Board Game The Lord of the Rings - Journeys in Middle-Earth

An innovative cooperative with an electronic application based on the universe of «The Lord of the Rings».

Interactive adventure cooperative

This is a cooperative game for 1-5 players. Players choose brave heroes and together set off on a dangerous adventure. They will try to survive in the legendary fantasy world of «The Lord of the Rings» by J. R. R. Tolkien. During this journey, the heroes will fight powerful enemies, search for lost treasures, master forgotten knowledge and develop skills inherent in the chosen role. In the base game, players can choose to be the leader Aragorn, the ranger Beravor, the robber Bilbo, the musician Elena, the defender Gimli, or the hunter Legolas.

The most innovative part of the game is the electronic application that fills your adventures with various details. Before each game, the application will choose how events will develop, what the map of your journey will be, what enemies and allies you will meet on your way, etc. Even if players go through the same campaign again, a new story will await them.

Each game in the game is a separate journey that is part of a large campaign. During each journey, the heroes will try to complete a series of tasks and defeat the forces of evil in Middle-earth. Regardless of the outcome of a separate adventure, the plot of the campaign will unfold further, and the heroes will develop. Only after completing all the journeys will players reach the conclusion of the campaign: they will either all win or all be defeated.

After choosing roles in the application, taking hero figures, tablets and starting equipment, players form personal decks of skill cards. Each takes 6 base cards, 5 cards with the name of the chosen hero, 3 cards of the chosen role and 1 random weakness card. The player puts the starting role card in front of him, and shuffles the other 14 cards and places them in a deck in his playing area.

Gameplay

The game consists of a series of rounds. Each round consists of three phases.

1. Action Phase

During this phase, each hero can perform 2 actions. You can perform the same action twice. When performing actions, heroes travel, explore the world, and fight enemies. Heroes determine the order of their moves and can change it each round. 

The following actions are available to heroes:

• Move. You can move your figure to an adjacent zone up to 2 times. You can interrupt your movement to perform the second action of your turn, then continue your turn. 
• Interact. While in a zone with a character, search, or threat token, a hero can perform an interact action by selecting the corresponding token in the app and pressing the button with the action symbol. The hero follows the instructions of the app, and then continues his turn.
• Attack. The hero selects an equipment card with a skill symbol in the upper left corner and a target to attack – a single group of enemies within attack range. He then makes an attack check.

Checks

With the help of checks, heroes interact with the game world and attack enemies. Checks are usually required when players explore the map, encounter threats, attack enemies, and interact with the inhabitants of Middle-earth.

Each check uses one of the hero`s skills listed on his board: Dexterity, Strength, Will, Wisdom, or Wit. When making a check, the hero reveals as many cards from the top of his skill deck as his value for the corresponding skill. The result of the check depends on the number of successes on the cards revealed. Successes are also used to apply equipment card effects during an attack (mostly hits and attack modifiers) or to negate wounds and fears.

2. Darkness Phase

Consists of 3 phases:

• Enemy Activation Phase. Each group of enemies gets the opportunity to move and attack. The target of each group of enemies` attack is determined by the application.
• Darkness Phase. Each hero in the darkness suffers a specified number of fear s specified by the application.
• Threat Phase. The threat level increases each time for each hero in the game, threat tokens on the map, and unexplored map tiles. When the threat level reaches a threshold on the threat scale, the application triggers a threat event. The heroes play the event, following the instructions of the application. The threshold value indicates at what threat level the next event will be played. If the threat scale is completely filled, the game immediately ends with the defeat of the players.

3. Recovery Phase

Each hero refreshes their skill deck by shuffling cards from the discard pile into the deck. The app then instructs the heroes to play the “Reconnaissance 2” effect: each hero reveals 2 cards from the top of their skill deck. The hero can prepare one of them by placing the card below their board. If the card is prepared, the hero can apply its effects.

After completing the recovery phase, players begin a new round with the action phase. The game continues until the players complete the journey.

Completing the journey

Each journey presents the heroes with a series of tasks. The current task is listed below the threat meter. When the heroes complete the current task, the app will immediately give the heroes a new task.

If the heroes complete the last task before the threat meter is completely full, they win the journey. If one of the heroes is defeated, the remaining heroes continue the game, but lose if they do not complete the last task before the next phase of darkness begins.

The journey ends with the victory or defeat of all heroes. If the journey is completed in victory, the heroes receive a reward. In either case, even if they are defeated, the heroes move on together to the next journey of the campaign.