u/RiddermarkLord

Thank you everybody for your comments and upvotes (which I took as an indicator of sentiment) on the prior thread.

Based on your feedback, I have made two smallish(?) changes that hopefully keep the community feeling the same it has historically been, while also taking into account the new "no reprints available" environment.

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(1) Buying/Selling MEGA-THREAD. All buying/selling should be contained in this thread. See rules 5 and 6 for details (also reprinted on the megathread)

Intent: Move all buying selling activities to one thread, to keep the rest of the forum streamlined for its main purpose - discussion of game play and sharing of game stories.

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(2) "No cards available to play game" MEGA-THREAD. All discussions of proxies, simulators, etc. belong here. See updated rules 2, 3, 4 for details (also reprinted on the megathread)

Intent:

- Confining all discussion here will streamline the rest of the forum.

- Community feedback generally says there should be no gatekeeping of this information. I concur - and as an unrelated bonus it will take a moderation load off me that I do not want. Thus there will be NO moderation on the topic of copyright, legality, etc.

- Everyone is free to express their views (respectfully) on the legality, ethics, etc, and everyone is individually responsible for anything they post on the thread, or any actions they take because of the thread.

- Official forum policy is still "buy the physical product". However, similar to "moderators are not the pricing police", I now add "moderators are not the copyright/legality police".

Additionally - all information will be in one spot, which hopefully helps as a reference point for readers.

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I am hopeful this is the best possible optimization to try and address many different point of views on these topics. We can adjust later if needed.

Thank you!

This Mega-thread is for those who want to build decks and play scenarios in the game, but do not have access to the cards for whatever reason (unavailable to purchase, in wrong language, etc.)

This thread will only be moderated to ensure respectful conversation. Personal attacks, or posts with clearly hostile tone will be moderated. The thread will also be moderated if the discussion diverts too far into unrelated non-LOTR:LCG topics.

Please conform to forum rules 2, 3, 4, copied below:

• Official subreddit policy is to encourage purchase of official product
• Since product is officially out of print, discussion of options should only be on this Mega-thread
• Simulator and Proxy discussions should only be on this mega-thread
• Moderators are NOT a source for legality, copyright, fair use, etc, and will NOT moderate the mega-thread on these topics. Readers may freely comment (respectfully) on these topics.
• Individuals are solely responsible for their posts on the thread, and for consequences of actions taken with information obtained here.
• Simulators are allowed to exist because FFG and license holders are currently not taking actions to take them down, even though they have every legal right to
• Please refrain from marketing simulators as an alternative to obtaining physical cards. This will not be moderated, but is a request for courtesy to avoid the risk of simulators being shut down.

Please post all buying and selling requests here. All other threads will be deleted. Please see forum rules (copied here)

• This is not ebay. But in the spirit of our co-operative game, we connect interested buyers/sellers ONCE per collection. It also shows FFG demand exists.
• ONE new post in Mega-thread per person (ever) to sell a “collection” or a custom, new LOTRLCG game aid
• ONE new post in Mega-thread per person (ever) looking to buy something
• ONE new post in Mega-thread per person (ever) on "what is my collection worth?"
• Unlimited replies to a post, or PM the poster
• NO marketing of non LOTRLCG related items
• Creative workarounds will result in moderator action
• A note on buying/selling prices. Whatever price a buyer and a seller agree to is a “fair price” in their eyes
• While anyone is free, and welcome to express their opinion on if they think something is a “fair price” – please be respectful if doing so, and remember that people can respectfully “agree to disagree”
• The moderators are not the "pricing police" - and will stay neutral on this topic when replying as a moderator

Dear lotrlcg readers,

Intro

The FFG announcement of "no new reprints" recently has (understandably) changed the landscape and tone around the game and this forum.

Views and visitors to this subreddit have spiked, and buying/selling lotrlcg discussions have grown - as a general sense of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) has appeared.

Forum/Community Purpose - History

Over the past 6 years, our forum steadily grew from 400K to 2.1M views per year, while monthly Unique visitors grew from 4K to 20K.

Our forum served as a place where new and veteran players could converse about the LOTR:LCG game. Even with no new official releases, the depth and complexity of LOTR:LCG created avenues for ongoing discussion and revisiting of all game content, which occurs even today.

90-95% of historical discussion was on game play, rules interpretation (especially for newer players), and sharing stories of adventures in game.

About 5-10% was on buying/selling collections (only one post ever, per collection), and once in a while, a new custom game play item would be announced here.

And with community help in identifying items, I have removed all other spam, non "game-related" LOTR items, etc.

This was a historically nice and consistent balance that I believe created an environment for our forum to grow. The game and community has a uniquely strong co-operative spirit, and the inclusion of occasional "marketplace" items followed that same ethos

I would like to retain roughly this same culture going forward, with additional new considerations below in light of recent events. But please comment if you feel strongly otherwise.

New Considerations:

With the official stopping of new releases, two key areas (and forum rules) are greatly impacted and need to be looked at - I would love your input as well, as this is our joint community:

1. Buying/Selling of collections.

The increase in marketplace activity adds unwanted "overhead" to the vast majority of people who want to use the forums for game play discussion. It also creates a greater chance of bad actors taking advantage of a historically high trust community.

Too much marketplace and people will stop visiting - and we enter a death spiral where the only activity is buying/selling. Even that will die as there is a dwindling audience to reach.

However - completely removing marketplace activities could be a dis-service to players as they look to "find a new home" for their beloved collection, or as they seek to fill in a collection.

Moderator Proposal:

The already published rules always left open the possibility that I could group all buying and selling activity into a mega-thread, and I feel the time has come to have one Mega-buying/selling thread per month or so as needed.

I will still NOT be doing "Marketplace Policing" on specific pricing or trust-worthiness of buyer/seller. Reasons: I retain a neutral role here, do not want to get into substantiated/unsubstantiated claims that I have no reasonable way of resolving, and most importantly, I will get it wrong on at least one instance - and that would destroy moderator credibility.

But just like before, buyer, seller and onlookers can "respectfully" comment on the thread as the community looks out for itself. Then all parties can make an "informed" decision that they feel is best for them.

A mega-thread collecting all buying/selling activity in one place will also make it more difficult for bad actors to change names and bypass the intent of this area.

If discussions get too heated, I will handle on a case-by-case basis. Hopefully not that often, or we will revisit this again.

Additional thought: I would love a community sourced "best practice" guide on reducing the chance of being scammed as either buyer or seller. If we can create this, I will find a home for it and point to it at the start of each mega-thread

Note: New, "appropriate" LOTR:LCG specific game play item announcements can still be a separate post. Appropriate = something specific to storage or physical game play manipulation - NOT mood music or ambience items.

Please comment on the above!

2. Printing of proxies, discussion of online simulators

Historically, these topics had limits as we encouraged purchase of the officially available items, and the discussion of proxies and online simulators were only for those who had already purchased said items in physical form.

With the lack of any official way to get cards, this topic has come up again and posters are now openly offering printing and usage alternatives - this is STILL against the rules, BUT read further for nuance.

First, a hard forum limit: I am not a lawyer, but try to respect copyright to best of my ability and understanding. The forum (and moderator) cannot be seen as "encouraging or promoting" replication at the expense of purchasing legitimate items (no matter how rare or out of print).

Also, the community generally respects the labor and value that FFG and all associated creators had in crafting our beloved game, and wishes to see them fairly compensated for their efforts by buying their official products. And yes, nothing will soon exist except secondary market, which the creators will not see a penny of - but that does not mean we encourage free replication of their work.

What follows is an analogy:

I and many others have created alt-art card images - which could be argued to be proxies. But these alt-art cards, to my understanding (IANAL), fall under fair use guidelines of personally generated fan-art - that I then freely shared. (And even with that - I have always removed all traces of anything an artist/owner has requested from me.)

What people do with my fan-art is their own responsibility to bear. Whether or not any copyright, etc. has been violated is unknown to me, but enforcement of such has historically been essentially zero.

I also note there are other long-standing card game communities (notably Decipher's SW:CCG) that have existed long past discontinuation of product, that use proxies, etc.

This brings us to 2026 LOTR:LCG proxies/simulators and at least two forward paths:

Path A) A hard ban on all discussion of proxies/simulators, printing of such, sourcing, etc. This keeps our forum completely "in the clear"

Path B) Allow discussions, but with caveat at the beginning of all discussions (which is the responsibility of the poster to note) that these are not meant to be substitutes for purchasing the real item. Or you can post without expressing the use of this as purchase substitution (see examples at end).

We are more or less on this path today - although I have not been diligent in enforcement lately.

Under option B, I will still react/block/remove any discussion that explicitly promotes this as a substitute for physical products. However, just as I am not the "marketplace police", I am also not the "do you have physical copies police".

In Option B, if it is obviously clear that you are discussing this topic solely for promoting physical substitute, I will have a reason to intervene. Otherwise, I will not have reason to intervene.

Examples that will draw moderator attention: "Here is where and how you can print proxies of LOTRLCG cards", "Use Dragn Cards instead of buying cards". "Where do I get official card backs to copy?"

Examples that will not draw moderator attention: "What are some of the places you have used to print ALEP cards?", "You could use Dragn cards to quickly test your decks in different scenarios instead of shuffling your cards". "I'm sharing some of my fan creation alt-cards here"

Please let me know if you prefer A or B (or an alternate C that you wish to describe)

Open discussion below. Thank you!