By Zach "Rubber Chicken" Shephard

The Lord Of The Rings Online TCG is run by a program with many fascinating features. While some are well-known, others aren’t considered to be common knowledge, and still others have yet to be implemented (such as the ability to tip the table over or spit on your opponent’s hamburger when you lose – we’re hoping to add those under the “/tantrum” command as soon as possible).

So, do you think you’re familiar with every little feature that this program provides? Are you rolling in money sent to you by Worlds Apart after abusing the little-known “/findtreasure” command*? Well, let’s see just how extensive your knowledge of this subject is in my beginner’s guide to the The Lord Of The Rings Online TCG program.

THE LOBBY
They lobbies are where it all goes down. Games are organized, trading partners are located, and social misfits like me are allowed to communicate with other humans in a controlled environment. Let’s take a look at some of the tools that can be most useful to any player finding themselves chatting away in a lobby.

/msg X – Using “/msg X” (where X is a player’s name), you can send a top-secret message (or "whisper") to another player in your same lobby or game. This message won’t be viewable by the community as a whole, so if you’re going to discuss your plans for world domination (you know, that plot involving the toaster rebellion), this is the way to do it. It should be known that any time you have to type a player’s name (such as in this example and “/sayto X” below), you only have to type enough of the player’s name to be recognizable in the lobby. For example, if players Rubber_Chicken and Rubber_Carp were in a lobby together, you would have to type “/msg Rubber_Ch” to reach the chicken. If you stopped at the “C,” that wouldn’t be enough to differentiate between the fish and the poultry, so you’d risk sending your message to the wrong person. Similarly, if the only player in the lobby whose name started with “R” was “Rubber_Chicken,” you could simply type “/msg R” to contact him (or her – we’ve yet to discover the true gender of this elusive bird, but rest assured, the Worlds Apart scientists are working around the cluck).

/sayto X – Once again, in this instance, X is a player’s name, and the above rules for name recognition apply. This command will direct your message to a certain individual; unlike whisper, however, a /sayto message will still be in the view of the general public. So, whether you’re sharing secret deck strategies or comparing your manhood with another player, you should stick to /whisper if you’re not ready to tell the world about it.

Buddy/Ignore – Adding someone to your buddy list will allow them to participate in your buddy-only games, move them towards the top of the list of users in the lobby, and may just net you an extra Christmas card (if you’re lucky). The easiest way to do this is to simply right-click on the bullet by a player’s name and click “Add to buddy list.” Similarly, if someone is giving you a bad time, you can right-click their bullet and select “Ignore.” This will keep you from seeing what that player says in the lobby, deny their whispers to you, and make a statement that they’re being a jerk. It will not, however, delete that player’s account or egg their house. We simply can’t give you people that kind of power.

THE DECKBUILDER
Although there are a variety of features in the deckbuilder, many of them are fairly intuitive (can anyone guess what the “Save” button does?). In the interests of conserving space (and my own sanity), I’ll only be discussing a lesser-used-yet-still-awesome feature: the Validate Deck function.

Validate Deck – The “Validate Deck” button is the best way of knowing if your deck is legal (if it’s not, it will be tried as an adult and could serve up to twenty years in a maximum security penitentiary). Located under the “Options” tab, it’s always a good idea to give this little button a quick click after you’ve finished constructing your latest masterpiece. After all, everyone’s had those times where they accidentally included five copies of Frodo in their decks (that’s not just me, is it?). When you use the Validate Deck function, simply find the format you want to play in, and make sure you have green boxes that say “OK” across the horizontal row. Note, however, that the starting fellowship column will often say “warning” – this means that you probably have a companion such as Glorfindel, Revealed in Wrath, who has a twilight-cost reduction in the starting fellowship. Basically, if the box says “warning,” just double-check to make sure that your starting fellowship is legal within the game rules.

If you ever have a red box that says “X,” you can click on it to find out what the problem is – it’s that simple.

PREFERENCES
As with the deckbuilder, there are a multitude of options to be had in the preferences menu, but there’s one that needs some special attention: Autopass.

Autopass – Changing your autopass preferences (in the “Auto-pass Prefs.” tab, after clicking the “Preferences” tab on the right) can lead to a speedier game, the ability to bluff, or automatic wins against Dwarf/Corsair decks – but rarely all three at once (and never that last one). By turning on all of your auto-pass options, the game will fly by – the program won’t ask you to take a maneuver action when it knows you don’t have one. With both players on autopass, it’s not uncommon to get from the end of the Shadow phase to the Free Peoples player’s assignments in less than a second, which is the equivalent of a vehicle moving at 539,000mph, according to our sources at NASA. You can toggle whether the program will autopass through phases or if you want it to autopass through response triggers. You could, for instance, set it to pause at the 'Playing Of Possesion' trigger and it will pause during a time when you could play A Dark Shape Sprang whether or not you have that nasty card up your sleeve at the time.

However, with autopass enabled, your chances for bluffing are greatly restricted. When you autopass in the first skirmish, your opponent knows you have nothing to play in the second. So, if you want a speedy game, turn all of your autopass features on. If you’re looking to bluff the pants off of your opponent (assuming your opponent was wearing pants in the first place – ah, the mysteries of the online world), consider turning off the autopass options.

GAMEPLAY
Last, and certainly not least, are the gameplay features. These are the bits and pieces of the The Lord Of The Rings Online TCG program that assist in-game decisions, make the playing experience much more enjoyable, and save orphans from burning buildings/wagons/wig-wams (I’d link you to the news story regarding that last item on the list, but the CNN website is down. Also, I was lying).

Discard and Dead Piles – Looking through your discard pile, your dead pile, your opponent’s dead pile, and my sock drawer can yield game-winning knowledge. There are a few ways to do this. For your discard pile, you can double-click on – get this – your discard pile (located to the left of your hand). You can sift through your dead pile in a similar fashion, by making it the target of your double-clicking action. For your opponent’s dead pile, simply double-click the tombstone by their name, located in the information box beneath the site path. Your own discard and dead piles are accessible here, as well. Sadly, your opponent’s discard pile cannot be viewed, as per the rules of the game.

Adventure Deck – For quite some time, I didn’t know how to access my adventure deck online. Maybe it’s because that little site button was well hidden, maybe it’s because I have the IQ of a walnut. Whatever the case, I was totally incapable of viewing my sites that hadn’t been played. Then, one day, an angel (moderator) came down from heaven (Denver) and set my life straight (showed me the site button). The button in question can be found in the same row as the cards in your hand, far to the left. It’s a small compass located near the discard and dead piles. Double-click it and you’ve got your sites in plain view.

Toggling Player Areas – Often times, the state of your opponent’s fellowship will determine whether or not you’ll want to make a double-move. How many burdens do they have? How many wounds are on their main fighters? Who has the most threatening beard: Gimli, Gandalf, or Eowyn? These are all questions that can be easily answered without having to memorize what your opponent had in play during their turn. Above and beneath the twilight pool on the right are avatars, indicating which player is being represented in both the Shadow and Free Peoples areas. Simply click the avatar to change it from one player to the next, and click it again to switch back – it’s that easy.

The Chess Clock – Although this only applies to timed games, it’s still something worth mentioning. The Chess Clock is located directly beneath the chat box – there will be one timer on the left, and one on the right. If a third timer (excluding the one found in the lower-right during tournaments) should be found somewhere, let me (ZachS@worlds-apart.com) know – we make an ointment that’ll clear it right up.

The clock on the left belongs to the player that’s going first, and the right to he who marches second. Whenever it’s your turn to take an action, regardless of what phase it is, your timer will be ticking down. If your timer reaches zero, you lose the game. I find that when the timer is ticking down and getting very close to the end, it helps to yell a long, drawn-out “no” at the top of your lungs, and dive under a desk. Then, maybe make some explosion noises with your mouth and/or backside.

And that’s all I have for you for today’s feature article. Just remember, if all else fails, there’s always the Help button. Clicking on this simple question mark in the upper-right corner of the program will teleport me to your home to give you on-demand assistance. My only request is that the members of the online community take turns clicking on the help button, because ripping my body in half and sending me to two different corners of the world at once gives me a stomachache. And man, do I ever hate stomachaches.

If, in the unlikely event that I’m not teleported to your home, the Help button should at least bring you to a page that can offer some assistance with whatever your dilemma may be. Should you have any further questions or comments, feel free to email ZachS@worlds-apart.com!

-Zach Shephard

*Yeah right, keep dreamin’.