Comic 383 - For the greater good
Posted on Tuesday, the 5th of November at 11:00 PM, 2019
in 2019
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Author Notes:
Other than Dungeons and Dragons, no one ever makes webcomics about board games. (Probably because no one would ever get the jokes in them. But I already make webcomics about games no one has ever heard of, so it's no different for me.)
So as for the board game in question here.
I included the year in the first panel, because there are a lot of board games simply titled The Lord of the Rings. The one this comic is about, has Gandalf on the front of the box.
While the game is highly praised by almost everyone, I personally think it's complete and utter crap. It's barely a step up from Monopoly, and Monopoly is generally regarded as one of the worst board games of all time. (I would personally like to call Snakes and Ladders one of the worst board games of all time, but then I'd have to acknowledge it as a game... which it technically isn't.)
Now I could go into depth as to why I don't like this Lord of the Rings board game. But I don't think this is the right place for a board game review. So instead, I'll just explain the main mechanic that I'm making fun of in this comic.
In the game, you have these paths you have to move along. To move along the paths, you play cards (you can play two on your turn). The cards all have symbols on them, that tell you which path they allow you to move along and by how many. Some of your cards are generic, like simply travelling. Other cards though (the ones you get from reaching certain places like Rivendell) are important characters and objects from The Lord of the Rings. So in other words, you have to play cards like Aragorn and Sting to move forward. In which case they then go into the discard pile to never be seen again.
This comic is showing what must be happening when you play those cards.
I hope this also gives you some slight insight as to why I don't like the game.
It was a long, long time ago and I forget nearly all the rules but the good guys get their Frodo and ring and it's played on a huge map of Middle Earth. Like, massive. Each turn the good guys get 'decoy pieces' that look just like the real Frodo piece unless you lift them up and look under them. They move the decoy pieces and Frodo piece in the same way to basically leave trails of rumours and misdirections over the board as the Nazguls and such like hunt them down.
I would've loved to play that game over the one this comic is making fun of.