We still gave it a valiant attempt, with one player defending just about everything the deck could throw at him.
I basically just contributed a Dunedain Remedy. The main issue here were two decks misfiring, one of which was mine. Our table barely got going on our first attempt before we threw in the towel. And if the Epic Mode is more intense than Standard Mode, we likely would not have had much of a chance. How often are you going to have a chance to get 12 LotR players together at one time? But most tables were hesitant to take on what they anticipated would be a higher difficulty before they became familiar with the quest. Knowing we were looking at over 12 people attending, I was hoping to get in a game of Epic Mode. Now I could bring the needed healing, but in what should be a fun shell that could help with questing and (hopefully) taking out and enemy or two. It hit me that both archetypes could likely be merged, especially with Galadhrim Healer. On a separate note, I had been playing with some Silvan bounce decks. The interaction between Hero Elrond and Dunedain Remedy intrigued me and seemed to have a lot of possibility for multiplayer (spoiler: this was an all-star in both attempts). The need for healing stood out so I started thinking along those lines. Being that this would be a multiplayer event with time for only a few attempts, I decided to take a few quick peeks and keep my ears open for community advice. My usual tendency is to go into a quest as fully blind as a I can.
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After I take time to discover the full Arkham core set, I have a feeling I will be quickly adding this to my LCG subscription and begin spending my game time hopping between the rich lands of Middle-earth and the mysteries of realms beyond. Lord of the Rings: The Card Game and Arkham Horror: The Card Game are both very welcome parts of my game collection. And a re-boot allows new players an entry point into a game that has now grown very costly to complete. A way can be found to encourage more frequet social play (if not on a competitive front). Five years of lessons can be used to make a smoother, more immersive experience. What I do think Arkham brings to the surface is the need for an LotR reboot. The basic fact in favor of LotR's continued existence is that, from what we hear, it is still making FFQ cold, hard cash. In fact, as has also been pointed out by others, you can see how different elements of Arkham were tested out in LotR over the past year (such as the travel mechanic of Temple of the Deceived and the how the ability on Galdor of the Havens is almost identical to the standard mulligan rule in Arkham). Arkham does show lessons FFG has learned in designing living card game which would be great to see retroactively implemented in LotR. I am not the first to state this, but Arkham and LotR are both very different types of games and neither should directly replace the other. So has Lord of the Rings: the Card Game been made obsolete? No. Another positive was that the start deck I used was actually usable and able to defeat the introductory scenario (a sore point with LotR's own core set that frustrates 10/10 new players). That was exciting and refreshing: Having a list of available options that color the outcome of the quest instead of simply leading to a clean victory or defeat. Either choice seemed positive and I had no idea which would have the bigger impact on future scenarios.
I found myself deciding between achieving a beneficial task or holding insanity at bay for my investigator. While not an open-world game, you are responsible for decisions that will not only impact the success or failure of the scenario but what that success or failure looks like. The designers directly state that they are looking to bring an RPG feel to the table and they succeeded. The art does not appeal to me as much as LotR, and it has been years since I was into Lovecraft, but the gameplay itself was highly enjoyable. My first impression? This is a fantastic game.