Lord of the Rings

Unmixed Deck Variant For Lord of the Rings
For the Lord of the Rings unmixed deck variant, each player creates a deck of at least 40 cards that are either Free Peoples or Shadow. There should be about the same number of Free Peoples and Shadow players in a game. Free Peoples players must select a normal starting Fellowship, with a Ringbearer and a company. All player provide sites. In any version there must be at least one Shadow player and at least two Free Peoples players.

Shadow players are each paired with a Free Peoples player. On that Free Peoples turn, the Shadow player paired with them goes first, the other one second. Ideally there will be one of each player or two of each player. In the one-on-one variant, Fear Scoring is not used for the Shadow side. Also, Shadow players should all sit at adjacent points on the circle, as should Free Peoples players to mimic as closely as possible normal game flow.

Victory Conditions: For a Free Peoples player, being the first one to reach the end of the Adventure Path and have Frodo live to the Regroup Phase indicates victory (the same as in the normal game). For any Shadow player to win, however, all Free Peoples players must be killed off. In that case, Shadow players win by Fear Scoring, which is a point system tallied throughout the game based on the amount of power a Shadow player has accumulated in the process of the game. The Shadow player with the highest Fear Score wins. Fear Scoring is detailed as follows:

What does the Shadow want?
Power.

How is power defined?
The ability to control others. Especially a true definition in Tolkien where he has the Free Peoples (those not under Sauron's control) and the slave races that do his will, in one way or another. Tolkien values Free Will as an assault to power.

How does one control others?
One can control others directly (causing action) or indirectly (preventing action).
Direct control is achieved through the use of force in one manner or another to cause a being or object to do as the controlling party wishes. This form of control (power) can be scored to a Shadow player through their interaction with the Ringbearer.
Indirect control is achieved through fear, causing beings to not do things they would rather do by virtue of being afraid of the repercussions from the controlling (powerful) party. As Yoda reminds us, fear, anger, hate, and suffering are all linked. Therefore, an indicator of how much one is feared can be taken from how much suffering one can cause. Suffering, at least for humans and human-like beings, is primarily tied to our mortality. Therefore, the causing of death can be a relatively close indicator of the amount of suffering one can inflict, indicating the amount of fear one inspires, showing one's control of the beings that one wishes to control, and thereby reflecting one's total power. This form of power could be shown through a Shadow player's ability to cause death to the Fellowship and Allies.

Overall system: Fear Scoring

Wounds inflicted on the Ring-bearer: 1 pt apiece.
(Note that exertions do not count as wounds, I would think.)
Burdens inflicted on the Ring-bearer: 3 pts apiece.
Killing (not discarding) an Ally: 1 point per twilight cost + (6-Home Site number) points (indicating more fear inspired by the Shadow being able to intrude farther into Middle Earth- Lothlorien is a bulwark against the Shadow, and so it's being attacked inspires no additional fear).
Killing a Companion: 1 point per twilight cost + (12-Site number) points (same as above, but indicates that killing companions is more important than killing allies.)

 The move limit in the game is defined as the number of Free Peoples players (minimum 2). This is still adjusted as normal in the game by other cards.

The Free Peoples players move normally, stopping to reset the Twilight Pool and discard minions. Moving on/pushing is important though, as it is needed to beat the other Free Peoples player in the game.

It may be that the Free Peoples are too strong in such a dedicated play environment. In that case, playing the extra sites rules described in the previous page would also be of great value. It would both slow down the chance of being destroyed by minions at Site 5 as badly by yielding a less scary site to intervene for one spot allowing more setup time, and increases the chances of the Shadow players to damage the Free Peoples during the long run from the Site 6 Sanctuary to the end. Again, the move limit would be increased to a default of 3. Regardless, this variant should probably not be added until the unmixed decks approach is ironed out the rest of the way anyway.

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