The Lord of the Rings: Circle of Conflict

Every player is both the hero and the villain. Usually in the same turn.

It is the Third Age of Middle-earth and the war for the One Ring is under way. Sit down at the table and you command two armies at once: the Free Peoples against the player on one side of you, and the forces of the Shadow against the player on the other. Recruit Gandalf and the heroes of the Fellowship, or muster the troops of Mordor and send the Nazgûl hunting. Everyone writes on their own full-size dry-erase boards, and a wooden Gollum keeps an eye on proceedings.

Each round the dice are rolled for everyone, and the decisions are all yours: which army gets which result, and who it hurts. Take the Fellowship to Mount Doom and win a battle as the Free Peoples, or fully corrupt your neighbour's Fellowship and beat it in battle as the Shadow. The tension is that every result you spend on one front is one you didn't spend on the other, and both of your neighbours are doing the same sums about you. Designed by Geoff Engelstein and Stephen Buonocore, it plays in about an hour.

Perfect for: anyone who has argued, at length, about whether they would have kept the Ring. Now you can find out, and also be the one hunting it.

2–4 players | 60 minutes | Age 14+