The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick Taking Game Review

I might sound like a broken record at this point, but I’ve never been a huge fan of trick taking games, especially cooperative ones. I have great strategic thinking capabilities, but for some reason all logic leaves my brain when it comes to deciding which cards to play in a trick taking experience. While I enjoyed what The Crew was trying to do, it was never a game I wanted to play. With The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick Taking Game now available, will I be more apt to play it as a huge Lord of the Rings fan?

Short answer: yes. And an even shorter review – this game is great! All the anxiety I feel when it comes to playing the right card at the right moment still exists, and I’m still not sure I enjoy that kind of pressure in a cooperative setting, but the Lord of the Rings theming takes this game over the top for me, and it’s one I’m desperately trying to play as often as possible. Could this be the game that makes me love cooperative trick taking games? Perhaps.

The game is broken down into 21 chapters, and as you get deeper and deeper into the experience, you will unlock new characters and new gameplay mechanics that generally – although not always – only stick around for a game or so. Character in this game is going to determine what you are trying to do each mission. Frodo, for example, wants to collect a certain number of “Ring” cards, although cannot lead a “Ring” card until a “Ring” card has been played into another trick. Pippen wants to win the fewest tricks, and Merry wants to win 1 or 2 tricks.

Each character has a unique goal they need to accomplish, and some characters will be mandatory in certain missions you play. The game follows the story of the Fellowship of the Ring (books, not movies) and if you are a fan of that literature, you’ll enjoy the characters you unlock to play! What’s more, I think they really nailed the theming throughout, making the requirements of certain characters fit that character. Pippen, a bit of a dunce when the books begin, wants to win the fewest tricks. That makes sense, I think.

The game shines in a campaign-like setting where you sit with the same group of players and slowly make your way through the game’s nearly two dozen chapters. While there is definitely no requirement to play this with the same group of people, the literary nature of the experience does push you towards doing exactly that. And if you have a great group of Lord of the Rings fans, it probably won’t take you overly long to get through the entire game!

Where the game lacks a bit is in the post campaign replayability. You can always pick a chapter and play it whenever you want, but unlike games like The Crew, it’s not a great pick-up-and-play experience, at least not in our opinion. The Crew is definitely a better option in that regard. This might be a knock for some who want a ton of longevity out of their Fellowship of the Ring Trick Taking Game, but it’s not much of a negative for me.

There are very few games available in the marketplace that will make me play a genre I dislike, but when you slap Lord of the Rings on something, I’m guaranteed to give it a try. Office Dog has knocked it out of the park with this release, and I cannot wait for the inevitable Two Towers and Return of the Kings sets in the future!