Yesterday I blogged about the LOTR Deck-Building Game (DBG). DBGs by the way have been picking up in momentum, especially in the last few months, with some big name franchises making the simple yet fun “cardboard” transition.

Wait a minute, a card game about Lord of the Rings? Now where did I hear that before? Yup, over a decade ago, when the first LOTR motion picture was fresh and all, a little game company known as Decipher Inc scored the rights to produce a trading card game (TCG) based on the huge franchise.

Decipher had already carved out a reputation for cranking out some solid licensed material: it started and popularized hugely popular TCGs based on the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises, and LOTR seemed like a natural home for the then-game company giant.

Each player in the LOTR TCG would take turns playing their own heroes (“Free Peoples” cards) and villains (“Shadow” cards) as they raced their respective Fellowships across nine Site cards. It was a bit of a “compromised” experience I have to say, but it allowed for everyone to be good and bad at the same time.

I enjoyed the game immensely, and there was even a budding tournament scene for it, to help spur the more competitive TCG enthusiasts. All in all, it felt like one of the more thematic card games out there!

Unfortunately, the game never really broke the dominance of the leading TCG of all time, Magic: the Gathering, and Decipher stopped producing it when its license to produce it, ended by 2007.

Well, the LOTR DBG has gotten me rekindling my once-love affair for the TCG. Stay tuned to see if I succeed!

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