The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship

Set up the game board in the center of the table with threat and hope markers on their starting spaces. Separate the friendly troops and place them on their matching locations according to the rulebook, storing the remainder. Add shadow troops to the board using the initial shadow cards. Choose three objective cards—or the recommended introductory ones—and set up any starting pieces they require. Distribute character cards to players, who also collect their matching figures and reference cards. Build the player deck using region and event cards, and mix in skies darken cards across multiple stacks based on difficulty. Finally, place various tokens, dice, and the Barad-dûr dice tower within reach.

Players work together cooperatively to complete three unique objectives chosen at the start of the game. Once all three are fulfilled, the players must complete the final objective: escorting Frodo and Sam to Mount Doom, spending the required resistance symbols, and surviving one last high-stakes search roll to destroy the One Ring before hope is entirely lost.

A player's turn consists of three distinct steps. First, perform actions: use up to four actions with one character and up to one action with the other, choosing from travel, fellowship, prepare, muster, attack, and capturing. Second, draw two cards from the player deck, resolving any skies darken cards encountered. Third, draw and resolve a number of shadow cards equal to the current threat level.

There are no traditional victory points. The group wins collectively if they successfully destroy the One Ring. The group loses immediately if the hope marker ever reaches the bottom of the hope track or if required components run out under specific failure conditions.

The game ends instantly when the final ring-destruction objective is successfully completed, resulting in a shared victory. Alternatively, it ends in immediate defeat the moment hope drops to zero.