The Two Towers: Trick-Taking Game is cooperative: your table wins a chapter by fulfilling its characters’ separate objectives. Start with Chapter 19 to learn the common trick rules, then read each later chapter and event card for exceptions. The downloadable English rulebook numbers the chapters 19–36; the earlier Fellowship box is not required.
Set up Chapter 19
- Take the 37-card opening main deck: four suits (Hills, Mountains, Forests and Shadows), ranks 1–8 in each, plus the White Tower, Black Tower and three Orcs.
- Shuffle. Deal one lost card faceup beside the Chapter 19 card. If it is either Tower, draw a different lost card and shuffle that Tower back into the deck.
- Deal the remaining 36 cards: 12 each for three players or nine each for four. For two players, deal as a three-player game and make the third hand into the open pyramid.
- Put out the chapter’s character cards. The White Tower holder takes Aragorn, who leads the first trick. Starting on Aragorn’s left, choose the remaining roles, ensuring starred roles are selected. In Chapter 19, Boromir is also required. Use the player-count side of Legolas or Gimli as indicated.
- Starting with Aragorn, perform the characters’ printed setup actions. “Exchange” means passing a card facedown to an eligible character, who gives one back facedown; Aragorn cannot pass the White Tower.
Chapter 19 is a short chapter: meet the goals of all selected characters in this deal. Later long chapters use several deals to complete the chapter’s roster. The character and chapter cards specify the actual targets, so read them aloud before play without revealing hands.
Take a trick
The lead player plays one card. Each other player plays one. If you have a card of the led suit, you must follow it; if not, you may play another suit or a legal special card. Ordinarily, the highest rank in the led suit wins; a high card in another suit does not beat it. The winner collects the trick for goal tracking and leads the next one. If a Tower is the lead, the next suited card establishes the suit for the trick.
Example: a Forest 4 is led, followed by a Forest 7 and a Mountain 8. If no special card intervenes, Forest 7 wins; Mountain 8 is off suit. If the fourth player, unable to follow Forest, plays the White Tower, it wins instead. In a different version of this four-player trick, the third player plays the Black Tower rather than Mountain 8 while the fourth plays the White Tower; the Towers cancel and Forest 7 wins. You cannot choose a Tower instead of a Forest when you still hold a Forest.
What do Towers and Orcs do?
A lone White or Black Tower wins its trick regardless of rank; if both appear in one trick, neither wins and the highest led-suit card takes it. The printed exception for a trick containing only Orcs and both Towers is handled separately in the rulebook: no one wins, those cards are set aside, and the same player leads again. Use the Tower tokens to show identity after a Tower has been revealed as directed.
Orcs have no suit, may be played when you cannot follow the led suit, and can never win. Do not confuse following a Tower lead with an Orc with being forced to lead an Orc. The former need not lose the chapter; if your only remaining lead is an Orc, the chapter is lost. This is why your group should watch the number and location of safe disposal chances, without discussing private card identities.
Communication and the end of a round
Talk about public information: character goals, played cards, known Tower tokens and whether a goal is complete. Do not show, name or hint at cards still in your hand, including a preferred card to be played. That limit is part of the puzzle. A chapter can fail when a goal becomes impossible. A successful short chapter requires everyone’s selected goals; in a long chapter, the chapter’s roster is completed over multiple rounds. The rulebook also permits ending a round early when goals are secured and all Orcs have been played, under its stated conditions.
What changes in Part 2?
From Chapter 29, replace the four rank-8 suit cards and three Orcs with five Rings and two Weariness cards; a Tower event sets aside the White Tower at this point. The player holding the 1 of Rings takes Frodo in the opening Part 2 setup. A Ring normally follows special Ring rules and cannot be led until broken, except where the rules permit it; the 1 of Rings can optionally take a trick even over a Tower. Weariness cards can only be led: if you must play one while following, the chapter is lost. Their next suited card establishes suit. Read the event and chapter card each time; those instructions override the general explanation.
Three common corrections
- A Tower is powerful, but it does not let you ignore a suit you hold.
- A player’s goal may require avoiding a trick, so do not always play the highest eligible card.
- Keep the lost card public, and do not leak hidden hands during cooperative planning.
Explore this game: Overview · Rules · Strategy · Solo and two players · Chapters and replay modes.
Sources and scope: Office Dog’s English rulebook (PDF, publisher-authored copy) and Office Dog’s product page, checked October 4, 2026. Follow the chapter and event cards in your copy for exceptions. Examples and planning advice are editorial analysis of the published rules, not a claim of firsthand testing.