It's time once again for another edition of Tabletop Co-Op. Today we will take a look at one of the oldest co-op board games we have covered. Lord of the Rings, originally published in 2000, puts players in the role of the hobbits on their quest to destroy the One Ring and thwart Sauron. The game combines hand management and gorgeous modular boards with a strong cooperative element that lets the theme of the source material shine through.
One clarification before we begin: there are lots of board games based on the Lord of the Rings saga. There are co-ops like the deckbuilding card game which we covered in this column before, competitive games like War of the Ring, and even a "competitive co-op" offering, The Lord of the Rings: Nazgul. The game we have under consideration today is simply titled Lord of the Rings. It was designed by the prolific Reiner Knizia, and has gone through at least two different editions, the most recent being the Fantasy Flight Games Silver Line version, which we will be discussing today.
Obviously, the Lord of the Rings epic has been adapted in games for years. Dozens if not hundreds of different products have lined store shelves, especially in the past decade since the popular movie series concluded. The story lends itself to many different styles, tabletop wargames with dozens of components to massively multiplayer online RPGs. In Knizia's Lord of the Rings, the focus is on the journey of the hobbits from the Shire to Mt. Doom. Up to five players can enjoy the game together, taking on the roles of Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, and a much lesser known hobbit named Fatty.
As the hobbits advance on their journey, a master game board tracks their progress. Each hobbit begins on one side of the board, and a marker representing Sauron is on the other. Throughout the game, the influence of the Ring or other evil forces will cause the hobbits to move closer to Sauron's token. If Sauron ever occupies the same space as whichever hobbit is bearing the Ring, the game ends in defeat. The master game board also tracks progress through the various other locations in the game, which are all represented by modular boards you swap in and out as needed.
On each of the modular boards, there are seperate tracks representing obstacles that must be overcome in order to advance. Fighting, Friendship, Hiding, or Traveling are the four different categories represented. Players cooperate by using the cards in their hands to meet whatever conditions the spaces they land on require. It is a bit abstract, and can be difficult to wrap your head around the first time you play. But once you understand the rules, the cooperative elements of the game really begin to come through.
Each hobbit has a special ability that gives them an advantage in certain situations. Sam, for example, is resilient, and can only ever take one point of damage when rolling the die. In situations where you know damage is likely to occur, Sam is a good choice to take the brunt of it. By planning together how to best use each hobbit's special rules, the group can better prepar to face the challenges the game presents. Other cooperative elements like card trading and healing add to the strong sense of teamwork.
Co-op has been around for decades in video games, but for tabletop games, it was very rare until the past six or seven years. Lord of the Rings is one of the oldest fully cooperative games, and was unique for many years as a result. As more and more excellent co-op titles have been released, the appeal of Lord of the Rings has faded as a result. It is still an excellent game, and very much captures the theme of the source material, but the game mechanics are not nearly as elegant and intuitive as those of, say, Pandemic.
Still, Lord of the Rings is a strong cooperative board game design. The innate appeal of the theme, as well as the beautiful art and impressive modular game boards, are more than enough to compensate for the often fiddly mechanics. Those fans of Middle Earth who are looking for a teamwork-based game, rather than an epic clash between the armies of good and evil, would do well to search for a copy of Lord of the Rings.