Game Play

LOTR LCG is a co-operative card game that is played over a

series of rounds that are comprised of 7 phases.

1. Resource
Each player,
adds 1 resource token to each Heros resource
pool.
draws 1 card from his player deck into his hand.
If the player deck is ever emptied, it is not
reset/refilled.

2. Planning
Each player, starting with the First Player, can spend
resource tokens to play Ally & Attachment cards from
their hand into their play area.
Attachment cards are assigned to one of the players
cards & are placed face up & overlapped by the card
they are attached to.
A player can share the resource tokens of each hero
that is within the same Sphere of Influence.
Neutral cards can be paid for with the resource
tokens from any of the players Heros resource pools.

3. Quest
Each player, starting with the First Player, exhausts
the Heroes & Allies that they want to commit to the
quest.
Cards are revealed from the Encounter deck, equal to
the number of players & are placed face up in the
Staging Area.
If the Encounter deck is emptied, shuffle the
discard deck & place it face down as the
Encounter deck.
The sum of the willpower ( ) of all committed
characters is compared with the sum of the threat
strength ( ) of all cards in the Staging Area.
= no further action is required.
> the difference is added in Progress
tokens to the current stage of the quest or
Location card, if in play.
> the difference is added to each players
Threat Tracker.
A player is eliminated if the players Threat
value reaches 50

4. Travel
One Location card can be moved from the Staging
Area & placed alongside the current Quest card,
provided no other Location card is in play.
Any Progress tokens that are earned are placed on
the Location card whilst it is in play.

5. Encounter
Each player, starting with the First Player, has the
option to engage one enemy from the Staging Area.
The engaged enemy is moved in front of the player.
Starting with the First Player, an Engagement Check is
made against all enemies in the Staging Area.
Each enemys Engagement value, from highest
to lowest, is compared to the current players
Threat Tracker value (Threat level).
If the Engagement value is less than or equal to
the current players Threat level, the enemy
engages the players Heroes/Allies. The enemy is
moved in front of the player.
Engagement Checks alternate between players
until all enemies in the Staging Area, that can be
engaged, have been engaged.

6. Combat
All enemy attacks are resolved first.
An Encounter card is placed face down on each
engaged enemy card in order from the enemy with
the highest Engagement value to the lowest.
No cards are placed if the Encounter deck is
emptied in the Combat phase.
Players may play Event & Action cards at any stage of
the Combat phase.
Beginning with the First Player, each player resolves
all enemy attacks as follows,
choose an enemy whose attack is to be resolved.
choose one Hero or Ally as the defender. The
character is exhausted.
The player can choose to let the attack go
undefended.
flip over the Encounter card that was placed on
the enemy & resolve Shadow effects if any.
resolve the combat by comparing the attacking
cards strength ( ) with the defending cards
strength ( ).
>= - no damage dealt.
> - the difference is added in damage
tokens to the attacked card.
Undefended damage must be dealt to a
Hero.
the character dies if the number of Damage
tokens on the card equals the cards Hit
Points. The card is removed from play.
Beginning with the First Player, each player resolves
all of their Hero/Ally attacks as follows,
choose a character or characters that will attack
an enemy. Character(s) is/are exhausted.
resolve the combat as above.
Once all combat has been resolved,
shadow cards are discarded.
enemies that have not been killed remain
engaged with the player, but are no longer
engaged with specific characters.

7. Refresh
All exhausted cards are readied.
Each players Threat value is increased by 1.
The First Player token is passed to the left.





Overview
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a co-operative game
in which players work together to complete a quest.
Each quest consists of a set of cards that represent the
stages of the quest & players work together to acquire
Progress tokens to complete each of the stages. However,
the partys progress needs to be balanced with the need to
deal with enemies & treacheries that appear along the way.
If at least one hero remains alive once the quest has been
completed, then the players win, otherwise the players have
been defeated by the game.

Set Up
Players
Each player,
takes a player deck of one of the Spheres of Influence
& the 3 associated Hero cards.
places the 3 Hero cards face up in front of themself.
takes a Threat Tracker.
sets the value of their Threat Tracker to the
accumulated threat cost of their heroes.
shuffles their player deck.
draws a starting hand of 6 cards.
Players may reject their starting hand once, by
returning their initial hand into their player deck,
shuffling it & drawing a new starting hand.
Players choose a start player & give that player the First
Player token.
Quest
Players choose a quest and,
take the set of Quest cards.
turn all Quest cards to their A side, stacking them,
in numeric order with the lowest number on top &
place them near the Staging Area.
take the decks of Encounter Set cards that are shown
on the Quest cards.
draw cards from the Encounter cards, as shown in the
Setup text on the 1A card & place them in the
Staging Area.
turn the 1A card of the quest to its 1B side.
shuffle the remaining Encounter cards & place them
face down in the Staging Area.
Place the Damage, Progress & Resource tokens in a pile
next to the Encounter deck.

Spheres of Influence

- Lore

- Spirit

- Leadership

- Tactics

Definitions
Threat Tracker
Used to determine when enemies will engage the
characters of a player.
A player is eliminated if the value of the Threat
Tracker reaches 50.
Readied vs Exhausted
All Hero & Ally cards start each round as Readied,
which is in the normal upright position.
Players commit their Heroes & Allies to actions during
the various phases of each round. This commitment is
called exhausting the card. The card is turned 90 &
cannot be reused in the current round unless the
status is reset as the result of another card.
Staging Area
An area in the middle of the play field, whose
elements represent potential dangers that players
might face in the progress of their quest.
Card Keywords
Planning
Restricted a character can only be equipped with
2 restricted attachments. If a third restricted
attachment is to be applied, one of the current
attachments must be discarded.
Quest (effects take place when the card is revealed)
Doomed X each player must raise the value of
their Threat Tracker by X.
Guarded appears on Objective cards. An
Encounter card is drawn and attached to the
objective. Once the attached card is dealt with,
the player can claim the Objective card.
Surge reveal 1 additional Encounter card.
Combat
Characters
Ranged may attack enemies that are
engaged with other players.
Sentinel may be declared as a defender for
an enemy attack on another players character.
Encounter Cards
Shadow an effect added to an enemies
attack.
Victory X victory points that are gained by
the entire party upon defeat of the enemy.
Other
Response an optional action that players can
make in response to a specified game occurrence.
Forced an effect that occurs whenever its
specified prerequisite condition are met.
When Revealed an effect that occurs when the
card is revealed.
Lasting Effects most effects last a single round
unless otherwise stated.
Ownership & Control a player owns all of his
cards, including Heroes. He controls them unless,
a card effect allows another player to take
control of one of the players Allies. The Ally is
moved to the other players area.
the player assigns an attachment to one of
another players characters.