Keywords and Game Mechanisms

Keywords

Threat: A players threat dial is set at the beginning of the game which is equal to the chosen Hero’s cost so for example if you chose Core Aragorn, Lore Denethor and Éowyn you threat would start at 29 this breaks down as 12 from Aragorn 8 from Denethor and 9 from Éowyn and once a players threat hits 50 they are out of the game.

Doomed: is a key word that means all players have to raise their threat so for example deep knowledge is doomed 2 so players raise threat by 2. if you reveal Disturbed Waters from the Watcher and the Water encounter deck which is doomed 5 all players raise their threat by 5.

Ranged: Ranged is a keyword seen on player cards this mean that the character can help attack enemies engaged with another player in your group however there are some player cards like Hands Upon the Bow that require the Ranged Keyword. In a Journey to Rhosgobel there are Enemies that can only be defended by characters with ranged like Black Forrest Bats and Mirkwood Flock. Hero Legolas has the Ranged Keyword you can see it just underneath the cards traits and above the response.

Sentinel: Sentinel is a Keyword that means that character can defend an attack from an enemy engaged with another player in your group, so for example a Hill Troll has 6 attack and you have core Aragorn ready and you team mate is engaged with the Hill Troll but the attack would kill his hero you could use Aragorn to defend that attack and he would take 4 damage the shadow card would still trigger however if the shadow says defending player it targets the player engaged with said enemy, if it says defending character it would target Aragorn.

Guarded: when a card comes off the encounter deck with the guarded keyword you then reveal a card to guard the guarded card if its an enemy you have to destroy or remove the enemy from the board location you have to explore the location and the treachery actives as normal, however once the guard is removed you can then claim the objective so for example Gandalf’s Map once free of its guard then states you have to raise your threat by 2 to claim the card or Sign of Gollum once free after you quest successfully you attach it to any hero committed to the quest.

Archery X: Cards with the Archery keyword are enemies that do damage at the start of the combat phase before defending attacks, so for example Umbar Assassin is Archery 2 so you deal two damage across characters you control. Also if playing with more than 1 player the archery can be split up among players.

Boarding X: Boarding is a keyword introduced in the Grey Havens and Dream-chaser Cycle enemies with boarding engage a player they also get x number of other enemies engaged with them for example the Scouting Ship has boarding 1 so when you engage Scouting Ship you engage 1 Corsair enemy for the Corsair Special Deck. However if it was a Corsair Warship you engage with Boarding 3 you will have to engage 3 Corsair enemies form the Corsair Special Deck.

Deep: After you travel to a location with the Deep keyword, they discard it and replace it with the top card of the Caves deck. That location then becomes the active location. If there are no cards remaining in the Caves deck, the Deep keyword is ignored.

Indestructible: this is where the enemy can not be destroyed unless stated by another effect Durin’s Bane you have to progress to the last stage then use the effect on Dark Pit to discard Durin’s Bane from play.

Permanent: this is an attachment from the saga campaign and can not be removed from that character such as valiant warrior or noble hero.

Restricted: Restricted is a keyword that can sometimes hinder a player some powerful weapons, armor, mounts and items may have this, they include Sliver Harp, War Axe, Armored Destrier Burning Brand, a character only has 2 restricted slots unless using Golden Belt and or Forth the Three Hunters to increase the number of Slots, there are also objectives in certain quests that have this keyword that you may have to take control of like the Shadow Key or the Cave Torch.

Sailing: Sailing is a part of the quest phase to see if you are on course or off course so to do a sailing test you exhaust a number of characters to do sail for example i will exhaust 3 characters to do my sailing test i will then discard the top 3 cards of the encounter deck if any of them have the icon in the bottom corner like Calm Waters the number of successful icons means you can turn on course that main times so for example if you are at the worst setting it will take you 3 success icons to get back to on course.

Surge: When an encounter card with the surge keyword is revealed from the encounter deck, reveal 1 additional card from the encounter deck. Resolve the surge keyword immediately after resolving any when revealed effects on the card.

Time X: Time X is a keyword that represents the urgency of the heroes’ quest. When a card with the Time X keyword is revealed, the players put X resource tokens on that card. These tokens are called “time counters.” At the end of each refresh phase, remove 1 time counter from each card with the Time X keyword, if able. When the last time counter is removed, there will be a triggered effect that resolves on that card. Some encounter cards will also remove time counters, making it more difficult for the players to predict when they will run out of time

Toughness X: An enemy with the toughness keyword reduces the amount of damage it takes by X each time it is assigned any amount of damage.

Venom: When an enemy with the Venom keyword damages a character, that character’s controller must give it 1 poison. This is done by taking the top card of his deck and attaching it facedown to that character. Facedown cards attached to characters are considered “poison.” Poison cards are Condition attachments, and characters with any number of poison attached are considered “poisoned.

Unconscious Characters: In this scenario, when a character has a number of poison attached equal to its printed hit points, that character is immediately made unconscious. This is done by rotating the character card 180 degrees. After a character is made unconscious, the attached poison cards are placed in their owner’s discard pile. Each stage of the Flies and Spiders scenario includes the following game text: “Unconscious characters cannot quest, attack, defend, collect resources, trigger abilities, be poisoned, or ready (except by effects that target unconscious characters).” These characters have been incapacitated by the spiders.

If any number of poison is removed from a character, or that character leaves play, then those poison cards are placed in their owner’s discard pile.

Ambush: Ambush means the enemy makes engagement checks as soon as they are revealed from the encounter deck