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In the Lord of the Rings TCG, [[Rulebooks]] were collections of, well, ''rules'' that outlined both general and specific guidelines of how the game was to be played. There were | |||
In the Lord of the Rings TCG, [[Rulebooks]] were collections of, well, ''rules'' that outlined both general and specific guidelines of how the game was to be played. Though there were several flavors of each type of rulebook, each iteration composed Decipher's last word at any given era. There were three general types of rulebooks: | |||
* '''''Starter Rulebooks''''', included with [[Starter Decks]] that included an overview of the game rules and some simplified starter rules. | * '''''Starter Rulebooks''''', included with [[Starter Decks]] that included an overview of the game rules and some simplified starter rules. | ||
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'''''<big>If you have any files not listed below, please help us complete our collection! [[Special:Upload|Upload them here]], or contact the PC at [https://lotrtcgpc.net/discord the PC Discord server here].</big>''''' | '''''<big>If you have any files not listed below, please help us complete our collection! [[Special:Upload|Upload them here]], or contact the PC at [https://lotrtcgpc.net/discord the PC Discord server here].</big>''''' | ||
== Starter Rulebooks == | == Starter Rulebooks == | ||
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There was one '''Starter Rulebook''' for each set that included a pared-down explanation of game rules, which focused on covering the mechanics pertinent for the cards included in the [[Starter Decks]] for that set. Starter rulebooks remain a good starting point for new players, but be advised that some of the rules were simplified for use of those decks. For instance, these rules permit that if a player ever runs out of cards in their deck, that player can reshuffle their discard pile into a new deck once per game, a concept that has no equivalent in regular constructed play. | There was one '''Starter Rulebook''' for each set that included a pared-down explanation of game rules, which focused on covering the mechanics pertinent for the cards included in the [[Starter Decks]] for that set. Starter rulebooks remain a good starting point for new players, but be advised that some of the rules were simplified for use of those decks. For instance, these rules permit that if a player ever runs out of cards in their deck, that player can reshuffle their discard pile into a new deck once per game, a concept that has no equivalent in regular constructed play. | ||
* [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-01.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 01 The Fellowship of the Ring - English]] | * [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-01.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 01 The Fellowship of the Ring - English]] | ||
* [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-02.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 02 Mines of Moria - English]] | * [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-02.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 02 Mines of Moria - English]] | ||
* [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-03.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 03 Realms of the Elf-lords - English]] | * [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-03.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 03 Realms of the Elf-lords - English]] | ||
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* [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-12.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 12 Black Rider - English]] | * [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-12.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 12 Black Rider - English]] | ||
* [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-13.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 13 Bloodlines - English (Missing!)]] | * [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-13.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 13 Bloodlines - English (Missing!)]] | ||
* [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-15.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 15 The Hunters - English]] | * [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-15.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 15 The Hunters - English]] | ||
* [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-17.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 17 Rise of Saruman - English (Missing!)]] | * [[Media:Rules-Starter-EN_Set-17.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 17 Rise of Saruman - English (Missing!)]] | ||
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* [[Media:Rules-Starter-ZH_Set-01.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 01 The Fellowship of the Ring - Chinese]] | * [[Media:Rules-Starter-ZH_Set-01.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 01 The Fellowship of the Ring - Chinese]] | ||
* [[Media:Rules-Starter-PL_Set-01.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 01 The Fellowship of the Ring - Polish]] | * [[Media:Rules-Starter-PL_Set-01.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 01 The Fellowship of the Ring - Polish]] | ||
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* [[Media:Rules-Starter-DE_Set-01.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 01 The Fellowship of the Ring - German (Missing!)]] | * [[Media:Rules-Starter-DE_Set-01.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 01 The Fellowship of the Ring - German (Missing!)]] | ||
* [[Media:Rules-Starter-ES_Set-01.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 01 The Fellowship of the Ring - Spanish (Missing!)]] | * [[Media:Rules-Starter-ES_Set-01.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 01 The Fellowship of the Ring - Spanish (Missing!)]] | ||
* [[Media:Rules-Starter-PT_Set-01.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 01 The Fellowship of the Ring - Portuguese (Missing!)]] | |||
* [[Media:Rules-Starter-FR_Set-02.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 02 Mines of Moria - French (Missing!)]] | * [[Media:Rules-Starter-FR_Set-02.pdf|Starter Rulebook - 02 Mines of Moria - French (Missing!)]] | ||
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* [[Media:Rules-Deluxe-FR_Set-04.pdf|Deluxe Rulebook - 04 The Two Towers - French]] | * [[Media:Rules-Deluxe-FR_Set-04.pdf|Deluxe Rulebook - 04 The Two Towers - French]] | ||
* [[Media:Rules-Deluxe-DE_Set-04.pdf|Deluxe Rulebook - 04 The Two Towers - German]] | * [[Media:Rules-Deluxe-DE_Set-04.pdf|Deluxe Rulebook - 04 The Two Towers - German]] | ||
* [[Media:Rules-Deluxe-ES_Set-04.pdf|Deluxe Rulebook - 04 The Two Towers - Spanish]] | |||
* [[Media:Rules-Deluxe-IT_Set-04.pdf|Deluxe Rulebook - 04 The Two Towers - Italian]] | * [[Media:Rules-Deluxe-IT_Set-04.pdf|Deluxe Rulebook - 04 The Two Towers - Italian]] | ||
* [[Media:Rules-Deluxe-FI_Set-04.pdf|Deluxe Rulebook - 04 The Two Towers - Finnish]] | * [[Media:Rules-Deluxe-FI_Set-04.pdf|Deluxe Rulebook - 04 The Two Towers - Finnish]] | ||
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== Current Rulings Documents == | == Current Rulings Documents == | ||
It became | It became immediately obvious following the official release of the game that the Starter and Deluxe Rulebooks glossed over many facets of the game, and indeed this is a problem with TCGs in general; since there are so many cards, and so many combinations, not every issue can be discovered through playtesting alone. Decipher therefore began releasing a '''Frequently Asked Questions''' document on their website that covered problems as they cropped up. These documents became the source for the absolute latest rulings, since it could be updated daily if needed. | ||
At first, the FAQ documents only held clarifications (such as "the discard pile must be face up") that were not explicitly stated in the first few versions of the starter rulebooks. With the release of [[The Two Towers]] and the new Standard and Open play formats, it became necessary to maintain an [[X-list]] and [[R-list]] of banned or restricted cards, and so the latest changes to these lists also became the domain of the FAQ document. | At first, the FAQ documents only held clarifications (such as "the discard pile must be face up") that were not explicitly stated in the first few versions of the starter rulebooks. With the release of [[The Two Towers]] and the new Standard and Open play formats, it became necessary to maintain an [[X-list]] and [[R-list]] of banned or restricted cards, and so the latest changes to these lists also became the domain of the FAQ document. | ||
Eventually the FAQ document was renamed to clarify its own usage, becoming the '''Current Rulings Document'''. It still held to the same | Eventually the FAQ document was renamed to clarify its own usage, becoming the '''Current Rulings Document'''. It still held to the same update rules as before, and in between Comprehensive Rulebook releases (see below), the CRD held the latest and greatest updates to the rules of the game. Whenever a new Comprehensive Rules was released, the content of all previous CRDs was reprinted inside, making the old documents obsolete. | ||
Some of the CRD rulings were released after the Comprehensive Rules version 4.0, and so never made it into an official release of the Comprehensive Rules. This means that the most recent version of the CRD was released 13 August 2007, and represented the very final word that Decipher ever released concerning game rules. All of the known FAQ and CRD documents are linked below, and a wiki version of the most recent (Aug 2007) can be found at [[Current Rulings Document]]. | Some of the CRD rulings were released after the Comprehensive Rules version 4.0, and so never made it into an official release of the Comprehensive Rules. As the CRD was never versioned, the CRD's are all differentiated by the date of their release. This means that the most recent version of the CRD was released 13 August 2007, and represented the very final word that Decipher ever released concerning game rules. All of the known FAQ and CRD documents are linked below, and a wiki version of the most recent (Aug 2007) can be found at [[Current Rulings Document]]. | ||
* [[Media:FAQ-EN_2001-11-20.pdf | * [[Media:FAQ-EN_2001-11-20.pdf]] | ||
* [[Media:FAQ-EN_2002-01-11.pdf | * [[Media:FAQ-EN_2002-01-11.pdf]] | ||
* [[Media:FAQ-EN_2002-07-09.pdf | * [[Media:FAQ-EN_2002-07-09.pdf]] | ||
* [[Media:FAQ-EN_2002-09-03.pdf | * [[Media:FAQ-EN_2002-09-03.pdf]] | ||
* [[Media:FAQ-ES_2003-04-02.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:FAQ-EN_2003-12-02.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:FAQ-ES_2003-04-02.pdf | |||
* [[Media:FAQ-EN_2003-12-02.pdf | |||
* [[Media: | * [[Media:FAQ-IT_2003-02-04.pdf]] | ||
* [[Media: | * [[Media:FAQ-DE_2003-02-05.pdf]] | ||
* [[Media:FAQ-PT_2003-03-26.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media: | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2003-06-03.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2003-07-08.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2004-02-03.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2004-03-02.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2004-04-05.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2004-05-04.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2004-07-06.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2004-07-15.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2004-08-03.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2004-09-07.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2004-12-07.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2005-01-18.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2005-04-05.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2005-06-08.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2005-06-17.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2005-08-09.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2006-05-22.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2006-05-22b.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2006-08-07.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2007-01-29.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-EN_2007-08-13.pdf]] | |||
* [[Media:CRD-FR_2004-02-10.pdf]] | |||
* [[https://drive.google.com/open?id=====0B0LYycfi-K18YUpKQ3FodE4wd00|Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, 11 November 2001]] | |||
* [[https://drive.google.com/open?id=====0B0LYycfi-K18NmsyQUtnNEhXRzA|Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, 11 January 2002]] | |||
* {{CRD_2002_0709.pdf|Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, 9 July 2002}} | |||
* [[https://drive.google.com/open?id=====0B0LYycfi-K18YlV5dlhzMnEtOVE|Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, 3 September 2002]] | |||
* {{CRD_2003_0603.pdf|Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, 3 June 2003}} | |||
* [[https://drive.google.com/open?id=====0B0LYycfi-K18UWx2U3plSnNGMEE|Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, 8 July 2003]] | |||
* {{CRD_2003_1202.pdf|Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, 2 December 2003}} | |||
* Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, 12 January 2004 (missing) | |||
* {{CRD_2004_0203.pdf|Current Rulings Document, 3 February 2004}} | |||
* {{CRD_2004_0302.pdf|Current Rulings Document, 2 March 2004}} | |||
* {{CRD_2004_0405.pdf|Current Rulings Document, 5 April 2004}} | |||
* [[https://drive.google.com/open?id=====1CDoPCNyTLgeGxFO0JuVBrF0CFUbZGjqI|Current Rulings Document, 4 May 2004]] | |||
* {{CRD_2004_0706.pdf|Current Rulings Document, 6 July 2004}} | |||
* [[https://drive.google.com/open?id=====1oLt8b_9uiQXnNBVsFoYwX1nAN4Id2woD|Current Rulings Document, 3 August 2004]] | |||
* {{CRD_2004_0907.pdf|Current Rulings Document, 7 September 2004}} | |||
* Current Rulings Document, 5 October 2004 (missing) | |||
* Current Rulings Document, 2 November 2004 (missing) | |||
* [[https://drive.google.com/open?id=====0B0LYycfi-K18bDU5YlJ1Y21leGs|Current Rulings Document, 7 December 2004]] | |||
* {{CRD_2005_0118.pdf|Current Rulings Document, 18 January 2005}} | |||
* [[https://drive.google.com/open?id=====1fqCJ87RTkLSrQEj1cAErExJCVIPJeUhu|Current Rulings Document, 5 April 2005]] | |||
* {{CRD_2005_0809.pdf|Current Rulings Document, 9 August 2005}} | |||
* {{CRD_2006_0522.pdf|Current Rulings Document, 22 May 2006}} | |||
* {{CRD_2006_0522b.pdf|Current Rulings Document, 22 May 2006, second release}} | |||
* {{CRD_2006_0807.pdf|Current Rulings Document, 7 August 2006}} | |||
* {{CRD_2007_0129.pdf|Current Rulings Document, 29 January 2007}} | |||
* {{CRD_2007_0813.pdf|Current Rulings Document, 13 August 2007}} | |||
== Comprehensive Rulebooks == | == Comprehensive Rulebooks == | ||
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As the game matured, Decipher of course found themselves making more and more varied rulings over specific card wordings, combos, or mechanics. Sometimes a card would need to be reworded, clarified, or in some circumstances even modified from its original form (called thereafter an ''errata''). Other times the rules themselves would have to be altered to fix issues only discovered (or fully respected) after a set's release. | As the game matured, Decipher of course found themselves making more and more varied rulings over specific card wordings, combos, or mechanics. Sometimes a card would need to be reworded, clarified, or in some circumstances even modified from its original form (called thereafter an ''errata''). Other times the rules themselves would have to be altered to fix issues only discovered (or fully respected) after a set's release. | ||
With the release of the [[Two-Player Trading Card Game]] product around the release of [[The Two Towers]], Decipher released a more exhaustive rulebook that was a combination of the Starter Rulebook, Deluxe Rulebook, and all the | With the release of the [[Two-Player Trading Card Game]] product around the release of [[The Two Towers]], Decipher released a more exhaustive rulebook that was a combination of the Starter Rulebook, Deluxe Rulebook, and all the metagame erratas and card rulings. Paired with the [[QuickStart Tutorial CD-ROM]], this rulebook was dubbed the ''QuickStart Tutorial Rulebook'' on the front cover, although the pages of the manual called itself the '''Comprehensive Rulebook'''. | ||
With the release of [[The Return of the King]], the Comprehensive Rulebook was updated to include all which was a much better description of what it contained, and Version 2.0 of that guide was released online. It is unclear whether physical copies were ever officially packed with product, but it is at least obvious that this rulebook was intended to be the be-all end-all that could be referenced during high-end tournament disputes. | |||
Version 3.0 was released sometime around ''!Reflections'', and version 4.0 with ''!Shadows''. Version 4.0 was the last version officially released by Decipher, and from that point on it was the job of the Current Rulings Documents to contain any further rulings after that point. A Wiki version of version 4.0 can be found at [[Comprehensive Rules 4-0]]. | |||
* [[https://drive.google.com/open?id=====0B0LYycfi-K18cHJNRUc0ZUtQQWc|QuickStart Tutorial Rulebook]] (June 2003, Battle of Helm's Deep era) | |||
* {{comprehensive-2.0.pdf|Comprehensive Rules 2.0}} (November 2003, Return of the King era) | |||
* {{comprehensive-3.0.pdf|Comprehensive Rules 3.0}} (May 2004, Reflections era) | |||
* {{comprehensive.pdf|Comprehensive Rules 4.0}} (October 2004, Shadows era) | |||
Some details of structured play that were more about ensuring fair play than specific mechanics were compiled into the | ==Official Tournament Guidelines== | ||
Some details of structured play that were more about ensuring fair play than specific mechanics were compiled into the Official Tournament Guidelines. This includes things such as draft procedures, pairing instructions, playtime length, and other details that for non-tournament play were usually up to gentleman's agreements between the players. This document's rulings were never incorporated into the Comprehensive Rules due to their ancillary nature. | |||
One notable ruling | One notable ruling is for [[Mulligan]] ("redrawing your hand"), which has since been widely adopted for casual play by the community. | ||
* | * {{tournament.pdf|Official Tournament Guidelines, 22 July 2004}} | ||
