The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking – Chapter-based Hobbit
I am going to admit, this is the second Lord of the Rings board game I have played, and I have still not read the books or seen the movie. However, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game, is a simple to follow, easy to master board game that just has a bunch of adventurers solving quests together.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game itself is simple. At the start of each “chapter”, there is a quote or bit of context read out loud. If you know of the book, then you’ll know exactly where you are in the story, or so it seemed from those in my tabletop group that know of the books and movies. Then, everyone is dealt a hand of cards. Whoever randomly gets the card of One Ring, gets to be Frodo, and then the next player along (clockwise) picks a character from the middle of the table. Each chapter has different characters that you can end up choosing from, although Frodo is always in play. There is a sort of action-based start to the game that has people trading cards before the real game starts.
Each of the characters have different win conditions regarding tricks that they want to achieve and collectively need to achieve to win the chapter. Sometimes, it’s not winning any rounds, sometimes it’s winning a specific number of ring cards, sometimes it is having a specific card that you’ve won from a round. These goals become more complex as you get deeper into the game.
The actual gameplay in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game, is quite simple, making the goals of each character the most complex thing to follow. Starting with Frodo at the beginning of each chapter, a card gets placed down. Then, clockwise, the next person needs to place a card. If they have any cards of the same suit in their hand, they must place that. Otherwise, they can place down one of any cards in their hands, including rings, but cannot win the round. The winner of the round is the person who places the card with the highest number of the same suit as the first card placed, unless Frodo places the One Ring and says “I declare myself the winner”. Rings cannot be a starting suit until one has been played through failing to meet the suit, and due to Frodo needing to win multiple rings (and starting with the One Ring) this makes them valuable.
Once all of the cards are played, it’s the end of that chapter, and everyone can move on if they’ve done their task. Working together to complete these is sort of the aim of the game, but you cannot actually talk about your hand or show them off. If you do complete your task, you do get a token, so everyone can visually see who needs help with their task. It’s a fun game, adding in new cards with each chapter that bring new surprises.
We all quite enjoyed how quick the rounds were in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game and the detail on the cards. The box and cards themselves were standout when it came to artwork, which is always a plus.
You can find The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game on Amazon.
