The life of a fool can be admirable. They can do just about what they please and get paid. They are, however, not taken too seriously.
Foolish Words # Hazard # Permanent-event
Any riddling roll, offering attempt, or influence attempt by the target
character is modified by -4. If placed on guard, it may be revealed and played
when a character in the company declares a riddling, offering, or influence
attempt. During his organization phase, a character with this card may tap to
attempt to remove it. Make a roll (or draw a #): if this result is greater
than 7, discard this card.
This card can do some serious harm to a company with just one person to do the factions. It can also hurt the play of a few other cards and protect your characters.
First off, this card makes a sure thing into an unsure thing. If you put this on, say, Theoden, he needs at least an 8 to influence in the Riders of Rohan when he normally needs at least a 4. Or slap this on a wizard to make him at 6 DI against factions. If you add a Stormcrow he's at 2 (with Doors), and suddenly what was once a sure faction grabber now needs some serious luck. You can also reveal it as a surprise. Your opponent thinks he's got this faction made so he discards his helper card. All of a sudden he finds himself saying a few faux passes and those men decide he's a fool and they won't follow him. And even though there aren't yet many riddling cards or offering attempts, playing this card can seriously ruin someone's chances of cancellation.
Are there any drawbacks? Not really. The roll required to remove it is less than 50% likely. It's not a corruption card so the character can't take -3 to remove it without regards to tapped status and it can be duplicated on the same character on the same turn. Thus, as Radagast heads out on Shadowfax to influence away your Southrons before you can call the council, tell him his words are very foolish and he will never convince your Southrons to turn over to his side. As far as defenses go, your opponent can either use Marvels Told (or The Cock Crows or Palantir of Osgiliath) or Wizard Uncloaked. Of course, if he's relying on Muster to bring in his factions, he doesn't really care about how Foolish his Words are...
So Foolish Words can really hamper a deck where one character acts as an influencer. It's just a pity that you can't play it on agents...
| Ratings for Foolish Words: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 8.0 |
| Samwise: | 6.8 |
| Bandobras Took: | 7.0 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 7.5 |
| Frodo: | 6.0 |
| Fingolfin: | 6.0 |
| Beorn: | 7.0 |
| Strider: | 8.0 |
| Legolas: | 5.0 |
| Cirdan: | 9.0 |
| Wormtongue: | 6.5 |
| Average: | 7.0 |
Card names and text copyright 1996 by Iron Crown Enterprises, all rights reserved. This document copyright 1997 by Trevor Stone. Permission given to duplicate so long as no profit is made and the copyright notice is kept in tact, blah, blah, blah.