yes, but i doubt we would ever see a sauron ring bearer....wouldnt that be game over?

Well, they obviously left space for there to be non-cannonical ring bearers since the Ring card and the encounter cards interact with the "Ring Bearer" and not Frodo. To me that implies that we will have the ability to create an alternate universe type of experience and see what it would have been like if someone else carried the ring. I think this would be fun and interesting!

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I dont mind if we go back to moria. Its such a big part of the book i dont see how they can leave it out. It should be pretty good because theyve already had a "dry run" at it. They might use that new "time" element again. maybe we will be running through the mines with goblins building up and up, fighting our way through them, and all the time the balrog is chasing us, with the time ticking down, and we have to make it across the bridge — the final location card — before the time ticks down to nothing

Gandalf will be an objective card, and if we lose him along the way, we lose the quest.

I dont think they will make us fight the balrog. All we will need to do is keep the gandalf objective card alive until we make it across the bridge

If we manage to explore balins tomb along the way, maybe that will give us a boon

Let's not get distracted by the "If they had only thought ahead" stuff. They didn't have the licenses at the time and were trying to capitalize as much as possible. Sure, it would have been great if they had known and could have planned it all out from the beginning, but that window is closed.