What a week it’s been. We’ve been exposed to the beginning onslaught that will be the Two Towers explosion, we’ve seen the Deluxe DVD Card inserts, and we’ve been exposed to another interview from your friendly neighborhood havener. Where to begin this second installment of Week in Gaming for the week of July 7th-13th?
Two Towers Preview Cards Exposed
So let’s say you were lucky enough to have attended Origins and watch the Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game take home Best Game of 2001 and Best Graphical Presentation, you were already pretty stoked right? Well the good folks at Decipher also brought forth from the vault two exclusive images from their upcoming Two Towers expansion that will hit stores this November.
Check out these cards! Faramir, Son of Denethor Eowyn, Lady of Rohan
I know I can’t wait to find out how to get my hands on these Premium Promotional Cards, all we know is it will be some time before the Two Towers expansion hits stores in November. Welcome to the months that last ten years!
The Three Hunters pathfind their way onto DVD
Speaking of Premium Cards, been wondering what LOTR TCG Cards are going to come packaged with the Lord of the Rings Special Edition DVD Boxed Set? Well now we have our answer! Origially released in the Fellowship of the Rings set last November, Aragorn: Ranger of the North, Gimli: Son of Gloin, and Legolas: Greenleaf are being re-released with an alternate image in the DVD set!
Take a look at these Alternate Image Cards Legolas: Greenleaf, Aragorn: Ranger of the North, Gimli: Son of Gloin
Still haven’t pre-ordered your copy of this special edition DVD? Then jump on it now here.
Tom Lichke Interviewed
Flinch: Of the characters in The Two Towers, who do you look forward to working on the most? Which aspects of each individual personality will play a role in the strategy and story line of the game?
Tom: I am a huge Faramir fan. His nobility and wisdom should translate to some fun cards. The Ents should be a blast. Hopefully we’ll be able to replicate their unique speech patterns and have some fun with that. It seems like a great place to immerse players in the story.
Read the entire interview here.
A Day in Middle Earth
July 20th your crew here from Gaming Havens at TheOneRing.net will be taking over the Westminster Mall in Westminster California and bringing fans from all over A Day in Middle Earth! Featuring Lord of the Rings Trading Card Demonstrations held by Havens writer Lao of Gondor, demonstrations of the Lord of the Rings tabletop game brought to you by Games Workshop, and tons of great Lord of the Rings prizes! So if you’re in the Southern California area drop on by from 12 noon to 6pm Saturday July 20th for a day that won’t soon be forgotten!
Not in the area? No worries! Next week’s Week in Gaming will be dedicated to our Day in Middle Earth! We will bring all of the Lord of the Rings Gaming to your desktop in just seven days!
Got an upcoming Event? Had a good time at a local retailer that sells Lord of the Rings games? Just wanna talk about Gaming? Then drop by #havens by logging into Barliman’s chat server at irc.theonering.net and typing /join #Havens, or just drop us a line by e-mailing havens@theonering.net!
As always, I remain…
Your Friendly Neighborhood Havener
– Flinch flinch@theonering.net
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For all and sundry who are planning to attend Barlibash in Seattle, there is a very important meeting tomorrow at 12 pm EDT. It is quite important that you attend. If you cannot, please email a friend and ask them to log it for you, as some vital details may be discussed. To get in the meeting, go to Barliman’s chat and type /join #barlibash. See you there!
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From staffer Flinch and the Gaming Havens crew:
You’ve heard about him, you’ve read about him, now take a look at a recent interview with Twilight Pool demi-god Tom Lischke, Game Designer from Decipher’s Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game. [more]
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Flinch: First off I have to congratulate you and the entire team on winning the Nigel Award this past February! It’s been well deserved and couldn’t have gone to a better game. What have your initial thoughts been surrounding the popularity of the game and how it’s been received among both the classic Tolkien fans and those that have been inspired by the films?
Tom: Thanks for the kind words. We were thrilled to be recognized by the kind folks who award the Nigel.
We’ve all been very satisfied with the reaction to LotR TCG. I wouldn’t say we were surprised, as we would have been disappointed if the reaction had been too much different. While we working on the game, we started to suspect that we had something unique and fun on our hands, so the release was a lot like waiting for Christmas morning. We knew we were getting something good, but we didn’t know how big it was going to be.
Flinch: When developing a game on a property such as Lord of the Rings was it difficult to maintain the balance between what the classic fans would ask for, and what would be more appealing to the movie fans?
Tom: Well, it was an added requirement for the project. I think I may have approached this a bit backwards from some of the other guys. I figured that if we gave people a great game that continuously pulled people back into the work and the story, it would be easier to handle the sticky points between the movie and the book. Fans just wouldn’t mind as much if we had to downplay a story element, as the game would always bring them back to a fun place. I focused pretty heavily on the core game engine not producing story problems. I can’t imagine a more rewarding and fun challenge!
Flinch: Of the characters in The Two Towers, who do you look forward to working on the most? Which aspects of each individual personality will play a role in the strategy and story line of the game?
Tom: I am a huge Faramir fan. His nobility and wisdom should translate to some fun cards. The Ents should be a blast. Hopefully we’ll be able to replicate their unique speech patterns and have some fun with that. It seems like a great place to immerse players in the story.
Flinch: In developing the character cards it is noted that the standard card game element of putting the main characters up as rare chase cards is not an issue with the Lord of the Rings TCG. How did the decision come about that there would be editions of the cards that were common, uncommon as well as rare for each of the highly sought after Fellowship Cards, and the anticipated characters like Elrond, Arwen and Galadriel?
Tom: Well, it really just flowed from our philosophy on this game. We wanted to make this the most player friendly TCG that Decipher has produced. With that as a guideline, we looked at the policies of our past games, as well as those of other TCG companies. Most of the best data was from our own games though, as we have the most experience in the industry with licensed TCGs. We just asked ourselves what we, as players, would need to be convinced to stay in the game once we tried it. Obviously, the Fellowship characters scored very high.
Flinch: Having Worked on Trading Card Games in the past, what was the strongest influence on what paths wouldn’t be walked with a game such as this where the expansions won’t follow the same set of nine locations and won’t have the same flavor of event cards as the film before it would?
Tom: Hmmm, not sure there is any one “best” example. We did something a little similar in SWCCG with Death Star II and Endor, and I learned some things from that. Most TCGs that are around for a while have to adapt to changes like this.
Flinch: Of all the accomplishments and innovations accompanying this game, which
element are you most proud of?
Tom: Two things really. The Twilight Pool is pretty cool, but enough has been said about that I guess. I really like the integrated site path. It is the element which allows each player to have their own Fellowship, while still feeling like they are in the same game. It is the glue to the game, and let us sidestep what was a major issue, uniqueness of characters. How much would the casual fan have wanted to play if they couldn’t have Frodo, or the Ring? Also, originally each player had their own site path and this created a real mess for the footprint of the game.
Besides, it is a great scoreboard, and allows the players to show a lot of creativity. The guy I played in the tournament last week had a tiny catsup bottle for his marker. I still don’t get it, but it made me laugh.
Flinch: Again I must congratulate everyones accomplishments in making this game the highest sought after card game available today! Thanks for talking with me and I hope to hear from you in the future as this game develops and we get closer into Two Towers and Return of the King!
Tom: My pleasure!
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Jess writes: I was watching Foxtel In Australia by the way and on channel V (channel 15) this Sunday about 6-9pm I not quite sure what time but I figure around where they have music and movie news on the informer, channel V they’ll be showing the TTT trailer.
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Narie writes: Blockbuster in Brazil has made the 2-disk DVD available for pre-order, and they now also sell a sludge of the official action figures. [More]
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