Month in Review: September 2021

What a month it has been! Not only for the community as a whole, which got flooded by new content and news but also for me personally. September was the month in which I would send out hundreds of notebooks to community members that supported the blog over the last year, but I wasn’t prepared for how much effort that would take. Still, the job has been done, and all of the authors and Patreon supporters that pledged before the deadline should have received their notebook by now. In fact, I had about 50 of them leftover, which were meant to be distributed at Con of the Rings. Unfortunately, with the border opening in November, that is no longer a possibility for me. So I sold the remaining books at cost to the community, which has helped me to lower the costs of this year’s loot!

All this loot stuff took away valuable time from me actually writing on the blog, but we still got a nice set of articles released in September. Let’s take a look at those after we briefly cover the news of this month.

September

As most people will know, LOTR LCG got a segment during the FFG In-flight presentation halfway through the month. During this presentation, the plans for the game for the coming time were laid out. The details on all the content discussed in the presentation and what it means for the blog can be read in the news article I wrote on the topic. There was also news from the community, with AleP releasing their second Adventure Pack, this time looking at the Eagle/Creature trait in particular. I have not spoiled myself with the pack just yet, as I want to wait to get these things printed once the entire cycle is ready!

Scenario analyses

We got a brand new POD analysis article released this month on Massing at Osgiliath. This quest isn’t as complex as some of the other ones that were released more recently, but I am still happy that we managed to fill that hole in our library of strategy guides. I regret to inform you that I have done very little work on the Land of Sorrow scenario analysis. The loot took away too much time, so that quest will hopefully be released in October. Work has also started on the Fortress of Nurn quest, which will hopefully be released before the end of the year. That will allow me to go back to past quests and properly analyze them or start to cover custom-made content.

Saga/Nightmare analyses

After 1.5 years, a new Saga scenario analysis was finally released, all thanks to Mortendall. The Road to Isengard was abandoned when Brinx left the author’s team, but Morten has stepped up to continue the Saga analyses for the second half of the campaign. Work will be slow on these articles, but hopefully, you can now start to pick up your campaign again as the Land of Shadow will be picked up next.
The Nightmare analyses have also been on hold this month, though I do intend to complete the NM Dwarrowdelf cycle as soon as I finish the Land of Sorrow. There are still plenty of scenarios to cover in Nightmare mode, so a steady stream of content will appear on the blog in the months to come.

Player card reviews

Silblade posted a new player card review at the end of September. This review was on the player cards from the Encounter at Amon Dîn Adventure Pack. It’s nice to revisit these old packs after such a long time and see what cards are still being used to this day! The series will be on hold for a while as Silblade will focus on the encounter set for Conflict at the Carrock next. But I expect that the Against the Shadow cycle will be finished someday, after which there is still so much content left to cover!

Epic Multiplayer Rules

By the end of the month, we released the new rules set for the Epic Multiplayer version of A Storm on Cobas Haven. This alternate scenario format was created by the Purple Wizard and has been playtested by the community. He will also be releasing some more epic multiplayer formats of popular quests over the coming week, including Helm’s Deep and an exclusive Con of the Rings related quest that I cannot spoil yet. Keep an eye on the main page to read all about these adapted quest formats!

Additional articles

Well, no shortage of additional articles this month. The article covering the In-flight report was one that I released within a day, which was quite the challenge. I took some more time with the description of the VotP loot of this year. Many people reacting to my pictures had been asking for details, and that article covers all of them. It also sparked my interest in the books again, which helped me sell the 50 leftover books. I currently have a handful of leftovers, which will be distributed to people who entered the waiting list. Thank you all for your patience with me sending out the loot, and I hope you all enjoy the books!

The Future

That was quite a month, so I will be taking a bit of a break during the first week of October. I will be participating in Can’t of the Rings as co-host, so please join us this weekend (starting today) on the LCG Con server to play some multiplayer games: https://discord.gg/rHwWF6g. I hope to see many of you there as we try to beat the same challenges as the Con of the Rings people got thrown at them! I will be recording some of my games, which will finally put some more content on the Youtube channel.

During the rest of next week, I am taking a mental health break. Work has been crazy, and where I once had the prospects of a holiday to look forward to, sadly, I am not allowed to fly to the US. So I will be going offline for a bit after Can’t of the Rings, but the content on the blog should still continue. I will start working on my articles after that first week. Without the loot or the convention to distract me, I should be able to pump out some articles during October.

I hope that everyone has received their loot at this point and are enjoying filling out the notebooks. Be sure to send me lots of pictures of the book filled in, as I’d love to see them being used! Take care, and I will be in touch with you all in a month’s time!

~Aa’menealla nauva calen ar-malta~