Lord of the Rings: Sauron Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Set Contents
• Overview
• Preparation
  • If you are playing as Sauron
  • For all players
• Playing as Sauron
  • Sauron's actions instead of a roll
  • Exceptions
• Sauron's Actions at the Start of Each Turn
• Sauron Event Tokens
• The Black Rider
• Do Not Play Cards
• Resources
• Cards
• End of an Adventure
• End of the Game and Scoring
• Special Cases
• Variants
• Special Options
  • Bag
  • Dark Events
• Two Special Cards

Set Contents

• 1 Black Rider figure
• 1 Sauron character card
• 30 Sauron cards
• 9 Nazgûl cards
• 2 Gandalf cards
• 5 Fellowship cards
• 6 resource cards
• 12 resource tokens
• 4 Sauron event tokens
• 1 bag
• Rulebook

Also in the box:

• 23 Dark Event tokens
• 1 The One Ring card
• 1 The Watchful Peace card

This set is playable only with the original The Lord of the Rings game.

Overview

The Sauron expansion for The Lord of the Rings board game offers the following new possibilities:

• One player becomes Sauron himself and plays against the Fellowship of the Ring. As a player, Sauron has a special deck: 30 Sauron cards and 9 Nazgûl cards with which to subdue the Fellowship. The player playing Sauron also uses the new black Rider figure to pursue the Ring-bearer along the Temptation track.
• Four Sauron event tokens are added to the pool. You may keep them in the bag.
• There are 12 new resource tokens, supported by 6 additional resource cards laid out on the adventure board. They give the Fellowship new and much-needed help. New Fellowship cards for each character and new Gandalf cards will also help you on your way.

The Sauron expansion can be played as a separate adventure, or together with the Friends & Foes expansion.

Also in the box you will find some pleasant extras:

• 23 Dark Event cards, all with negative consequences for the Fellowship. They may be added to the deck. To avoid an event, the active player may decline some cards when building the deck, but this may lead to even greater horrors in the game!
• Two powerful additional cards: The One Ring and The Watchful Peace.

You must be familiar with the original The Lord of the Rings game before you start playing the Sauron expansion.

Unless stated otherwise, the original game rules are used. The goal for the Fellowship remains the same: win the game against Sauron and destroy the Ring in the Crack of Doom. The player playing Sauron tries to destroy the Fellowship as quickly as possible.

Preparation

Use the same preparation as for the original board game, but perform the following steps:

• Choose one player to command Sauron's forces. Alternatively, use the Sauron card together with a hobbit card: deal one card to each player at random.

If you are playing as Sauron

• Place the Sauron card in front of you. It defines the actions you can take.
• Shuffle the Sauron deck, draw two cards and reveal them. Place the rest beside you face down.
• Shuffle the Nazgûl cards, draw two cards and reveal them. Place the rest beside you face down.
• Place the Black Rider figure on space 15 of the Temptation track, regardless of where Sauron begins. The Black Rider figure faces the hobbits.

For all players

• After receiving their character cards, the other players place them in front of themselves face down. Unused Fellowship cards are removed from the game.
• Add the new Gandalf cards "Protection" and "Foresight" to the other Gandalf cards. Discard the original Gandalf card "Foresight".
• Lay out the six resource cards face up as an additional pile next to the main board.
• Shuffle the 12 resource tokens face down and place them beside the boards. Then draw four of them at random and place each one face up above the fourth and last space of each track other than the main track. Their pictures must remain visible.
• Put all 23 event tokens from the original game, together with the four new Sauron event tokens, into the bag and shuffle them.

Note: the 23 additional Dark Event tokens included in the box are used independently of the Sauron expansion.

Playing as Sauron

Sauron does not take turns in the normal order. Instead, Sauron is activated in two cases:

• When a Fellowship player rolls the threat die.
• At the start of each turn of a Fellowship player.

In the first case, the player playing Sauron plays one Sauron card from hand against the relevant Fellowship member. The symbols on Sauron cards have different effects:

• The Black Rider figure advances the indicated number of steps toward the hobbits it encounters on the Temptation track.
• The Sauron figure moves one step toward the hobbits on the Temptation track.
• The Fellowship member moves one step into the darkness on the Temptation track.
• The Fellowship member must discard one card from hand.
• The Fellowship member must discard any one life token.
• The Fellowship member must discard a Ring token.
• The Fellowship member must discard the indicated number of runes.
• The Fellowship member must, instead of rolling the threat die, hand the turn to the Sauron player.

Sauron's actions instead of a roll

When a Fellowship member is instructed to roll the threat die (by text or by symbol), the player may, as usual, prepare (for example by using the legendary card "Galadriel's Girdle"). If the roll is unavoidable, then instead of rolling, the player may call "Sauron".

If you are playing as Sauron and the players have called you instead of rolling, choose one of the Sauron cards in your hand and apply it to the relevant player. Place the card face down on the discard pile beside your cards.

The active player is fully responsible for carrying out the conditions of the Sauron card in any order, as far as possible. If some conditions cannot be carried out, the consequences that cannot be carried out have no effect. As with a roll in the original board game, all players may take measures (for example by playing the legendary card "Mithril Coat") to avoid some or all of the consequences of the Sauron card. If the Sauron card eliminates a player from the game, all the other consequences of the card still take effect.

Example: your hobbit moves one step along the Temptation track, and you must discard two cards from your hand. (If you have fewer than two cards, discard what you have, without any additional effects.)

If you are playing as Sauron and were called instead of a threat die roll, you may not discard a card from your hand. Instead, you must draw up to six cards from the Sauron deck. Before drawing, you may discard any number of cards from your hand. Once you have been called, the Fellowship may not take any action that prevents you from drawing cards.

Exceptions

The special ability of Sam, "take no more than one point of damage after a die roll", works as follows: if the player playing Sauron uses a Sauron card against Sam, Sam must choose one of the consequences (only one symbol!) on the card and accept it. Sam cannot choose a consequence that he cannot accept in full. (Note: when the ability is applied instead of a die roll, Sauron may change up to six of his cards, as any other player may.)

When the Ring-bearer puts on the Ring, the Sauron player is not activated. In the original game the bearer rolls the die, accepts any negative consequences and advances one action marker. During the "spell battle" in the Isengard adventure card, from the Friends & Foes expansion, the die is also rolled according to the original rules. Only in these two cases is the die rolled instead of activating Sauron.

Sauron's Actions at the Start of Each Turn

When a Fellowship member begins a new turn on the story board (starting with the Ring-bearer and then clockwise after that), the Fellowship member must roll the threat die. This activates the Sauron player, who calls out the word "Sauron" before taking any other action. The Fellowship may not take any action to avoid calling Sauron at this point.

If you are playing Sauron and you are called at the start of a player's turn, choose one of the cards in your hand and use it against the player about to begin their turn. Place the card face up on the discard pile beside your deck.

In this case the Sauron card has a smaller effect. The affected Fellowship member must choose one of the consequences (one symbol!) on the Sauron card and carry it out: either the Black Rider moves the indicated number of steps (as far as possible), or the Sauron figure moves one step, or the hobbit moves one step into the darkness, or the player discards one card from hand, or one life token, or the indicated number of runes. The affected player may not choose a consequence that cannot be fully satisfied. After the roll, all players may take measures (for example by using the special yellow cards) to avoid the consequences. The ability to avoid the consequences of the threat die roll may also be applied in this situation (for example by using the legendary card "Mithril Coat").

Example: you must choose either your hobbit moving one step toward the darkness, or discarding one card. (If you have no cards, you must move your hobbit one step toward the darkness.)

If you are playing as Sauron and you are called at the start of another player's turn, you may instead of using one card from your hand take one card from the Sauron deck.

If you are playing as Sauron and you are called at the start of a player's turn, then instead of using one card from your hand or taking one Sauron card, you may also apply one of the Nazgûl cards lying face up in front of you. (Note: you cannot apply a Nazgûl card if you were called instead of a threat die roll.) Place the Nazgûl card face up on the discard pile beside your Sauron deck.

A Sauron card affects one player, whereas a Nazgûl card has two effects:

• First, the symbol in the upper left corner of the card is applied to the active player, who goes next. This is done in the same way as for a Sauron card.
• Then the instructions on the Nazgûl card call an "incident", which affects the whole Fellowship. After the event token is revealed, all players may act (for example by using yellow ability cards, putting on the Ring, or calling Gandalf) to avoid the consequences. If a Nazgûl card eliminates one of the players from the game, all remaining consequences of the "incident" still take effect.

Example: your hobbit advances one step along the Temptation track, so one of the players must voluntarily discard 5 symbols (or stars) from hand, otherwise Sauron advances two steps toward the hobbits.

After the Sauron player has been activated at the start of the turn and all consequences caused by the "incident" have been resolved, the active player continues their turn by drawing an event token, now from the bag.

The Sauron card determines the actions that a player may take.

Sauron Event Tokens

The bag contains the new Sauron event tokens. These tokens have the following effects:

• The active player must call the Sauron player instead of rolling the threat die.
• One player must call the Sauron player instead of rolling the threat die, or the Sauron figure moves one step toward the hobbits.

The Black Rider

The Sauron expansion introduces a new threat for the Fellowship: the Black Rider. The Black Rider starts in Mordor (space 15 of the Temptation track) and moves by means of the Sauron and Nazgûl cards played by the Sauron player. If the Black Rider meets the Ring-bearer for the first time during the adventure (being on the same space or further along the Temptation track), the player playing Sauron carries out the following actions:

• The Sauron player turns the Black Rider figure toward Mordor.
• The Sauron player draws one Nazgûl card from the deck and reveals it.
• The Ring-bearer must, instead of rolling, hand the turn to the Sauron player.

If the Black Rider meets the Ring-bearer, the Black Rider stops on the same space. If the Ring-bearer's action results in an encounter, the Ring-bearer does not stop on the same space as the Black Rider.

If the Black Rider manages to return to Mordor (space 15 of the Temptation track) on the same journey after an encounter with the Ring-bearer, the Fellowship meets the Eye of Sauron and the game ends.

Do Not Play Cards

The active player may, instead of playing one or two permitted cards in a turn (the "end of turn" step in the original rules), choose the option "Do not play cards". This allows the player to do one of three things: draw two cards, move their hobbit one space to the left along the Temptation track, or move the Black Rider up to three steps away from the hobbits (no further than space 15 while the Fellowship is searching for the hobbits, and no further than space 0 when returning).

Resources

When a Fellowship member advances a progress marker onto or past a space with a resource token above it, the active player discards the resource token and receives the bonus together with the bonus of the space itself. This does not apply when the space is skipped as a consequence of using the Ring. Resource bonuses may not be passed to another player.

The following resource cards are available to you:

• Take three hobbit cards.
• Take three Gandalf runes.
• Move your hobbit on the Temptation track two steps toward the light, if possible.
• Add the corresponding resources to your deck.

Cards

Resource cards are used like any other cards. Narya, Nenya, Vilya: these are similar to the Fellowship card of Frodo. Players may use these cards immediately after they are received by the active player, after the event tokens have been revealed, or after the tokens or card have been carried out by the active player. The active player may advance the corresponding action of the token for two turns and use it on those turns.

Star of Elendil: the Black Rider is pushed back 5 steps along its line of movement (but no further than step 15 if it is moving from Mordor, and no further than step 0 if it is moving toward Mordor, regardless of the position of the Ring-bearers).

Gwaihir: this card may be used when the active player ends their turn. The active player may then take one white or grey card played during the turn. Discarded cards may not be taken.

Red Arrow: players may play this card during the active player's turn in the course of the adventure. The active player may then add to hand one of the creature cards (not resource cards) shown and used during the adventure. If the rules are not followed later, it is permitted to choose a feature of the card to use, and without additional effects.

Fellowship cards: players may use their new Fellowship cards once during the game. The cards are displayed face up beside the individual character cards. These cards are not part of the players' "hand". Some Fellowship cards are more useful when used on other players than on oneself. After use, a Fellowship card leaves the game.

• Frodo (Fellowship card): immediately after the Sauron player plays a Sauron card or applies a Nazgûl card, or immediately after the active player reveals an event token, or after the token or card has been carried out by the active player, Frodo may use this card. The active player may then move the progress marker along one of the progress tracks by one space and carry it out.
• Sam (Fellowship card): when the Sauron player is called instead of a die roll and uses a card against any player, Sam may use this card. The affected player must then choose one of the consequences (one symbol!) on the Sauron card and carry it out.
• Pippin (Fellowship card): Pippin may use this card during the turn of any player. The active player may then discard a total of three brown/grey cards at the end of their turn instead of one brown and one grey card.
• Merry (Fellowship card): Merry may use this card when the Black Rider approaches him. The movement of the Black Rider is then avoided.
• Fatty (Fellowship card): at any time during the game, Fatty may use this card. The Fellowship may then discard five runes to call any face-up or discarded Gandalf card.

Gandalf cards: use the new Gandalf cards as described in the original rules:

• Gandalf – "Protection": after the Sauron player has played a Sauron card or applied a Nazgûl card, the Fellowship ignores all consequences.
• Gandalf – "Foresight" (bag variant): when playing with event tokens in the bag, use this Gandalf card instead of the original "Foresight" card. Instead of drawing one token from the bag, draw five and place them face up. The players then use these tokens in any order, rather than drawing from the bag, until all five have been used or until the adventure ends.
• Gandalf – "Immunity" (from the Friends & Foes expansion): this card applies to cases where the threat die must be rolled: when putting on the Ring, and in the "spell battle" during the Isengard adventure in the Friends & Foes expansion. It also applies when a player must call Sauron instead of rolling; in that case the Sauron player is not called.

End of an Adventure

At the end of each adventure, and before taking the standard end-of-adventure actions of the original game (counting life tokens: hearts, rings, suns), the Sauron player performs the following actions:

• The Sauron player returns the Black Rider figure to space 15 of the Temptation track.
• The Sauron player receives one new card from the Nazgûl deck and shows it face up.

Then proceed to the usual end of the adventure. Also discard all remaining resource tokens of the current adventure (do not use them again). When you move on to the next board, draw four new resource tokens at random and place each one face up above the fourth and last space of each track other than the main track. This applies only to the first three boards you play, until all the resource tokens have been used.

At the end of each adventure, place all event tokens back into the bag and shuffle them.

End of the Game and Scoring

If the Fellowship reaches the Crack of Doom, place the Ring on the last space of the main adventure track shown on the Mordor adventure board, as described in the original rules. There is no Ring-bearer at that point, so the Black Rider can no longer encounter one. If it is still on its way, the Black Rider is moved to space 0 of the Temptation track. The Black Rider may still reach Mordor (space 15 of the Temptation track) and lead the Fellowship to an encounter with the Eye of Sauron before the Ring is destroyed.

When the Ring is on top of the Crack of Doom, the Sauron player automatically draws cards until they have six cards in hand. From then on, the Sauron player can no longer be called at the start of the players' turns, and cannot apply Nazgûl cards any more. When the remaining players take their turn to try to destroy the Ring, the Sauron player is called instead of a roll.

At the end of the game, scoring is carried out as in the original board game. The higher the score, the more successful the Fellowship was. The lower the score, the more successful Sauron was.

Special Cases

If the Sauron deck runs out, remove the discarded Nazgûl cards from the discard pile and shuffle the cards. If the Nazgûl deck runs out, the Sauron player receives no further cards from it.

When this expansion is played together with the Friends & Foes expansion, the symbols on the Sauron and Nazgûl cards do not require discarding cards, but an enemy appears on the enemy track.

Variants

Experienced players may make the task harder: the game ends when one of the Fellowship members is eliminated from the game.

Bold players may decide to place the Black Rider on space 12 (or even space 10) at the start of each adventure. The Black Rider must still return to Mordor (space 15 ends the game).

Special Options

Bag

Players may prefer to use the bag from the original board game. In this case the other Gandalf card "Foresight", designed for the bag game, should also be used. The four Sauron event tokens may also be included in the original game to make it harder.

Dark Events

Note: Dark Events are not part of the Sauron expansion, and it is recommended that you do not include them the first time you play with the Sauron expansion.

The box contains 23 additional Dark Event tokens, all with negative consequences for the Fellowship. They may be added to the set of event tokens of the original board game or of any expansion. (Note: in these cases the bag and the four Sauron event tokens must also be used.) When playing with the Dark Event tokens, the active player may decline some tokens according to the following rules:

• When the next event token is to be shown, the active player takes one token from the bag and places it face up.
• The active player then decides whether to accept or decline the token.
• When a token is declined, the active player turns the token face down and takes a new token. The second token must be accepted.
• When a token is accepted, the active player carries it out as in the original board game.
• After carrying out an event token that advances the progress marker on one of the tracks, no further tokens are taken. After carrying out any other event token, the active player must take the next token from the bag and place it face up beside the previous one, forming a row from left to right. Each newly taken token may be declined, but all the tokens taken must be carried out. This means that two tokens lying next to each other in the row can never be turned face down. If the previous remaining tokens lying face up are carried out, the next token may be declined and turned face down again.

Example: you decide to decline your first event token. The second token you take replaces it and must be carried out. You also carry out the third token. Now it is your choice whether to refuse to carry out the fourth token. If you refuse it, you must accept the next token; if you carry it out, you have the option to decline your next token.

After the end of your turn, collect all the tokens from the row in front of you and place them face down on the discard pile. During an adventure, tokens are never returned to the bag. At the end of each adventure, place all event tokens back into the bag and shuffle them.

Dark tokens have the following effects:

• If you have joined with other players to discard three symbols of Strength (or Stars), nothing happens. Otherwise, see the following event. Similar event tokens require discarding three Stars, three Runes, or any three life tokens.
• One of the players must voluntarily give up two cards from hand, otherwise the Sauron figure moves one step closer to the hobbits.
• The Ring-bearer must roll the die; in the Sauron expansion, the Ring-bearer must activate the Sauron player.
• The active player's hobbit moves one step into the darkness on the Temptation track.
• The active player must discard one card from hand to the discard pile. If the active player cannot do this, they are eliminated from the game.
• When Dark Events are used in the Friends & Foes expansion, the symbol on the event card does not require the player to discard a card from hand; instead, an enemy appears.

When all events have been carried out, the deck is not shuffled. The game is considered complete.

Two Special Cards

This version contains two additional cards. The cards may be used to strengthen the Fellowship, when playing the original board game, and in other expansions.

• The One Ring: at the start of the game this card is displayed face up. At any time during the game, the Ring-bearer may decide to apply the card and pass the Ring to another member of the Fellowship. This may be done even when the Ring has been used during the story. (In this case the Ring is taken from the current hobbit and passed to the new Ring-bearer.) The Fellowship may use "The One Ring" card once during the game, and the card is discarded after that.
• The Watchful Peace: at the start of the game this card is displayed face up. At any time during the game, the Ring-bearer may decide to apply the card in order to move Sauron back three steps along the Temptation track. If the card has not been used by the end of the game, the Fellowship receives another 10 points, regardless of how the game ended.

Darkness comes. And there is no end to it.