At the recent gaming convention GenCon, Fantasy Flight Games (publisher of the Lord of the Rings and War of the Ring boardgames) released some new details on the forthdoming ‘Middle-earth Quest’ adventure boardgame, as reported on boardgamegeek.com by one G. Purcell (bracketed
remarks are mine):
- It *is* still in development [some feared it had been abandoned]
- The time period is after Bilbo left the Shire, but before the Lord of the Rings book [sic – he presumably means ‘before the Shadow of the Past visit by Gandalf’]
- You won’t play the LotR heroes, but will encounter them (i.e. Aragorn, off looking for Gollum)
- The box size is … about the size of War of the Ring box [not ultra-huge like their StarCraft and World of Warcraft boardgames]
- It contains some exciting new mechanics that they’re not ready to announce yet
- It’s being designed by [FFG founder and sometimes game designer] Christian Petersen himself
- Current estimate of release is Spring 2009