Title: FFG:LCG Draft Packs Are Coming
Post by: RSSFeeder on 11 November 2013, 22:00:02
Announcing A Game of Thrones and Android: Netrunner Draft Sets
“Of course, your base rig has to function every time, but there’s something magical about the rush that comes from running with a randomized set of boosters and breakers.”
–Chaos Theory
At Fantasy Flight Games, we have plenty of reasons to be excited for the FFG World Championship Weekend, but here’s one more: Attendees at this weekend’s event will have the chance to preview our upcoming draft sets for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game and Android: Netrunner!
As LCGs®, both A Game of Thrones and Android: Netrunner remove the randomization from your purchases.
|
Still, many card players enjoy playing “Draft” games: a common play format associated with collectible (i.e. blind-purchase) card games. In “Draft” play, players draft cards from a random pool, and then test their mettle against each other with these draft-built decks. For all its amazing success and growing player base, the LCG® format has been anathema to draft mode of play.
Until now. In early 2013, FFG invested in its own printing facility. This cutting-edge digital printing and manufacturing technology has allowed us to execute a number of awesome projects and products. However, one of the most exciting uses of our new digital manufacturing capacity is the ability to produce randomized Draft Packs for our Living Card Games®.
Using a custom algorithm for randomization, these packs are individually compiled from a draft pool of hundreds of LCG® cards, creating individually unique packs for use in used in “Draft” play. This compiled pack is then manufactured as a physical product that’s ready for play.
Both the random selection algorithm and the associated card pool have been carefully designed and considered by FFG’s LCG® team to create the best possible drafting game experience.
What if I’m not attending the World Championship Weekend?
In a few weeks, FFG will be making the English-language draft products for A Game of Thrones and Android: Netrunner available via our online store and to retailers and distributors.
Additionally, we are working to implement foreign-language versions of the A Game of Thrones and Android: Netrunner draft products, and we’ll soon start work on draft play options for some of our other LCGs®. Look for more information on these topics to come in early 2014.
Our A Game of Thrones and Android: Netrunner draft sets consist of a draft starter and one or more draft packs:
- The Ice and Fire draft set for A Game of Thrones consists of a nineteen-card starter and one fifty-card draft pack.
- The Cyber War draft set for Android: Netrunner consists of a twelve-card starter and two forty-card draft packs, one each for Corp and Runner. Alternatively, if you have an even number of players (and at least 8 participants), you can run a half-draft event for Android: Netrunner in which each player needs just one starter and either the Corp or Runner draft pack.
A draft starter can be used in any number of draft games, so players need only purchase this item once when playing drafts from the same card pool (see below).
- The current A Game of Thrones draft pack is drawn from a card pool of 240 cards that we call Ice and Fire.
- The current Android: Netrunner draft packs are drawn from a card pool of 169 cards that we call Cyber War.
In the future, FFG may launch additional draft sets drawn from new card pools. Each card pool will be identified with its own unique title, just like Cyber War and Ice and Fire.
All draft cards are clearly identified by a new icon (specific to each game), and starter pack cards are further distinguished from the draft cards by color.
All cards found in draft packs, except for those cards marked as “draft only” will be legal in normal LCG® tournament play. However, because of the variation in production color and card-stock resulting from our in-house digital manufacturing, players who want to use draft cards in LCG® tournaments must sleeve them to fully conceal the card backs.
Except for the “draft only” cards, all cards found in draft packs are also found in normal existing (or future) LCG® products.
What Does This Mean for the Future of LCGs®?
We love our LCG® model. We believe in its transparency, we believe in the player benefit it provides, and it works. Over the years, the LCG model has flourished and grown all over the world, and we are committed to it!
The new draft format is in no way meant to replace the LCG® model. Instead, they’re a special variant that allows you to experience your LCG® in a new way, and in a format that may be particularly attractive to new or casual players.

We’ve long understood the demand for randomized packs for special draft events, and we’re thrilled to finally be able to offer them to you.
...Source: LCG Draft Packs Are Coming (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4486)