By: David Akers
DeckTech Founder

We all have moments in time sealed in our heart, those unfading few seconds that, when reduced to the simple facts, don't add up to more than a facial expression, a feeling, or a kind word shared. Yet they leave an indelible impression on us and shape us in unknown ways.

These emotional imprints, like signet-sealed wax, create highlighted memories we can look back on and remember, perhaps just a little more clearly than others. But more than that, these memories sleep gently, waiting to magically transport us back to that moment in time. Sometimes all it takes is a familiar voice or song, or a particular scent or situation, and all of those memories rush back and are once again clear as crystal.

I suppose it is our mind's way of making sure we don't forget those things in life that are really important to us.

By now you are probably wondering what any of this has to do with the Lord of the Rings card game. I'll tie it all together in a second but I suppose you're right, I should begin by mentioning how great the card design, graphics and images are or how well the game plays.

The cards are very attractive. The layout is simple to learn and read, and the images are striking, and in many cases beautiful. Each affiliation has its own card styling making it easy to tell what belongs to each. The shadow characters images are truly gruesome and the free peoples appropriately noble, timid or fierce. Even the card back captures a sense of the magical Tolkien universe as the Elvin language glows, taunting you to speculate its true meaning. As good as the cards are though, they are not why the Lord of the Rings card game will be great.

The game play is conceptually very simple. During your turn you are the free people. Your responsibility is to form your fellowship and move the One Ring as far as you can on its way to destruction. On your opponent's turn you are the shadow people. As the shadow people, you are driven to thwart the free people (now your opponent), and kill or corrupt the ring bearer. You alternate turns until one of you kills or corrupts the ring bearer or completes the quest by getting the ring bearer to the final location.

That's really all there is to it, but fear not; inside this simple struggle you can expect to find advanced strategies and sophisticated mechanics that add a refreshing depth to the game. In fact, in a world full of ever increasing cookie-cutter kiddy card games, Decipher has taken the path less chosen.

Some game mechanics such as the twilight pool are amazingly simple at first but mysteriously show subtle shades of complexity as you continue to play the game. Others, like moving down the adventure path, add elements of risk and deception. To be fair, there are elements that some gamers will have to get use to, tokens for example.

The game seems to swim in them: twilight tokens, damage tokens, burden tokens and a token to represent your fellowship on the adventure path. Coming from a game like Star Wars CCG, where all you need is a deck with sleeves, the idea of needing thirty or more tokens to play seems odd.

Having said that, once you get used to them it really isn't a problem. In fact, most Star Wars CCG players will probably be glad that the extra space in their tournament box contains tokens rather than a second deck. You only need one deck to play competitive Lord of the Rings.

While I am comparing Lord of the Rings to Star Wars CCG, let me highlight a similarity. One of the ways to hurt your opponent in Star Wars CCG has always been battle damage. Likewise, in Lord of the Rings you can put a Star Wars-like beat down on your opponent. If you do it right, and catch your opponent napping, you can win the game on the spot by overwhelming the ring bearer. Of course it's not that easy to do, but nothing worth doing usually is.

All in all, the game is a great deal of fun to play and the pace is pretty fast once you get used to it. The designers seemed to want people to play certain themes and made them strong enough to do so competitively. Themes like Orc-Swarm, Elvin-Archers or Corruption add a lot of variety to the game and will give core gamers a good choice of different strategies without making winning or loosing a tournament all about deck match-ups. As good as the game play is, though, it isn't the reason the Lord of the Rings card game will be great.

When I first heard Decipher obtained the rights to produce the card game based on the motion picture version of Lord of the Rings, I like many Tolkien fans was both elated and apprehensive. I suppose whenever someone attempts to translate a novel into an alternate medium, the fans will always wonder if somehow in the translation the magical qualities of the original will be lost.

Justifiably, I was concerned about both the game and the movie. But when I talked to Kyle and learned he wanted to show me the game, I was more than a little excited to see it. It wasn't until I finished my first full game of Lord of the Rings that my concerns began to disappear.

Then in my second game, something unexpected happened. During my opponent's turn she added Sam, Frodo's faithful friend, to her fellowship that already consisted of Frodo carrying the One Ring and Aragorn. Then with her fellowship of three, she moved.

I smiled. I knew I had her just where I wanted. I was playing Orc-Swarm and by that time I had managed to draw into 7 Orcs, weapons or events. It was time. Carefully, I subtracted twilight tokens as I gathered my Orc army around her pitiful band of three. The matchup was my four Orcs against Aragorn, Frodo and Sam. Aragorn was a good match for one of the Scimitar wielding Orcs, but poor Sam and Frodo were no match against the other three.

She could only assign Sam and Frodo to one Orc each, leaving the last Orc to attack whomever I chose. She tried multiple match-ups to no avail. All the Orcs were powerful enough that any two would overwhelm the ring bearer, thus giving me the victory. Since she had no way to prevent me from overwhelming Frodo she had to concede the game.

Then it happened. A faint whisper, no more than a whimper quietly stirred.

She realized that Sam's game text allowed him to take the One Ring from Frodo in the event that his master died. So she removed the One Ring from the still Frodo and gave it to his little hobbit friend, Sam. Then, in that brief second, I imagined I heard the squeaky small voice of the shaken hobbit, and it all came back to me.

"Frodo, Mr. Frodo!" he called. "Don't leave me here alone! It's your Sam calling.."

In that brief moment I remembered how courageous Sam was when he took the One Ring from Frodo's body after Shelob attacked them. I remembered how this hobbit, little in stature and size, even by hobbit standards, proved himself to be great in spirit and nobility.

To be honest, it caught me off guard and all I could do was laugh and smile. I didn't even care that my plan to win the game didn't work. I just had to smile as Sam and Aragorn continued on without Frodo. That was the moment I knew that Lord of the Rings card game was going to be great.

Decipher has forged no ordinary game, it will transport you magically into the universe of the Lord of the Rings. Like a familiar song or voice that will draw out those treasured memories, the Lord of the Rings card game will make Tolkien's world alive to you once again.

If you have not read the Lord of the Rings you are really missing out on one of the worlds most wonderful stories. You should read it, or listen to it on audio.

I don't think the game is perfect and I'm sure that some will find problems I missed. I only played four games after all, so I still have much to discover, but I'm looking forward to it.

The game took me, for just a little while, to a place far away, a place where I laughed and smiled. That is all I really want in a card game, and that is why it will be great.