The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game

Today's review is of the 2023 release, The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game. For 1-4 players, it takes 20 minutes per chapter. With eight chapters total, the entire experience could take almost three hours.

Overview

In this cooperative game, you and your friends will navigate through eight mini-games as you re-live The Lord of the Rings movies (yes, it is based on the Peter Jackson films). There are common and unique rules:

Common rules apply to every chapter. The basic turn structure is constant for each player: 

- Move: two characters one space each or one character two spaces

- Storytelling (do any of the following, in any order, multiple times if you wish): discard cards to move characters one extra space, complete challenges (see next paragraph), play special cards, trade one card with another player

- Draw 2 cards from the story deck

- Draw a plot card and do the action that correponds to its number on the chapter's plot chart

- Discard your hand down to 6 cards

Unique rules are chapter-specific. The game 'board' is a chapter book, with each chapter on a separate cardboard map. There are chapter setup and unique rules on the left, and unique challenges on the right. A chapter is completed when the challenges are completed.

Game contents; image from here

Each chapter starts with some characters (or tokens) from The Lord of the Rings movies being placed in their indicated spaces on that chapter's map. Each player draws four story cards and the round begins, following the common rules above and any unique rules for that chapter. Play proceeds clockwise until the chapter is over. Then remaining cards in hands are discarded, the story card deck is re-shuffled, the page is turned, you set up the next chapter, and the game continues.

A closer look at a chapter; image from here

Completing challenges generally have some side benefit, like drawing story cards or special cards. Special cards have powerful abilities, and better yet, they get shuffled into the story deck for future chapters. But that's not the only thing that persists from chapter to chapter . . . the corruption track marker, which can rise by using the powerful ring cards, also persists. If that marker ever hits 15, you lose the game. And, if you fail a chapter (by not completing it by the time all plot cards have been played, or by the chapter-specific failure condition), the corruption marker stays at the current value—but you have to return any special cards you gained that chapter to the special card deck. Thus, there is tension: you may need to use ring cards at key points in the game, but what brings you closer to victory also gets you perilously close to defeat. Can you manage to survive?

Review

This game, though produced by a major publisher and based on the beloved movie franchise, is supposedly available only at Target. (You can pick it up at the Ravensburger store, too, through Amazon.) I picked it up on a whim, and I am glad I did. This is an enjoyable re-creation of the movies in a multi-game format. The common rules were simple and consistent enough to ease play; the unique setup and rules were also straightforward. The miniatures are of surprising quality and detail. The corruption track is a good representation of the rising suspense in the films, and the plot cards are a nice feature.

You probably won't play this in one sitting, so have a method handy to track the corruption marker and chapter you're on. It is a light game, though not as light as the last LOTR game I reviewed, and I like it better—there is less luck and more meaningful decisions. Though playtime is longer, this is a winner.

Rating: A-