New Middle-earth Boardgame Announced - Xoanon @ 20:26 PST
TORN Staffer Ostadan writes: Fantasy Flight Games, who pretty much own all the licenses for Tolkien-themed boardgames in the U.S., have announced a new game to be released in late 2008, "Middle-Earth Quest". The press release doesn't give a hint as to what _kind_ of boardgame it will be, nor who the designer is, but indicates that players will be represented by individual character types, during the years prior to the main action of Lord of the Rings:

Thematically, Middle Earth Quest will take place approximately ten years after Bilbo Baggins leaves the Shire, and several years before Frodo leaves Bag End on his journey leading to the destruction of the One Ring. Thus, Middle Earth Quest will take place in a time of growing darkness. "Players will meet and interact with characters from the saga, but not be constrained by having to follow a major character's path," explained Petersen. Rather than taking the role of a major character, whose destiny will be tied up in ring saga, players will take control of characters such as, for example, a rare adventurous Hobbit, a Gondorian Captain, a Rider from the Westfold, or numerous other character types. Not only will characters be able to experience new adventure in Middle Earth, but we will carefully seek to tie in the experience with the massive amounts of lore and story that takes place around the edges of the central THE LORD OF THE RINGS storyline.

This may suggest a map-based game of magical combat similar to FFG's 'Runebound' boardgame - or something else entirely! Note that none of FFG's games have been based on movie licenses (using images from the films, etc) and have all featured original artwork and graphics design.