Product Champion
Decipher utilized a system of grassroots Product Champions for each of their tentpole products. Such champions would be fan volunteers who would organize local events and act as community leadership for disseminating news, promotional material, and otherwise act as an extension of Decipher's marketing arm without being, strictly speaking, an employee. Product Champions were named different things depending on the game they were attached to--Red/Gold Group for the Star Wars CCG, Ambassadors for the Star Trek CCGs, and Riders of Rohan for The Lord of the Rings TCG. Product Champions were not barred from representing multiple games (and indeed many transitioned from one game to another alongside community focus shift as time went on).
Riders of Rohan were unpaid volunteers, but as prominent community members they were often "paid" in card product, foils, swag, or other physical product that they would be expected to distribute to the community (and which it was expected they would keep at least some for themselves).
After the formation of the DGMA, game-specific product champions were phased out in lieu of dAgents, which were the same idea but for all Decipher products. Several promos from later in the game's lifetime are branded as "dAgent Exclusive".
LOTR-TCG Product |
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