“For a while we had news and it seemed good: messages reported that Moria had been entered and a great work begun there. Then there was silence, and no word has ever come from Moria since.”

–Glóin, The Fellowship of the Ring

Few know what dwells in the deeps of Moria. Once a haven for the Dwarves of the Misty Mountains, this once-glorious stronghold has fallen into disrepair, its very name now carrying an ill repute. At Gen Con 2019, you’ll have the chance to explore the depths of Moria as you build your own adventure with The Mines of Moria special event for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

Featuring 78 cards, The Mines of Moria invites you to enter this massive underground realm and create a custom-built The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game scenario filled with Spiders, Goblins, and other perilous encounters of your choice. As you play, you’ll come across many familiar cards with new and unexpected abilities, creating a unique new experience.

You can register for The Mines of Moria at Gen Con 2019 starting May 19. Read on for more information on what to expect in The Mines of Moria at Gen Con 2019!

Into the Deep

Following The Wizard’s Quest event at Gen Con 2018 and The Woodland Realm from the 2018 Fellowship Event, The Mines of Moria is more than a standard The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game scenario. Instead, it provides everything you need to build your own adventure, complete with unique quest and encounter decks. With seven quest cards—one Stage 1, three different Stage 2 options, and three different Stage 3 cards—as well as fourteen encounter sets of five cards each, you’re free to shape your unique adventure and the challenges you will face within it.

Everything begins with you shaping the narrative of your adventure by selecting one stage 2 quest card and one stage 3 quest card to round out your quest deck. Before you can enter the mines and overcome these trials, however, you have another obstacle in your path. Your party has been called To the West-door of Moria and, upon reaching the Doors of Durin, a fell creature stands in your way. Only by banding together to confront this beast can you move on to what awaits you in Moria.

Your quest has more potential perils than The Watcher, of course, and The Mines of Moria provides two sets of rules that give you a great deal of freedom over what you encounter. If you are using the “Quick-build Rules,” you simply choose seven different encounter sets when setting up your scenario. With the “Advanced-build Rules,” however, you have a great deal of flexibility to create a 35-card encounter deck by selecting individual encounter cards instead of entire encounter sets.

Each encounter card in The Mines of Moria has a cost printed in the lower right corner and your deck cannot have encounter cards with a total cost of more than 21. You might choose to face the relentless attacks of enemies like a Savage Werewolf, for example, or you may have to react to a sudden Cave In blocking your path and damaging your characters. No matter what you choose, you’re free to add cards to your encounter deck as long as it contains a minimum of ten enemies, ten locations, and ten treacheries.

You could build a quest and encounter deck to challenge yourself, but that is not the only option. Not only can The Mines of Moria can be played as both a standard one to four player cooperative game, you can also challenge your friends in a competitive game where two to four players compete individually or in teams of two to be the first to defeat their opponent’s custom scenario.

In fact, many of the cards are designed with this style of play in mind. If you chose to face The Long Dark of Moria, for example, the opposing team impedes your progress when this stage is revealed by adding more zero cost locations to your staging area from the encounter deck and the discard pile. Similarly, if you come across a Denizen of the Deep, your opponent gets the opportunity to strengthen one of the enemies arrayed against you. No matter what you encounter, you must move swiftly to accomplish your goals before your opponent.

Explore the Depths

Untold dangers lurk in the depths of Moria. Muster your courage and dive in with this special event for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!