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play, which, although not innovative, Der Ringträger, on the other works pretty well. The mechanics remain hand, doesn’t score any points basic: you play cards to move forward or
Title:
Designer: Illustration: Publisher: Players: Age: Duration: Price:
Der Herr der Ringe: Der Ringträger Klaus-Jürgen Wrede Martin Bustamente Schmidt Spiele
3 – 4
about 10+ years about 45 minutes about 32 euros
Reviewer
Stephan Zerlik
Udo Bartsch
Playing appeal
5
4
Interesting concept, but not intuitive and too many rules.
Stefan Ducksch 4
Too many rules for too few options. The ringbearer often unwillingly becomes Sauron’s follower.
Stephan Kessler 3
The ring controls me. Balancing prob- lems, impractical card-holding, and clumsy rules make the long journey more difficult.
Christoph Schlewinski 4
The One Ring in the box can no longer save the day: there have been many other “The Lord of the Rings” games before this one—only better. And the fact that the rather interesting traitor mechanic doesn’t even come into play under certain circumstances is also unfortunately a failure.
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When you compare the Adventure Book Game to Der Ringträger, the first game wins. But if you compare either of them to the plethora of “The Lord of the Rings” games out there, neither of them really stands out; they’re both basic, card-driv- en movement games. It is, however, pos- sible to make games with this theme challenging and exciting while focusing on the story. Just like Reiner Knizia did with the The Lord of the Rings cooper- ative game he released in 2000, with a card-driven movement mechanic that is spread over several boards. In my opin- ion, that game is still the most atmo- spheric way to replay the story of “The Lord of the Rings.” (tw)
on narrative qualities because it has none. Unfortunately, even the gimmick of the One Ring can’t remedy this. The game does use three mechanics that are indeed exciting and unusual. First, the other players see some of my cards; that’s different. You try to hold as many cards as possible this way, so that others can draw from your cards. Second, the traitor. It’s exciting, but switching sides is too often unintentional and unavoidable. Third, the traitor receives a separate set of cards that can stop the Hobbits. The result is not pretty, because their progress is slowed to a crawl and all they can do is wait for their unavoidable defeat.
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The Adventure Book Game, conversely, gets points for its use of standard game-
complete missions. Nevertheless, it is fun because it opens up different options that can be discussed among the players. The game really shines thanks to its design, the paths are easily distinguishable. Lord of the Rings fans will feel right at home.
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Der Ringträger also loses points for the artwork. Unlike the Adventure Book Game, the paths are hard to recognize, especially between tiles, where you might think you see a path but none exists. If you want to reveal another tile, you have to sacrifice an action, which I find to be a dull game mechanic. Only the One Ring gets ooh and ahs from fans—well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Spoiler alert: we tested it extensively and it doesn’t work; you don’t turn invisible when you put the ring on.
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