LOTR: The Card Game

At first, the idea of a single player card game was a turn-off to me.

It grew on me as I thought about it.

I remembered all the different games I invested in over the years that never caught on with my friends.

I remembered the thousands of games of Freecell and Solitaire I used to play when I was supposed to be programming.

I remembered that my wife often falls asleep before me and that our computer was currently broken.

And I also remembered that I really like Lord of the Rings.

I did some research online. Someone in a forum referred me to a website (Tales From the Cards) and I read some more.

The game scratched one of my itches. I love to discover something new. Especially something new that starts off simple, but the more you read about it the more thought and layers of effort that went into it are revealed.

It also avoided one of my major complaints about Magic. All of the cards in LOTR are set. Expansions all have the same cards, so you can skip any you're not interested in and enjoy it at your own pace. Magic was a fun enough game, but the card packs were all random. I saw early on it would be a money pit to be competitive and I still might never get the cards I wanted (After my deck got stolen in 8th grade, I never spent another dollar on it).

So I bought in. The multi-player is cooperative and not competitive, so I hope I can convince Carrie to try it with me once. Who knows if she'll play again, but at least I shouldn't get in trouble if I do too well!

And on a final nerdy note: I started a game log. I saw it recommended several places online. I already post here, so it wasn't much of a stretch. I recorded all of my attempts on the initial training scenario and uploaded them for posterity.

I've really enjoyed the game so far. It's been a great way to keep me occupied without internet, TV, or books (all casualties of moving).