The Red Book
“It seemed to him that he had stepped over a bridge of time into a corner of the elder days, and was now walking in a world that was no more.”
CONTENTS
Aragorn’s Rulesguide for Hasty Hobbits………..2
Game Components and Setup……………………3
Game and Turn Sequence…………………………4
Special Dice Rolls & Modifiers…………………5
Additional Rules and Game Mechanics………6
Frodo’s Uncommon Decks Given Freely………..7
Apprentice Burglar…………………………………..8
Dangerous Information…………………………….9
Harbours Beyond the White Tow-ers…………10
Pippin’s Print and Play…………………………………11
Apprentice Burglar…………………………………..8
Dangerous Information…………………………….9
Harbours Beyond the White Towers…………10
Bilbo’s Region Map of Middle-earth…………….23
PREFACE
In the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game (MECCG), dreams and legends spring to life out of the grass. More like a role-playing board game, Middle-earth offers a full range of characters, artifacts, and locations from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit for the player to arrange adventures as Gandalf did. Players can thematically recreate passages from the books, send mixed-up companies on outlandish adventures, or optimize card attributes, values, and ratios. Have Bilbo burgle Smaug, fly the eagles to Mount Doom, or micromanage Rivendell’s inhabitants using the seven Dwarven rings, the three Elven rings, and The One Ring.
The appeal of Middle-earth is not just in the story-telling and beautifully painted pre-film artwork, but in mechanics that allow astute awareness and skillful card control to reverse a strong lead, in design that offsets strength against applicability with counterbalances for everything mechanic and strategy, and where random card draw and dice rolls can bring hope unlooked-for or despair, or be largely irrelevant through careful deck design and mid-journey planning.
PUBLICATION HISTORY
MECCG was published by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) as two sets and five expansions.
Middle-earth: The Wizards (METW, Dec. 1995) is a base set that lets you play as a Wizard marshalling forces of the Free Peoples to resist Sauron until the One Ring is destroyed.
Middle-earth: The Wizards Unlimited Edition (Mar. 1996) is a blue-border reprint of The Wizards revisions to the rules and certain cards.
Middle-earth: The Dragons (METD, Jun. 1996) is an expansion for use with The Wizards that lets you riddle Smaug like Bilbo the Hobbit, steal great artifacts from dragon hoards, and battle creatures who served Sauron’s master.
Middle-earth: Dark Minions (MEDM, Nov. 1996) is an expansion for use with The Wizards that lets you go on quests, and journey to the Under-deeps. It introduces agent minions that can be used with the following set.
Middle-earth: The Lidless Eye (MELE, Jun. 1997) is a base set lets you play as one of the nine Ringwraiths. Your goal is to marshal forces of evil so that Sauron has the confidence to send your armies against the Free Peoples.
Middle-earth: Against the Shadow (MEAS, Aug. 1997) is an expansion for use with both The Wizards and Lidless Eye that levels the playing field in Wizard vs Ringwraith games.
Middle-earth: The White Hand (MEWH, Dec. 1997) is an expansion that lets you play a Fallen-wizard corrupted by power.
Middle-earth: The Balrog (MEBA) Nov. 1998) lets you play as the Balrog and explore the domains and minions of Morgoth.
THE RED BOOK
The Red Book is an introduction to the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game given as a collection of guides on different topics. Most important is Aragorns’s Rulesguide for Hasty Hobbits, a prepared set of rules for playing Frodo’s Uncommon Decks Given Freely.