and Lair in a wilderness (may also be in a Border-land or Shadow-land if Doors of Night is in play).
In the site phase tap the site and make a dice roll (modified by +2 if a sage taps or by -2 if a diplomat taps). Till the end of the turn, an item (including hoard) becomes playable according to the result:
2-7: ring or minor item
8-10: major or minor item
11-12: greater or minor item
In the organization phase make a dice roll and add 1 for every item in the company. If greater than 8 it cannot move and the site is untapped.


Mostly, i tried to reduce the text and make it more compact, but i also wanted to give the chance to influence the dice roll for the item a little bit, not just pure luck. Not sure yet about the distribution of items playable and dice numbers.

the favorite from the other cards seems to be Dragon-lure. Taking the suggestions into account, i have modified it like this (Simplified and more balanced i hope):

Dragon-lure
Hazard Permanent Event
Unique. Playable on a unique Dragon manifestation (no Free-domain). Add +1 region adjecent to the regions on the Dragon card. Discard a Dragon Hazard from your hand for +2 regions instead.
Alternatively, playable on a Dragon at Home manifestation. It also attacks companies moving thrugh the region of the Dragon´s home site.
If associated Dragon manifestation leaves play, you may assign Dragon-lure to another Dragon manifestation in play.

A decision has to be made till 10th Jan, so let me hear your final thoughts.

[Khamul the Easterling]

I'd rather not limit the range of possible results: If the roll can be modified by +/-2 the lowest and highest results are 0 and 14, so let's make something out of these, too. I'd also enrich the highest group by adding major items. Then, I've rewritten the last sentence (to avoid any discussions if people decide to split their company: Would a split-company be allowed to move away from the site if the roll was too low? I guess the intention is no).
Make sure just 1 item can be played (technically, if the site is tapped after the roll, no item could be played)
Finally, instead of "dice roll" I'd just call it "roll" as ICE did on the regular cards.

Cardhon Angnas
Permanent Resource (dual alignment)
Unique. Playable at the beginning of the movement/hazard phase on a Ruins and Lair in a wilderness (may also be in a Border-land or Shadow-land if Doors of Night is in play).
In the site phase tap the site and make a roll (modified by +2 if a sage taps or by -2 if a diplomat taps). Until the end of the turn, 1 item (including hoard) becomes playable according to the result:
7 or less: ring or minor item
8-10: major or minor item
11 or greater: greater, major or minor item
In the organization phase make a roll and add 1 for every item in the company. If the result is greater than 8, no character may move from the site. Untap the site.

How about a little rephrasing, mostly to avoid any rules discussions (regions can be regions by name or type, but we certainly mean by name, here; besides manifestations themselves are no regions; ). Please see if it fits in with your ideas. In any case, the free-domain has to be deleted from the Dragon

Dragon-lure
Hazard Permanent Event
Unique. Playable on a unique Dragon manifestation. The dragon may attack in 1 (2 if you discard a dragon hazard from your hand for no effect) more region (given by name) adjacent to at least one of the regions listed on the card and not being a Free-domain.


Alternatively, playable on a Dragon at Home manifestation. Any company moving in this dragon's lair's region faces the attack as given on the card. (This is not considered an automatic attack). If that card leaves play, Dragon-lure can be assigned to another Dragon manifestation already in play. This does not count against the hazard-limit.

[thorondor]

good points, Christoph, thanks!
One thing to add with Dragon Lure: name the additional region after Dragon-lure has resolved.

Now we need to decide. Any help?!??!

[Khamul the Easterling]

I much like both ideas. Maybe make the choice dependent on the actual illustration? Otherwise, make a roll, if the result is greater than ....

Oh, and in case it's Dragon Lure, maybe add the keyword "Unique".