Hello everyone, today we want to talk to you about a couple of cards from the newly released The Shire’s Reckoning Deluxe, more specifically about the player objective Keep It Secret and the contract The Riddle-game. We would like to explain more about the intent and mechanics behind them in the hope of arousing your curiosity and putting your deckbuilding wheels into motion. You can also find some FAQs about those cards in our ALeP FAQ and Errata page.

What are player objectives?

Player objectives like Keep It Secret are a new type of player card we introduced to the game in this Deluxe. At the end of Setup the players as a group can choose one (and only one) player objective from their collection(s) to put into play into the staging area. The players will then have the choice to opt in to the chosen objective, something crucial since during a game the abilities on a player objective can only be triggered by players who have opted in to it. The chosen player objective will stay in play in the staging area for the remainder of the game (barring some rare occurrences) and it will not be affected by encounter or quest card effects.

Note that player objectives are not contracts and that those two types of player cards can even be used together.

How to approach Keep It Secret

‘The ring!’ exclaimed Frodo. ‘Has he left me that? I wonder why. Still, it may be useful.’

‘It may, and it may not,’ said Gandalf. ‘I should not make use of it, if I were you. But keep it secret, and keep it safe!

Keep It Secret is a card meant to bolster the Secrecy archetype (something that everyone will likely have guessed due to its name) at all player counts. It clearly hopes to give players an incentive to run multiple Secrecy decks, since people would not normally run 3-4 secrecy decks together and we hope this encourages such Fellowships, but it’s also meant to strengthen solo or two player Secrecy decks.

This player objective tries to do so through two different abilities, an Action usable at any player count and a Response meant to be triggered when 3 or more players are in secrecy at the beginning of the planning phase. The cost to pay for opting in to Keep It Secret in Setup is placing on it one [threat] token for each player who opts in to it. This means that if 4 players all opt in to Keep It Secret the players will have to deal with an extra 4 threat in the staging area for the rest of the game, something especially relevant in the first crucial rounds of the game.

It’s important to note that the Action on Keep It Secret can be used multiple times, allowing each player to adjust their secrecy level to whatever is more desirable for them. This basically opens up the option for decks that have a starting threat of say 23 to start the game in secrecy and maybe remain there for a couple of crucial rounds. Triggering the Action on Keep It Secret 5 times for example will raise a player’s secrecy level to 25 (and lower their threat elimination level to 40). This might allow certain hero combinations (like Leadership Denethor [DC 1/DCHE 1] and Erestor [AA 84/AAHE 7]) that are often used by decks that try to make the most out of secrecy cards  to be accompanied by a larger roster of heroes. Many existing decks like this one might benefit from this Action since it allows them to stay in secrecy more easily, even in the face of some encounter card effects that might raise their threat. Of course one must beware that in the following rounds the threat elimination level being reduced will not become an issue, but some brave souls might say decide to raise their secrecy level all the way up to 30 (which will then be the same as their threat elimination level). We hope to see many new and peculiar hero lineups show up for secrecy decks in the future, thanks to this player objective.

The Response of Keep it Secret is the main reason for players to try to create 3 or 4 player secrecy decks that work together, a new approach to the game we wanted to encourage. Something important to note is that it’s not needed for all the players in secrecy to be players that have opted in to the objective (though only those players will be able to trigger the Response).

Here is an example of a Fellowship with 3 players all taking advantage of the player objective, though at the beginning of the game only the Quiet Music deck will need to use the Action on it.

How to approach The Riddle-game?

Riddles were all he could think of. Asking them, and sometimes guessing them, had been the only game he had ever played with other funny creatures sitting in their holes in the long, long ago, before he lost all his friends and was driven away, alone, and crept down, down, into the dark under the mountains.

The Riddle-game is a new contract we introduced that tries to represent one of the most iconic moments of the books, the riddle challenge between Bilbo and Gollum in the deep caves under the Misty Mountains. Like in the books the challenger finds a treasure just prior the beginning of the game that might be crucial in winning this deadly contest.

Many players might be surprised by the fact that there are no clear deckbuilding or hero selection restrictions on this contract, but they are actually hidden away in the game text of the contract and of the Hungry Creature [TSR 23] it puts into play engaged with you.

Picking up a Hobbit hero is a clear boon, though not strictly needed. The other big consideration to keep in mind is that you want to build your deck with a ratio of card costs that will allow you a decent shot at winning the “riddles” called out by the shadow cards dealt to Hungry Creature. A decent number of 0 cost cards is basically a must, but much depends on the threat distribution on encounter cards for the quest you are going to face. Maybe there are many 3 threat locations and enemies, so you are better served by including many 3 cost player cards and so forth. Of course some decent card draw engine will be required to keep up with the cards you have to discard to answer the riddle (or maybe a Silver Harp [AA 90/AAHE 46])

Beware that if you fail to defeat the Hungry Creature in the riddle contest not only the Birthday-present, but the Thief too will be removed from the game, with no chance to come back with cards like Fortune or Fate [CORE 54]. That Creature is Hungry indeed! Note also that if the game of riddles is lost, the hero is not considered destroyed for card effects purposes, but it does leave play, so cards that do not try to directly interact with the hero can still trigger, for example Brok Ironfist [CORE 19] can put itself into play if the devoured Thief was a Dwarf.

Selecting the best Birthday-present is also quite important, but it will be dependent on your deck and the needs of the quest. Stone of Elostirion [VoM 84] or Glamdring [EM 29] are probably the main options players will think about, but attachments like Ring of Thrór [EM 93] can be extremely effective too. 

Dúnedain is an archetype that will enjoy this contract a lot, since it allows you to start the game with an engaged enemy, which will activate a lot of abilities like those of Amarthiúl [AA 115/AAHE 1] and Halbarad [TLR 2/AAHE 2] and boost allies like Guardian of Arnor [AA 116/AAHE 10] or Sarn Ford Sentry [TLR 5/AAHE 57]. Beravor [CORE 12] is probably a good choice in that case since Dúnedain decks often struggle with card draw.

But there are many more peculiar and fun options (like this one) to pursue using this contract and we are looking forward to seeing what everyone will come up with!

It’s Time to Try Them!

We hope our short talk about these cards inspired you in some ways and that you will try your hand at building a deck with them. Tell us what you think about them here or build and share some decks on RingsDB!