The Fellowship of The Ring: Trick-Taking Game Review

The accepted acceptable of playing paper rules utilized successful trick-taking has a batch of value to transportation connected its communicative backbone to enactment Tolkein’s storytelling, but this sturdy small container tries its champion to carnivore the burden.

What’s successful the Box

While The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game comes successful a tiny box, arsenic befits a paper game, it has contiguous entreaty with its stained-glass benignant creation and shiny, gilded box-front ring. Opening the trove reveals much treasures: the container is divided into 3 compartments, each with a section ribbon, 2 of which commencement retired sealed portion the 3rd contains the cards and counters you’ll request for your archetypal plays.

The cards themselves are a delight, featuring a affluent creation benignant reminiscent of stained solid that doesn’t consciousness similar an contiguous acceptable for Tolkien’s universe, but which grew connected maine implicit time. This operation gives the crippled its ain distinctive style, portion inactive managing to conjure beloved characters from the LotR novel.

Rules and How It Plays

This is simply a trick-taking game, truthful it riffs connected classical playing paper people games similar Whist and Bridge. For those unfamiliar, this means the archetypal subordinate plays a card, and pursuing players person to play a paper of the aforesaid suit, if possible, with the highest-value paper of the archetypal suit winning the hand. Rather than the acquainted suits of a modular playing paper deck, these cards are divided into forest, hill, mountain, and shadow, which tally from 1 to eight, and rings, which tally from 1 to five. Many games person a trump suit which volition bushed the archetypal suit if played, but present there’s lone a azygous trump card, which appropriately capable is the 1 of rings.

The different large departure from the trick-taking look is the information that this crippled is cooperative, truthful you’re moving unneurotic to execute a acceptable of goals alternatively than trying to bushed the different players. The crippled is breached down into chapters, which bespeak important sequences from Tolkien’s masterwork, and each subordinate takes the relation of a quality from that chapter, who has their ain goals. Frodo is astir ever 1 of the characters, his extremity is ever to triumph ringing cards, and whoever is dealt the 1 of rings has to play arsenic him. Other players get to take their characters from the enactment disposable for the chapter. As you spell done the crippled you’ll brushwood different members of the fellowship alongside much insignificant characters from the publication similar Farmer Maggot.

All the quality powers and goals person a vague transportation to the root material, but fixed the abstract quality of translating an escapade communicative into a trick-taking game, these are often beauteous tenuous. Gildor the elf, for example, shows his elvishness by having to play a wood paper successful the last instrumentality of the crippled portion Pippin, whose paper is delightfully sub-titled arsenic “fool”, has to triumph the fewest tricks. But for galore different characters, specified arsenic Gandalf and Bilbo, the extremity is wholly divorced from their relation successful the story, often equating to winning a peculiar fig of tricks.

Initially, moving unneurotic to triumph peculiar tricks for peculiar players tin consciousness odd, particularly if you’re utilized to the bushed of traditional, competitory trick-taking games. There’s besides a regularisation forbidding players from talking astir what’s successful their hands – the crippled would beryllium excessively casual different – which mightiness instrumentality a spot of getting utilized to. But aft a fewer tries you should beryllium capable to found the basal tactics needed and the crippled volition statesman to unfold. It’s a bully equilibrium of strategy and luck: determination are occasions wherever the woody volition conscionable not springiness players the cards required, but the quality to take your character, and the quality galore characters person to speech cards with others, gives you other levers to summation your accidental of success.

Just arsenic you deliberation you’ve gotten comfy with the mode the crippled works, it throws you a curveball by adding successful immoderate caller regularisation concepts and quality goals. There are eighteen chapters successful full and the crippled keeps coming up with originative and astonishing ways to modify its mechanics to support you connected your toes. Many of them negociate a amended tie-in with the communicative than the quality cards. It would beryllium a shame to spoil excessively galore but the barrow downs chapter, for example, recreates the omnipresent fog of that dreadful spot done the elemental expedient of removing a slew of random cards from the platform to confuse things. Other villains that enactment successful an quality see Old Man Willow, the Ringwraiths, and the Balrog.

Veteran gamers may, by this point, person realized that The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game shared rather a batch of DNA with different cooperative trick-taking game, the fantabulous The Crew: Mission Deep Sea (Amazon), a perennial successful our database of the champion committee games for families. And so the travel and consciousness of some games are broadly similar, with trick-taking being adapted into a radical extremity by giving each subordinate definite objectives successful the tricks that they win. However, the Tolkein adaptation has respective slender advantages implicit its older relation.

Most notably, portion the theming of the crippled mightiness beryllium weak, the communicative is truthful acquainted – and so the information there’s a communicative astatine each – gives the crippled a amended consciousness of progression than The Crew’s vague march done trouble levels. It’s inactive a dilatory ascent done assorted challenges, of course, but the familiarity of the communicative and the beauteous artwork marque that advancement travel live successful a mode that The Crew conscionable can’t manage. There are besides immoderate small mechanical flourishes, too: the azygous trump of the 1 of rings is much absorbing than the modular trump suit successful The Crew, and the objectives are much varied and thematic.

Surprisingly for a trick-taking crippled there’s besides a solo mode and, adjacent much surprisingly, it works beauteous well. You play 4 characters astatine once, but you lone commencement with astir fractional the cards dealt, with replacements coming astatine random disconnected the platform arsenic you take which cards to play. This is an effectual stand-in for the uncertainty of not knowing what’s successful different player’s hands, and adjacent erstwhile you cognize what cards are available, trying to coordinate your character’s goals crossed 4 antithetic hands astatine erstwhile is simply a stiff challenge.

Where to Buy

• Get it astatine Amazon

See much Lord of the Rings committee games

Originally posted:

Apr 15, 2025 6:47 pm