[The Barrow-Wight]

The cards can be bought retail for what Phrim said, but if you are willing to drop some money down to get a good collection started, you can often buy boxes on e-bay for as low as $1.50 to $2.00 per pack. I bought a 36-pack Fellowship of the Ring (the first set of cards in the game - there are now five), that's 396 cards including 108 rares and and average of 6 foils) for only $60 including shipping. This was a great deal and the best I've got so far.

A games forum is definitely a possiblity, but I'm just not sure it would generate enough interest to justify its existence. I, too, like the board games and even have the old SSI War of Middle-earth Game sitting in my closet (along with the Knieza LotR game). For now, I still want to get something going for the card game before expanding.

Playing over the internet actually works quite well. Sharku and I have played several games using mIRC as our communication media. It involves a lot of trust, though, and I'm still suspicious of the Old Man's 100% success rate against me [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] A game played in real life takes 45-60 mins maximum (normally), and doing it online takes about twice that. (It takes Sharkey and I days to complete a game because we're never in much of a hurry and only do a turn at a time).

Decipher is developing an online version of the game, but it is only now about ready for beta testing and will be a while before it is available.

I'll post my cultures article soon.