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)
Disclaimer: This expansion is not endorsed, supported, or affiliated with Fantasy Flight Games. The copyrightable portions of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game and its expansions are © 2011 – 2014 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. The Lord of the Rings, and the characters, items, events and places therein are trademarks or registered trademarks of The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Middle-earth Enterprises and are used, under license, by Fantasy Flight Games. Living Card Game, LCG, LCG logo and Fantasy Flight Supply are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. The Silmarillion, The Children of Hurin, Unfinished Tales, and the characters, items, events, and places therein are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Tolkien Estate and Tolkien Company. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.
All artwork is the property of the respective artists. All credit has been given where possible. Use of artwork in this expansion does not imply claim over any pieces of art or endorsement by the respective artists.
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- 2014 – some thoughts | Dor Cuarthol
- Anticipating Angmar Awakened: The Heroes | Master of Lore
- The Nightmare has arrived - The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
- When the Going Gets Tough | Dor Cuarthol
- Custom Cards: Defenders of the Carrock | Hall of Beorn
- Bear Draft version 2 | Hall of Beorn
- How fortunate you are that your job is also your hobby | Dor Cuarthol
- First Age: Mustering the Edain | Tales from the Cards
- [Custom Content] [Non-LotR] How Do They Rise Up | Warden of Arnor
- The Line Unbroken Takes a Custom Detour – First Age | Warden of Arnor
- The Line Unbroken – F8: Hunting of the Wolf | Warden of Arnor
- The Line Unbroken – F11-12: Among the Outlaws | Warden of Arnor
- A Tribute to the First Age of Cardboard of the Rings | Warden of Arnor
- The Edain of Middle-Earth | Master of Lore
- Fan-made content: Game modes and quests – Vision Of The Palantir
- Poll Results: Where Should the Game Go? | Hall of Beorn
- … And Back Again | fistfulofmeeples
Tales from the Cards 
Any help how to bring the printerstudio pictures from the US to the German site of the company? Shipping from US is prohibitely expensive. I would use the PDFs if i would knew how.
If you’re interested, I can send you a link to the card images. The bad part is you would have to manually upload them and it takes some time, but it’s an option.
Not sure if my previous reply went through, but I was wondering if you still have this link available for the individual card images? Does the link include cards for the adventure packs in the Doom Mastered cycle? Thanks!
TalesfromtheCards,
I love what you have created. I have used Superior POD in the past and prefer their printing to ArtsCow. You mentioned the ability to supply a link to the original 300dpi card images. I would love to have access to that file. Thank you for adapting The Silmarillion to this game.
You might try to hunt for free delivery week.
the seems to be blanks at printstudios shouldnt it be cards from the original game?
Etagekids did you bring cards to german site?
This project is soooo cool
Thank you for creating these–I’m looking forward to trying them out. You are to be commended for putting so much time and thought into this, only to provide it for free! Question: I have simple, double-sided dividers that I post on the Geek: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/78523/double-sided-lotr-card-dividers
…and I’m wondering if you would be willing to share your icons with me so I can create dividers that match my other ones. (I use Publisher, which won’t let me crop circles, so I can’t just pull the Mastery or Encounter icons out of your files.)
Sure, I can send them over to you. If you don’t see them in the next couple of days, feel free to remind me, as sometimes too much is on my plate and stuff falls off!
(Gentle) Nudge, nudge… 🙂
Did you ever create these dividers? If so, would you be willing to share them?
How did you get the Mastery sphere template? I’d love to have it so I can make my own cards. Thanks!
In Strange Eons, there is a custom template that can be used for player cards where you can adjust the color and insert a custom icon and this is what I used to create the Mastery template.
err . . . can’t seem to find it. Is it in the toolbar?
It should be under the template tab, and then you can pick custom template. Make sure you have the latest version of Strange Eons. Also make sure that under Preferences (under the edit dropdown), you have “advanced controls” checked in the lotr lcg section.
Thanks! Can’t wait to try it out.
The 2nd printerstudio link, please look at card 199 and up. It seems they have double borders on the front and back. What happened with them?
Hi, those sets were made by a reader. All the First Age cards don’t have the double borders, but the person who put these in printerstudio also includes some extra player cards and another custom adventure to fill in space and they have these borders. Generally, they are put there since when cards are printed, part of the border usually gets cut off, and an extra border helps prevent anything important from being cut off.
Thnx tales. So in short, I don’t need these cards itop play first age?
Yes, exactly!
Down the bin then
I hate to bother you again, but how do you get the custom Mastery icon into Strange Eons? I can never get them to look right, much less find the icon in the first place . . . 😦
Oops! never mind. Just found it built in to Strange Eons . . . when did that happen? Thanks again for making this amazing addition to our beloved game!
I’m glad you enjoy it!
I have a question regarding Treebeard: can he be used in the First Age, along with other Ents? In the preface to The Children of Hùrin, it states “…the drowned lands in the west beyond the Blue Mountains where Treebeard walked in his youth…” (although it is hard to imagine a young Treebeard). In the introduction, it refers to a part in The Two Towers when Treebeard sings a song to Merry and Pippin of places he has travelled, and talks of Ossiriand and Dorthonion. So, can he technically be used for the First Age?
I’m planning on doing an update to the First Age Approved List now that the cycle is all done. Until then, though, I’ll say that I’m going to be adding Treebeard and the other Ents to the list as their presence can definitely be justified, especially considering they are mentioned as being around at that time when they attack the Dwarves after the Nauglamir incident.
After printing these from Printerstudio, I noticed while I was sleeving the First Age 2 set that cards 202-234 have a double image around the border instead of the black border with the set info. Any way to fix that so we can identify cards in this set?
I noticed while sleeving my First Age 2 set from Printerstudio, that cards 202-234 have a double image around the border instead of the black border with set identification. Any way to get a corrected set so we can have the set info on the cards?
Thanks to maartend below for popping in with the answer. A reader kindly created the printerstudio set for me, which involves a fair bit of uploading. In my original set that I created, I ended up with several blank cards because of the way choosing deck sizes works. The person who did the upload decided to use these cards for other non-First Age stuff, which makes sense, since the cost is the same. These cards aren’t part of the FA set and you can use them or ignore them. Hope this answers your question!
Had the same, popped the same question and found out that they are from a different set, have noting to do with FA and can be discarded if you want.
I have a question about Carcharoth attacks on locations in Hunting of the Wolf. When a character is declared as a defender against a location Carcharoth is attacking, where does the excess damage from the attack past a hero’s defense go?
1. The excess damage goes onto the hero, as if the hero had defended any other attack.
2. The excess damage goes straight onto the location being defended.
3. The excess damage goes onto the location being defended, but the threat cost of that location is subtracted from the damage dealt as if the location had defended as well as the hero.
The excess damage goes onto the hero, as if it were any other attack. The hero has essentially taken the place of the location as the defender.
Hello,
Restoring the backup zip onto CardWarden only generates a “cannot restore” reply. Is the Backup zip you have for CardWarden good? It says it is 4 KB in iTunes. Should it be bigger, or am I doing something wrong dragging it into iTunes for CardWarden?
It definitely worked before, but there have been some updates to CardWarden since I made it, so I wonder if that have affected it. I’ll take a look when I get a chance.
Thank you. I’ve recently started buying up all the LOTR LCG cards and running through the quests. Coincidently, I’ve been reading the Silmarillion and I’m almost finished, so naturally your First Age looks like it will be an amazing run through of some of the events I am growing a fondness for. No need to rush, though.
I’m new to the game and the expansion looks awesome! I tried clicking the link for First Age 2 set (with 264 cards) and the last 35 cards or so says “Low Resolution.” I’m not sure if my computer uploaded them incorrectly, or will we be expecting those cards in a higher resolution?
Glad it has your interest! Don’t worry about those cards, as they are not actually part of the First Age expansion, but were included as filler since there were extra slots left over. You can leave them there or replace them with any other cards you want to have printed.
Sweet! Thanks for the prompt response 🙂
But beware, those cards have a printing error. Double borders.
Would it be possible to get these as high quality images? Suitable for printing on CowCow? It’s just like ArtsCow but different.
I have a couple questions just from a quick playthrough.
1) I assume if you attach Huan as a mount attachment, he still counts as Huan? Therefore he can’t be played as an ally again? What abou with Beor since he is attached facedown. Is he still considered Beor for the purposes of uniqueness?
2) With Harp of Fingon, when a character becomes corrupted, do you remove their corruption tokens and can trigger the Harp?
3) What happens with a corrupted character once they are killed? Do they go to the encounter discard because they are “enemy” or do they go to their original controller’s discard or are the removed from the game?
Loving the game and the cards though! So creative and the artwork you found was amazing!!!! Can’t wait to get printed copies of the two expansions!
Glad you enjoy it! Here’s your answers:
1) Correct. Huan still remains Huan in terms of uniqueness, his card type just changes from “ally” to “attachment”. Since Beor is attached facedown, he would lose his uniqueness, however.
2) Corruption tokens remain on a corrupted character until they are destroyed or the character becomes un-corrupted through a card effect. The Harp could trigger from one of those things happening.
3) A corrupted character goes back to its owner’s discard pile.
Thanks! One more question:
When Walls of Stone is in the staging area during the Isle of Werewolves quest, can you still put progress on the active location? Or does it prevent progress on both the active location and the current quest?
It only prevents progress on the quest stage itself.
I just discovered First Age custom expansion. I’m about to print and start playing! Thanks a lot for your effort! No matter how well that expansion works you deserve my upmost gratitude for this gift! As a big fan of Silmarilion , i’m looking forward to try this!!!
I’m glad you found it! I’d love to hear your thoughts after a few plays.
Hello! I have a question about the devouring werewolf and the pits on the 1st scenario. When the devouring werewolf enters the pits he engages with our hero and Finrond objective? We should declare a defender and attacker? If so, can we have the attack unefended? Who gets the damage then? Is there any way he can be killed or is it just a time counter until you finish the other 2 stages in order to save the captive?
Good questions. When the Devouring Werewolf enters the pit, he does engage the hero and Finrod objective. You can declare defenders and attackers as normal from those who are in the pit. If you leave an attack undefended, it will go on the hero in the pit. The Devouring Werewolf is mostly a timer. However, there is a location in the scenario that lets you put another hero in the pit, which could allow you to defeat the Devouring Werewolf.
Thanks a lot!
I have just prepped these files at printer studio and it is showing about 120 usd for the files. Is this correct? I’m not using any discounts or coupons so far and was curious if something has changed recently. Thanks!
hmm, I haven’t checked the price recently, but it’s possible that Printer Studio raised their prices. Are you shipping to the U.S.?
Yes, I’m in Dallas specifically. That kind of change in price seems strange but maybe so 😦
First I would like to thank you for this expansion. I enjoy it very much
I have a question for Seat of Morgoth quest.
After I travel I have an option to choose an enemy to be the active one. This enemy does not contribute his threat on quest resolution.
There is a treachury that raises the threat of the active enemy by 3
Is there something I get wrong or this treachury has no use?
These cards are amazing! I was wondering, do you have the artwork for the box available? I have a box the right size and I’d love to make your first age box!
Heya! Do you happen to have the individual files for each card? You responded to “etagekids” a while back about a link for individual card images. Is that link still available? There’s a deal with ArtsCow right now but it applies to a certain type of custom deck. I’ll have to put in some work to upload them individually, but if it’ll save me money for an awesome set, I’m down for it!
PS – Does the link also include images for the 3 adventure packs in the Doom Mastered Cycle? I’d like that as well :), Thanks!
Have you thought of creating a printing link from europe for us poor europeans so the shipping wont be so expensive but maybe its to much work. I Will probably buy everything anyway since i love this project.
That would be great! I definitely need to do some work getting some printing links set up. If anyone out there has some free time they’d like to volunteer to help out, let me know!
I am planning on printing the set from Superior POD. Depending on their system, I would be happy to share the files.
This is amazing…as much as I enjoy the trilogy, The Silmarillion is really my favorite of Tolkien’s Middle Earth works, so I’m stoked to see it getting some treatment here from dedicated fans. I’m really just starting to seriously play the game and am about halfway through the Mirkwood Cycle (have bought through Kazad Dum), but I already want this even though I have LOTS of official content to throw my wallet at already.
Glad to have you onboard!
FYI- within the last few weeks Printer’s Studio has apparently gone through and flagged all fan-made LOTR LCG content (assuming because of intellectual rights issues), and no one is able to print that content anymore. Just tried these and it looks like all the First Age Printer’s Studio sets got caught in the crackdown as well. Ordered the core First Age set off of another site late last week, so we’ll see if that still works.
Ugh, that is really upsetting. Thanks so much for letting me know. I’ll have to look around and figure out an alternative solution and hopefully this won’t spread to other printing sites.
http://www.ludocards.com/
Sigh… This is why we can’t have nice things…
This is amazing work, thank you for creating this expansion (as well as the Doom Mastered cycle)!
A question to Ian or anyone who has printed these: Are you aware of a printing service that would print the cards close enough to the main game’s cards in terms of size and texture that shuffling without sleeves won’t be a problem. I would love to have these printed, but I don’t like sleeving my cards. For example, can anyone who printed from the ArtsCow links make a comparison to the main game’s cards?
Thanks! Unfortunately, I haven’t found any service that replicates close enough that you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Artscow and Printer’s Studio both have good quality card stock and print on the correct size, but you won’t be able to get around sleeving if you want to use this or any other print on demand content and mix it with official product. That’s due to slight differences in stock, as well as cut. I’ve found even the official PoD expansions don’t match the normal cards sometimes.
Hi,
Thank you for this excellent job, Ian. I am very grateful.
I did print them through Artscow. Very excited to be able to play them during Christmas.
ClanEgill
Hi! I’m having a hard time trying to find a place that sells the core set in Argentina. I was wondering if it is possible to play this set without the main one. I’m completely new to this game and I know this is an expansion, but I still don’t know why you need the core set to play any of its expansions. Thanks!
Hello, I have a question. Do you have any files in the box for that photo? I wanted to make a box from the first era like that. If you have, can you send me an e-mail? dariusz.sopot@gmail.com
Thansk 🙂
Hi there, unfortunately I don’t have files for that box art. A friend of mine made it for me!
Hi, thank u so much for all your work with this expansion, I have just recently discovered it, I´ve downloaded already the files for printing and trying them out, but I cant get the printed well, the spaces of the cards (mainpage and reerpage) don´t match