The Hobbit: Adventure Board Game (1995) (RetroLook)

[@arheru]

Angus McBride's art is iconic! That painting of Smaug swooping at you is also used for the cover of Creatures of Middle-Earth, the bestiary for MERP. That, and that of the Fellowship looking at Mordor from a hill must be my favourites.

[@RockSteddie77]

I love when you look back at the retro games. That Hobbit book is awesome, loved the orignal animation also.

[@devarionarias]

A friend of mine had the MERP (Middle Earth Role Playing) game and I believe it had the same cover art as this game. Interesting! I don't remember this board game. Thanks for the look at it.

[@Montag451]

Very interesting to see what else ICE came up with. I've been getting into the Middle-Earth CCG recently and really enjoying it so far. So much classic artwork from Angus McBride, Quinton Hoover, Liz Danforth, and of course John Howe. Really cool to see the big version of the Hobbit you have. I've actually been re-reading The Lord of the Rings and loving it; I'm on The Two Towers right now.

[@TheDungeonDive]

There’s so much great art in that world.

[@ExMortis00]

Always enjoy the Retrolooks!

[@blackraptor311]

My mother has that same copy of the book. Looked through it all the time as a kid.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Such a beautiful book.

[@danjohnson887]

I love that book! I've always loved the cartoon and that would be perfect!

[@capnbob0618]

Oh man can’t believe you are covering this! Fond memories of picking this up at Gencon with my friends in high school back in the day.

[@TheDungeonDive]

I think this might be the only video for this on KZbin, which is crazy. There definitely aren't any videos of it posted at BGG.

[@capnbob0618]

@@TheDungeonDive Yeah, I had randomly looked for any coverage for it a couple months ago just because the memory had popped into my head and I was curious to see what the game was actually like (couldn't remember details). Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[@TheDungeonDive]

My pleasure!

[@the_Mike_d]

My mental images of the Hobbit are similar - I never had or saw the illustrated book you own, but I have such vivid memories of seeing the Hobbit cartoon on TV as a kid. That said, I also have strong memories of the musical elements from the Lord of the Rings cartoons. This game came out when I was in college and all my gaming and RPG activity disappeared for ~5 years, so thanks for sharing as my only association with ICE was playing the RPGs in high school.

[@TheDungeonDive]

The animated films are all so good. They’ve a certain quality to their sound that just does it for me.

[@circuiTkido]

I got this game some years ago. It doesn't hit the table very often but everytime it does I enjoy it quite a lot. The german version of the game ("Die großen Abenteuer der kleinen Hobbits") comes with pewter Hobbit miniatures and printed cardboard tokens in the style of the rest of the games illustrations instead of plastic tokens. It's one of the games i will hold onto.

[@TheDungeonDive]

I bet those cardboard tokens are a lot nicer!

[@circuiTkido]

I absolutly prefer the card board tokens ;) I will try to upload an image of the unpunched token sheet to bgg.

[@kipjebo9142]

I'm so glad you made this video! It's great to see some light shed on it. I bought the game when it came out and completely agree with your assessment and critique. I still own it and seeing this video makes me want to get it out and play it again. Maybe I'll even look at making some of those tweaks you suggested. Love your copy of The Hobbit. We had the animation on video disk and watched it all the time.

[@TheDungeonDive]

The map is beautiful! Really is one of my favorite game board maps! And Video Disk! Nice! I originally saw Star Wars on video disk. :)

[@NefariousKoel]

A friend got this back in the '90s. I recall it was alright for a light adventure game. Since we did so over some beers and didn't have to worry about crunchy rules.

[@TheDungeonDive]

It's a perfect beer and snacks game.

[@itsallfunandgames723]

That's a lovely board. And those are some manly hobbits on the cover. If Peter Jackson had cast four solid jawed, thick necked guys to play his hobbits, those would have been some very different films.

[@TheDungeonDive]

I love all the different depictions. So cool to see how different people present things.

[@northsouth1256]

love this!!!!

[@darrickdean1849]

Never saw this, but I'd like to find a copy and try it out and maybe add it to my LOTR game collection (Knizia's Lord of the Rings Board The Boardgame, The Lord of the Rings The Card Game, Adventure to Mount Doom, and LOTR Risk).

[@GasFayce]

I.C.E also published the Middle Earth Role Playing game, or MERP, tons of material available for that game! They went way beyond the boundaries of the setting for the Hobbit in this game.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Yep! I used to play it. Always loved the crit tables. Or maybe I should more correctly say I owned it back when I was in high school. I remember using the critical fail tables in other games, but I don’t remember much about the game itself.

[@guillermoyaroslavlverduzco1551]

If I'm lazy to set up and to think a lot, this is the one.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Definitely good for those kinds of nights.

[@boatofcar3273]

It’s gotta be talismans 🙂

[@boatofcar3273]

Now that we’re on the subject, I’d love for you to do a video on Adventure to Mount Doom. I know you don’t like it, but I’d love to know the reasons why!

[@TheDungeonDive]

I need to get to that one. Another one with a beautiful game board!