DECIPHER TO LAUNCH LATEST ADDITION TO THE LORD OF THE RINGS™ TRADING CARD GAME TO COINCIDE WITH UPCOMING THEATRICAL RELEASE OF NEW LINE CINEMA’S THE TWO TOWERS™

The Two Towers™ Base Set To Provide First Glimpse of Scenes From the Upcoming Movie, Including Never-Before-Seen Characters

Expansion to Include Starter Decks, Deluxe Starter Sets and Booster Packs

Featuring New: Cultures; Site Path; Character Key Words; and Gameplay Mechanics

(Norfolk, VA, September 19, 2002)—Decipher will premiere The Two Towers™, the latest addition to its award-winning The Lord of the Rings™ Trading Card Game (TCG), on October 31st at DecipherCon in Chesapeake, Virginia. Offering a sneak peek of the movie six weeks prior to its theatrical release, The Two Towers™ expansion set continues the epic adventure brought forth in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and will pick up where The Fellowship of the Ring left off — following Frodo Baggins and the Fellowship as they continue their quest to destroy the One Ring and fight the evil forces of the dark lord Sauron.

Scheduled for a worldwide release in stores on November 6th, this 365-card base set contains 121 rare cards, 121 uncommons, 121 commons, and 2 premium cards. The Two Towers™ showcases never-before-seen characters including Faramir, Éowyn, and Théoden, as well as new versions of Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin.

The highly-anticipated second installment of the trilogy from New Line Cinema, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, will premiere in December 2002.

“With new game mechanics, character types, templates, locations, and more, The Two Towers is both an exciting next step for players of The Lord of the Rings TCG as well as a jumping off point for new players,” said Game Designer Mike Reynolds. Game Designer Chuck Kallenbach added, “This latest base set of The Lord of the Rings™ TCG further proves Decipher’s commitment to the long-lasting game and provides a stable gameplay environment.”

Following the Fellowship as their destinies lie at two towers, this latest set adds exciting new cards for many of the previous cultures in addition to adding three new cultures – Rohan, Dunlending, and Raider. Also featured is an entirely new site path as well as a gameplay mechanic for controlling and liberating sites that will allow a greater range of tactics and strategies. Among the additional hot features are new character key words such as Unhasty, Valiant, and Ring-bound, new battleground sites, Shadowfax, and a new One Ring.

The Two Towers will be available in the following product configurations:

· 63-card Starter Decks: Starter decks will be available in two versions, Aragorn and Théoden. Each deck — which only contains cards from The Two Towers — has 60 fixed cards, 3 random rare cards, and a rulebook. MSRP: US $10.99

· Deluxe Starter Sets: Packaged in a sturdy collector’s box (which is designed to hold 200 cards and stones), the deluxe starter contains one starter deck, one booster pack, 15 black glass Twilight tokens, 10 red glass Wound tokens, 6 colored glass player markers, plus both a starter’s rulebook and a deluxe rulebook. There will be three collector box versions of the deluxe starter: Isengard, Rohan, and Elven. MSRP: US $19.99

· Booster Packs: 11-card packs will include 1 rare, 3 uncommon, and 7 common cards. One diffraction foil will be found in approximately one out of every six packs. MSRP:
US $3.29

As with all Lord of the Rings TCG cards, all cards in The Two Towers will receive a foil treatment in a parallel set.

The Lord of the Rings™ TCG: The Two Towers set continues the mission introduced with The Fellowship of the Ring — the top award-winning trading card game of 2001 and 2002. Players try to win the game by: successfully and safely advancing the Ring-bearer to the end of the adventure path; killing the opponent’s Ring-bearer; or corrupting the opponent’s Ring-bearer.

Look for expansions on The Two Towers base set in March and July when Battle of Helm’s Deep and Ents of Fangorn release in stores worldwide!