In each game of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, players begin by choosing a scenario, and then work together in an attempt to complete it. A scenario is completed by successfully moving through all stages of the quest deck. During a scenario, the encounter deck aims to harm the heroes and to raise each player's threat level. A player is eliminated from the game if all of his heroes are destroyed, or if his threat level reaches 50. If all players are eliminated from the game, the players have lost. If at least one player survives and completes the final stage of the quest deck, all players are victorious. Some victory or defeat conditions can be added by a scenario. 

In order to play a The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, you'll need the following components: 

If the game text of a card contradicts the text of this rulebook, the text on the card takes precedence. 

There are three different types of decks in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game: the quest deck, the encounter deck, and the player deck. There are also hero cards, which do not belong to any deck. Each deck has its own function and its own set of card types, as described below. In the game, each player plays one player deck, and the players work together to move through a fixed quest deck. A randomized encounter deck operates in conjunction with the quest deck in each scenario to challenge the players as they play against the game.

Each scenario represents a quest that the players are attempting to complete. At the beginning of a game, the players must choose which scenario they wish to play against for that game. A scenario consists of a sequential deck of quest cards (referred to as "the quest deck") and a randomized encounter deck of enemy, location, treachery, and objective cards. 

Each quest card represents one of the various stages of the quest the players are pursuing in a scenario. Each quest card is a numbered step in a fixed, sequential order. These cards have their sequential information printed on both sides, so they can be placed in then correct order without spoiling the contents of the latter stages in the scenario. Side A is the back of the card, and provides story and setup information. After reading and following any instructions on Side A, players flip the card to Side B. Side B contains the information necessary to move to the next stage of the quest. 

The encounter deck represents the villains, hazards, places, and circumstances that stand between the players and the successful completion of their quest. An encounter deck consists of enemy, location, treachery, and objective cards. The contents of the encounter deck are determined by the scenario the players are attempting. The encounter deck is shuffled at the beginning of the game. 

1. Card Title: The name of this card. A card with a symbol next to its name is unique.
2. Engagement Cost: This number determines when this enemy card will move from the staging area and engage a player. 
3. Threat Strength (): The degree of danger this enemy or location represents when it threatens the players from the staging area. 
4. Attack Strength (): The effectiveness of this enemy when it attacks.
5. Defense Strength (): The effectiveness of this enemy when it defends. 
6. Quest Points: The number of progress tokens that must be placed on this card to fully explore the location and discard it from play or to defeat a side quest. 
7. Hit Points: The amount of damage required to destroy this card. 
8. Encounter Set Icon: Indicates which set of encounter cards this card belongs to. Used in conjunction with the "Encounter Information" icons on side A of the quest cards of any scenario to determine which encounter sets are used to build the encounter deck. 
9. Traits: Text designators that, while carrying no rules in themselves, may be affected by other cards in play. 
10. Game Text: The special abilities unique to this particular card when it is in play. 
11. Shadow Effect Icon: If a card has a shadow effect, that effect is denoted by this icon, which also serves to separate the shadow effect from the card's in play effect. 
12. Card Type: Indicates whether this card is an enemy, location, treachery, or objective. 
13. Set Information: Every card has an icon denoting the set it belongs to, as well as a unique identification number within the set. 
14. Scenario Title: The name of the scenario to which this objective card belongs. 
15. Willpower Strength (): The effectiveness of this character when it commits to a quest. 

Enemy cards represent the villains, creatures, monsters, and minions that attempt to capture, destroy, or mislead the heroes as they pursue their quest. Enemy cards engage individual players and remain in play until they are defeated. 

Location cards represent the perilous places to which the players may travel during a scenario. They are a distant threat to the players from the staging area, and during the course of the quest players may opt to travel to a location to confront its threat. 

Treachery cards represent traps, curses, maneuvers, pitfalls, and other surprises the players might confront during a scenario. When a treachery card is revealed from the encounter deck, its text effects are resolved immediately, and it is then placed in the encounter discard pile. 

Depending on the scenario, objective cards can represent a number of different elements, ranging from the goals of a scenario, to allies who assist the players, to keys that allow the players to advance to the next stage of a quest, to artefacts that are necessary to defeat a difficult enemy or overcome a particular challenge. Unless otherwise specified, objective cards are shuffled into the encounter deck when setting up a scenario.

An objective-ally card is considered to be both an objective and an ally. The text effects of each of these cards commits it to the quest when it is in the staging area. This means that these cards count their stats and assist the players when resolving a quest. Any card effect that affects characters committed to the quest can also affect these objective-ally cards. If an effect allows the players to take control of any of these objective-ally cards, it is moved into the controlling player's play area. Once there, they can use it the same as any other ally. When this occurs, the card is no longer considered to be in the staging area, and is no longer committed to the quest (unless its controller commits it during the quest phase).

The player deck includes a combination of ally, attachment, and event cards shuffled into a deck from which a player draws his cards throughout the game. No more than three copies of any ally, attachment, or event card, by title, can be included in a player's deck. A tournament deck must contain a minimum of 50 cards. Within these guidelines any combination of allies, attachments, and events can be used in the player deck.   

Hero cards represent the main characters a player controls in an attempt to complete a scenario. Heroes start in play, and they provide the resources that are used to pay for the cards (allies, attachments, and events) in a player's deck. Heroes can also commit to quests, attack, defend, and in many cases they bring their own card abilities to the game. Each player, chooses 1-3 hero cards and starts the game with them in play. Hero Cards does not count toward the 50-cards minimum of a legal tournament deck. 

Sméagol / Gollum is a double-sided hero / enemy card.

Each side of this card represents a different aspect of this iconic character. Sméagol is a hero who wants the see Sauron defeated, but Gollum is an enemy who seeks revenge against those who stole his "precious". Sméagol cannot be chosen as a starting hero when playing saga expansions or the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle.

When a player selects Sméagol as a starting hero, he must shuffle two copies of "Stinker" into the encounter deck. The "when revealed" effect on Stinker will cause Sméagol to be flipped to Gollum. When this happens, the Sméagol hero leaves play and the Gollum enemy enters play engaged with its owner in the ready position.

Attachment cards represent weapons, armor, artefacts, equipment, skills, and conditions. When played, they are always attached to (placed slightly under) another card, and they tend to modify or influence the activity of the card to which they are attached. If the card to which an attachment is attached leaves play, the attachment card is discarded. 

Ally cards represent characters (friends, followers, creatures, and hirelings) that assist a player's heroes on the quest. Ally cards are played from a player's hand, and they remain in play until they are destroyed or removed from play by a card effect. 

Event cards represent maneuvers, actions, tactics, spells, and other instantaneous effects at a player's disposal. An event card is played from a player's hand, its text effects are resolved, and the card is then placed in its owner's discard pile. 

Contracts count as player cards, but they are never included in a player's deck and don't count towards a player's minimum deck size. Instead, each player may choose one contract to put into play along with his heroes at the beginning of the game with the "A" side faceup. If a contract places restrictions on the content of a player's deck, those restrictions must be met in order to choose the contract.

The One Ring is a player card with its own unique card frame and its own special rules.

The One Ring has a Setup text that instructs you to attach it to a hero you control. This is done immediately after placing your heroes in your play area. If two or more players have The One Ring in their decks, the first player decides which player will put his copy of The One Ring into play. Each other copy is removed from the game.

The One Ring is immune to non-Master card effects. Cards with the Master trait represent the power of the Master Ring, and can only be used by the player who controls The One Ring. Cards with the Master trait cannot be used when playing the saga expansions.

Player Objectives

Player objective is a new player card type introduced in The Shire's Reckoning expansion. They represent additional priorities or optional goals that heroes may be pursuing during the game. They are considered to be both player cards and objective cards.

At the end of Setup (see the online ALeP FAQ for more details), the players as a group may put into play one (and only one) player objective from their collection(s). Add it to the staging area with Side A faceup and trigger its Setup effect. The Setup effect on Side A allows players to "opt in" to the objective before it flips to Side B. During the game, a player may trigger the effects on a player objective if, and only if, they opted in to it.

Some effects on a player objective may require exhausting it (which an opted-in player can do even though they don't control it). Exhausted player objectives ready at the beginning of the refresh phase, at the same time as all other player cards in play.

Leadership Sphere

The sphere of Leadership emphasizes the charismatic and inspirational influence of a hero, and that hero's potential to lead, inspire, and command both allies and other heroes alike. 

Lore Sphere

The sphere of Lore emphasizes the potential of a hero's mind. Intellect, wisdom, experience, and specialized knowledge are all under the domain of this sphere. 

Spirit Sphere

The sphere of Spirit emphasizes the strength of a hero's will. Determination, resilience, courage, loyalty, and heart are all aspects of this sphere. 

Tactics Sphere

The sphere of Tactics emphasizes a hero's martial prowess, particularly as it relates to combat and to overcoming other tactical challenges that might confront the players during a quest. 

Neutral cards belong to no sphere of influence.  

Some cards in this game represent specific, formally named characters, locations, and items from the Middle-earth setting. These cards are referred to in the game as "unique." They are marked with a symbol before their card title to indicate their uniqueness. If any player has a unique card in play, no player can play or put into play another card with the same title. Any attempt to do so will fail to the extent that the card attempting to enter play remains in its current location (hand, deck, discard pile) and does not enter play. This rule applies to all unique hero, ally, attachment, and event cards that might enter play. Note that a unique card is eligible to enter play if another card with the same title is in a player's discard pile but not currently in play. Multiple copies of the same non-unique card can be in play simultaneously. 

If any player has a unique card in play, no player can play or put into play another card with the same title. So if a player uses a unique hero, then an ally with the same title cannot enter play. If a unique hero leaves play for any reason, players can play or put into play other cards that share the same title as that hero. That hero is then ineligible to re-enter play until there is no card with the same title in play. 

A unique encounter card cannot enter play if there is another copy of that card already in play. If this is the case, the card's effects are ignored and the encounter card is placed in the encounter discard pile. 

Sometimes, game or rules text will refer to "character" cards. Both heroes and allies are considered to be "characters." Card text that says "choose a character" allows a player to choose either a hero or an ally card as the target of the effect. 

There are several kinds of card effects in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. 

On the hero and player cards, card effects fall into one of 7 categories: passive effects, actions, responses, valour trigger, forced effects, setup effects and keywords. 

On the cards found in the quest and encounter decks, card effects fall into one of 7 categories: passive effects, actions, responses, forced effects, when revealed effects, shadow effects, travel effects, and keywords. Each of these card effect types is explained below.

Constant (or passive) effects continually affect the game state as long as the card is in play and any other specified conditions are met. These effects have no bold trigger, as they are always active. 

Actions are denoted by a bold "Action:" trigger on a card. Actions are always optional, and can be triggered by their controller during any action window in the game sequence. In order to trigger an action on a hero, ally, or attachment card, the card on which the action is printed must be in play, unless the action specifies that it can be triggered from an out of play state. Event cards are actions that are played directly from a player's hand.

Some action triggers are preceded by a specific phase of the game. This type of trigger means that the following action can only be triggered during the specified phase. For example, an effect with the trigger "Quest Action:" can only be triggered during an action window of the quest phase. Actions without a specified phase can be triggered during any action window throughout the round.

An "Action:" on an encounter card in play can be triggered by any player, following normal restrictions on triggering abilities.

Responses are denoted by a bold "Response:" trigger on a card. Responses are always optional, and can be triggered by their controller in response to (i.e. immediately after) a specified game occurrence. In order to trigger a response on a hero, ally, or attachment card, the card on which the response is printed must be in play, unless the response specifies that it can be triggered from an out of play state. Event cards with "Response:" effects are responses that are played from a player's hand

Forced effects are initiated by specific occurrences throughout a game, and they occur automatically, whether the card's controller wants them to or not. They are denoted by a bold "Forced:" trigger on a card. These effects initiate and resolve immediately, whenever their specified prerequisite occurs.

When revealed effects are a special case of forced effects, that occur automatically as soon as the encounter card is revealed. They are denoted by a bold "When Revealed:" trigger on a card. When revealed effects do not resolve when the card is revealed as a shadow effect.  

Some location cards have travel effects, which are denoted by a bold "Travel:" trigger on a card. Travel effects are costs or restrictions that some or all players must pay or meet in order to travel to that location. If the players cannot fulfill the requirement of a location's travel effect, the players cannot travel to that location.  

Some of the cards in the encounter deck have a secondary effect that is known as a shadow effect. These effects are offset from a card's non-shadow game effects by , and they are formatted in italic type. Shadow effects are also denoted by a bold and italic "Shadow:" trigger on the card. Shadow effects only resolve when the card is dealt to an attacking enemy during combat. 

Actions and Responses with the Valour trigger, presented as "Valour Action" or "Valour Response," can only be triggered by a player whose threat is 40 or higher. 

If an event card has two effects, one with the Valour trigger and one without, you may only choose one of these two effects to trigger when you play the card. You may still only choose the effect with the Valour trigger if your threat is 40 or higher

If a player card with Setup instructions is in a player's deck at the beginning of a game, that player searches his deck for that card and follows its instructions before drawing his first hand. 

Similarly, Setup instructions on heroes trigger at the beginning of the game.

Similarly, if an encounter card card with Setup is in the encounter deck at the beginning of a game, search the encounter deck for that card and follow its instructions before resolving the Setup instructions on the quest.

Keywords are used as shorthand for common game effects that appear on a number of cards. The keywords and their role in the game are explained below. Keywords are denoted textually, usually at the beginning of a card's rules text. Many keywords are specific to a scenario and one should refer to the instructions given on the quest sheet. Below are listed the generic keywords. 

While a card with the archery keyword is in play, players must deal damage to character cards in play equal to the specified archery value at the beginning of each combat phase. This damage can be dealt to characters under any player's control, and it can be divided among the players as they see fit. If there is disagreement as to where to assign archery damage, the first player makes the final decision. If multiple cards with the archery keyword are in play, the effects are cumulative. Remember that does not block archery damage.

If a quest card has the battle keyword, when characters are committed to that quest, they count their total instead of their total when resolving the quest. Enemies and locations in the staging area still use their in opposition to this quest attempt.

If an encounter card with the doomed keyword is revealed during the staging step of the quest phase or in setup, each player must raise his threat level by the specified value. 

If a player card with the Doomed X keyword is played or put into play, each player must raise his threat level by the specified value. 

The guarded keyword is a reminder on some objective cards to reveal and attach the next card of the encounter deck to the objective when it enters the staging area from the encounter deck, and place them both in the staging area. The objective cannot be claimed as long as any encounter card is attached. Once that encounter is dealt with, the objective remains in the staging area until it is claimed. If another objective card comes up while attaching a card for the guarded keyword, place the second objective in the staging area, and use the next card of the encounter deck to fulfill the original keyword effect. Enemy and location cards attached to guarded objectives do still count their threat while the enemy or location is in the staging area. An encounter card attached to a guarded objective is dealt with in the following method, depending on its card type: 

Once all encounter cards attached to a guarded objective are dealt with, the players can claim the objective in the manner specified by its card text.  

During the planning phase, Tyler plays "Necklace of Girion" which has the Guarded (enemy or location) keyword, so he discards cards from the top of the encounter deck until he discards an enemy or location. In this case the first card he discards is Lonely Lands. He adds the Lonely Lands to the staging area and attaches Necklace of Girion to it as a Guarded objective. Once that Lonely Lands is explored, Tyler will take control of the Necklace of Girion and attach it to a hero of his choice.

Guarded (X) is a new version of the Guarded keyword that appears on both objective cards and some player card attachments. X is a card type: enemy or location. When a card with Guarded (X) enters play, discard cards from the encounter deck until an encounter card with the matching type is discarded. Then, add that card to the staging area and attach the Guarded (X) card to it as a guarded objective. Once attached, an objective card with the Guarded (X) keyword works just like an objective with the original Guarded keyword. If the encounter deck is empty while resolving the Guarded (X) keyword, shuffle the encounter discard pile into the encounter deck and finish resolving the Guarded (X) keyword.

A player card attachment with the Guarded (X) keyword cannot be attached to a character until it is free of encounters. Once free of encounters, its owner gains control of it attaches it to an eligible card.

An enemy with the Indestructible keyword cannot be destroyed by damage, even when it has damage on it equal to its hit points.

A character with the ranged keyword can be declared by its controller as an attacker against enemies that are engaged with other players. A character can declare ranged attacks against these targets while its owner is declaring attacks, or it can participate in attacks that are declared by other players. In either case, the character must exhaust and meet any other requirements necessary to make the attack. 

Some attachments have the restricted keyword. A character can never have more than two attachments with the restricted keyword attached. If a third restricted attachment is ever attached to a character, one of the restricted attachments must immediately be moved to its owner's discard pile. 

Secrecy lowers the cost to play the card by the specified value, provided the threat of the player who is playing the card is 20 or below. Secrecy only applies when the card is played from hand, and never modifies the printed cost of the card.  

A character with the sentinel keyword can be declared by its controller as a defender during enemy attacks that are made against other players. A character can declare sentinel defense after the player engaged with the enemy making the attack declares "no defenders." The defending sentinel character must exhaust and meet any other requirements necessary to defend the attack. 

If a quest card has the siege keyword, when characters are committed to that quest, they count their total instead of their total when resolving the quest. Enemies and locations in the staging area still use their in opposition to this quest attempt.

When an encounter card with the surge keyword is revealed during the staging step of the quest phase or in setup, reveal 1 additional card from the deck. Resolve the surge keyword immediately after resolving any when revealed effects on the card. 

Time X is a keyword that represents the urgency of the heroes' quest. When a card with the Time X keyword is revealed, the players put X resource tokens on that card. These tokens are called "time counters." At the end of each refresh phase, remove 1 time counter from each card with the Time X keyword, if able. When the last time counter is removed, there will be a triggered effect that resolves on that card. Some encounter cards will also remove time counters, making it more difficult for the players to predict when they will run out of time. 

Some enemy and location cards award victory points when they are defeated. When such a card leaves play, one player should place it near his threat dial to remind the players of the victory points when they are scoring at the end of the game. It is recommended that one player collects all the victory cards the players earn during the scenario, as victory points are applied to the score of the entire group. 

While each non-, non- hero you control shares at least one trait with a card with the Devoted keyword, that card does not require a resource match. The trait that is shared does not need to be the same for each hero.

For example, an ally with the Devoted keyword and the Gondor and Scout traits may be played without a resource match if all of your heroes have the Gondor trait, all of your heroes have the Scout trait, or some of your heroes have the Gondor trait and the remainder have the Scout trait.

Many effects last only for the duration of one action (immediately after being triggered), but some effects last for a set period of time, or even indefinitely. Effects that last for longer than a single action are called lasting effects. 

Multiple lasting effects may affect the same card at the same time. The order in which the lasting effects take place is irrelevant, since the net sum of all lasting effects is applied to the card. 

If one of a hero's, ally's, enemy's, or location's statistics (, , , or ) is ever lower than 0 after all effects are applied, that statistic is rounded up to 0. Any time a new effect is applied to a card, the net sum of all active effects should be recalculated. 

If one of a hero's, ally's, enemy's Hits Points is ever lower than 0 after all effects are applied, the character or enemy is immediately discarded.

Ancient Forest reads: "While Ancient Forest is in the staging area each Forest location in the staging area gets +1 and +3 quest points. This ability does not stack with other copies of Ancient Forest." This means that even if there are 2 copies of Ancient Forest in the staging area, each Forest location in the staging area will only get +1 and +3 quest points total.

Some cards have passive abilities with the text "This ability does not stack with..." While two or more effects that do not stack with one another are active, only one of them will affect the game state. 

Some encounter cards have the text, "Immune to card effects." This means that the encounter card cannot be selected as the target of any card effect, and it ignores the effect of any card that would directly interact with it. 

Some encounter cards have the text "Immune to player card effects". This text means that player cannot select the encounter card as the target of any card effect and it ignores the effect of any player card that would directly interact with it. 

Tom has 3 heroes: Glóin (who has a Leadership resource icon and 3 resources in his pool), Éowyn (who has a Spirit resource icon and 2 resources in her pool), and Eleanor (who has a Spirit resource icon and 2 resources in her pool). Tom wishes to play the Guard of the Citadel card from his hand. The Guard of the Citadel belongs to the Leadership sphere, so Tom must spend resources from Glóin's pool to play this card. Since the Guard of the Citadel has a cost of 2, Tom moves 2 resources from Glóin's pool to the token bank and places the Guard of the Citadel into his play area. Tom also wishes to play the Northern Tracker card from his hand, which belongs to the sphere of Spirit, and has a cost of 4. To play this card, Tom takes 2 resources from Éowyn's pool, and 2 resources from Eleanor's pool, for a total of 4. He can do this because both Éowyn and Eleanor have Spirit resource icons. Tom spends these tokens and places them in the token bank, and then places the Northern Tracker in his play area.

In order for a player to play a card from his hand (or to activate certain card effects), he must pay for it by spending resource tokens from the resource pool of a hero who has a resource icon that matches the card's sphere of influence. This is called a resource match. Resources that are spent to pay for cards or card effects are taken from their hero's resource pool and placed in the general token bank. 

Cards with a cost of zero do not require a resource to be spent in order to pay their cost, but they do require at least one hero under that player's control to have a resource icon that matches the card's sphere. 

If a player has multiple heroes with similar resource icons, he may use resources from multiple pools of the same sphere to pay for a single card or effect. 

Neutral cards, which belong to no sphere of influence, require no resource match to play. This means that they can be paid for with resources from any hero's pool. Also, when paying for a neutral card, a player may combine resources from heroes with different resource icons.

Some cards have abilities that can be triggered from play, but still require the triggering player to pay resources. Triggering a card ability from a card already in play requires no resource match, unless otherwise, specified by the ability. 

A player "owns" his heroes and the cards that he has chosen for the player deck he is playing. A player "controls" all cards that he owns, unless another player or the encounter deck takes control of the card through a game effect. Any time a card leaves play, it reverts its owner's hand, deck, or discard pile (as directed by the effect forcing the card out of play). 

When a player plays an ally card, it comes into play under his control and is placed in his play area. If another player takes control of that ally, it is moved to the controlling player's play area. Ally cards cannot be played under the control of another player, they can only change control through card effects. 

Characters and attachment cards enter the game in then "ready" position"“that is, face up on the playing surface in front of their controller.  

When a card has been "used" for some purpose, such as to commit to a quest, to attack, to defend, or to use a character ability that requires the card to exhaust, it is turned 90 degrees sideways and considered "exhausted." An exhausted card cannot exhaust again (and therefore cannot partake in any action that requires exhaustion) until it has been readied once more. When a player is instructed by the game or by a card effect to ready a card, he moves that card to its normal upright position.

"In play" refers to cards that have been played or put into play (in a player's play area), to cards that are waiting in the staging area, to the currently revealed quest card, and to encounter cards that are engaged with that player.

"Out of play" states are "in a player's hand," "in a deck," or "in a discard pile." Card effects do not interact with cards in an out of play state unless the effect specifically refers to that state.  

Players may be instructed to remove cards from the game. When a card is removed from the game, it should be set aside and ignored for the rest of the game. Do not place any "removed from game" cards in the discard pile, as effects that bring cards back from the discard pile no longer interact with these cards. 

There is no limit to the amount of cards a player can have in his hand. 

The staging area is a unique element of the game's playing field. It represents the potential dangers the players might face as they progress on their quest. 

During the quest phase, enemy and location cards are revealed from the encounter deck and placed in the staging area. Cards in the staging area are imminent threats to the players, including enemies that need to be defeated and locations that need to be explored. While a location is in the staging area, the players are not considered at that location; instead it represents a distant threat. Players have the option of traveling to a location during the travel phase. Similarly, enemies in the staging area are not yet engaged with any of the players. Enemies engage players when a player's threat level is high enough to draw out that enemy. Players also have the option to voluntarily engage enemies during the encounter phase.

Each player has his own discard pile, and the encounter deck also has its own discard pile. Whenever a card is discarded, it goes to the discard pile belonging to the card's originating deck.

If a player runs out of cards in his player deck, he continues to play the game with the cards he has in play and in his hand. He does not reshuffle his discard pile. If the encounter deck is ever out of cards during the quest phase, the encounter discard pile is shuffled and reset back into the encounter deck. 

The player side quest, The Storm Comes, has the text: "Limit 1 copy of The Storm Comes in the victory display." This text prevents more than 1 copy of The Storm Comes from entering the victory display. If the players defeat The Storm Comes, and there is already a copy of that side quest in the victory display, then the copy that was just defeated is placed in its owner's discard pile.

The players determine a first player based on a majority group decision during step 4 of setting up the game. At the end of each round, the first player passes the first player token to the next player clockwise on his left. That player becomes the new first player. 

Some cards refer to the "last player." The last player is considered to be the player sitting directly to the right of the first player. If there is only one player playing, then that player is considered to be both the first and last player. 

The shadow effect of Pathless Country (TBR 72) reads: "Shadow: After this attack, the attacking enemy engages the next player then makes an immediate attack." If there is only one player in the game, there is no next player to engage. The word "then" indicates that the immediate attack is conditional on the attacking enemy engaging the next player, so the enemy will not make an immediate attack.

The next player is the player sitting directly to the left of the player referenced by the card effect. If there are no other players in the game, there is no next player. 

Players are permitted and encouraged to talk to one another during play, and to work as a team to plan and execute the best course of action. Players can discuss anything they would like, but they cannot name or read out loud directly from cards in their hand, or from cards that they have seen but the rest of the players have not.

Standard Mode is the default difficulty for a given scenario. Players who wish can continue to play their games in Standard Mode, following all of a scenario's normal setup instructions.