Rulebooks

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.
• Deluxe or Expanded Rulebooks, included with Deluxe Starter Sets with a corresponding more complete explanation of the game rules.
• Frequently Asked Questions, distributed online as PDFs that contained common questions and answers by Decipher.
• Current Rulings Documents, which evolved from the FAQ documents and contained the latest rulings and decisions by Decipher.
• Comprehensive Rules, that combined all of the above into a single comprehensive document, also distributed online as a PDF.
• Official Tournament Guidelines, which included instructions on how to run an official tournament and included several common ruling concerns.

All physical rulebooks were also distributed online as PDFs, but old versions tended to be removed shortly after they were superseded by a subsequent edition. As a result, there are holes in the digital record, and not all rulebooks which were physically produced exist here.

If you have any files not listed below, please help us complete our collection! Upload them here, or contact the PC at the PC Discord server here.

Starter Rulebooks

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.

• [of the Ring Starter]

 * [of Moria Starter]
 * [of the Elf-Lords Starter]

• [Two Towers Starter]

 * [of Helm's Deep Starter]
 * [of Fangorn Starter]

• Return of the King Starter (missing)

 * Template:starter-sog.pdf
 * Template:starter-md.pdf

• [Starter]

 * Template:starter-br.pdf
 * Bloodlines Starter (missing)

• Template:starter-hunters.pdf

 * Rise of Saruman Starter (missing)

Deluxe Rulebooks

Deluxe Rulebooks were released with each Deluxe Starter Set, which itself included a Starter Pack and Booster Packs, so conceivably the new purchaser could have any card from that particular set. The Deluxe Rulebooks therefore went over every normal rule and for all intents and purposes represented the baseline for "how to play the game".

• Fellowship of the Ring Deluxe Rulebook (missing)
• [Two Towers Deluxe Rulebook]

Comprehensive Rulebooks

As time went on over the lifetime of the game, Decipher had to make more and more specific rulings over specific card wordings, combinations, 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). Sometime around the release of The Two Towers Decipher released a rulebook that was a combination of the Starter Rulebook, Deluxe Rulebook, and all the metagame erratas and card rulings. In its first incarnation, this amalgamation was dubbed the QuickStart Tutorial Rulebook, which admittedly did not at all reflect what it actually was.

With the release of !Return of the King, QuickStart was renamed the Comprehensive Rulebook, 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.

• [Tutorial Rulebook] (June 2003, Battle of Helm's Deep era)
• Template:comprehensive-2.0.pdf (November 2003, Return of the King era)
• Template:comprehensive-3.0.pdf (May 2004, Reflections era)
• Template:comprehensive.pdf (October 2004, Shadows era)

Current Rulings Documents

It became immediately obvious following the official release of the game that the Starter and Deluxe Rulebooks were inadequate at explaining every facet 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 pitfall could be discovered through playtesting alone. Decipher therefore began releasing an FAQ document on their website that covered problems as they cropped up; these documents became the source for the absolute latest changes, 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 expedient 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.

When the QuickStart rulebook became rebranded as the Comprehensive Rules, the FAQ document was also renamed, becoming the Current Rulings Document. It still held to the same update rules as before, and in between Comprehensive Rules releases, 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, but would have been if a version 5.0 had ever been made, and so they are viewed just as "canon". 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.

• [to Frequently Asked Questions, 11 November 2001]
• [to Frequently Asked Questions, 11 January 2002]
• Template:CRD 2002 0709.pdf
• [to Frequently Asked Questions, 3 September 2002]
• Template:CRD 2003 0603.pdf
• [to Frequently Asked Questions, 8 July 2003]
• Template:CRD 2003 1202.pdf
• Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, 12 January 2004 (missing)
• Template:CRD 2004 0203.pdf
• Template:CRD 2004 0302.pdf
• Template:CRD 2004 0405.pdf
• [Rulings Document, 4 May 2004]
• Template:CRD 2004 0706.pdf
• [Rulings Document, 3 August 2004]
• Template:CRD 2004 0907.pdf
• Current Rulings Document, 5 October 2004 (missing)
• Current Rulings Document, 2 November 2004 (missing)
• [Rulings Document, 7 December 2004]
• Template:CRD 2005 0118.pdf
• [Rulings Document, 5 April 2005]
• Template:CRD 2005 0809.pdf
• Template:CRD 2006 0522.pdf
• Template:CRD 2006 0522b.pdf
• Template:CRD 2006 0807.pdf
• Template:CRD 2007 0129.pdf
• Template:CRD 2007 0813.pdf

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 is for Mulligan ("redrawing your hand"), which has since been widely adopted for casual play by the community.

• Template:tournament.pdf