PRESS RELEASE
DECIPHERÆ FAN CLUB STUDIO
For Immediate Release
Decipher Announces Fan Club for The Lord of the Rings
(NORFOLK, Va., September 26, 2001) — Decipher Inc. announced today that it has captured another key license for the year’s most coveted property, New Line Cinema’s epic adventure trilogy, The Lord of the Rings — adding the license for a worldwide Fan Club to the previously announced trading card game (TCG) and roleplaying games (RPG) licenses.
The fan club license from New Line Cinema grants Decipher exclusive worldwide rights to develop The Official Lord of the Rings Fan Club, which will include a bi-monthly movie magazine for Fan Club members. Decipher also will be operating a Fan Club web site, which will be linked from New Line Cinema’s lordoftherings.net and include an online retail store. The Fan Club store will offer fan club logo merchandise, exclusive collectibles and other Lord of the Rings products. Decipher also is in the process of developing partnerships with businesses outside North America to create local chapters of The Official Lord of the Rings Fan Club (and associated magazines and web sites) in countries around the world.
Decipher was granted the rights to develop the Fan Club and related components around the highly-anticipated screen adaptation of the classic fantasy work by J.R.R. Tolkien, including all three motion pictures: The Fellowship of the Ring (December 19, 2001), The Two Towers (December 2002) and The Return of the King (December 2003). The Official Lord of the Rings Fan Club is the first fan club license awarded to Decipher since its January 2001 acquisition of FANtastic Media, Denver, Colorado.
“With the addition of the Fan Club license, we couldn’t be prouder of our Lord of the Rings product line. Not only will we be introducing an incredible trading card game this November, we now have the rights to a fan club tied to the property that created the entire fantasy genre,” said Decipher Chairman & CEO Warren Holland.
More —>
The Lord of the Rings Official Fan Club – Two
“Decipher is developing a fan club for The Lord of the Rings that is truly unprecedented in the history of cinema. The great thing about what they’re doing is that it benefits the fans, first and foremost. Decipher understands that the fans are what has made The Lord of the Rings such a powerful property,” added David Imhoff, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Licensing and Merchandising, New Line Cinema.
For more information about New Line Cinema’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, go to www.lordoftherings.net.
About Decipher, Inc.
Founded in 1983 by Warren Holland, Decipher Inc. is a worldwide leader in the collectible card game industry and fan club industry. The company’s Trading Card Game Studio produces Star Trek™, Star Wars™, Austin Powers™, and The Lord of the Rings™(scheduled to release on November 6, 2001) trading card games. Decipher’s Fan Club Studio operates the official fan clubs for Star Trek™ and The Lord of the Rings™ which includes publishing official fan magazines and managing online stores. Decipher’s RPG (roleplaying games) & Miniatures Studio is responsible for the creation of the all-new Star Trek™ roleplaying games and The Lord of the Rings™ roleplaying games. Decipher’s Online Games Studio offers digital versions of its Star Trek™ and, soon, its The Lord of the Rings™ Trading Card Games. Decipher’s Games Studio produces leading party, card and board games such as How To Host A MurderÆ, How To Host A Teen MysteryÆ, PenteÆ, Scratchees,™and more. Decipher’s Boy Crazy! Studio markets the popular Boy Crazy!™ brand for girls which includes a magazine, web site at boycrazy.com, trading cards, and various publishing and licensing ventures (represented by the William Morris Agency).
Visit decipher.com for additional information.
About New Line Cinema
Founded in 1967, New Line Cinema is the entertainment industry’s leading independent producer and distributor of theatrical motion pictures. New Line licenses its films to ancillary markets including cable and broadcast television as well as to international venues. The company, which is a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner Inc., operates several divisions including in-house theatrical distribution, marketing, home video, television, acquisitions, production, licensing and merchandising units. More information about New Line Cinema can be obtained at www.newline.com.
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The new LOTR Trailer has just appeared on Angel..and I cried…literally…
I’m not going to get into what seeing that footage meant to me at this time, I’ll just get on to the descriptions for you!
Fade in:
Gandalf rides on his cart over the Hobbiton Bridge
Few new shots of Gandalf riding in, shot of a hobbit under a tree. Voice over Ian McKellen
‘In the lands of Middle-earth, legend tells of the Dark Lord Sauron’
Shot of Sauron’s head
‘and the ring that would give him the power to enslave the world’
shot of Sauron’s HAND with The One Ring on it
shot of the Orc Army
Shot of the Ring under water
Close up of the ring under water
‘Lost for centuries…’
Shot of the Wraiths Chasing Frodo and Arwen
‘It has been sought by many..’
Shot of Frodo
‘And has now found its way to the most unlikely person imaginable…’
Shot of Frodo and the Ring
NEW LINE CINEMA LOGO
shot of Gandalf saying ‘Sauron needs only this Ring, to cover all the lands in darkness’
Shot of the Burning of Hobbiton (?)
Shot of Frodo clenching his fist around the ring
Frodo: ‘What must I do?’
Gandalf: ‘The Ring MUST be destroyed!’
TEXT: FATE HAS CHOSEN HIM
Shots of the Council of Elrond
Elrond: ‘The Ring must be cast back into the fires of Mount Doom’
Shot of Mount Doom.
Shot of a Rider overlooking the Shire
Boromir: ‘There is evil there…’
Shot of Boromir
‘That does not sleep’
Shot of the riders leaving Barad-dur (?)
V/O: SARUMAN!!! ‘Sauron’s forces are already moving’
Shot of Frodo running from a Dark Rider at Brandywine Bridge, Merry, Sam and Pippin urging him to run fast!
‘They will find the Ring, and KILL the one who carries it’
Frodo LEAPS off the pier and unto the small wharf just in time!
The dark Horse stops in its track and SCREAMS!
Fade out
Fade in
Frodo: ‘I cannot do this alone’ (in Rivendell)
TEXT: A FELLOWSHIP WILL PROTECT HIM
Shot of the council of Elrond (music from The Crow 2 plays)
Aragorn: ‘You’ll have my Sword’
Legolas: ‘As well as my bow’
Gimli: ‘AND MY AXE!’ (that shot was put in there JUST for me..I know it!)
Shot of Galadriel and the Lothlorien Elves giving the Fellowship their gifts
V/O: Galadriel: ‘This task was appointed to you..’
Shot of the Fellowship on boats passing the gigantic stone feet of Isildur or Anarion at the Pillars of Kings
Shot of Frodo and Sam looking WAAAY up!
Far shot of the Pillars (like the movie Poster)
‘And if you do not find a way…’
shot of Galadriel: ‘No one will..’
Fade out
Shot of Ring on Fire at Council of Elrond
TEXT: EVIL WILL HUNT THEM
Shot of Orc feet running through the forest
V/O: Gandalf: ‘The enemy has many spies…’
Shot of Aragorn looking over his shoulder (weathertop?)
Shot of Frodo looking scared
‘Birds..’
Shot of Birds
Shot of Sam hiding from a large flock (Hollin?)
‘Beasts’
Shot of Dark Riders
Shot of Legolas looking over a rock
V/O: ‘Something draws near..’
Shot of Legolas talking to Agargorn
Legolas: I can feel it
Shot of the warped view of the East west road
Frodo: ‘Get off the Road!’
Shot of Wraiths riding on the road hard
Shot of Boromir and Aragorn reacting horribly to something
Aragorn: ‘Hide!’
Shot of Aragorn grabbing Frodo
Shot of Frodo and Agarorn hiding under a rock ledge
Shot of the Wraith sniffing for the Hobbits on the road…but this time he moves and reaches over one of the roots of the tree..sniffing..
Shot of his hand on the root…and Frodo very very close to it, looking up at it
V/O: ‘Always remember Frodo…’
Shot of the MORIA Doors opening!!
‘The Ring is trying to get back to its master..’
Shot of the doors opening from the inside…a small silhouette of Frodo can be seen with the water behind him.
Shot of Gandalf: ‘it wants to be found..’
Shot from inside MORIA
V/O: Gandalf: ‘Let us hope that our presence may go unnoticed’
Shot of Pippin touching the dead Dwarf
Shot of the head slowly falling over into the well
Shot of Gandalf turning suddenly
Shot of the entire body, chains and all going down too
Shot of Pippin making a ‘oops!’ face..
(at this point I was waiting for a ‘FOOL of a TOOK! but it didn’t come)
Shot of Gimli kneeling a Balin’s tomb
Shot of Frodo pulling out Sting…it is glowing blue…
Drums…
Shot of Gandalf: ‘They are coming’
Shot of the 3 doorways in Moria
Drums…
One doorway lights up with fire..
Faster Drums…
Orcs BURST through the doors!
Music FLARES!!
Boromir hacks at one with his sword!
Orcs and Trolls and the Fellowship battle!!
The HUGE cave troll attacks!!
Sam screams and ducks under his legs!
Shot of the Fellowship on Caradhras…snow all over them
Aragorn: ‘We must turn back!’
Gandalf: ‘No!’
Shot of Aragorn holding two hobbits, he looks up…
An avalanche is bearing down on them!
Fast shot of the Watcher in the Water
Fast shot of the Fellowship surrounded in Moria
Fast shot of Orcs carrying their banners
Frodo: ‘I wish the Ring had never come to me’
Shot of Frodo on the ground in Weathertop, as a wraith menaces towards him!
Shot of Frodo with the ring on, in the Dark-World…reaching out to touch something
Sam: ‘Back you Devils!!’
Shot of Aragorn fighting a wraith
More shots of Aragorn fighting wraiths with torches
V/O: ‘I wish none of this had happened’
Shot of Sam crying…holding his head
V/O: Galadriel: ‘You will find your courage’
Shot of Galadriel kissing Frodo on the head
TEXT: THIS CHRISTMAS
Shot of the Riders all holding their swords up high
Shot of Arwen holding her sword high, in defiance
Arwen: ‘If you want him’
Shot of her horse on two feet, in the water, the water on the ford, the riders are across from her
quick shot of Frodo
Arwen: ‘Come and claim him!’
TEXT: The LEGEND
Shot of Aragorn and Arwen on a bridge kissing
Closer shot of them kissing
Shot of the Ring falling on Frodo’s finger on the floor of the Prancing Pony
Shot of Legolas stringing his bow
shot of an Orc..getting closer and closer, as if we are following the arrow
TEXT: COMES TO LIFE
Shot of Arwen on her horse with Frodo
Far shot of the Ford, with the riders chasing after Frodo and Arwen
Fast shot of an Orc Army
Shot of Orcs rushing down a large hall in Moria
Large army of men stringing bows and preparing to fire
Orc army rushing the camera
A gigantic rock destroying what looks like the bridge of Khazad-dun in Moria
Aragorn and Frodo look like they just barely make it to get across
Shot of the bridge falling
Shot of Gandalf: (this folks…simply cannot be put into words…but I’ll try)
Gandalf holding his sword and staff in both hands, SCREAMS
‘YOU CANNOT PASS!!!!!!!!!!!’
a quick shot of a burning rock falling near the Fellowship (some think it’s the Balrog)
Shot of Gandalf (same as before)
Gandalf SLAMS his staff into the bridge!
LOGO: Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
December 19th…
This is it folks…hear my thoughts tomorrow as I’ve got an Intern Job to sleep for 🙂
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And so it ends. After Twelve hours of celebration, the Decipher birthday bash has come to it’s conclusion.
There was no lack of action towards the end, and while I was busy nourishing myself of a much needed dinner, the Decipher folks were working hand in hand with the fans. The names of employees are numerous, and it seems from all walks of the game, be it designing, marketing, or production, everyone’s been on the boards spilling out trivia and answering questions.
I’ve taken some samples of the questions and answers from the stretch run of the party, so kick back, and do a little investigation into the intricacies of Decipher’s LOTR card game.
Questions fielded by Tom Lischke (Design):
How is it decided which member of the fellowship fights a shadow-character? And what happens when there are multiple shadow-characters against you?
Say there are 5 minions (A, B, C, D, and E) and 4 companions (1, 2, 3, and 4).
First, The good guys assign any defender (1 defends A, 2 defends B, 3 defends C, and 4 defends D).
Now, there is no one left to defend, and there is still one minion. The owner of that minion gets to assign it to attack one of the caracters (and that will almost always be the Ring-bearer).
Once all assignments are made, the Fellowship player decides which skirmish to resolve first.
Are there any known gameplay idea that are not in the first set?
There at least a couple of things that existed in the playtest for the first set, and we shelved them because they weren’t working yet.
For instance, the concept of a Captain (on the bad guys), who could either deploy inexpensively or add strength to guys from his culture or something.
I’m sure there are more that I’m not thinking of, but I’d hate to give to many away, as they are what you’ll see in the next sets.
When will more card images be released?
We have to get special permission from New Line for each one that we release before the game actually releases, and there are a couple of cards that aren’t in the first set specificly because they can’t preceed the movie release.
What is the difference between a possession and an artifact?
One is older 🙂
Other than that, changing them to a new class gets them out of a lot of the cancelation that will effect possessions. For instance, a card called rust might be appropriate to whack a possession, but nobody is going to leave a palantir out in the rain. See?
Steve Long (RPG Project Leader) had a long, in depth post worth reading.
Well, generally speaking, I don’t make my notes and outlines available to people; it’s not really appropriate. However, part of the reason for assembling the five-page list is to be sure I include all those effects in the “Magic” chapter — so you’ll get the all-important end result. 🙂
<< It looks like there will spellcasters other than Istari in the game. Though I haven't read every word of Tolkien's Middle-earth work, it looks to me like there is the Elven and Dwarven magic of being and making, and there are Wizards, but there isn't a whole class of magicians among Men.
>Please show me that’s wrong, as long as you’re not bent by people’s desires to play wizards.>>
There are definitely going to be users of magic other than the Istari. As I mentioned in a previous post, there are lots of subtle references to the traditions of magic and magic use in Tolkien’s works. For example:
— mentions of Dwarven magic runes and enchanted toys
— Gandalf’s mention of knowing “dozens” of spells in the “tongues of Elves, Men, and Orcs” — and that on the single subject of doors
— various subtle Elven magical stuff (which is dealt with as a racial ability, not spellcasting per se)
— the mention that the people of Bree suspected Frodo of being a “traveling magician of unknown powers and purpose”
String all that, and other references, together, and you can create a fun, game-able system of magic and magic use that remains true to the nature and feel of Tolkien’s work.
Dunedain, Middle Peoples, Easterlings, Wild Men — similar, but not identical, to Faramir’s classification system in TT.
<<& some comments you can comment on if you want:
>>Will you people be able to get anyway near the huge wordcount of the MERP books?<<
I don’t have exact figures on the wordcounts in any given MERP book, so I can’t really answer that. The core book is nearly 150,000 words, and the supplements will likely be 60,000-80,000 words.
I have little familiarity with MERP; I don’t own any of those books.
<< Do you have first-rate cartographers and put a lot of thought into mapping the places that Tolkien didn't?>>
I feel confident in saying that I have absolute faith in our graphics guys to do a *superb* job with maps and every other graphic element of the line.
There are certainly plenty of options for tailoring a campaign to suit your preferences and tastes! Just as you might want an all-Men game, I bet there are people out there planning all-Dwarf chronicles. 🙂
<<>How familiar are you with Hero Wars, the Gloranthan RPG partly designed by Robin Laws? It’s my first choice of rules system for a Middle-earth campaign (not having seen yours, though it sounds like it has too many ‘crunchy bits’ [rules excess to what’s in the world] to be ideal). >>
I own the books, but haven’t read them. I have the deepest respect for Robin’s talents as a writer and designer (and he’s a great guy, to boot).
What constitutes “too many ‘crunchy bits'” is difficult to say. One person’s excess is another’s deficiency. 🙂 Fortunately, the great thing about RPGs is you can always change ’em to suit yourself!
[[SNIP]]
Fourth Age: would either be pointless for the same reasons Tolkien discovered when he tried to write his sequel, or very challenging to make work>>
Au contraire! I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that games aren’t novels, and novels aren’t games — what works in one doesn’t necessarily work in the other. Just because Tolkien didn’t think that he could write a good sequel to LOTR doesn’t mean that there’s not *LOTS* of game-ability in the very late Third/early Fourth Ages. After all, *someone’s* got to help King Elessar mop up those pesky lurking evils. 😉
There’s lots more, the posts are as numerous as the stars in the sky, and thus, sadly, I can present only this fraction of the wealth of card gaming wisdom imparted by the Decipher folks. Go Here to meander through the wealth of trivia, gossip, and newly released tidbits about the game.
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