So you are an avid EverQuest or EverQuest 2 player and know everything about the game. You are a top level character, you have leveled what seems like hundreds of characters, and you are the king or queen of every new expansion that comes your way… but today - you may have met your match. Welcome to the new world of Legends of Norrath: a new card game, also known as a TCG (Trading Card Game), built inside the realm of Norrath. Legends of Norrath (LoN) crosses the gap between EverQuest Live, and EverQuest 2 and allows you to go up against players from either game. Now, I know you’re all excited and want to get started right away, but hold those wargs back! First lets hit the tutorial.

The tutorial can be difficult to understand if you have not played trading card games (TCGs) before. For the average EverQuest gamer, it may be hard, but it’s not impossible to catch on. Personally, I found the tutorial to be lacking. A lot of information was tossed into the tutorial, but not a lot of reasoning behind that information. For example, I know I’m playing this card, but please help me understand why I’m doing it? After 45 minutes of going through all 11 sections of the tutorial, I thought I might have a handle on it. I would later find that I was wrong. To help with that “deer caught in headlights” stare I had on my face, I discovered that the best way to learn was to find someone who already understands how to play TCGs. Kind of sad, considering the time and work that must have been put into the creation of the tutorial.

Being the button pusher that I am, I started playing with things and managed to find the deck builder. Now here is an interesting toy! You can build a deck that best suits your playing style by trading and collecting cards. I was able to look and understand my cards much better by following the directions it gave. If you don’t know what’s in your deck you don’t know it’s potential. By stopping and reading my cards as they were shuffled into my personally created deck while going through deck builder tutorial, I learned much more than the 45+ minutes spent in the game playing tutorial.

As far as post-tutorial gameplay is concerned, I hope you like playing games that require you to think strategically about every move you make, because LoN requires a strategy much like a game of chess. To quest or to fight? That is the question at hand. You think you can beat down your opponent while they go for the quests? Think again. What strategy might work on one player may not work on another. You must have a good balance of both.

If you don’t like playing cards, maybe trading is more your thing. You can trade and collect the digital cards for in-game items. There are many fun things to discover, from new wargs and carpets, to craftable bar ports. But don’t get too excited, unfortunately you’ll need to purchase an extra deck or booster pack from the SOE online store to unlock the ability to make any trades. It’s really not that pricey, but personally, I don’t want to be putting out more money to play a game I already pay for. I’ll just rely on the in-game drops and hope I get something good.

Overall I’d have to say this game is scary to first look at, but once you take a deep breath and ease into it, then it becomes a bit less complicated. You’ll certainly need time and patience to master this card game, but it’s not impossible to learn. Will it take the place as a main-stay in EverQuest? Certainly not, but it may be something extra to do while waiting around for your raid or group to get started. It remains to be seen if Legends of Norrath will become the ghost town of Depths of Darkhollow instanced zones within EverQuest, or the dueling arena of Maj’Dul within EverQuest 2. Only time will tell. Is it for this player? Simple answer: no. I personally find it to take too much of the time that I’d rather invest in playing my character. If I wanted a TCG game I would likely be playing one instead of playing EverQuest. Lucky for some of us who share my feelings on the game, they didn’t make it a necessity to play. Hooray for new content! Something shiny and new! Now please(!) make it so I don’t get a headache trying to learn how to play.

-Kelly Reese AKA “Zanadi”
Cohost of EQ2’s-day