Want to relive The Lord of the Rings, but aren’t really in the mood to rewatch the movies or reread the books? Well, you can always go online to enjoy some fanart or rebuild your old LOTR LEGO sets (after tearing them down, of course). If that don’t sound like it’s going to be too much fun, maybe you can get some friends together to play the Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game instead.
No, it’s not a spin-off from the mainline story. Instead, it’s a retelling of the epic trilogy in tabletop form, allowing you to join the band of occasionally-reluctant heroes in their quest to destroy the One Ring and save the world from its all-consuming evil.
The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game retells the events that unfolded during the Third Age of Middle Earth, when Frodo resolved to destroy the magic Ring of Invisibility by casting it into the volcanic fires of Mount Doom, which is located at the very heart of Mordor. In the game, up to four players can take the roles of Frodo, Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli, working together to carry out the quest while surviving dangers and avoiding the Eye of Sauron at every stop. That’s right, you can play as your favorite major character from the trilogy, giving you a fresh way to enjoy the fantasy epic.
This is the third installment from Ravensburger’s Adventure Book series, by the way, so it plays out a bit differently from your usual tabletop titles. In particular, they divided the story into eight chapters, each one playing out at different Middle Earth locations, so you starrt out in the Hobbit domain of the Shire, where our heroes first depart, travel to numerous locations like Rivendell, Isengard and Moria, before finishing the tale at Mordor, where you stage your attempt to put an end to the One Ring once and for all. According to the outfit, they made sure to represent all pivotal scenes in the main story, so fans can really relive the adventure the same way they experienced it either from the books or from the movies.
The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game comes with eight different maps for each chapter of the story, which they compiled as a single book, so you can simply turn to the next map as soon as one chapter is finished. Each map, naturally, comes with its own puzzles and challenges that players will need to overcome in order to progress the story and put at end to the threat of Sauron’s shadow. If you like playing solo tabletop games, by the way, you’ll have fun with this, too, since it can be played by any combination of up to four players, including single-player, with playing time estimated to last just 15 to 20 minutes, so it’s a quick game that won’t take you days to finish. It comes with seven character miniatures, multiple card decks, and 53 counters.
The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game is available exclusively from Target, priced at $34.99.