Finally it was time to get The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game to the table.

But what scenario were we going to play?

I did finally cave and pay eBay prices for the Murder at the Prancing Pony standalone scenario for the LotR lcg.

I thought just like the other standalone scenarios I’ve purchased (some more expensive than others) I thought this would make a good “one shot” to play with others.

Heck they were designed to be played at conventions.

“There are some folk in Bree who are not to be trusted.”
–Strider, The Fellowship of the Ring

Released in 2015 as part of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game Fellowship Event, Murder at the Prancing Pony is a standalone scenario that has you solve a mysterious murder.

The premise of this scenario is the following:

“You have arrived in Bree to find the village abuzz over a recent crime.”

“Someone has broken into The Prancing Pony, murdered a guest and made off with the victim’s belongings. Barliman Butterbur begs you to find the killer before the trail goes cold.”

Yep the Murder at the Prancing Pony scenario turns this lcg into a card based Cluedo or for any American readers Clue.

Dave and I used starter decks, whilst Marcin used a deck (I think) he got off the internet.

• Dwarves of Duri deck – Me
• A custom dwarf deck – Marcin
• Elves of Lorién deck – Dave

“..there was trouble right here in Bree, bad trouble. Why, we had a real set-to, and there were some folk killed, killed dead!”
Barliman, The Return of the King

Our starting staging area had two Chetwood Outlaws. We were not going to take them on anytime soon in our investigation. But at some point we would have to. It was inevitable.

Our investigation into the recent death wasn’t going that fast (thanks to those Chetwood Outlaws). Too few locations were appearing for us to dig around in for clues. The hand full of times we were able to find any clues enabled us to narrow the suspects down to two possibilities.

Dun dun

We were just not getting anywhere on finding the hideout. Eventually we got a breakthrough and were able to eliminate Bill Ferney’s House.

The big issue we found was controlling our threat levels. Each round while the quest card 1B was showing saw our threat going up by two or an extra encounter card drawn. Our choice.

It’s not as if we could blitz through the quest card. We were restricted to putting a maximum of four questing points on it a turn. Those Chetwood Outlaws made it so we had to commit a lot of heroes to do anything.

There was an eventual reckoning with those Chetwood Outlaws that did involve Gandalf making an appearance to defeat them.

It then became a bit easier in making progress.

“Just one more thing…”

The clock was against us. I really needed to be heading home and getting some sleep with work the next morning.

With only one hideout eliminated from our investigation and two suspects left, we made a wild guess.

Our deduction skills told us it was Todd the Troll at the Staddle Hiding Hole.

Amazingly we got the hideout correct, whilst sadly getting the wrong suspect. Susie the Spider had successfully point the finger of suspension onto an “innocent” sap.

We didn’t have any time to play through the fallout of our wrong decision.

This really was a fun scenario to play. It’s just a shame that it’s not easier and cheaper for people to get.