First Age
Welcome to the internet home of First Age, a custom expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game that propels players into the epic events of The Silmarillion. On this page, you will find everything you need to play First Age, as well as any future expansions, errata, decklists, and materials.
Rules
* Here are the rules for First Age, which you’ll want to look over to get comfortable with the new rules regarding Corruption and some of the new keywords (this also includes some Frequently Asked Questions):
Printable Materials
* Here are the PDF versions of all the player cards, as well as the cards for each of the three scenarios: The Isle of Werewolves, The Seat of Morgoth, and Hunting of the Wolf. In order to print these, use double-sided printing.
Card Pool
* Here is the First Age Approved List, which provides a list for players of which cards can be included from the official card pool when making First Age decks:
Third Party Printing
HIGH QUALITY IMAGE FILES WITH BLEED MARGINS
First Age Player Cards (For Printing Purposes)
Isle of Werewolves (For Printing Purposes)
Seat of Morgoth (For Printing Purposes)
Hunting of the Wolf (For Printing Purposes)
ARTSCOW
* Here is a link if you are interested in getting the set printed at ArtsCow (make sure you search the site for coupon codes!). I apologize for the set being so expensive, but there are so many cards, I have to end up doing 8 different decks:
http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/first-age-icbemp6ina63
http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/first-age-2k898gtlxqyn
http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/first-age-elig8gejks2g
http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/first-age-4mdvs5hs9fr7
http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/first-age-tbq3co9fws91
http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/first-age-0dix0liwt6bc
http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/first-age-dl8cqvnn13h2
http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/first-age-0ir1wxdomzil
(Disclaimer: First Age is completely free of charge and I’m making no money from this endeavor. This links to a separate printing business that charges for the printing service).
OCTGN
* If you want to play First Age on OCTGN, it comes pre-loaded. Look in the Custom folder inside the Decks folder. All you have to do is make sure you have the latest custom image pack downloaded and installed, which you can find here:
CardWarden
* Here is a link to a Backup.zip file that you can place on your iPad to play First Age on CardWarden. Simply navigate to the apps section of your iPad while it is connected to iTunes and drag the Backup.zip file into the section for CardWarden. Then hit restore on the desired box on the CardWarden app:
* Note: I have not included the cards from the First Age Approved List, as these images are owned by FFG. However, I have left plenty of blank spaces to include them if you have scans or images available for these cards.
Source Files
* If you are interested in getting a hold of the Strange Eons source files for translation purposes, send me a message (using Contact TftC! above), and I’ll gladly send them to you.
Known Errata
INCORPORATED IN THE MOST RECENT VERSION
– Solitary Outlaw: Add “Limit 1 per hero.”
– Huan: Add “(Limit once per round.)” to the first ability.
– Elwing: Add “(Limit once per round.)” to her ability.
– Devouring Werewolf: Add “Cannot leave the pit area.”
NOT INCORPORATED IN THE MOST RECENT VERSION
– Harp of Fingon: Should be a “Response” instead of an “Action”
FAQ
Q: Does the effect on Guard Wolf apply each round or only during the round it is revealed?
A: The effect on Guard Wolf only applies during the round it is revealed. So if the Guard Wolf is still alive during subsequent turns, the character that was originally “pinned” is no longer affected.
Q: Can all Corruption from an encounter card effect be placed on a single character, even if this is more than enough to make them corrupted?
A: No. Corruption is placed on characters one token at a time. So as soon as a character becomes corrupted by the placement of a token, it can no longer become the recipient of further Corruption.
Translations
First Age is now available in Spanish!
First Age is now available in Polish!
First Age is now available in German!
First Age is now available in Italian!
First Age is now available in French!
Card Reviews and Playthroughs (Warden of Arnor)
First Age Family Tree
Sometimes it’s a bit confusing to keep track of all the characters from the First Age and how they are related. Check out this handy guide from the Dor Cuarthol blog:
Sample First Age Decklists
If you have a First Age deck that you want to share, please send it to me using the Contact TftC! tab above or simply email talesfromthecards@gmail.com and I will gladly post it here!
First Age Deck: Three’s Company
First Age Deck: Strength of Will (created by Pengolodh)
First Age Deck: Scrying and Smashing (created by Ecthelion III)
First Age Deck: Mustering the Edain (created by Wandering Took)
Tales from the Cards 
This is super impressive, and I think you nailed quite a few cards thematically – particularly Luthien, Fingolfin, and Huan. I also love the way that Tuor and Turgon can work quite well together.
Though I am disappointed that Maedhros is not a hero, he is sufficiently awesome in ally form for me to overlook this. I am also looking forward to what I can only assume will be the future hero Beleg.
I thought it was interesting how many characters, like Earendil, that I think of as being awesome warriors have very high willpower instead of attack. Which I guess makes sense, because Earendil was good at basically everything (who could have greater willpower than the man that sailed to the undying lands?), and you provide plenty of opportunities to switch stats around – Vingilot seems perfect.
Also, where did you find such a plethora of excellent art?
Thank you! Maedhros actually started out as a hero in the early stage of the project, but those hero spots were so precious that I eventually bumped him to an ally. I love getting Maedhros into play, though, as he’s a real beast. Rest assured, some of those cards that are allies will probably end up as heroes in future expansions.
Earendil was an interesting design challenge. I envisioned his willpower as representing his ability to get the quest done that no one else could: sailing to the undying lands. And attaching Vingilot puts him in that super warrior mode we see in the final battle.
The art comes from all over the net. Deviantart was a great source of First Age art, as was drawing on the works of known LOTR artists, especially Ted Nasmith.
Did you have trouble getting granted permissions for the use of their artwork?
Superb work!
Just tried isle of werewolves and read through the player cards and a few sorta odd rules thing came up.
1. The Devouring Werewolf was dealt a shadow card that returned it to the staging area after attacking while it was in the pit and I didn’t see anything in the rules that would actually prevent this from happening.
2. There doesn’t appear to be any rule against putting more than 1 solitary outlaw on the same hero. Is this intended?
3. Huan’s first active ability should probably be once per round but that was pretty obvious in how it was meant to be played.
4. Is Hador able to put another copy of himself into play? It seems like he should since he is discarded before the effect resolves but I just wanted to be sure.
Oh yeah 1 more thing. There are 2 copies of eyes in the dark in the encounter deck for Isle of Werewolves. What happens when the second one is revealed?
Nevermind on this one, It looks like Octgn has 2 copies in the encounter deck for some reason but the pdf only has 1.
Thanks for the questions!
1. Ignore any effect that moves Devouring Werewolf out of the pit area.
2. That’s an oversight on my part. Solitary Outlaw should be limit 1 per hero. I will include that change in the first errata grouping.
3. Yeah, Huan’s ability is once per round.
4. Hador can put himself into play.
5. That must’ve been a mistake when I made the Isle deck. There should be only 1 copy of Eyes in the Dark.
Note on the Will of Feanor deck: Since I made the deck, Eol’s ability to grab attachments from the deck at will has been nerfed. So I would recommend adjusting the card pool to add an additional copy of some of the more important attachments (unexpected courage, nauglamir, high kingship, etc.) as you see fit. The two copies of Dwarf of the Blue Mountains can be safely removed, and other options to take out include one or more copies of Oath of Feanor and Huor. Open Battle is still as powerful as ever, so don’t worry too much about leaving solo copies of weapons and armors.
This looks fantastic! I can’t wait to try (I’ll probably go for a physical copy). I love what you’ve done with the corruption mechanic, and I love how much the cards are thematically appropriate.
Quick question: Elwing’s ability is not limited in the number of times it can be used per phase. Was this intentional? With enough resources at your disposal, she could chump-block a whole army on her own.
Thanks Michael! Not limiting Elwing’s ability was indeed intentional. Spirit tends to struggle a bit with the First Age quests due to the combat-heavy nature of them, so Elwing serves as a neat trick that sphere can use, albeit one that is restricted to an Earendil deck. It didn’t come up as an issue in playtesting, but I’ll certainly keep an eye on it to see if it becomes too strong.
After thinking long and hard about Elwing and how it might affect future design space for expansions, I’ve decided to limit her ability to once per round. It should still be useful, but won’t be limitless.
Question on the PDFs, maybe its just me, but 1 card image per page, what’s the best way to print these out? Generally I’ll see 9 images on a page.
Apparently I must be doing something wrong. I would like to print out hard copies for myself. The cards look awesome and I don’t play on OCTG. So going to the PDFs I can set it to print 9 pages per sheet, but the cards come out smaller than they should. Any help with this? The expansion looks great so really want to give it a shot.
Hmm, I’ll give it a look and get back to you soon.
Ok, I’m creating a version of the printable materials that should come out much better. They’ll come out sometime today.
You rock!
Links have been updated. The new versions should be much more straightforward. Just print using double-sided printing and it should work out nicely. Enjoy!
So far so good, this is a great help, looks amazing. Thank you for your quick fix, really appreciate it.
Ignore my comment above. This looks great, big fan of the PodCast, can’t wait for this.
I’m looking forward to trying this out. Any word on when the CardWarden file will be available?
It should be available within the next few days. Sometime next week at the latest.
I ordered my copy from artscow. The couponcode was realy worth it. I had to pay about $79. But I actualy saved about $96. So that’s awesome. Now the long wait to get it shipped to the Netherlands. But untill then the dunland trap is here to play.
Awesome to hear. That coupon code is a big help. Let me know what you think once you get to play it!
I nearly cried when I put it into the cart and it came in at just short of $180 with the international shipping to the UK. Thankfully the code dropped that down to $79 inc the shipping and with favourable exchange rate it worked out at slightly more than 1.5 core sets which I can live with. Can’t wait for them to arrive now though!
Great job on the project. I can’t wait to play it, just figuring out how I want to print it.
First Age has inspired me to start a project of my own (I won’t reveal it yet) and I was wondering where I can download the rulebook template. Keep up the blog, I’ve used many of your decks.
Thanks! You can find the rulebook template (along with a bunch of other templates) here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/763379/geckoths-lotr-template-repository
Thanks for the link! I will use it!
Does anyone have reports on the quality of the ArtsCow prints?
I’m happy with the quality other than the border being a bit cut off, which tends to happen with artscow. The images themselves look awesome though. Ill post up some images later. If you are at all worried about the quality, I’m going to try to fix the border issue soon, once I scrounge up some free time, and a printer studio version should be available soon as well.
Once I receive my artscow order I’ll post about the quality as well
If you are on Facebook, check out the Master of Lore page. He has posted up a bunch of pictures that give a great idea of what the quality of the cards is like.
Can I just say this is awesome work! Really impressed by the effort you have put in to this set and the fact that I can now play games from my favourite period of Middle Earth just makes this a fantastic edition to the game.
Thanks! There are really so many amazing stories to be found in this period of Middle-earth.
Apart from the missing borders and artist names the cards look fine. Got mine today.
Hey, I had a few questions.
When ordering on Artscow, all you need to do is click the 8 links and add to basket checkout and put in code right? And it will print them like FFGs cards with the ring or eye on the back? I don’t do anything special?
And can anyone post pics or a link to the pics of the printed cards? I want to see. And how do they hold up compared to FFGS?
I love the work you have done and want to add it, just it is 80 some$ and I want to make sure cards work and are good
Yup, you don’t have to do anything special other than click on each and add it to the cart. If you are on Facebook, check out the Master of Lore Facebook page. He has posted up a bunch of pics of what the cards look like. If you don’t have access to Facebook, let me know and I’ll post some pics.
Question about Dark Heart of the Smith, does this double the characters choppy icons for the round or does an enemy take its shields of the incoming choppy before the damage is doubled? If it’s the latter would ‘immune to player card effects’ prevent this from occurring and how is it handled for multiple attackers?
I like the phrase “choppy icons”. To answer your question, it doubles the damage, and when attacking with multiple attackers, you can choose which attacker’s attack is absorbed by the defender’s shield. It can be used against an enemy that is “immune to player card effects” because it is the damage that is targeted, not the enemy itself. This card was based on the card Heavy Stroke, and this ruling/explanation from one of the designers can help to clarify:
Question: With Heavy Stroke.. did the card mean to say “an attack that a dwarf participates in” or dose it mean the dmg the target dwarf makes IN an attack. Like if you have Aragorn and Dwalin attacking a 1 Defence Monster with 5 Health….
Is it…
Arragon (3) + Dwalin (2) = 5 -1(Defence ) = 4 dmg + Heavy Stroke (double dmg) = 8 dmg Total
Or is it..
Aragorn (3) + Dwalin (2) = 5-1 Defence = 4 dmg + Heavy Stroke (Dwalin 2 -1 = 1 dmg doubled (2) ) = 6 Dmg total?
Thanks in advance
Caleb:
The way Heavy Stroke is intended to work depends on allowing players to choose which character’s attack value is applied to the enemy’s defense value. In your example, the optimal way to play Heavy Stroke would be to apply Aragorn’s attack 3 to the enemy’s 1 defense. So Aragorn is dealing 2 damage to the enemy and Dwalin is also dealing 2 damage, at which point you play Heavy Stroke to double Dwalin’s damage and make it 4 for a total of 6 damage dealt to the enemy.
Just to clarify it further, let’s say Aragorn and Dwalin were attacking an enemy with 4 defense. The optimal way to play Heavy Stroke would be to apply all 3 of Aragron’s attack plus 1 of Dwalin’s to beating the enemy’s defensse, then Dwalin would deal 1 damage to the enemy that could be double with Heavy Stroke for a total of 2.
Thanks for the prompt response. I have been taking a look at some deck building on OCTGN while I wait for my artscow order to arrive and because I didn’t want to spoil the new adventures before I can sit down with other players and play it I threw a modified Will of Feanor deck at the Lake-town adventure, which was a lot of fun, Feanor one shotted Smaug! (eventually!)
For some reason i can’t load the images into octgn, it keeps giving me an error. I’m usin gthe add image pack but i guess i must be doing something wrong. Any ideas?
Hmm, could you tell me what the error message is and what the process you went through to load the images was?
I go to the games manager tab and click add image packs and click custom.o8c. a popup then says that the file is not a valid o8c file. any ideas?
I re-redownloaded it and it works now, btw. Love the set a ton!
Thanks! I’m glad you got it to work and I’m glad you like it!
Hi Ian – I’m trying to download the image pack custom.o8c but it doesn’t appear to be in dropbox anymore…
Hmm, you’re right. Let me try to find out what happened.
The link should work now.
These look fantastic. I can’t begin to imagine the amount of hours that you put into making the expansion.
For anyone wanting to use Printerstudio they currently have 50% off custom playing cards using code: RTMNPCARD50
It works out about $20.26 + shipping because you don’t have to order 8 different decks but can just have 2 decks one of 234 cards and the other of 198 cards.
I haven’t uploaded the card images yet. Before I set about chopping up the pdfs is there any chance of the individual card images I can just upload?
Thanks.
Wow, that’s an awesoe Printerstudio deal. I’ve been wanting to upload images there, but time has been extremely limited lately. I’ll send you the individual card images.
I don’t know if this will work or save you some time but here are the links for the card decks on printerstudio. I added a bleed border around each of the cards and have put them in 2 decks of 234 cards. There are 33 blanks in one of the decks so someone could add a few custom scenarios etc if they wanted.
http://www.printerstudio.com/design/dn_show_parse.aspx?producttype=772E45C74E337CF36906FDBEFF230590&flow=868A4695A58AE09DFCB8D0AE100A93FF163EC7F6C8151841&id=D122941E17FACFA725D80CB31CD5C6380B1CC9CFE4CF53E3557BB2E28B74B1F6CE72319FF09C39EE&projecttype=EFAE81EBDA27CF77EB9E00D7A1ACC4D5&projectfrom=EFAE81EBDA27CF77EB9E00D7A1ACC4D5&orderNo=&ssid=464DA3D64CD54B70B39A6349F4591126
http://www.printerstudio.com/design/dn_show_parse.aspx?producttype=772E45C74E337CF36906FDBEFF230590&flow=868A4695A58AE09DFCB8D0AE100A93FF163EC7F6C8151841&id=CF5986CE73FE84D9FF9674F4365984C64CF0E7C79917F74A079470136008C615A163B71B9C0D91F8&projecttype=EFAE81EBDA27CF77EB9E00D7A1ACC4D5&projectfrom=EFAE81EBDA27CF77EB9E00D7A1ACC4D5&orderNo=&ssid=90B1928C7DC241D0AAED32E753A3F8D3
Updated decks with one correction:
http://www.printerstudio.com/design/dn_show_parse.aspx?producttype=772E45C74E337CF36906FDBEFF230590&flow=868A4695A58AE09DFCB8D0AE100A93FF163EC7F6C8151841&id=D122941E17FACFA725D80CB31CD5C6380B1CC9CFE4CF53E3557BB2E28B74B1F6CE72319FF09C39EE&projecttype=EFAE81EBDA27CF77EB9E00D7A1ACC4D5&projectfrom=EFAE81EBDA27CF77EB9E00D7A1ACC4D5&orderNo=&ssid=BCE6E95414EF4C4EA10EFBE42A90F1AE
http://www.printerstudio.com/design/dn_show_parse.aspx?producttype=772E45C74E337CF36906FDBEFF230590&flow=868A4695A58AE09DFCB8D0AE100A93FF163EC7F6C8151841&id=CF5986CE73FE84D9FF9674F4365984C64CF0E7C79917F74A079470136008C615A163B71B9C0D91F8&projecttype=EFAE81EBDA27CF77EB9E00D7A1ACC4D5&projectfrom=EFAE81EBDA27CF77EB9E00D7A1ACC4D5&orderNo=&ssid=C794D95635CF43BD82CD6470C4B7E43B
Thanks so much for your work on this! I’ll be posting these links in the First Age page for those who are interested.
Wow, thanks for the effort. Does the red doted line on the cards indicate the acutal printing area. In other words will the cards be cut of on all for sides?
No, don’t worry. The red dotted line is just an indicator that printerstudio recommend you keep all essential text inside. The cards will print and be cut with everything visible. If you try to edit one of the cards you’ll see that there is an additional bleed area of about 3mm on all sides to allow for any misalignment in the cutting.
Hate to ask, but is there less quality with the PrinterStudio versions. I only ask b/c they are half the price of the ArtsCow versions, or am I doing it correctly. Its First Age 1, and 2 correct? This is awesome by the way, well done.
Oh, and if your doing standard shipping the code SHIP30 actually saves you $3.
Thanks for any answers you can give
The main reason it’s so much cheaper is because printerstudio allows for custom deck sizes of up 234 cards instead of forcing you to order 8 54 card decks. I’ve ordered a number of custom cards from printerstudio over the years and always been really pleased with them.
You’re right – it’s just First Age 1 and 2.
There are a lot of discount codes at the minute. Whether free shipping or 50% off works out better probably depends on where you are. I ordered them along with another deck of large cards for a different project and it worked out almost exactly the same either way for me.
Do you happen to have the link for the deck ? For this entire expansion? I’ve done a previous fan scenario on printerstudio and loved the quality, except for the fact that some of the cards had on one edge a white line (on some cards bigger than others). So I’m scared that I might have done them the wrong way. Since it takes 2-3 weeks for me to get them, and I would prefer to get all the cards at once, it would seem a waste to repeat the process until I get it right (a lot of time and money wasted).
The links are now in the opening post and also in a comment I made a little further up.
I’ve never had a problem with a white line on my cards. It sounds like you left a white border for the bleed area. The perfect thing if you’re creating your own cards is to create an image bigger than you actually want printed so that it expands right out and fills the bleed area. I couldn’t do that with this as they are fixed images but I tried to roughly match the bleed area to the majority colour at the edge of the card.
Yeah, sorry for the previous post, just saw the links. I’ve used the template they provide, witch is quite good, but maybe I was it too much of a hurry to finish them. Thanks for the help, can’t wait to play this.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about the quality of printerstudio actually. I went with artscow first because I have used them before and wanted to go with a known quantity, but I’m looking forward to seeing how printerstudio does with the cards.
Thanks for the feedback. Ordering now
Just got to thinking, do people order more than one? Would this be like getting 3 cores to have all the cards. I was just thinking about my wife and I playing and if we wanted to use the same cards. I assume there are only 3 of each card?
Again thanks
There are only 3 of each for the sets I’ve put on printerstudio. I assume the same for those Ian put on artscow. There are 33 blanks that you could use to print extra duplicates. All the cards are uploaded if you go to edit the deck you can add extras of any you want.
Wish I had known that earlier, I had already submitted my order. I would have got some extras and used up the blank ones. Oh well, lol
I click the link to printerstuido and I get this…The link is not currently active.
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—as a note, I did get my set from artscow ( didn’t see it has to come from hong kong!) The quality is perfect. super close to FFGs. Only thing is that the boarders are cut off a little, but nothing major. Plan to throw together mono might and try a solo easy play of the first quest.
Hmm, intersting. The link is still working when I click on it. If someone else could try the link and let me know if it works or not, that would be helpful. I’m glad you are happy with the artscow quality. They did come out pretty close to FFG quality.
Works for me as well.
I placed an order at printerstudio. Coupon code is no longer valid, but there’s free shipping weekend or sth there, so didn’t hesitate at all. Pretty curious how long will it take to get the package overseas.
Awesome! Yeah, these coupon codes tend to expire for both printerstudio and artscow, so I’ll have to look into finding some new ones.
So the printerstudio is two big decks and costs $40 compared to the artscow job that costs $162? I want to order this but im hesitating because I feel like there is some issue that im not aware of.
The big difference between artscow and printerstudio is that artscow doesn’t allow you to build decks bigger than 54 cards, so I had to create First Age as a set of 8 decks. With printerstudio, you can do just two big decks. For some reason, this drives up artscow prices to insane levels. With coupon codes, you can get artscow down to $70, although I’ve been told that the old coupon code is no longer working, so I’ll have to look into finding a new one. Long story short, printerstudio looks to be the better deal currently. I’ve ordered sets from both places for myself, and the printerstudio set looks great. No issues that I’m aware of.
I just got my set from printerstudio today, and on the whole the quality is very good except for a few border issues on the backs of some of the player cards (a black stripe along the left edge). Not ideal, but I can certainly live with it. And for a total price of $42 including shipping, really can’t be beat. I also filled in the extra “blanks” with additional copies of some important cards like Undismayed, Dark Heart of the Smith, Melian, etc. Also, I added a forth copy of Solitary Outlaw to allow for the possibility of a four-player mono-hero game.
I’m glad you’re happy with the set. I think the black stripe issue is probably a result of trying to put a sufficient bleed margin. It’s hard to balance having too much bleed margin vs. not enough, but at least it sounds like it’s contained to the backs and not the fronts. That was a good call on using those blanks for key cards.
Links for printerstuido work for me, if I click the link in Petes reply. Weird. I have also ordered both. First I got the set from artscow, which is great quality, very close to FFGs. The printer stuido is on its way over. I got the arts cow for 79 shipped. Getting 3 of everything for that price is well worth it.
The quests are a blast and pretty challengeing. Whens the first expansion 😛
Just to leave some feedback on printer studio. They came a few days faster then arts cow and they are even better quality. They do suffer the same fate of the boarders being cut off a bit but all the info is on the card and they feel nicer and stronger. Plus the price is great
Just got mine as well from printerstudio, the quality of the cards is great, and some of them are just perfectly printed, but a lot of them have black edges(some very thin, the thickest being a approx. 2 mm). I guess it will happen with any company, since it’s mass produced, so I can’t be mad about that, I’m actually happy they’ve made it black(instead of white as it was previously), since it’s really hard to notice it on some cards.
Also ordered both. I find printerstudio way better……and also way cheaper.
Sorry about the black lines. Unfortunately, it’s pretty unavoidable. I tried to make the bleed area a colour similar to the majority of the card border which means mostly black apart from on a few paler cards for the objectives etc. The only way to really solve it is to extend the original artwork into the bleed area. When you’re using existing card templates that doesn’t work as on most cards you’d end up cutting off the edges and having made that mistake once in the past – trust me it looks a lot worse than a black line.
And here I was praising printerstudio. I know, I had a previous (smaller … much smaller :P) fan made pack that came out with white edges. This is so much better. So thank you for that, I really appreciate it.
How does Caranthir’s ability work with treacheries that attach to characters?
I’m guessing it does nothing?
Also, how does Cirdan’s ability interact with attachments?
Hi. Yeah, treacheries that attach to characters trump Caranthir’s effect, so his ability would fizzle in that case.
There’s a brief entry on Cirdan’s ability in the First Age rules, which is: “Q: if a character or enemy is considered to be out of play because of Luthien’s or Cirdan’s ability, does this mean that any attachments they have are discarded? A: No. These abilities serve as exceptions, because the out of play status is temporary and conditional.”
I hope this helps!
For those who’ve had issues with black lines. I’ve had a thought of trying to extend the original artwork into the bleed area and then pasting over it the original image again at the correct size. The end result won’t be perfect but it should for the most part be an improvement and make any poor cutting less obvious. I’ll try and put a new set together and upload it but it may take a while.
Here are the links for the updated decks with an improved bleed area. I’m going to order a set today as there’s currently a deal for Free Shipping + 20% off but only until 15th August.
http://www.printerstudio.com/products/playingcard/design/dn_playingcards_front_dynamic.aspx?id=9552E5584AC961E8BE3E0F142781F3FC61EBFB506AC196091732D019CD335D6536798AFC3290003D&ssid=5529C976340F4BF2AF40B8E0D5C5F84E
http://www.printerstudio.com/products/playingcard/design/dn_playingcards_front_dynamic.aspx?id=0CAF8E8D0B96F5E6EF2FD4B16CE1EBD1838589FB796CC9FC78D9164BF16D5DE8400CE4D94412B194&ssid=E24351D326494084B567D6D9D3761EC5
Just to let you know the new set arrived in the post today. Really pleased with the results. The front of the cards look perfect, can’t see a fault on any of them. The backs of the cards are almost there, certainly an improvement on a black line. At the bottom of some of the cards to a max of about 2mm on a few you can see a line as it switches from the main image to the background but it’s barely noticeable.
I wonder if they prioritise the front of the card alignment. If that’s the case it might be best to swap the front and back of the cards when printing in future as the backs are more important to the gameplay.
Again, massive thanks to Ian for putting this together. Incredible job.
Thanks for reporting back (and for making fixes). I’ll update the links!
My cards just arrived from Printer Studio in California and I am floored at how nice they are. I opened the box and my jaw literally hit the table. Outstanding work and I cannot wait to play through these quests!
Thanks for giving the set a try and ordering a copy! Let me know what you think once you play through the quests!
I finally got a chance to play through the first quest. Making my player decks was tougher than I expected, as I didn’t have my old-faithful core set cards to fall back on! It was a lot of fun though.
My first game was a write-off because I was still getting the hang of the encounter cards. My second game went much better, except that I got so focused on Wolf-Sauron that I forgot to remove tokens from Eyes in the Dark once he hit the table. I *think* I won, but I may have lost by a single round. Either way, I commend you on creating a tense scenario that comes down to the wire!
Any thoughts on creating a BGG entry for First Age? The rules do allow for fan expansion entries, provided that the game is in a “final release” state. I don’t mind setting this up, unless you would prefer to let the community play-test for a while first.
Hi Michael. I’m glad you’re enjoying the first quest so far. I was aiming for tense and “down to the wire” victories, but I’m pleased to hear that was your experience.
I honestly didn’t consider making a BGG entry for First Age, simply because I didn’t think of it! If you would like to make one, you definitely have my blessing, as I think that’s a great idea.
Great! I’ll get started on it. It’ll take some time before it goes live, as all entries have to go through an approval process. I’ll keep you posted.
Alright, it’s in the submission queue. I also added you to the database, which is necessary in order to credit you as the designer.
Alright, next hurdle: BGG will only allow fan expansions if the desiger has received the appropriate permissions from the trademark holders.
The details are here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Fan_Expansion_Guidelines
Did you ever inquire, or get anything “official” from FFG?
No. Generally, people in the community have gone about creating their own expansions without official approval, as FFG very much takes the hands off approach. I don’t think that they would ever give “official” approval to a fan expansion as this would imply endorsement and could get them tangled in stuff that they’re not interested in getting tangled in.
In short, if these are BGG’s rules, then I don’t think First Age fits the bill. Thanks for the valiant effort!
Too bad, but that’s understandable. It was worth a shot.
I have a question regarding corrupted characters:
Let’s say I am defending an attack with a Gondolin Guard. The shadow effect has me place a corruption token on the defender, which is enough to corrupt him. Understandably, the attack would become undefended. What happens to the Gondolin Guard? Does he get an attack during this phase? Does the fact that he was exhausted make a difference?
Good questions. This plays into some tricky timing regarding the combat phase. Because a corrupted character essentially counts as a new enemy engaging you during the “resolving enemy attacks” portion of the combat phase, the corrupted character would get an attack during the combat phase. It is only when the player begins attacks that new enemies that engage no longer get an attack. You can think of this thematically as the corrupted character not only abandoning you when he’s supposed to be defending an enemy, but also stabbing you in the back as well.
The ready or exhausted state of a corrupted character doesn’t make a difference. Since a corrupted character becomes an enemy, and enemies do not have either an exhausted or ready state, then you can simply ignore whatever state they were in when they became corrupted. Hope this helps, and again, good questions!
This looks like fantastic expansion and the work is awesome!!!
i do have a question regarding the Enemies in the game. is morgoth in the expansion. im a huge lord of the rings nerd and i know that during the first age in tolkeins books that Morgoth was a huge part of it!!!
Never mind! i just looked at the encounter set! wow this is a great expansion! i am so going to print this out!
Awesome to hear! Designing Morgoth was one of the most intimidating prospects to taking on these particular quests, but I was ultimately happy with the end product and I hope you will be too when you get a chance to take him on.
Got it. Shipped on 7th of August, delivered on 18th – well done, Printerstudio! Quality of cards is awesome, nothing to complain of. But what strikes me most is the amount of work on your side, Ian, to design cards and scenarios. Scrolling through .pdf simply doesn’t allow to realize how big it is, one must watch the actual cards to do so. Big thanks to you and special thanks to Pete for sharing the projects.
Awesome! Thanks for giving First Age a try!
My Printerstudio cards arrived within a week and they look absolutely beautiful. I think I paid $45 total. Thank you Ian!
Is there any way to create different sized projects on Printer Studio? I’m trying to just get the quest/encounter cards, without getting loads of copies of the heroes. I’m sure I’m missing something, but can’t figure out what.
If you have a look here http://www.printerstudio.com/personalized/custom-playing-cards-gifts.html
There are a whole bunch of different options for the number of cards. If you send a geekmail to Godfella with your email I’ll share a dropbox folder with all the cards you need edited and ready to upload.
You can’t do it from the links to the printerstudio decks above as they’re a link to an existing saved project.
When is your next expansion coming out? Any way to donate to you via paypal?
Just got all this back from the printers with enough for a playset for each of the members of my fellowship!! Can’t wait!!!
Harp of Fingon should be a response, rght?
Yes, it should definitely be a response. That was a mistake that slipped through. Oops!
links are down
Which link is down? I want to make sure I get it fixed as quickly as possible!
The OCTGN dropbox link is down.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c6lnp8a70bhq0qx/AACAYU8JXyUaFBZNwoXfJ_Eka/English/Custom.o8c
Correction: the link is to a dropbox file. If you “save link as” to the desktop it only gets you the link, not the gigantic file!
It should be fixed now!
This a trivial comment, but do you plan on updating the First Age Approved list? I noticed it does not include Galadriel yet. Thanks!
By the way, I am 100% available for card designing, if you need another hand. 🙂
Not trivial at all. I’m probably going to update after every few packs are released. Right now it’s updated up through The Nin-in-Eilph, but I’ll definitely be adding in Galadriel, although sadly her ring will be out of bounds 😦
Thanks for the offer. More help is always appreciated!
This looks awesome – I will purchase this at some point. Question before I do, though: Are there any player cards that come with less than 3 copies? If so, has anyone put together a PrinterStudio file of the cards including 3 copies of every player card? I’d hate to put in an order only to find out that there are a few copies of cards that I’m missing and feel like I’d want.
Thank you for your work, I’m just getting into this game and this looks amazing!
The Printer Studio file should have 3 copies of every player card (except for the heroes of course).