The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

Edition and objective: one original Core Set supports 1–2 players, or up to four with a second set; one Revised Core Set supports 1–4. Completing the selected core scenario’s final quest stage wins collectively. All players being eliminated loses; one player leaving does not automatically defeat the group.

Setup: select heroes and player decks, assemble the scenario’s encounter sets, and stack its quest cards in order. Each player starts at the sum of their heroes’ threat costs. Draw six cards, optionally shuffle the whole hand back for one replacement hand, then perform scenario setup.

Each round has Resource, Planning, Quest, Travel, Encounter, Combat, and Refresh phases. In Resource, add one resource to each hero in play and draw one card per player. There is no general hand-size limit.

During Planning, players in order may play any number of allies and attachments. For a sphere card, spend resources from your own matching heroes; multiple matching pools may contribute. A zero-cost card still requires a match. Neutral cards need no sphere match. Events follow their action or response timing.

For the quest, exhaust the characters you commit, then normally reveal one encounter card per remaining player, resolving them one at a time. Compare committed willpower with staging-area threat: a surplus places that much progress, a deficit raises every player’s threat by that amount, and a tie does neither.

Progress normally fills the active location before reaching the current quest. During Travel, if no location is active, the group may choose one in staging and pay its travel cost. An active location no longer contributes staging threat. Excess progress beyond a completed quest stage does not carry to the next stage.

During Encounter, each player may optionally engage one staging enemy. Players then repeat engagement checks: the eligible enemy with the highest engagement cost not exceeding that player’s threat engages them. Engaged enemies normally remain engaged and stop contributing staging threat.

Combat deals shadow cards to engaged enemies, resolves enemy attacks, then allows player attacks. Normally one ready character defends an attack; reveal its shadow before calculating attack minus defense as damage. An undefended attack assigns its full damage to one hero controlled by that player, ignoring defense. Several attackers may combine against one target.

Refresh readies exhausted cards, raises each player’s threat by one, and passes the First Player token clockwise. Damage remains between rounds. A player is normally eliminated at fifty threat or after losing all heroes; remaining players continue and can still win for the group.

A standard custom deck uses 1–3 heroes and at least fifty player cards, with at most three copies by title; introductory decks instead follow the teaching lists. A unique card cannot duplicate a unique card already in play. Actions require action windows, responses require their triggering conditions, and official errata can impose further limits.