Games Corner

Pair A Dice Games Corner- February 2026

Pair A Dice Games Corner

The Lord of the Rings Trick-Taking Games

I will Trick-Take it to Mordor

A new year, a new Lord of the Rings Trick-Taker has arrived, this year with the Two Towers Trick-Taking Game.

To get caught up, trick-takers are simple games, usually player with a standard playing card deck, with suits and numeric values. Players play into hand and winning the hand means "winning the trick", which can lead to various kinds of scoring. Games like Hearts and Bridge are classic traditional trick-takers.

Cooperative trick takers came around leading to unique ways of play cards into the center with players trying to achieve certain goals, such as one player winning a number of tricks, or winning a number of tricks while avoiding numeric cards, etc.

Last year, Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taker arrived, allowing you to play the first book of Tolkien's masterpiece triology in a simple, abstract cooperative trick taking game. Each person takes on a role (such as Bilbo or Frodo or Gandalf) and that role gives you a goal to achieve, while sometimes the scenario (called Chapters) require certain additional elements. Frodo, for example, requires a certain number of Ring-suit cards from the unique deck, which also includes Hills, Shadows, Mountains, and Forest suit cards.

If you can achieve each player's role/goal, you win that Chapter. Completing a hand can take 5-20 minutes, so its a game which moves fast. You can talk with the other players at the table about your hand so it leads to tense deductions hoping for a kind of telepathy between players to win. Book players will love the deep theme as well.

Without leading to spoilers (you learn this immediately upon opening the box), the new Two Towers Trick-Taker is new, and starts like the book with Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas tracking down Merry and Pippin who have been kidnapped by orcs. The unique deck has a new dynamic where that now includes Orc Suit cards, which had only be played when you have none of the lead suit in hand, and cannot lead the trick with an Orc or you auto-lose the whole chapter. There's also a unique Black and White Tower mechanic which helps determine first player, and auto-win rounds that I'll leave you to discover.

I'm halfway through the Two Towers and I have been blown away how it can abstractly adapt what is happening in the books, and continue to have new, intriguing scenarios that leave you on the edge of your seat to see what is next.

Plus (while supplies last) we have the free FLGS mini expansion, which adds additional scenarios and new content for the game, which add more fun and additional longevity to the post-game game.

Highly recommend for couples, small families especially with older kids, and groups of good friends. Its best at 4 players, but each player dynamic has a reason why it is unique and worth trying.

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