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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Deck-Building Game

A competitive Middle-earth deckbuilder: grow your hero's deck on the road to Mount Doom and out-score the rest of the Fellowship.

You take the role of Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn or another hero of the Fellowship, and you fight your way toward Mount Doom one card at a time. Each of the seven heroes, among them Legolas, Gimli, Samwise and Boromir, comes with a special power only that player can use. Everyone starts with their own basic ten-card deck and draws five, then buys stronger cards and uses them to defeat the forces of Sauron. When the dust settles, the player with the most victory points in their deck wins. This is competitive deckbuilding with Middle-earth flavor rather than a co-op quest: you travel together but still keep score against each other.

Seven Fellowship heroes with unique powersStarting deck of ten cards, hand of fiveMost victory points in your deck wins

Who it's for

You are a Tolkien fan who likes deckbuilders and wants a compact competitive session of about half an hour.

Not for you if…

You hoped for a cooperative quest or deep new mechanics. It is a classic competitive deckbuilder with a Middle-earth skin.

Vibe's take

Brisk and familiar for anyone who has built a deck before. You buy the cards that sing with your hero's power and watch the rest of the table do the same.

#3,213 on BGG

of over 30,000 ranked board games

Published 2013 · 13 years ago

older than 70% of games

In 3,019 collections

collected more than 41% of games

2–5 players · ages 10+

Best with 3 or 4 · publisher: 15+

about 30 min

shorter than 69% of games · typical 30–90 min

Complexity: medium

One warm-up round · 2.1 out of 5 · heavier than 55%

Opinions: divided

Some love it, others really don’t

Language: some text

Text on cards or in the rules

Play style: competitive