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The mechanics of the game involve Frodo's quest to destroy the One Ring, and the attempt by various evil forces to stop him. Each player's draw deck consists of an equal number of Free People's cards (which help Frodo survive his journey), and Shadow cards (which hinder the opponent from doing the same). The game is won by getting your copy of Frodo to the end of his journey before your opponent does, or by killing or corrupting his copy of Frodo.
An innovative mechanic called the twilight pool is used as a costing mechanism for cards. Each card has a cost (which can be zero). When the free people's player plays a card, he must add tokens to the twilight pool equivalent to the cost of the card he played. The shadow player, however, must remove twilight tokens to play his cards. Thus the more protection the free people's player plays for his fellowship, the more 'bad stuff' the shadow player will be able to marshall against him. If the free people's player survives this and finishes his turn, then the players swap roles, and his opponent becomes the free people's player.