The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game

About this board game

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game is a cooperative card game for 1–4 players that plays in about 20 minutes. Across eighteen chapters, players follow the events of The Fellowship of the Ring through character-driven trick-taking challenges.

Each chapter assigns every player a different role, such as Frodo, Gandalf, Sam, Pippin, or Farmer Maggot. Every character has a condition that must be met to pass the chapter: Frodo needs to capture ring cards, while Pippin wants to take as few tricks as possible. New characters, items, and challenges appear as the story advances.

• A 37-card deck, with one card set aside as lost during each hand
• The One Ring as the only trump card
• Eighteen chapters that can be played in any order, ideally in sequence

Whoever receives the One Ring becomes Frodo, while the other players choose from the available characters according to their hands. Rings cannot initially be led; one must first be played off-suit before they can be led. These rules create distinctive objectives and shifting priorities from chapter to chapter.

In a two-player game, a dummy hand is dealt with some cards face up and others face down. It receives a character, and one human player plays its cards based on which cards are available. In solitaire, one player manages four face-up hands, each assigned a character, with only a few cards available at a time; after each trick, every hand receives a new card.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game also provides additional characters for The Road Goes Ever On, including Bilbo, Tom Bombadil, Galadriel, Boromir, Gwaihir, Shadowfax, and many others.