the Hobbit Board Game

Product Information

The rules for the Hobbit Boardgame will tell you that you can set the level up system in a few different ways to make the game more easily or challenging and I have found this to be very true as the number of chances to improve your level will change only subtly and the starting values will be able to have a big impact on the entire game. Adventure Phase The gameplay has been co-designed by Ian Luxmoore and Jarratt Gray, the co-creator of board game Endeavor: Age of Sail, while Weta senior concept artist Daniel Falconer - who worked on the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies - handled illustration.

If the player fails to achieve any of the requirements on the Adventure card, he loses the challenge and must draw a random Dragon tile and suffer the consequences. The symbols on the Dragons tiles may include:

If all players have either passed or failed the challenge, the Adventure card is returned to the box and the player with the highest Initiative reveals the next Adventure card. All of you have two simple goals: get the most treasure and do not let the dragon Smaug reach Laketown, whereas the latter is a cooperative goal you must all make sure doesn’t happen. The former is a goal you compete against each other in to become the victor of the game. These two goals create a nice blend of you and your friends needing to try to make sure that Smaug never reaches Laketown whilst also securing your victory with more gold than your friends. The game is split into two phases which represent the way the board is laid out with 6 giant circles showing key milestones of the journey from the book and between them a number of small circles each containing a symbol that will have an impact on players.

Crossed-out Initiative, Cunning, or Strength: the player must decrease the corresponding scoring marker on his Character board by one space. Next, the player with the "10" card moves Bilbo one space, receiving two provision tokens. Next, the player with the "22" card moves Bilbo one space and receives two Initiative, and finally the player with the highest card, "35", moves Bilbo one space and loses one Strength. At the end of the game, each player awards himself the indicated number of jewels that corresponds to the position of his lowest scoring marker.Once Smaug reaches Taketown (as he may if too many challenges are lost or passed) the game ends prematurely. The player with the next-lowest numbered Dwarf card then becomes the new active player. Repeat steps "3-4" until all players have acted. He then advances Bilbo one space on the game board, reaping the gains, or suffering the losses the space indicates, namely: additional provisions, character development or character damage (the latter are indicated by an X over the icon). Note: some Event cards have different effects depending on the number of players: The same card might either be resolved like a Travel- ling card, or like a Gift card, as instructed.