LotR Dry-Wipe Character Cards

Downloadable wipe-clean cards allowing you to track the attributes of your heroes during games.

During games of LOTR, you will need to keep track of the Might, Will, Fate and Wounds of all your heroes. Especially in games involving the whole Fellowship, this can become quite difficult. Some people mark everything off on their record sheets and other people simply remember it all (and subsequently get things wrong). Wouldn't it be much easier if you had something neat and re-usable to do this with? These cards allow you to use a dry-wipe marker pen to mark off all your heroes' statistics, and then wipe the card clean again to use in your next game. They are credit card size so you can carry them in your wallet. You only need to carry what you need for the game, and they also have the stat-lines for quick reference. This article contains the cards for all three rulebooks as well as Shadow and Flame and Siege of Gondor.

How to Make Them

Firstly, you will need to print out the PDF files that are supplied with this article. They can be printed on paper; they will be made more rigid later on. They are already scaled to exactly the right size so print them as they are. Once printed, use a guillotine (the quick way) or a pair of scissors and cut out the separate cards. I have made the lines faint so that they will not be too visible on the cards if you don't cut them perfectly straight.

By now you should have a large pile of cards (well, papers), or maybe a small pile if you only want particular ones. You will now need to go to the local stationery shop, and get yourself a packet of credit card laminating pouches - 54x86mm. Mine cost £2.70 for 50, so they are good value. Slip your cards into the pouches, trying to get them centred.

The final step may be quite difficult and possibly expensive. The cards will now need to be passed through a laminating machine, making them rigid and wipe-clean. I have a mini laminating machine at home (£29.99 from Robert Dyas), but alternatively you could use one at a school or workplace. If none of these options are available, you will have to take the more expensive option. Many stationers such as Rymans will laminate things for you, but they don't come cheap. The end result is worth the work though. If you are laminating the cards yourself, put them through twice, once for each side just to ensure that the edges are sealed properly.Don't worry if you mess one up and it becomes bent; just put it through the machine a few more times to flatten it out again.

Voila, great looking character cards.

How to Use Them

These are incredibly simple to use. Draw a dot using the dry-wipe pen, filling in the appropriate circle when a hero uses their Might, Will, or Fate, or they lose a wound. Leave them on the side of the gaming board and you can see at a glance what you have remaining. At the end of the game, wipe them clean with a cloth or your finger (you may need to dampen the cloth, depending on the type of plastic used).

New Cards

You may find during your gaming that you want to devise your own heroes to use, or you want to use one of the existing heroes with wargear that may change the statistics written on the cards. To cater for that, I have supplied a blank sheet in the form of a Word document. Just replace the question marks with the name and statistics. The Might, Will, Fate and Wounds can be put on by typing a capital O followed by a space. It is already set to type them in the right place. Finally you can add a picture; either taken by you or from a website. You will have to reduce the size of the picture so that none of the stats are misaligned.

The Cards

Games Workshop's Official Rulebooks and Supplements
Fellowship of the Ring (515KB)
The Two Towers (202KB)
The Return of the King (310 KB)
Shadow and Flame (142 KB)
The Siege of Gondor (98KB)
Battle of the Pelennor Fields (278 KB)
The Scouring of the Shire
White Dwarf and Battle Games in Middle Earth

Unofficial Fan-written Supplements
The Age of the King by Stewart Gibbs and Alan Harrison

Blank Sheet
Blank Cards (45KB)

I hope you find these useful. They make my games run very smoothly, because I don't have to root through the rulebook or try and remember remaining statistics.

Enjoy. Mail me with any queries. I will update this article when new supplements and rules are released.