Introduction The Living Card Game “You have done well to come,” said Elrond. “You will hear today all that you need to understand the purpose of the Enemy. There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it. But you do not stand alone. You will learn that your trouble is but part of the trouble of all the western world.
Component Overview The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game core set includes the following components: • This Rulebook • 226 cards, consisting of: • 12 Hero Cards • 120 Player Cards • 84 Encounter Cards • 10 Quest Cards Threat Trackers Threat trackers are used to track a player’s threat level throughout the game. Threat represents the level of risk a player has taken on during a scenario. If a player’s threat level reaches a certain threshold, that player is eliminated from the game.
Gameplay Overview In each game of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, players begin by choosing a scenario, and then work together in an attempt to complete it. A scenario is completed by successfully moving through all stages of the quest deck. During a scenario, the encounter deck aims to harm the heroes and to raise each player’s threat level. A player is eliminated from the game if all of his heroes are destroyed, or if his threat level reaches 50.
Decks and Card Types Card Anatomy Key - The Quest Deck There are three different types of decks in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game: the quest deck, the encounter deck, and the player deck. There are also hero cards, which do not belong to any deck. Each deck has its own function and its own set of card types, as described below. In the game, each player plays one player deck, and the players work together to move through a fixed quest deck.
The Encounter Deck Enemy Cards The encounter deck represents the villains, hazards, places, and circumstances that stand between the players and the successful completion of their quest. An encounter deck consists of enemy, location, and treachery cards. The contents of the encounter deck are determined by the scenario the players are attempting (see “Scenario Overview” on page 26). The encounter deck is shuffled at the beginning of the game.
Treachery Cards Objective Cards Treachery cards represent traps, curses, maneuvers, pitfalls, and other surprises the players might confront during a scenario. When a treachery card is revealed from the encounter deck, its text effects are resolved immediately, and it is then placed in the encounter discard pile.
Hero Cards Hero cards represent the main characters a player controls in an attempt to complete a scenario. Heroes start in play, and they provide the resources that are used to pay for the cards (allies, attachments, and events) in a player’s deck. Heroes can also commit to quests, attack, defend, and in many cases they bring their own card abilities to the game. Each player chooses 1-3 hero cards and starts the game with them in play. 3 1. Card Title: The name of this card.
The Player Deck Ally Cards The player deck includes a combination of ally, attachment, and event cards shuffled into a deck from which a player draws his cards throughout the game. No more than three copies of any ally, attachment, or event card, by title, can be included in a player’s deck. Each of the four 30-card starter decks in this core set can be played out of the box as an introduction to the game.
For the First Game For the first game, each player chooses one of the four spheres of influence and uses the starter deck for that sphere. The card numbers of each of the four spheres are listed below. Each sphere is also listed with the three heroes that should be used with that starter deck. The players determine a first player based on a majority group decision. If this proves impossible, determine a first player at random.
Suggested Play Field Setup Tom©s Threat Dial Tom©s Heroes Enemy Engaged with Tom Tom©s Player Deck Tom©s Discard Pile Token Bank Encounter Deck Encounter Discard Pile First Player Token Kris©s Player Deck Kris©s Ally Kris©s Heroes Enemy Engaged with Kris Staging Area Quest Deck Kris©s Threat Dial Kris©s Discard Pile 11
Round Sequence The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is played over a series of rounds. Each round is divided into 7 phases. Some phases are played simultaneously by all players, while in other phases the players act separately, with the first player acting first and play proceeding clockwise around the table. The 7 phases are, in order: 1. Resource 2. Planning 3. Quest 4. Travel If a hero is exhausted (see page 14), resources may still be spent from that hero’s resource pool.
Example: Paying for Cards 1 2 3 (to token bank) (from player©s hand) (from player©s hand) (to token bank) 1. Glóin has a Leadership resource icon and 3 resource tokens in his resource pool. Éowyn and Eleanor each have a Spirit resource icon, and 2 resource tokens in their resource pools. 2. To play the Guard of the Citadel from his hand, Tom spends 2 resource tokens from Glóin’s pool, returning the tokens to the token bank. 1 resource token remains unspent in Glóin’s resource pool. 3.
Ready and Exhausted Phase 3: Quest Characters and attachment cards enter the game in the “ready” position–that is, faceup on the playing surface in front of their controller. In the quest phase, the players attempt to make progress on the current stage of their quest. This phase is broken into three steps: 1) commit characters, 2) staging, and 3) quest resolution. Players have the opportunity to take actions and play event cards at the end of each step.
Example: Resolving a Quest Kris©s Play Area 1 3 Tom©s Play Area 2 Staging Area Quest Deck Encounter Deck 1. Tom exhausts Éowyn to commit her to the quest. Kris exhausts both Aragorn and the Guard of the Citadel to commit them to the quest. A Gladden Fields location card is already in the staging area. 2. The players reveal 1 card per player from the encounter deck, and add them to the staging area. 3. The players add up the total committed Ò and compare it to the total $ in the staging area.
Phase 5: Encounter The encounter phase consists of two steps: player engagement, and engagement checks. Step 1: Player Engagement First, each player has the option to engage one enemy in the staging area. This is done by moving the enemy from the staging area and placing it in front of the engaging player. Each player has one chance to optionally engage one enemy during this step, and an enemy’s engagement cost has no bearing on this procedure.
Example: Making Engagement Checks Kris Tom 1 2 3 4 5 Staging Area 1. The first player, Tom, makes the first engagement check. The King Spider has the highest engagement cost (20) that is equal to or lower than Tom's threat level of 24, so the King Spider engages Tom. 2. Kris makes the next engagement check. Ungoliant's Spawn has the highest engagement cost (32) that is equal to or lower than Kris's threat level of 35, so Ungoliant's Spawn engages Kris. 3. Tom makes the next engagement check.
Phase 6: Combat In the combat phase, enemies attack first. All enemies that are engaged with the players attack each round, and the players resolve those attacks one at a time. At the beginning of the combat phase, the players deal 1 shadow card to each engaged enemy. Deal the top card of the encounter deck, face down, to each engaged enemy. When dealing cards to a single player’s enemies, always deal to the enemy with the highest engagement cost first.
Example: Defending Against Enemy Attacks 1 2 4 3 1. Kris is engaged with 2 enemies, the Forest Spider and Ungoliant's Spawn. At the beginning of the combat phase, 1 card from the encounter deck is dealt face down to each engaged enemy, as a shadow card. 2. Kris decides to resolve the attack made by Ungoliant's Spawn first. He exhausts the Silverlode Archer, declaring it as a defender against this attack. 3. To resolve the attack, Kris first flips the attacker's shadow card faceup.
Attacking Enemies Once all players have resolved enemy attacks, each player (starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise) has the opportunity to strike back and declare attacks against his enemies. In order to declare an attack, a player must exhaust at least 1 ready character. A character must exhaust to be declared as an attacker. When declaring an attack, a player must also declare which enemy is the target of the attack.
Example: Attacking Enemies 1 3 2 4 Tom is engaged with 2 enemies, the Dol Guldur Beastmaster and the Dol Guldur Orcs. 1. Tom first declares an attack against the Dol Guldur Orcs, and exhausts Glorfindel as an attacker. 2. Tom takes Glorfindel's attack (3 Û) and subtracts the Dol Guldur Orcs' defense (0 Ú), and gets a result of 3. Tom places 3 damage tokens from the token bank on the Dol Guldur Orcs. This enemy started with 3 hit points, so it is destroyed and discarded from play. 3.
Phase 7: Refresh Winning the Game During the refresh phase, all exhausted cards ready, each player increases his threat by 1, and the first player passes the first player token to the next player clockwise on his left. That player becomes the new first player. Play then proceeds to the resource phase of the next round. If at least one player survives through the completion of the final stage of the scenario, the game ends in a victory for the players.
Advanced Concepts This section details some of the more advanced concepts players might encounter as they delve deeper into the The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Card Effects There are several kinds of card effects in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. On the hero and player cards, card effects fall into one of 5 categories: constant effects, actions, responses, forced effects, and keywords.
Keywords Restricted Keywords are used as shorthand for common game effects that appear on a number of cards. The keywords and their role in the game are explained below. Keywords are denoted textually, usually at the beginning of a card’s rules text. Some attachments have the restricted keyword. A character can never have more than two attachments with the restricted keyword attached.
Lasting Effects Many effects last only for the duration of one action (immediately after being triggered), but some effects last for a set period of time, or even indefinitely. Effects that last for longer than a single action are called lasting effects. Multiple lasting effects may affect the same card at the same time. The order in which the lasting effects take place is irrelevant, since the net sum of all lasting effects is applied to the card.
Scenario Overview There are 3 unique scenarios included in this core set. Each is introduced, along with a list of encounter sets for that scenario’s encounter deck, below. Passage Through Mirkwood Difficulty level = 1 Mirkwood has long been a dangerous place, and recently one of King Thranduil’s patrols has uncovered disconcerting signs of a gathering menace in the vicinity of Dol Guldur.
Tournament Deckbuilding and Customization Much of the depth and fun of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game comes when players conceive and construct original decks, using the cards of this core set and those found in Adventure Pack expansions. A tournament deck must contain a minimum of 50 cards. Additionally, no more than three copies of any card, by title, can be included in a player’s deck. Within these guidelines any combination of allies, attachments, and events can be used in the player deck.
Credits Game Design: Nate French Graphic Design: Kevin Childress Additional Graphic Design: Brian Schomburg, Andrew Navaro, and Michael Silsby Art Administration: Kyle Hough Art Direction: Zoë Robinson Creative Content Development: Jason Walden Rules: Nate French Editing: Kevin Tomczyk Proofreading: Patricia Meredith and Mark Pollard Cover Art: Daryl Mandryk Production Manager: Eric Knight Producer: Mike David FFG Lead Game Designer: Corey Conieczka FFG Lead Game Producer: Michael Hurley Publisher: Christia
Section Index Actions 23 Advanced Concepts 23 Ally Cards 9 Attachment Cards 9 Attacking Enemies 20 Attacking Enemies (diagram) 21 Basic Game 27 Card Effects 23 "Character" Cards 8 Component Overview 3 Constant Effects 23 Control and Ownership 25 Credits 28 Decks and Card Types 5 Defeating an Encounter Card 25 Defending Against Enemy Attacks (diagram) 19 Discard Piles 10 Doomed X 24 Ending the Game 22 Enemy Cards 6 Escape From Dol Guldur 26 Event Cards 9 Expert Game 27 Forced and When Revealed Effects 23 For
Turn Sequence This chart provides a detailed structure of the phases and steps involved in play. Items presented in red are known as framework events, as they are mandatory occurences dictated by the structure of the game. Action windows in which players are free to take actions are presented in green. • Red – Players cannot interrupt with actions. Responses can be played if their conditions are met. • Green – Any player can take actions generally, or between the game steps stated in the rules. 1.
5. Encounter Phase • Each player may choose and engage 1 enemy from the staging area. •Player actions. • Engagement checks are made. •Player actions. 6. Combat Phase • Deal 1 shadow card to each enemy. • Player actions. • First player resolves attacks made by enemies against him. (See page 18.) • Next player resolves attacks made by his enemies against him, etc. • First player declares and resolves attacks against his enemies. (See page 20.
Scenario Name Player Names Final Threat Level Number of Players Threat Cost Of Each Dead Hero Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes Notes Player Subtotal Combined Player Subtotals Victory Points Earned TM Final Group Score Scenario Name Player Names Final Threat Level Number of Players Threat Cost Of Each Dead Hero Damage Tokens on Remaining Heroes Notes Player Subtotal Combined Player Subtotals Victory Points Earned TM Final Group Score Scenario Name Player Names Final Threat Level Number of
