The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a cooperative adventure game in which the players attempt to complete a scenario, each with three heroes of their choice and a deck of allies, events and attachments to support them. Each round, players send their heroes and allies to quest or to fight with enemies that engage them. However, as the heroes and allies exhaust after questing, defending, or attacking, the players' options are typically insufficient to deal with everything at once. Therefore, players need to determine whether it is more urgent to quest and make progress in the scenario while the enemy forces gain power, or to take down enemies while making no progress, not knowing what will come next.

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is the base game of a Living Card Game for which new adventure packs are released monthly. The base game contains three scenarios, twelve famous characters from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (including Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Denethor and Eowyn), and four pre-constructed player decks. Players can either use one of these decks or construct their own deck to increase their chances to be succesful in the more challenging scenarios. The monthly adventure packs contain a new scenario, a new hero, and new player cards to be used in their deck. The base game is for 1-2 players, but with an additional base game the scenarios can be played with up to four players.

Although this game is set in Tolkien's Middle Earth, the scenarios do not represent scenes from the books, but rather take place in the seventeen years from Bilbo's birthday until Frodo's departure from the Shire.

The scenarios from saga-expansions do represent scenes from the books. Saga-expansions will form the Campaign Mode so that you can play all the saga quests that deal with the trilogy (+ Hobbit) together in one marathon campaign.

Online play

• OCTGN game page
• LackeyCCG installation instructions
• LOTR:LCG on VASSAL

Guilds and Meetup Groups

• SoCal Lord of the Rings LCG

Podcasts about the game

• CardBoard of the Rings

List of all cards

• LoTR-LCG.com
• Card spoilers on CardGameDB.com
• Der Deckbauer (German)

Blogs about the game

• Master of Lore
• Hall of Beorn
• Tales from the Cards
• Lord of the Rings:LCG - session reports and general thoughts
• LOTR the living card game musings
• The Journey of 100 plays of Lord of the Rings LCG: From the eyes of a new player

Core Set:
Includes 3 scenarios:

• Passage Through Mirkwood (Difficulty level=1)
• Journey Down the Anduin (DL=4)
• Escape from Dol Guldur (DL=7)

Deluxe Expansions:
(The Core Set is required to play following deluxe expansions)

• Khazad-dûm includes 3 scenarios:
  • Into the Pit (DL=5)
  • The Seventh Level (DL=3)
  • Flight from Moria (DL=7)

• Heirs of Númenor includes 3 scenarios:
  • Peril in Pelargir (DL=5)
  • Into Ithilien (DL=4)
  • The Siege of Cair Andros (DL=7)

Adventure Packs:

Shadows of Mirkwood Cycle
(The Core Set is required to play the following adventure packs)

• The Hunt for Gollum (DL=4)
• Conflict at the Carrock (DL=7)
• A Journey to Rhosgobel (DL=6)
• The Hills of Emyn Muil (DL=4)
• The Dead Marshes (DL=5)
• Return to Mirkwood (DL=7)

Dwarrowdelf Cycle
(The Core Set and the Khazad-dûm expansion are required to play the following adventure packs)

• The Redhorn Gate (DL=6)
• Road to Rivendell (DL=4)
• The Watcher in the Water (DL=5)
• The Long Dark (DL=7)
• Foundations of Stone (DL=6)
• Shadow and Flame (DL=8)

Against the Shadow Cycle
(The Core Set and the Heirs of Númenor expansion are required to play the following adventure packs)

• The Steward's Fear (DL=5)
• The Drúadan Forest (DL=?)
• Encounter at Amon Dîn (DL=?)
• The Assault on Osgiliath (DL=?)
• The Blood of Gondor (DL=?)
• The Morgul Vale (DL=?)

Print on Demand expansions:
(The Core Set is required to play following expansions)

• The Massing at Osgiliath (DL=8-9)
• The Battle of Lake-town (DL=9-10)

Saga Expansions:
(The Core Set is required to play following saga expansions)

• The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill includes 3 scenarios:
  • We Must Away, Ere Break of Day (unofficial DL=6-7)
  • Over the Misty Mountains Grim (unofficial DL=6-7)
  • Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim (unofficial DL=6-7)

• The Hobbit: On the Doorstep includes 3 scenarios:
  • Flies and Spiders
  • The Lonely Mountain
  • The Battle of Five Armies

• The Black Riders includes 3 scenarios:
  • TBA
  • TBA
  • TBA

Nightmare Decks:
(The Core Set is required to play following nightmare decks)

• The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game - Core Set Nightmare Decks includes 3 nightmare decks of:
  • Passage Through Mirkwood (DL=?)
  • Journey Down the Anduin (DL=?)
  • Escape from Dol Guldur (DL=?)