Matt Leacock has done it again. The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship just swept three Golden Geek Awards (Medium Game of the Year, Thematic Game of the Year, and Cooperative Game of the Year), making it the single biggest winner at the 20th annual ceremony.
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Find events near youFate of the Fellowship is a Z-Man Games cooperative for 1 to 5 players. Each player runs two of the Fellowship's 13 playable characters as they shepherd Frodo to Mount Doom, dodge the Nazgul, and stop the shadow armies from overrunning Middle-earth's havens. It evolves the Pandemic system Leacock made famous, adding event cards, 24 different objectives, and a clever 'two characters per player' twist that scales the ensemble cast naturally even at low player counts. Wargamer called the result somehow better than the original board game.
Leacock has been designing full-time since 2014, with Forbidden Island, Forbidden Desert and Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 already on his shelf. Pandemic alone has sold over 5 million copies across the line, so adding three Golden Geek wins for what is essentially Pandemic-with-hobbits is the kind of capstone designers spend careers chasing. Fate of the Fellowship is also up against Vantage and the new Origins Awards co-op finalists later this year, so this is unlikely to be the last trophy it picks up.
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Set up your group for freeThe game is in UK shops now and has just hit Board Game Arena for online play. If you fancy teaching it to your group, organise a learn-to-play session on Backseat Gamer. Co-ops with this much character text always land better when the host has already played once.
Sources: BoardGameWire | Opinionated Gamers | Wargamer | Z-Man Games
