The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I've been a bit reluctant to write up this review, because it's fun to write glowing positive reviews and it's not so fun to explain why you dislike a product.

First, I love the MeTW card game. It's fun, you can identify with your characters, and it actually has the feel of the Tolkien books.

However, I found this set of scenarios and sites for the game to be dull. At best, it contains a few good ideas that weren't implemented very well.

The whole concept of scenarios is OK; the entire book of The Hobbit was more or less one big scenario. However, most of the scenarios in here aren't nearly that interesting.

The first four pages of the book are information about the area called "Eriador." These read like a geography lesson. I want excitement, heroism, and mighty needs. I don't want to know that there is a monastery located in a swamp ten miles north of Caras Celairnen or that Michel Delving is "a political and commercial center" in the Shire.

The first scenario is a solitaire one. This is a potentially good idea; I've had lots of fun just playing the basic solitaire game out of the manual. (If only that Cave-Drake would stop eating my hobbits...) The first thing that struck me is the goal: bring at least 4 Dark Numbers back to a city called Fornost Erain. You are supposed to have at least 6 of this card in your deck.

I had never heard of Dark Numbers before. It turns out it's a card from one of the expansion sets I've never purchased. "That's OK," I think, "I can proxy it." Then I look at the recommended hazard cards. I have three cards of the twelve recommended to be included. I also have well less than half of the sample hazard deck.

To add insult to injury, the only way I could do at all well with this scenario was to go complete attack-avoidance. Solitaire is no fun when all you do is use Concealments ad nauseum.

The next scenario was, quite frankly, boring. Who wants to risk their neck to go get some aging hobbit a birthday present? Not me. I'd rather be out assuming kingship of Gondor and raising huge armies to fight Sauron.

The next scenario had 5 conditions for victory. 4 of these involved cards I didn't have. I threw up my hands in despair.

The final scenario was a cooperative scenario, in which each player has one character and they work together to protect some towns. This is a good idea in principle; many people have one particular character they are attached to. (My entire deck is based around Aragorn, and my friend just loves all his Dwarves.) A cooperative scenario is also very cool.

The first problem here is, again, cards required. When we put our cards together (and we've each spent about $40-$50 on this game) we STILL only had half the locations we needed. The sample hazard deck includes 7 Nazgul, Mouth of Sauron, and 3 Assassins (all of which are expensive and coveted rares, and none of which I've ever seen). OK...

The second problem is that the premise of this scenario is dull. Mainly, the heroes stick around in the town and hit anything that comes their way. Yay. No traveling, questing, or finding neat items for these heroes. Sigh.

Although the book says that it contains "new locations," no new cards are actually provided. What look like black and white copies of sheets of these cards are in the back of the book, so I suppose you could cut them out and glue them to other locations... I was still disappointed they were too cheap to give us actual cards.

These locations are also on the border of the map provided. This map is quite a bit worse than the other MeTW map. It only covers a small area of Middle-Earth (to be expected, given that this is where the scenarios are supposed to take place) but I.C.E. didn't even put the terrain symbols on the regions as in their other map! This map is, for all intents and purposes, worthless for playing. It's not even as pretty as the other map.

Unless you truly feel you need everything related to this game, don't bother with this product. Instead, buy a starter or a Challenge Deck and give it to one of your friends. They'll appreciate it, you'll both have fun, you'll have someone to play against, and I.C.E. will sell more. Everyone wins.

--Sam L-L

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

A Long-Expected Party
Author: Steven J. Arensberg Category: CCG Scenario Set Company/Publisher: I.C.E. Cost: $10.00 Page count: 13 ISBN: 1-55806-352 Playtest Review by Sam Lindsay-Levine on 09/03/98. Genre tags: none	I've been a bit reluctant to write up this review, because it's fun to write glowing positive reviews and it's not so fun to explain why you dislike a product. First, I love the MeTW card game. It's fun, you can identify with your characters, and it actually has the feel of the Tolkien books. However, I found this set of scenarios and sites for the game to be dull. At best, it contains a few good ideas that weren't implemented very well. The whole concept of scenarios is OK; the entire book of The Hobbit was more or less one big scenario. However, most of the scenarios in here aren't nearly that interesting. The first four pages of the book are information about the area called "Eriador." These read like a geography lesson. I want excitement, heroism, and mighty needs. I don't want to know that there is a monastery located in a swamp ten miles north of Caras Celairnen or that Michel Delving is "a political and commercial center" in the Shire. The first scenario is a solitaire one. This is a potentially good idea; I've had lots of fun just playing the basic solitaire game out of the manual. (If only that Cave-Drake would stop eating my hobbits...) The first thing that struck me is the goal: bring at least 4 Dark Numbers back to a city called Fornost Erain. You are supposed to have at least 6 of this card in your deck. I had never heard of Dark Numbers before. It turns out it's a card from one of the expansion sets I've never purchased. "That's OK," I think, "I can proxy it." Then I look at the recommended hazard cards. I have three cards of the twelve recommended to be included. I also have well less than half of the sample hazard deck. To add insult to injury, the only way I could do at all well with this scenario was to go complete attack-avoidance. Solitaire is no fun when all you do is use Concealments ad nauseum. The next scenario was, quite frankly, boring. Who wants to risk their neck to go get some aging hobbit a birthday present? Not me. I'd rather be out assuming kingship of Gondor and raising huge armies to fight Sauron. The next scenario had 5 conditions for victory. 4 of these involved cards I didn't have. I threw up my hands in despair. The final scenario was a cooperative scenario, in which each player has one character and they work together to protect some towns. This is a good idea in principle; many people have one particular character they are attached to. (My entire deck is based around Aragorn, and my friend just loves all his Dwarves.) A cooperative scenario is also very cool. The first problem here is, again, cards required. When we put our cards together (and we've each spent about $40-$50 on this game) we STILL only had half the locations we needed. The sample hazard deck includes 7 Nazgul, Mouth of Sauron, and 3 Assassins (all of which are expensive and coveted rares, and none of which I've ever seen). OK... The second problem is that the premise of this scenario is dull. Mainly, the heroes stick around in the town and hit anything that comes their way. Yay. No traveling, questing, or finding neat items for these heroes. Sigh. Although the book says that it contains "new locations," no new cards are actually provided. What look like black and white copies of sheets of these cards are in the back of the book, so I suppose you could cut them out and glue them to other locations... I was still disappointed they were too cheap to give us actual cards. These locations are also on the border of the map provided. This map is quite a bit worse than the other MeTW map. It only covers a small area of Middle-Earth (to be expected, given that this is where the scenarios are supposed to take place) but I.C.E. didn't even put the terrain symbols on the regions as in their other map! This map is, for all intents and purposes, worthless for playing. It's not even as pretty as the other map. Unless you truly feel you need everything related to this game, don't bother with this product. Instead, buy a starter or a Challenge Deck and give it to one of your friends. They'll appreciate it, you'll both have fun, you'll have someone to play against, and I.C.E. will sell more. Everyone wins. --Sam L-L Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 2 (Sparse)

A Long-Expected Party