The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

About this board game

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a cooperative adventure game for 1–2 players, with games lasting about 60 minutes. Each player leads up to three heroes and a deck of allies, events, and attachments through a challenging scenario.

Every round, heroes and allies can quest to make progress or fight enemies that engage them. However, characters become exhausted after questing, defending, or attacking, leaving players with limited options. The central challenge is deciding whether to advance the scenario while enemy forces grow stronger or concentrate on defeating threats while making no progress.

The core set includes three scenarios, twelve heroes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, and four pre-constructed player decks. Players can use these decks immediately or build their own to explore different strategies and improve their chances of success.

• Cooperative play: Work together to overcome each scenario.
• Deck construction: Combine heroes with allies, events, and attachments.
• Tactical choices: Decide when to quest, defend, and attack as characters exhaust.
• Expansive content: Explore more than ten years of Living Card Game content through Campaign and Hero Expansions.

Most scenarios create original adventures set in Middle-earth during the seventeen years between Bilbo’s 111th birthday and Frodo’s departure from the Shire. This gives players the opportunity to create their own stories rather than simply replaying scenes from The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings.

The Saga Expansions follow the events of Tolkien’s books and can be played individually or linked into a campaign. Decisions and actions can create lasting consequences from one game to the next, adding continuity to the journey. With its blend of cooperative play, deck building, and demanding tactical decisions, The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game offers a rich adventure in Tolkien’s world.