Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game goes digital

Fantasy Flight Interactive has announced that the first title they plan to release will be The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game. Based on the popular co-operative card game released by Fantasy Flight Games in 2011, the game has players participating in cooperative scenario based adventures controlling the heroes of Tolkien's Middle Earth. Fantasy Flight Interactive is making the digital version available on Steam in early December to a closed beta group as a single player title. Players can then purchase on the Founder's Packs to access the full game experience. Founder's Packs will include additional content, in game currency, and more. The original game featured a strong bond between both the compelling narrative of Middle Earth, taking place predominantly between the adventure of Bilbo and Frodo, and a revolutionary cooperative gaming system. As one of the most popular early cooperative games players had to work together to defeat the evil Sauron, who was represented by an encounter deck filled with locations, enemies, and other treacheries. Players in the digital implementation will still control three heroes with 30 card decks based on the four influence spheres - Leadership, Tactics, Spirit, and Lore. The digital implementation of the game removes much of the maintenance work that players had to manage in the original version. In the new iteration of the game players focus on the Planning and Adventuring phases. The AI will handle playing cards from Sauron's deck and the responsibilities enemies have in engaging heroes. Players will now get to focus on their own choices rather than game maintenance. Each scenario includes instructions on win conditions, while all scenarios are lost if the three heroes die or the ever increasing threat level reaches the maximum. With over 100 expansions currently available for the game, Fantasy Flight Digital will have plenty of material to choose from in building and growing the digital universe of the game.