LOTR LCG is a game that you can play solo or with up to three of your friends. 4 players is really the maximum, else the travel phase becomes a nightmare, and half the encounter deck is in play at the same time. But back in 2016, the community was surprised by FFG with a new way to play certain quests: Epic Multiplayer. This mode allows for several teams (or tables) to play the same scenario and interact a little bit with each other. This allows for much more than 4 players to experience the quest at the same time. Since the Siege of Annuminas was released at GenCon 2016, we have gotten a handful of Epic Multiplayer quests, which have become a staple at many different events over the years. In this article, I want to go over the differences between the standard way to play the game and the things that change in Epic Multiplayer.
Differences/Rules
The big thing with Epic Multiplayer is that more than 4 players can play the game at the same time against the same quest. But this did cause some questions that were answered in the rules regarding this mode. The biggest question that came up was uniqueness. In the regular game, only 1 card per title with a uniqueness symbol can be in play at the same time. But if you were having 12 players playing the same scenario, you would quickly get uniqueness issues when looking at heroes alone, especially back in 2016! So the rule was set that players still have to keep to the uniqueness rule, but only at the same table. This helps to keep a clear overview of who is playing which heroes, allies, and attachments. If this wasn’t the case, then you would have people running around all the time to see if anyone played Core Set Gandalf that turn. This rule also gives players the freedom to choose which heroes they want to play as if it were a regular 4-player game.
Epic Multiplayer varies a bit in how many tables there can be at once. For the conclusion of the Mountain of Fire Saga, there are 2 tables. For the GenCon packs, there can be 3 tables, the fan-made Nine are Abroad scenario has a max of 9 tables, and the Hunt for the Dreadnaught can have an infinite number of tables if you would have enough players and tables (perhaps in Hilbert’s Grand Hotel?). The point is, while there is a max number of tables, there is no rule that states that there should be at least 4 players on any table before opening up a new one. If you are playing a game with 9 players. It makes more sense to have 3 tables of 3, than 2 tables of 4 and one solo-player. Space the players out however you want, maintaining a max of 4 players at any table. An important thing to note here is that each table will need to have its own copy of the quest. One POD pack won’t give you all the cards you need for 12 players to play the game, else the encounter decks would end up being tiny. Instead, 3 copies of the game can be used for that number of players, and tables just organize which quest stages are applicable to their table.
The Siege of Annuminas – Max 12 players
This was the first ever Epic Multiplayer quest and surprised the players at GenCon 2016 with a tough scenario played out over a maximum of 3 tables. This quest stands out from the rest, as not all cards will be encountered in Standard mode, but in Epic Multiplayer, each table will their own set of quest cards and final objectives. The goal of this quest is to defend the ruined city of Annuminas from the forces of Angmar. The more players you add, the more ways you can find to secure the city. This can be by recruiting more Dunedain in the form of objective allies or by increasing the city’s strength before the forces of Angmar come knocking on your door.
The downside of these different stages is that there is very little interactivity between the different tables. The exception is the Host of Angmar enemy, which is a tough foe that will be difficult to bring down. At the end of each round, if it is still in play, it gets moved to another stage, closer to the actual city. If even the final table cannot bring this enemy down, it will deal a lot of damage to the city. During the final stage, each table will also get their own location that has to be explored before they can place progress on the main quest. This is important, as it will then allow you to kill the Lieutenant of Angmar and win the game. This enemy also moves between stages, depending on which table is doing better.
The quest works pretty well for a siege, but there is a lot of waiting on other tables. Players advance to stage 3 together, so if one table cannot make enough progress on their stage 2, the others have to wait and clear the enemies as best they can. During this time, the Annuminas objective is also continuing to lose health. For the first attempt at an Epic Multiplayer game, this was a great scenario. But it could be improved in later iterations!
Attack on Dol Guldur – Max 12 players
Where Annuminas has cards shifting between stages, Dol Guldur actually has stages shifting between tables. The first part of the quest is quite similar, and players could just play the first three turns isolated from the other tables. The only exception is that the players may choose other tables for the end-of-round response on stage 1B, where they can raise their threat to give others additional resources and cards. It’s a nice bonus for the players who have been struggling up to this point because of a bad starting turn.
The real Epic Multiplayer changes come in during the shift to stage 3. Each of the tables has to select a different stage 3 to go to. At the end of each round, after that, they must resolve the Forced effect of those stages. If they did not make at least 5 progress on their quest, all tables have to trigger some horrible effect like increasing city strength, losing allies, or getting another enemy. Since there are 4 quest stages and only 3 can be active at the same time, the Forced effect on the fourth card is triggered at the end of the round as well. This can make it very difficult to survive until the next turn, especially if several tables did not achieve their 5 progress that turn. Once these effects have resolved, the players have to discuss which table now goes to which different quest stage. Tables cannot stay at the same quest stage but have to pick another one and get a different Lieutenant enemy when they get there.
As a benefit, the players all work towards a similar goal: Bringing Dol Guldur’s city strength to 0. This scales with the number of players in the game, so there will be more points that need to be collected, but between 3 tables clearing locations and defeating enemies, it doesn’t usually take much longer than a standard game of Attack on Dol Guldur. The difficulty of the quest does mean that most games are lost. If all players on any single table are defeated, the entire group loses the game. Since this quest has some brutal treacheries and big enemies, it is not unthinkable that players would end up losing the game. There’s a reason why this quest was not defeated during the debut weekend.
The Black Gate Opens / Mount Doom – Max 8 players
At the end of the LOTR Campaign, the players are given a choice to either play the final two scenarios separately or play them in Epic Multiplayer at the same time. For dramatic effect, playing them at the same time really makes it feel like all of Middle Earth is fighting for this chance to destroy Sauron. But I understand that you might not want to risk overcomplicating things for the end of this campaign that you have worked so hard for. This Epic Multiplayer mode is really different since it is two scenarios being played at the same time. On one table, you will have players fighting at The Black Gate, trying to survive for as many rounds as possible. These rounds are important since they will give the other table more time to clear Mount Doom.
While, in theory, you can beat these quests with up to 8 players, you would probably do well not to have 4 players attempt Mount Doom. It is not a quest designed for having a lot of characters in play. Instead, you are looking at a 6-player game at most, with 4 players at The Black Gate. Remember that The Black Gate Opens is impossible to beat, so you will need all the players that are available in order to stand the best chance.
Aside from trying to last enough rounds in order to drop the Ring into Mount Doom, the Epic Multiplayer variation of this quest adds the Eye of Sauron that switches to the different quests every other turn. Players need to draw the eye away from the team trying to beat Mount Doom, but in doing so will add more Nazgul to the staging area and reduce the engagement costs of enemies. At the end of each round, the teams convene again and decide which team gets a bit of a bonus by reducing threat or drawing a card. This makes the quests a little easier, but not much. When playing this mode, both teams also have to add the new treachery In Darkness Bind Them, which is particularly nasty. I have not heard a lot of people beating their campaign in this mode, but I would be interested in hearing some stories about the epic conclusion to this fight!
The Hunt for the Dreadnaught – An infinite number of players
The final pack released before the hiatus began kept us busy for quite a while. It was meant to have been released during GenCon 2020, but due to COVID, that was not possible. So FFG decided to skip the event and go straight to release for this pack. And what a pack it was! Not only does it feature a brand-new contract, but it is also probably the best Epic Multiplayer quest that FFG has released. Unlike previous scenarios, where players have to wait on each other in order to advance the round, the Hunt for the Dreadnaught just lets players quest at their own pace. The first stage will require quite a lot of progress, but not every table will beat it in the same number of turns. Once enough progress has been placed, the game-master will announce that the Dreadnaught has been found and that players will have to advance to the next stage at the end of their next quest stage. This gives people time to build up for the big fight and means that they might not have to quest as hard for their upcoming quest phase.
Once the players arrive at stage 2, all tables join their efforts in bringing down the hitpoints on the Dreadnaught. Once this has reached 50%, another announcement is made to pick the unique Corsair enemies. This all continues until the players defeat the Dreadnaught and win the game. The unlimited number of players for this quest is balanced by quest points and enemy hitpoints scaling with the total number of players on all tables. This makes the quest about as long with 8 players as it would with 50.
Aside from the shared quest points and hit points, this quest also offers some play between tables. Players can claim ship objectives to join them and pass them around between tables. In the easier difficulties, the table also has a cannon that can deal 10 damage to any enemy engaged with any player on any table. This is a one-time use per table, so you will have to be careful when using it. The chaos that occurs when people are placing progress and damage every minute or so will require a game master for this quest. The lack of synchronicity of this quest will otherwise include a lot of yelling.
The Nine are Abroad – Max 36 players
This is a quest from the AleP project, where they wanted to simulate the epic scope that the GenCon and Fellowship events used to have. In this stand-alone scenario, players take on the map of Middle Earth in order to find the nine Nazgul that are hunting for the ring. In Epic Multiplayer, the players are forced to find one Rider per table, after which one is decided to be The Witch-King, and the second stage begins. This is where players have to have a long discussion on which teams are going to which points on the map to face the riders. It’s a very interesting quest, which can have up to nine tables, so it is very well suited for events. Keeping track of the location of the Riders does require some organizational skills, so I would suggest players have at least one game master who keeps track of that, plus the health of each Rider and when they are killed.
Aside from having to deal with more of the Nazgul, Epic Multiplayer also offers players the chance to move resource tokens between tables. This makes it easier to find Nazgul at places where none have been found yet. This helps to make the first stage go by a little faster as well. The structure of this quest functions in the same way as Hunt for the Dreadnaught. Players do not have to wait on other tables to advance, but there is a moment where all tables have a meeting to discuss what’s next. This can cause one table to discover 2 Nazgul in order to make up for other tables who move a bit slower. The final fight against the Witch-king also works like the Dreadnaught enemy, where players just yell out the damage they dealt to him this round, before moving on to the next. Only when the Witch-king is defeated, have all tables won.
Fan-made Epic Multiplayer Adaptations
Aside from the scenarios that were built with Epic Multiplayer in mind, there are also kits to expand some regular quests to Epic Multiplayer format. This is done by The Purple Wizard, who has written articles on all those quests on this blog before. Examples of these upgrade kits include making Fire in the Night Epic Multiplayer, which adds dragons and objectives that can burn down as the quest goes on. Helm’s Deep in multiplayer mode is also interesting, as it forces the players to go to different locations each turn and survive as a team. All these scenarios and their new rules can be found on the special page here: https://visionofthepalantir.com/fan-made-content/
There is no word yet on any other quests that are going to receive this treatment, but you can expect a dedicated article for such a quest whenever it is released.
How to join Epic Multiplayer games
All these Epic Multiplayer scenarios are nice and all, but how do you actually attend them? There used to be some events set up by FFG to get players together in order to play the new quest. If these Fellowship events drew a large enough crowd, you could end up getting a group together for an Epic Multiplayer game. But that was before the hiatus, and ever since, it has been up to the community to organize these events themselves.
One place to experience this quest format is at events held for the game. You can go to a local one if there is a large enough player base in your area or go to some of the bigger events held once a year. Lure of Middle Earth (Germany) and Con of the Rings (Minneapolis, US) are some of the biggest events for this game and will often have timeslots reserved for Epic Multiplayer games. There are sign-up sheets, or you can ask around if anyone at the convention is willing to join in your game. Get a separate area set up for all tables, and find someone to keep track of all the things happening between tables.
The other way Epic Multiplayer games are held is digitally. This is quite a logistical challenge, but there are at least 2 digital events held each year in the LCG Con community server on Discord. There, players can arrange their own tables and play the game via DragnCards, OCTGN, or TTS. In the past, we’ve had a large number of people show up at once, which is a bit chaotic to begin with, but it is still great fun. Having a separate channel for keeping track of things like the Dreadnaught’s health and being able to ping all players whenever a quest card flips over makes it much easier for whoever is in charge of the event.
If you are interested in joining a digital event, now is a great time! We are arranging a weekend of playing the game digitally on Saturday and Sunday, August 19th&20th, 2023 at 6 pm GMT. On Saturday, we will attempt an Epic Multiplayer game of Fire in the Night, and we will go for Siege of Annuminas on Sunday. Join the Discord server via this link: https://discord.gg/5X642ag and sign up for the events. You can organize decks beforehand and find other people to join at your table in the chat channels. Hope to see you there!
Tips when playing Epic Multiplayer
The following tips will help you to make your Epic Multiplayer games more enjoyable and stand out a little more from your regular games.
- Block in a lot of time for the event! The more players join a game, the longer it likely takes. Since many people will want to play the event at the same time, you could have 4 players per table, which will greatly increase the time that a round takes. For some scenarios, you also have to wait until all other tables finish their round before you can move on.
- Select someone to run the game and interact between tables. This is a full-time job for a person, especially for Hunt for the Dreadnaught when there can be more than 3 tables. This person should keep track of city/ship strengths and interactions between tables. A good game master can make or break the Epic Multiplayer experience.
- House rule that any ability you get that you could either take for yourself or give to another table, you give to another table. This improves communication between tables and adds to the feeling that all tables are working together to bring down the scenario.
- Ask around ahead of time if there is anyone willing to join an Epic Multiplayer event. While it can be easy to attend one if it’s already being hosted by someone else, it can also be fun to host a game on your own terms. Set a date ahead of time and reach out to as many players as you know to see if enough people can make it to the event.
- In order to reduce the time that the quest takes to beat, try not to go for 4-player tables but 3 at the most. Especially when it is easy to add another table, like with Dreadnaught and The Nine are Abroad, you will want to ensure that rounds don’t take forever.
- You’re playing a multiplayer game, so have some cards in your deck that benefit more players at your table. It’s not unthinkable that you’ll have 3 or 4 players at the table, so bring a copy of Campfire Tales, Sentinel Defenders, and Ranged Attackers for more co-op at your table!
I hope this has inspired enough people to look into Epic Multiplayer games some more. I am looking forward to playing more of those quests in the near future now that convention season has started. I hope to see many of you at the events and wish you good luck in your fight!
Vision Of The Palantir 
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