Designer Matt Leacock's tabletop docket consists of everything form Pandemic to Reign of Cthulhu, and a Star Wars: The Clone Wars board game. To top it all off, here he is coming at us with a Lord of the Rings board game. The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship is available for pre-order right now, and the Z-Man Games site is calling it "Matt Leacock’s most mechanically-rich Pandemic System design to date."
Made with "thematically rich cooperative gameplay" in mind, according to Leacock, players actually dual-wield characters to fill out the Fellowship. Each player controls two characters who will help keep Frodo safe on his journey to destroy the One Ring, and evade the Nazgûl. Whether it'll be best board game material is hard to tell at this stage, but I do love the little references I've seen so far.
Appropriately, I've just spotted that on the Frodo and Sam character card, it says that with 'Sam's Aid' players can spend hearts to improve their search rolls. I suppose that tracks. He does appear to have pretty high perception, and certainly a lot of heart to give.
You might see your duo heading to Rivendell to "Attain the Blessing of the Elves", or confronting Saruman himself, all while you try to prevent your hope from falling too low and avoiding the gaze of Sauron's eye as it sweeps across the landscape of Middle Earth.
With 13 playable characters, 24 objectives to complete, and 14 events to keep you on your toes it looks like there's going to be a lot of replay value with this one. Plus, there's an Eye of Sauron dice tower included which is worth the price of admission alone for me.
If that all sounds particularly interesting to you, you can head on over to the Z-Man Games store now to pre-order the game, and be one of the first to experience Pandemic, only it's Lord of the Rings and the virus is the forces of evil. The game is expected to drop in June, so keep your eyes lidless and wreathed in flame.
For more recommendations, why not check out the best cooperative board games or best two player board games.
