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

Visiting the Dictionary

by Geoffrey Snider
Game Developer, TCG Studio

It has a cool name, doesn't it? What the heck does asperity mean? I looked it up at Merriam-Webster Online and found the following entry:

Main Entry: as·per·i·ty
Pronunciation: a-'sper-&-tE,
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ties
Etymology: Middle English asprete, from Old French aspreté, from aspre rough, from Latin asper, from (assumed) Old Latin absperos, from ab- ab- + -speros; akin to Sanskrit apasphura repelling, Latin spernere to spurn -- more at SPURN
1 : RIGOR, SEVERITY
2 a : roughness of surface : UNEVENNESS; also : a tiny projection from a surface b : roughness of sound
3 : roughness of manner or of temper : HARSHNESS

Calling this ring's ability 'harsh' is an understatement! With the ability to begin wounding companions before the skirmish phase even begins, it's no wonder that our playtesters latched onto this ring from the get go. I don't need to tell you exactly what it's capable of doing to increase the fighting capabilities of your nazgûl, but I feel I owe an explanation on its other ability. In the testing of past expansions, there've been many a time where cards popped up looking something like this:

Random Orc #10
[Culture]
Minion * Orc
Twilight Cost:4
Strength: 10
Vitality: 3
Site #: 4
Text:
Regroup: Return this minion to its owner's hand.

Aside from weighing its strengths against those of other minions, take a second to consider how to use this card in a deck... or at least consider how its ability would help your Shadow strategy to function better. A typical game scenario would find this lone orc surviving to the regroup phase of the fellowship's first move. There are probably one or two tokens remaining in the Twilight Pool. Do you use his ability? Doing so would remove any additional risk to your opponent's Ring-bearer (if he decided to move again, there'd be one less minion to worry about). In theory, you would re-play the minion when the fellowship moved again, but would you really have enough resources to bolster him with other minions? Hopefully you could cause a few wounds by winning skirmishes if you did manage to play enough minions. Do you want to take the risk of taking the card back into hand, reducing the amount of card cycling you'll be capable of? Do you want to reduce the potential number of Free Peoples cards you'll be able to play on your next turn because you're clogging your hand with this minion? There are just too many gambles you have to make when using this minion's ability.

This is, however, how the nazgûl rings began their existence. "Regroup: Return bearer to his owner's hand." How would this make the nazgûl rings any better than those old minions we'd phased out during testing in years past? I thought that if there were a way to give the Shadow player a greater breadth of options while using these rings, they might have a chance. I just hated the thought of having to make the decision of returning a minion to my hand before the Free Peoples player made the decision whether or not to move a second time during their turn. The bonus of gaining that ability almost wasn't a bonus any longer. If only there were a way to make the ability a response to the Free Peoples player's decision to 'not move.' While looking for sections of the rulebook that might allow us to exploit it to our advantage, we discovered that if you were to respond to the reconciling of the Free Peoples player's hand, the function would work perfectly. My nazgûl would sit on the table until the very last possible moment before flying back to my hand. Their regroup ability that would previously have encouraged the opponent to move a second time (even though it should discourage such a thing) would now allow my Shadow strategy to keep pressure on the fellowship, while allowing me to tune my hand by saving a minion for future moves.

Interestingly enough, in one solution we discovered another solution. Since using the 'response' abilities of these rings allows you to take your minion back into hand if you (or your opponent) reconcile to eight cards, you'll get an additional card in your hand during your next turn. This cuts down on the lack of card cycling you may have experienced otherwise (it won't prevent you from drawing that one additional card). It also ties the abilities of the rings into our core mechanics for the Return of the King block: threats and initiative. Here are the other two nazgûl rings and the definitions of their names:

Main Entry: ire
Pronunciation: 'Ir
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin ira; perhaps akin to Greek oistros gadfly, frenzy
: intense and usually openly displayed anger
synonym see ANGER
- ire transitive verb
- ire·ful /-f&l/ adjective

Here at the office, we like to joke about Bill Ferny (well, at least I do) because he's capable of quite a few things these days. Currently he can be an archer (Gothmog), and damage +2 (Nazgûl Scimitar and Ring of Ire), and who knows what he may be capable of by the time the Mount Doom expansion releases! On a side note, this card is pretty darned good with our new enduring nazgûl!

Main Entry: ran·cor
Pronunciation: 'ra[ng]-k&r, -"kor
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English rancour, from Middle French ranceur, from Late Latin rancor rancidity, rancor, from Latin rancEre
: bitter deep-seated ill will
synonym see ENMITY

Can anyone tell me what I can do with the ability to heal a nazgûl in the maneuver phase? Anyone? This ring is useful mainly with Ringwraiths from Fellowship of the Ring block right now (Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul, The Witch-king, Lord of the Nazgûl and Úlairë Cantëa, Lieutenant of Dol Guldur), but with enduring nazgûl becoming more prevalent the further into Return of the King block we get, there'll be many more candidates worthy of bearing it.

April 22, 2004