Hello! I work at a local Game Store and was hoping to start up some sort of Organized Play for LOTR (and other Fantasy Flight LCGs) but it seems I am currently a tad halted in this process. The link on the official FFG website for "Organized Play" leads to a 404 Error, and its seems as there is really no other guide as to how things need to be run.

Does anyone have any advice for starting up an organized play league/tournament for LOTR? This one is especially stumping me because it is a cooperative game instead of a traditional player vs player game which can be quite easy to figure out a tournament structure.

That's a great question, as everyone, including FFG, seems to have been a bit stumped by how to run organized play for this game since it was created. There are a few options:

- FFG did release these official tournament rules if you want to run something competitive: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/lotr-lcg/FAQ%20update/2013-February/race-against-the-shadow-rules.pdf I've never tried them personally so I can't vouch for them.

- FFG has nightmare kits that they release every 6 months or so. You can have people simply play the Nightmare quests or compete to see who can do the best against them. The problem is that this isn't very friendly to new players.

- Another option would be to use the Campaign Mode introduced in The Black Riders Saga Expansion and maybe have groups play through each quest in the campaign as a fellowship. Each quest could be a different night. The problem here is that there are only 6 quests in the campaign so far, so this wouldn't get you very far.

Hope this helps!

Yea, there's not much you can do here. Generally organized play doesn't involve any competition whatsoever. It's simply a date when LotR players gather to play.

It's a cooperative game and I don't think it lends itself to competitive play very well. I'd start with trying to find a group of players and then having them play against a scenario. If they end up killing it, then change it to Nightmare mode and see how they do. You are trying to build up a player base right now.