Weta Book Cards

O Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadil-o! / If you want him in the film, then the answer is No! / But just because recording his songs is so hard / is no excuse to not put his face on a card!

The majority of cards within the LOTR-TCG use imagery directly crafted for Peter Jackson's film trilogy, even if that imagery never made it into the films themselves. However, Decipher also took the opportunity to partner with Weta Workshop to imagine how certain characters from Tolkien's work who were cut from the film script would have looked like had they been included. These semi-original creations were dubbed the Book Cards.

"Book Cards" as a label was originally used for 4 cards included with The Countdown Collection and 5 cards used in The Weta Collection. The term fell out of use when the marketing for those collections ran its course, but more characters were made than what was originally announced, and their release was sprinkled throughout later sets.

Creation

Many of the characters depicted in the Book Cards had gone through various stages of conceptual design at Weta for the films during pre-production; in some cases such as for Radagast the Brown the character had gone so far as to have an actor cast before ultimately getting cut. Daniel Falconer, senior designer at Weta, gathered up these concepts and spearheaded the creation of more ideas for characters which were cut far earlier in the process, such as the infamous Tom Bombadil.

Weta designers then worked on reusing or reconfiguring existing props and costumes from the films to match the new concepts. For example: Elladan/Elrohir's hair reused Arwen's wig, Tom Bombadil's hat was a reworked Hobbit hat (and his coat was an old rejected Gandalf costume), and Erkenbrand's armor was Theodred's. Weta designers were then cast for each character (including John Harding, the original casting for Radagast), and went through the same makeup and prosthetic processes used in the films.

Decipher documented the process of the 3-week shoot in a series of articles on their website. The Internet Archive in this case was inconsistent in its archival, so most of those articles have been recreated here on the wiki:

• The Lord of the Rings TCG to Feature Original Images from Weta Workshop (News Release) (2004-03-08)

• The Making of the Weta "Book Cards: An Interview With Weta Workshops's Daniel Falconer (2004-04-04)

• The Making of the Weta "Book Cards": Casting and Costuming (2004-07-22)

• The Making of the Weta "Book Cards": Concepts and the Photo Shoot (2004-07-23)

• The Making of the Weta "Book Cards": Swords, Rings, and Palantiri (2004-07-29)

Weta also contributed digital art and CGI images for some cards at a later date, including the Barrow-wights of The Wraith Collection and the half-troll on Horror of Harad (14R13) .

Identifying

Sharp-eyed fans will be able to recognize characters that don't show up at all in the films, but for the rest of us there is a more plain indicator used: Book Cards designed by Weta are marked in the lower right-hand corner of the game text box with a Weta cricket, the logo for Weta Workshop:

There were additional card images photographed while Decipher was in New Zealand capturing the Book Cards, but for the most part Decipher declined to mark those cards with the Weta symbol. These include the images used for Ithil Stone (9R+47) and Seeing Stone of Minas Anor (9R37) , as the props used were all utilized in the films themselves; the only new thing being done was the modeling and posing.

List of Book Cards

Portrait	Card Name	Culture	Card Type	Game Text
	Glorfindel, Revealed in Wrath (0P50)	Elven	Companion • Elf	When Glorfindel is in your starting fellowship, his twilight cost is –2. Skirmish: Reveal the top card of your draw deck. You may exert Glorfindel to make a Nazgûl he is skirmishing strength –X, where X is the twilight cost of the card revealed.
	Radagast, The Brown (0P51)	Gandalf	Companion • Wizard	The move limit is +1. Each time the fellowship moves during the regroup phase, each opponent may discard 2 cards from hand to draw 2 cards.
	Goldberry, River-daughter (0P52)	Shire	Ally • Home 2	Each time the fellowship moves to a river, heal Goldberry and Tom Bombadil. Skirmish: If the fellowship is at a river, exert Goldberry to make a companion strength +1.
	Tom Bombadil, The Master (0P53)	Shire	Ally • Home 2	To play, remove 2 burdens or 2 threats. Skirmish: Spot 2 companions and exert Tom Bombadil X times, where X is the fellowship’s site number, to cancel a skirmish involving a companion.
	Ghan-bûri-Ghan, Chieftain of the Woses (0P56)	Gandalf	Companion • Man	While you can spot 2 other Men, Ghan-bûri-Ghan cannot be overwhelmed unless his strength is tripled. While at a forest site, Ghan-bûri-Ghan is defender +1.
	Radagast's Staff (0P57)	Gandalf	Artifact • Staff	Bearer must be Radagast. Each time the fellowship moves during the regroup phase, you may draw 2 cards.
	Anárion, Lord of Anorien (0P58)	Gondor	Companion • Man	Skirmish: Play a skirmish event to make each minion skirmishing Anárion strength -X, where X is Anárion's vitality.
	Erkenbrand, Master of Westfold (0P59)	Rohan	Companion • Man	If you can spot a Man, you may play Erkenbrand any time you could play a skirmish event. When you play Erkenbrand, you may discard a Shadow possession.
	Tom Bombadil's Hat (0P60)	Shire	Possession • Support Area	To play, spot 2 companions. Each time a Shadow card adds a burden or a threat, add a token here. Fellowship: Remove 2 tokens from here to remove a burden. ​

List of Unmarked Prop Cards

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