I’ve been a massive fan of all things Tolkien for the last 50 years, so The Hobbit: There and Back Again grabbed me straight away. This is a roll and write game, themed around the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and the Dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield. There are eight chapters, each one of which is part of the story of the Hobbit and the journey to The Lonely Mountain.
Disclaimer – I received this game as a review copy.
Introduction
The game has been designed by none other than Reiner Knizia, and it comes in a pleasingly heavy box that holds a rulebook which is a little larger than standard US letter paper. The reason for the heft soon becomes clear when you start pulling things out of the box – the player boards are actually booklets of heavy cardboard. These booklets contain the eight chapters of the game. There are four booklets – one per player, plus some dry wipe pens, six dice and some cardboard tokens to be punched out. The player booklets are very high quality, with a colour drawing of Smaug across the front and back cover. The six dice are five D6s and one D12. The D6s are what players will draft during the game, but more of that later.
The carboard tokens are bread, swords and pinecones. And there’s also a solo play token. Not all tokens are used in every chapter / adventure. For example, chapter 1 only requires the five D6 and the sword tokens. The adventures can be played in any order and are completely independent, but for the full thematic experience (cue Dolby Atmos or something…) you probably want to play them in order from the Unexpected Party, where Gandalf and the Dwarves arrive at Bag End all the way to Fire and Water where you battle Smaug, the dragon.
The rulebook is laid out beautifully, with each adventure described in detail, including the objective, the components and any modifications to the rules. There is also a solo mode and there’s a hard mode too for when your group has mastered the game.
The box says one to four players and half an hour play time. I think that’s quite accurate, but as always, your mileage may vary, especially if all your players are new to the game and/or they have a tendency to overanalyse their choices.
Gameplay
This is a dice-drafting roll and write. On your turn you roll the five dice and choose one of them. The next player in turn chooses one of the remaining dice and so on, until, in a four-player game, you will choose the remaining dice. Therefore, on your own turn you get to draft two dice, while on other players’ turns you will only draft one.
The dice mainly have faces depicting trails that can be drawn with a dry wipe pen in your player booklet to work towards the objective for the chosen adventure. For example, in the first chapter, you are trying to bring all the Dwarves plus Thorin and Gandalf to Bag End and you must draw trails that link each Dwarf to the destination. In addition, two of the dice have wizard’s hats, bread and swords. If you choose a die with one or more swords showing, you take that number of sword tokens. If the die has bread showing, you cross off bread on your player board. Wizard’s hats get you a special, magic action. Why do you need bread? Well, in chapter 1, everyone arrives hungry, so you’d better be prepared to feed them. If you are able to feed your guests, you will score more points.
Artwork
The box shows Bilbo striding purposefully past his green door and out of Bag End on his way to the Lonely Mountain. We see the mountain in the distance with a ghostly Smaug above it. The illustrations in the rulebook and the player booklets all follow the same aesthetic for a very nice-looking game.
Complexity
This is not a complex game although there is plenty here to interest seasoned players. Mechanically, the turns are very simple – draft a die then draw the shape, take the token or similarly mark something off in your booklet. The main complexity comes from poor planning whereby you box yourself in – literally draw yourself into a corner… Competing goals mean that every choice of die is a difficult trade-off.
Replayability
The dice provide enough randomness that every run through the game is different and then there’s always Hard Mode for when the basic game gets too easy. Even though I’ve only played a couple of times, I think there is plenty of replayability here.
Player interaction
You’re all drafting from the same dice pool, so it’s very likely that someone who goes before you in turn order will snaffle the exact die that you had your eye on and you’ll have to settle for second best. So, there’s a lot of player interaction as you fight for the best dice faces.
Component quality
Did I mention already that the player booklets are beautiful? They really are. They look and feel like quality components. The cardboard tokens are also pleasingly thick. And the box has an impressive weightiness to it when you pull it down off the shelf. All round excellent presentation.
Conclusion
In case you didn’t already twig, I love this game. It’s really easy to teach to people and the theme is strong. I’ve played some other roll-and-write games, such as Railroad Ink and I prefer the drafting mechanic in this game, so that the die you choose is denied to your opponents. I think it makes for a much more interesting and interactive game. The chapter design means that you could play a single chapter as a filler or you could spend the whole evening and more on a campaign. I would score The Hobbit: There and Back Again 85%
