Uniqueness in Co-op

[The Evans]

I've just been wondering how characters/items with the Unique symbol will work in Co-op?

I understand that it is a necessary evil to allow duplicate heros (at least until the card pool is larger!), however what will happen with Allies and Items?

If my opponent has an Erkenbrand, can I play one too? Can I play multiple Erkendbrands on my own side, or will it be one per player?

This gets more complex when you think of Unique Items, for example: If I play sting on one of my heros, can my partner also play sting on another one of my heros? If so, could they play multiple copies on my heros so I end up with all three having Sting?

My personal suggestion would be that Uniqueness should be for the whole board (except for Heros), if my partner plays Erkenbrand or Sting then I can't play them myself. As much as this might be a bit frustrating on occasion, I think it's better than the Theme breaking situations that would come up otherwise (since this is a very thematic narrative game, this is very important!)

Anyone else got thoughts on this topic?

[The Evans]

Additional thought on this:
It was mentioned on Stream that each player would have their own Fate meter, does this mean both players could get Gloin and Grimbeorn? Maybe some fate events could be only used by one player, but some by both?

[Ertzi]

I certainly hope the unique keyword does not affect everything across the board. Just seems like a hassle and could result in dead cards in the other player's hand. I don't want to be wary about including unique cards in my deck.

[Ulysse]

yeah i agree that unique should be a by player thing or the unique card would lose much of their alure in coop.

I think the unique tag is as much about theme as game balance. Unique tag enables for stronger card that would be too strong if they were to be duplicated on the board.

The fact that one players sacrifice his turn to play it across the board on a coop unit satisfies the part of the unique tag linked to balance. The only part that would be a bit off would be the theme breaking but the conterpart would be to allow those cards to be subpar in coop since one player was likely to get stuck with his copy.

[The Evans]

I think the benefit to Theme of keeping Unique to mean Unique outways the mechanical frustration if you oppent plays a Unique card you have. Particularly since most cards arent unique and also the card pool will always be growing so it will come up less and less often.

I think it is important for the mechanics to match the theme as close as possible in order to keep immersion in the LOTR world. As soon as a second Unique character turns up it ruins the feeling of being a part of the LOTR world (which is a major draw of the game)

[Kjeld]

I am strongly in favor of the Unique keyword applying universally, including for heroes.

[Ertzi]

Okay then, I guess I am in the minority. Sure, we can do it your way. :)

[gilgalad]

I agree that unique should apply across the board. I wonder if the First Player Token will find its way here. Maybe FATE allies would move between the players - always going to the FP.

[hannibal_pjv]

It woud be good to have somekind of cross checking that shows what unique cards overlap with co-op players decks, so that they can modify them accordingly.
In lotr LCG the unique aspect is clobal, but for example in Games of Thrones lcg the uniquenes is per player. So for example A little Finger can watch when another Little Finger hits even another Little finger in the game! For Little finger that is even very thematic ;)

But this game has allmost nothing common with LOTR lcg, so it is really hard to predict how uniquenes works in this digital game. If I have to ques, we get per player uniquenes, like in GoTR lcg, because it is easier to players... And this digital version seems to emphasis the easier gaming experience ower the thematic. Like common resourse pool vs sphere based resource pool. Etc.

Oh and my opinion is also that I would like to see Global Uniquenes, but some system than checks players deck before the co-op games and tell what unique cards are in both decks or tell directly what decks have less common unique cards among the co-op player would be extremely usefull!

[frozengimlet]

I don't think global uniqueness would be great for co-op. While it would suit the world it would be a hassle for the players.

Even if there was a system checking crossover the time to fixa the deck would be too long. Even if it's only 5 minutes.

If I want to play a game and had to wait for a random guy. I'd drop that game like a hot potato. Just the discussion over which of us should change the cards and build a new deck.

"Do you have this or that card then you should change because those cards are awesome."

"But it doesn't fit the theme of the deck I just created and wanted to play with."

It would be like slow motion picture with no end.

And there will be overlaps. As the game are set up right now there are a few hero's that's just better than other to have in your party. And a few types of decks that are better than the rest for each scenario.

Global uniqueness would be even worse than having different card draws during upkeep for normal and hard mode.

[vitamin boost]

Originally posted by Kjeld:

I am strongly in favor of the Unique keyword applying universally, including for heroes.

Same. I am an immersion zealot. Give me Middle-earth in all it's purity, or give me death!!

[Linty_Lohan]

Uniqueness across the whole board works fine in the paper game and I think it’s the best way to go. These cards are unique for a reason, having multiples of them in play would likely break the game. Maybe FFI just has to add some quality of life updates to deckbuilding. Ringsdb let’s you create “fellowship” decks that are designed to work together for the paper game. Something like this could be helpful in checking for uniqueness. Alternatively, side-boarding could be introduced so that players may swap out uniques before playing with others. There are many ways to ease the pain of being the “Gandalf guy” and stealing uniques from others.

[The Evans]

One thing that I imagine would be an easy fix is effects that bring a random ally in to play (i.e. Sneak Attack or the fate event in Q4). They should never bring a unique ally that is currently in play.

[Seastan]

If they don't implement table-wide uniqueness, I'd love for there to be a little checkbox in the "looking for players" menu where you can request to be paired up with someone that has no overlapping uniques, just for the added thematic depth for those of us who want that.

[DraX]

If we will have option to play with friend, invite him into play, it will potentialy resolve many problems. But it wont work for random looking for a mate.

But we have discord and finding player there shouldnt be a problem, i guess ;)

[vitamin boost]

my only argument against non-universal unique-ness is that people might exploit it and just "cheese" their builds/games and it would really impact the thematic immersion of lore in the game (sure some powerful builds and combos might be possible and the game would be easier but at the end of the day, this game isn't really just about min-maxing your deck).. otherwise it would just be like any other ccg out there and i'm assuming many of the players who are into this game are here not because they were just looking for some card game to while away time (there are many out there tbh) but because of the allure of the Tolkien lore and if the immersion and theme gets ruined by cheesy, min-maxing..well..that will suck