DECIPHER.com > Lord of the Rings > Expansions > Reflections

Costing in The Lord of the Rings TCG

by Tom Lischke
Senior Game Designer

Today I thought I'd talk a little bit about the costing of cards in the game. Pay attention, there will be a quiz at the end.

Lets start with some basics. The golden rule of Lord of the Rings card costing is shape. For instance, according to the Rule of Shape, each small, round thing must cost zero (as they are shaped like a zero). This is best illustrated with some examples:

Captured by the Ring mentions a small round thing, so it also has zero for a twilight cost. In Reflections, we will have another small round thing (several, actually).

•Ring of Accretion (Dwarven culture)
0 cost
+1 strength
Artifact • Ring
Bearer must be a Dwarf.
Bearer is damage +1.
Maneuver: For each Dwarf you spot, reveal a card from the top of your draw deck. Take all Free Peoples cards revealed into hand and discard the rest. Discard this artifact.

Let's look at this Rule of Shape when applied to slightly larger round things:

We'll see another example of the Rule of Shape in Reflections.

•Ithil Stone (Sauron Culture)
0 cost
Artifact • Support Area
To play, exert a Sauron or Ringwraith minion.
At the start of each of your Shadow phases, you may draw a card.
Shadow: Discard this artifact to play a Sauron minion. Its twilight cost is –3. "'...and in it there was a stone like the Moon....'"

The Rule of Shape is applied, where possible, to characters as well. I've often been asked "Tom, why do Gollum and Sméagol have different costs even though they are obviously the same character?" Well, I can finally answer this. The best way is to look at the two cards side by side:

Sméagol's head is obviously roughly the same size as a palantír, so he must cost zero. The years have obviously not been kind to Gollum, and he has withered into roughly the shape of a 2.

Let's look at the Rule of Shape when applied to weapons.

Pretty obvious really. Long, straight? Must cost 1. Some trickier examples?

That's right. Even though they aren't called spears, just because you hang a flag on it or call it a javelin, it is still a spear, and thus must cost 1.

Well, we've started to reach the boundary of what the Rule of Shape can do for us. There has to be some other criteria to handle companions and minions. Let's start with the companions.

Can you see the pattern? If you need a hint, take a look at Treebeard's subtitle again.

Age is obviously the key to finding the cost for companions. Treebeard is the oldest, so he is at the high end of the scale, along with Gandalf, who comes from the Undying West, so he must be up there in years. Aragorn is from the race of Numenor, so he is no spring chicken, and gets to have a 4 cost. Faramir also has that blood, although to a lesser extent, and costs 3. Sam is the oldest of the Hobbits (with the exception of Frodo, but because he carries something small and round, his cost must be zero), and so costs 2, while Merry and Pippin cost only 1, being little more than lads. And there you have the Rule of Age.

Now we get to the hard one. I struggled for a long time when we first designed the game to find the system for pricing minions. Let me put a few in front of you and see if you can get it.

I'll give you some space to think about it. Scroll down when you think you have the answer.

Did you get it? Yep, seems obvious now doesn't it. The minions are obviously priced using the Rule of Teeth. The more teeth, the higher the cost. Which makes the Easterlings a real bear to price, by the way. I'm still not allowed to reveal the details of that that research. Let's just say that the dentists in New Zealand are on a first name basis with our research assistant.

Now, I told you that there would be a quiz. Ready? OK, here we go. Here is a softball (so to speak).

How much would Hammerin' Hank cost? Page down for the answer.

The answer is 8, based on the Rule of Shape.

Here is the next one. How much would this Racing Sausage cost if he was a Lord of the Rings card?

I even labeled him for you. The Italian would cost 3, also based on the Rule of Shape.

Next question. If Senior Game Designer Chuck Kallenbach was a Lord of the Rings card, how much would he cost?

According to the Rule of Age, Chuck would cost either 4 or 5, it is really a gray area. I hope to be live long enough to cost 4 or 5 some day.

OK, final question. How much would the Hot Dog Racing Sausage cost if he was a Lord of the Rings card?

The answer is 10. You didn't get tripped up by that one, did you? The key is in knowing what rule to apply. The Hot Dog is obviously evil, and thus would be costed as minion and fall under the Rule of Teeth. 10 teeth equals a cost of 10.

Finally, this article would cost 1, as it was posted on April 1st, often called "April Fool's Day."

April 1, 2004