Dwarven Culture - Designer Notes

This Strategy-Note article was written by Mike Reynolds (Game Designer Decipher, Inc) and was published first on "Lord of the Rings Online (lotrtcg.decipher.com)".

Gimli is the lone representative of the Dwarf culture in The Two Towers, yet his influence permeates the story.

Gimli is the ideal traveling mate. Once a companion earns Gimli's respect and trust, Gimli is devoted. The designers wanted the Dwarf culture in The Two Towers set to feature Gimli as a strong and hearty fighter, but we also wanted him to raise his companions' morale and aid them in skirmishes.

Enter the Circus

Some sort of card manipulation seemed in order to allow better access to Free Peoples cards. Dwarves have a precedent of relying on support area conditions from Fellowship block, so conditions would be integral in our plans.

Early in the design process, the circus came to town. I designed a card that stacked the top card of the draw deck on each Dwarf condition in play, a card that took every copy of the same Free Peoples card stacked on any Dwarf condition into hand - like multiple Power According to His Statures, and a card that moved stacked cards between Dwarf conditions. This was madness in playtest games. There were so many choices to make that the game bogged down. The Dwarf player was hopping cards all around, while the opponent just watched the circus ensue with little hope of verifying the action.

The placeholder titles of these early manipulation cards were equally festive. They were inspired by a poker game called Texas Hold-em. We had Blue Mountain Hold-em, Erebor Hold-em, Iron Hills Hold-em, you get the idea. The Hold-em cards eventually became the Dwarf conditions that "hold" other cards - Courtesy of My Hall, Here Is Good Rock, etc.

The kingpin was Khazad-dûm Hold-em, aka Moria Hold-em, which became Ever My Heart Rises. This radical card remained largely unchanged throughout development as one crazy manipulator was fun. In the Battle of Helm's Deep expansion, we added More to My Liking to revive the original circus a bit more.

These 2 cards are the essence of a Dwarf sub-strategy that increases the quality of Free Peoples cards. Ever My Heart Rises gives you more cards to play during the Fellowship phase, and More to My Liking increase the occurrence of skirmish and maneuver events.

Elf-friend

Gimli stands out in the story and film for the help he gives his mates at Helm's Deep. He is also well known for a contest with his closest friend, Legolas, to see who can kill the most Isengard denizens. We wanted this contest to be the basis of a deck, so we designed 2 cards, My Axe Is Notched for Gimli and Final Count for Legolas, that count the number of minions each has killed, and gives a persistent strength bonus to each equal to the smaller of these numbers. The original common versions of Gimli and Legolas allowed one to exert to give the other +3 strength. These made the original "contest" playtest decks unstoppable, so we pulled back a bit on the character text.

Finisher

The topper card for all Gimli strategies is his new axe, Axe of Erebor. Any Dwarf condition and the cards stacked on them can make him a better fighter, sometimes incredibly so (Ever My Heart Rises alone can give him +7 strength). The axe went through many design iterations. One version healed Gimli when he won a skirmish, but this discouraged the opponent from playing minions. One version lifted Dwarf cards from a condition into hand, but this hailed back to the circus. This final version plays perfectly with a Dwarf manipulation strategy, but it also plays well in any deck that uses any Dwarf conditions whatsoever.

In standard tournament play, expect Gimli and his axe. You have been warned, Mr. Witch-king.