Matt Leacock, the designer behind Pandemic and Forbidden Island, has picked up the Strategy prize at the 2026 American Tabletop Awards for The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship.
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Set up your group for freePublished by Z-Man Games, Fate of the Fellowship is a cooperative game for 1 to 5 players built on the same core loop as Pandemic: draw cards, manage escalating threats, coordinate actions with your group. But where Pandemic has you curing diseases, here you are recruiting heroes to defend Middle-earth's havens, fending off shadow troops, and guiding Frodo to Mount Doom while Nazgul and Sauron's Eye close in. The publisher describes it as the "most mechanically-rich Pandemic System design to date," with 24 dynamic objectives that shift each game giving it serious legs. Sessions run 60 to 150 minutes.
The game currently sits at 7.85 on BoardGameGeek. Leacock is no stranger to awards. Pandemic earned a Spiel des Jahres nomination in 2009, and its legacy spinoff, Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, co-designed with Rob Daviau, ranks among the highest-rated games of all time on BGG. His Forbidden series brought co-op mechanics to younger players, with Forbidden Island winning a Mensa Select award in 2010.
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Start organising for freeThe full ATA results also saw Cole Wehrle and Jo Kelly's Molly House win Complex Games, while CMYK Games swept both the Casual and Early Gamers categories with Hot Streak and Magical Athlete.
If you haven't tried Fate of the Fellowship, an introductory version is available on Board Game Arena for free with a selection of characters and objectives. It is a good way to see whether the Pandemic System clicks for your group before buying the physical box.
Sources: Boardgamewire | Z-Man Games | BoardGameGeek
