DECIPHER.com > Lord of the Rings > Expansions > Mount Doom

Subtle Touches

by Evan Lorentz
Decipher Game Designer

If you've been following all the articles written about Mount Doom design and development, you've now read a lot of stories about change. Cards written, tested, and quickly cut. Cards written, tested, then entirely re-written – sometimes several times. Cards conjured up late in the development process to fill holes created by other changes.

Fortunately for our sanity, card design isn't always like that. Sometimes the first idea out of the gate is almost ready to roll. Today's stories come from that end of the spectrum. Each of the following raw ideas, all for Shire cards, was just one small tweak away from being "ready to print" when the designers first handed them off to the developers.

I'm honestly not sure who pitched this first card, so I can't really say how big an influence the movie Jerry Maguire was. I'm gonna guess "not much."

Cost 1
Show Me the Vitality
Condition • Support Area
Each time a Shadow player plays a minion, you may exert a Hobbit to exert that minion.

Hobbits have always had ways to deal extra wounds, from Power According to His Stature to Unheeded. However, given their relative lack of battle prowess compared to other races of Middle-earth, the designers have come to feel that forcing exertions, rather than causing wounds, is probably a more appropriate effect for the hardy Shire-folk. This card was a sort of test balloon, sent up to see if this was a viable direction to go.

Of course, the Hobbits definitely CAN "show you the vitality," and therein was the problem with the card as first pitched. It was too easy to have an army of Hobbits at the ready (allies included) to exhaust most any minion that showed up. After that, there are pumps aplenty to help Hobbits win skirmishes and cause the killing blow.

The fixes were quick and simple. The exerting Hobbit was made to be a companion, and a limit to this exertion was added – though multiple copies of the condition were certainly still to be encouraged. And just to be safe, an extra spotting requirement was added to be sure that decks running only Frodo couldn't run this card. The result was Shadowplay

Next up, a card so close to "done" in its first incarnation, it even had its final title in place. And by the way, if you see it and feel a sudden urge to protest, you should stop for a moment and crack a copy of Tolkien's book. The name comes straight from The Return of the King (page 245, if you've got my edition).

Cost 0
Nine-fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom
Event • Fellowship
Tale. Exert a [Shire] character to remove a burden or 2 threats.

The one flaw here was a simple one. As presented, the card is strictly better than Sorry About Everything, from The Fellowship of the Ring set, which costs 0 and exerts a Hobbit companion to remove a burden in the Fellowship phase. This card can do all that, plus has the option to remove threats as well. Perhaps with all the Coneys around, this older method of removing burdens had been overlooked. In any case, the fix was simple: change the phase for this new card.

On some levels, the change is admittedly rather superficial. But we all felt that there were enough different dynamics brought in by the change of phase to make this new card worth printing. Because the Shire culture is at the top of the heap when it comes to removing burdens, continuing to add new cards that do that is always on the design radar.

Finally, I offer this for your consideration:

Cost 0
Go No Further
Event • Maneuver
Stealth.
Make a Shadow player remove (2) or discard a minion.

This trouble here really seemed to be that it gave a Hobbit something of a de facto "defender +1." They could cause a minion to be discarded, and then go on to skirmish another minion. Not only was that a bit too strong, but it was a bit outside the scope of what the designers had originally intended.

The designers and developers had to talk this one out a bit, but it took very little time to agree on a change that pleased everyone. The adjustment was to make the Free Peoples player return the Hobbit in question to his or her hand. The fun part was that at the same time the "cost" was raised, the utility of the card actually grew as well. Now the card could serve as a way to "heal" a Hobbit completely by returning him to hand and re-playing him later on – a strategy already well-known and appreciated by players who have tried the various "disappearing/reappearing" incarnations of Merry and Pippin. The final result:

Cost 0
Make Haste
Event • Maneuver
Stealth. Spot a [Shire] companion and return him or her to your hand to make a Shadow player choose to remove (2) or discard a minion.
"'There's something still alive in that place, something with eyes, or a seeing mind, if you take me; and the longer we stay in one spot, the sooner it will get on to us.'"
10 C 109

So, by this point, some of you might be thinking, "wait a minute, you said you were gonna tell us about cards that didn't go through a lot of changes." Well, what can I say – this is almost as "change-free" as it gets. I've just done a count, and only 13 of the cards in the Mount Doom set were printed exactly as originally conceived (not counting previews such as Frodo or Gorgoroth Swarm which were showing up here in true form). It all just goes to show you how critical the development and playtesting process is to a good game.

July 1, 2004