text: Arda Game Variant : The Mission Cards - Council of Elrond
  Arda Game Variant : The Mission Cards
  Post by Darksatin » Mon Jul 26, 2010 9:39 pm
  These rules are a variant for the Middle Earth CCG Arda Game.
  At last, the region cards become useful !
  The idea comes from the mission cards of the well-known railroad boardgame « Ticket to Ride » (in French : « Les Aventuriers du Rail » ; in German : « Zug um Zug »…)
  You need a complete set of the region cards (it's better if you have 2 ou 3 sets).
  At the start of the game (before drawing cards from the MP deck and from the Play Deck), each player receives randomly and secretly 5 region cards. He must choose at least 2 region cards, but he can keep the 5 if he wants. The non-chosen region cards are discarded (face down). The players keep the selected region cards, but don't show them to the other players. Everybody knows the number of the region cards owned by each player.
  If a player chooses a region card, his goal is to play a resource MP card (ally, item, faction, event…) at a site in this region. If he succeeds, he shows the region card, and put it with the resource MP card. He gains 2 RP (region points). RP are not MP points : during the game, the MP points are counted normally (to call the Council, you still need 20 MP). The RP points are counted only at the end of the game, after the Council.
  If a player don't succeed to play something at a site in the chosen region, he receives a malus : - 2 RP. You have the RP if you still have the resource MP card at the end of the game, after the Council. If during play, you lose the resource MP card (corruption, influence, character alone killed…), the region card goes back to your hand. If the resource is stored in a Haven (or elsewhere), you have the RP points.
  Obviously, when you build the region deck, don't select a region card if no resource MP card can be played there.
  If Neither So Ancient Neither So Potent is played, the item and the region card go back to hand.
  If you play Earth of Galadriel's Orchard in Lorien, you can play with it the Wold and Foothills region card. You keep the RP for this card even if you play Mallorn in Bag End.
  Influence : if you succeed to influence a resource MP card with a region card, you don't gain the region card. You don't gain a region card for the site where you make an influence, unless it's the site where the unique faction or the unique ally can be played.
  Playing of magic rings : if you test successfully a gold ring card with a region card, you keep the region card after the test, with the magic ring. You cannot obtain a region card for the site where the ring is tested.
  During the game, at your player turn, you can draw, if you want, 3 new region cards. You must choose at least 1 region card, but you can keep the 3 if you want. You cannot add a new region card to a resource MP card already played.
  If you play with several region cards sets, several players can gain RP for the same region. A player can obtain RP several times for a single region, but he must play a resource MP card for each region card.
  In the basic game, all the region cards are worth 2 RP. But if you want a more complicated game, you can rank the region cards by level of difficulty (from 1 to 4). If you choose a hard task, you can win 4 RP, but if you don't succeed, you lose 4 RP !
  So, this system needs playtesting. If you want to try, your game reports are welcome !
  PS : sorry for the english faults...
  Re: Arda Game Variant : The Mission Cards
  Post by Shapeshifter » Tue Jul 27, 2010 7:01 am
  Very nice idea, I like it very much. I'm eager to playtest this at the next Lure.
  P.S.: I think you don't need to excuse your English, it's good enough.
  Post by domse » Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:04 pm
  I do like it a lot too!
  Though I would consider restricting it to the play of unique ressources. Otherwise cards like Noble Hounds/Steeds get a bit strong.
  Post by Darksatin » Thu Aug 05, 2010 9:25 pm
  A more simple and maybe more playable idea for the mission cards : just make a deck with your sets of region cards.
  Draw 7 regions cards, and put them face-up on the table.
  These cards are commons to all players.
  At his player turn, a player can take one of these region cards if he succeeds to play something at a site in the given region.
  He puts this region card with the resource MP card. He gains 1 RP (region point).
  At the beginning of a player turn, the "older" region card is discarded, and new region cards complete the pool (7 region cards).
  RP are not MP points : during the game, the MP points are counted normally (to call the Council, you still need 20 MP). The RP points are counted only at the end of the game, after the Council.
  Post by Thorsten the Traveller » Sat Aug 07, 2010 2:38 pm
  This is indeed a funny addition to the Arda game! Good one.
  In my experience people like missions, but they lack the guts to undertake them. Some extra rewards might be needed.
  -Arda must stay (relatively) simple. That's one of the big qualities of the format, as I've found out with my card experimenting.
  -Arda must not depend too much on the luck factor.
  -You don't mention anything about the worth of RP's at the end of the game.
  -What about event resources that don't tap sites or don't need to be played at specific sites?
  -Establish a maximum region card hand? Do you draw new RC after you've played them?
  the table is pretty full already, I would not make a Region deck with cards open for people to choose from. The possible competition over Region cards might be nice, but it complicates it too much I'd say. Often people have difficulties scanning the table for what's going on. Also many resources are site-specific and thus the luck factor enters here.
  Also, people like trading, so trading region cards might be fun. Moreover, if someone mentions his region cards, he can give away info about where he's going (or bluf).
  I would simply play the RP in your MP, not keep them with the resource. No doubling certain Regions in your MP, promotes moving around.
  Making categories for RP's sounds great! To keep it simple I would suggest 3 RP for / , 2 RP for / and 1 RP for / . For super dreamcard Arda we can add also 3 RP for Deserts regions
  I would say that RP totals at the end reward MP's according to the number of players? So in a 5 player game, the player with most RP's gains 5 MP, and the player with fewest only 1. Or is that not big enough impact on the game perhaps? Hmm, in my experience the MP differences at the Council can be quite big in Arda, as some players usually get squashed. On the other hand, those in the lead are usually those playing resources (not just characters, or rings) and thus have more probability of scoring RP's.
  Post by Darksatin » Wed Aug 11, 2010 6:30 pm
  Thorsten the Traveller wrote: Arda must stay (relatively) simple. That's one of the big qualities of the format, as I've found out with my card experimenting. Arda must not depend too much on the luck factor.
  I think that Arda is not a competition format. It is made to have fun between two "serious" games. So, if there is a few luck factor, that is not important... And the more cards on the table, the better !
  Thorsten the Traveller wrote: You don't mention anything about the worth of RP's at the end of the game.
  In the first system, a region card is worth 2 RP (or from 1 RP to 4 RP for the "advanced" version)
  In the second system, a region card is worth 1 RP
  1 RP has the same value than 1 MP.
  Thorsten the Traveller wrote: What about event resources that don't tap sites or don't need to be played at specific sites?
  This is a good remark. We can state that the site must be tapped.
  Thorsten the Traveller wrote: Establish a maximum region card hand? Do you draw new RC after you've played them?
  In the first system, there is no maximum region card hand. If you choose a region card, you must keep it until the end of the game (no discard). If you don't succeed to play something in the region, you have negative points for this card. During the game, you can draw new region cards if you want (at your turn), but you must also keep the cards you choose (at least 1).
  In the second system, there is no region card hand. You can take and play a region card directly from the seven region cards face-up on the table.
  Thorsten the Traveller wrote: I would simply play the RP in your MP, not keep them with the resource.
  My idea was : if you lose the resource for any reason, you lose also the region card.
  Thorsten the Traveller wrote: Making categories for RP's sounds great! To keep it simple I would suggest 3 RP for / , 2 RP for / and 1 RP for / .
  Interesting ! This is a simplification, but it is consistent.
  Post by Thorsten the Traveller » Thu Aug 12, 2010 8:47 am
  And the more cards on the table, the better !
  Well if you play in a church perhaps, but even at Lure we had troubles displaying all cards in a 5-player game (imagine a 7 player game)
  Sure Arda is not as competitive, but still there's no need to make the disparities between players resulting from a lucky draw bigger than necessary. Maybe you've playtested it, but 1 MP per RP seems rather big to me at first glance, especially if we'd use the 1-3 RP system, and people would go for non-unique resources only (as chances you get Arthedain for the Rangers are pretty slim...unless you can trade for it!)
  You'd like to award players for going to certain regions, especially if that makes the trip more dangerous. Keeping the RC with the MP card seems bit weird in that respect, if it increases the chances to lose them you would not bother (say, play an RC on Roac who's destined to be dead), and again, the table is full enough as it is usually.