“The Craft and Power of Old Had Wrought Upon Them…”

The CEO of Ghost Galaxy, Christian T. Petersen, on the Forging of a Collector’s Edition

“Then he saw that they were indeed shaped and fashioned: the craft and power of old had wrought upon them, and still they preserved through the suns and rains of forgotten years the mighty likenesses in which they had been hewn.”

– The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter 1

Let me tell you a tale long in the making, a yarn whose verse has meandered through deep valleys and crept across high peaks.

Here I’ll tell you how the Ultimate Collectors Edition of the game came into being, and of the many twists and turns that have brought it to where it is today.

The story starts on a cold January morning in 2019. While sipping a coffee in the bright winter-morning sun, I was contacted by famed game designer Reiner Knizia who asked me to consider investing in The Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation. Anyone familiar with my love for The Lord of the Rings and my affection for this game in particular, would understand how attractive this offer was.

At that time, however, I was under a non-compete agreement with my former employer and unable to undertake any publishing of games for an extended period.

While the non-compete forced me to leave my publisher tools idle for a time, Reiner’s offer did give me a chance to dream of what could be. So I dreamt of a new commercial edition of the game, made in the likeness of the 2005 “deluxe” edition, but one with visual and tactile aspects brought into the new decade unfolding around me.

However exciting such a new edition would be, this was not the prospective version of the game that haunted me; the one calling to me in the darkness, whispering “make me” from the tangled woods of the mind.

That was the Collector’s Edition.

Sometimes Dreams do Come to Life

I’ve always had a love for maps.

I hazily recall myself as a twelve-year-old leafing back-and-forth from the current page of the story to the maps at the back of the book, eager to understand the locations and distances of those faraway places in Middle-earth.

My love for maps is expressed in many ways, not least in the excitement of seeing a detailed 3D architectural map such as those often displayed in housing or building-project developments.

It was such architectural dioramas that inspired my vision for the Collector’s Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation. I imagined the centerpiece being a gorgeous 3D painted map, complete with lots of “Points of Interest” of the iconic locations from the story. Not only would this constitute the game board, but also act as visual sugar for über-The Lord of the Rings fans. A game creation unlike anything seen before.

Time passed, and the dream did not fade. Later, I would come to an agreement with Reiner on acquiring the game design, and negotiated an arrangement with Robert Hyde of Sophisticated Games—a long-time business partner—who licensed us the required rights to The Lord of the Rings IP. We would call the new edition of the game the “Ultimate Edition,” and the special version would be known as the “Ultimate Collector’s Edition”.

It was 2021, and my new publishing company, Ghost Galaxy, soon began development on the new “Ultimate Edition” products.

Vision Meets Reality

While the great folks at Ghost Galaxy knew how to publish tabletop hobby games, the creation of the Collector’s Edition at the scope and ambition envisioned was a new endeavor. Of the two versions of The Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, clearly the Collector’s Edition would take the longest time to develop, so we started there.

First we had to wrestle with the size of the central board: Too small and it would not allow us to create an epic 3D centerpiece with lots of detailed points-of-interest. Too large and it would be unwieldy, too heavy to maneuver around or store in a typical games closet.

Early cardboard and masonite prototype of the gameboard and casing.

Ultimately, we decided on a 24” by 24” playing surface.

However, as we started to consider the casing necessary to hold a heavy resin gameboard of that size, and as we added drawers to hold the game components, it became clear we had a major issue.

Simply put, the vision required a physical construct incompatible with any normal assumptions of owning a board game. The creation would be of a weight or bulk that would prevent easy moving about, or storage. Even the height was a problem, for when laid upon a normal table, the gameboard (atop the casing) was too high for the comfort of most players.

An early concept render encapsulating our ambitious vision.

The first life-threatening crisis of the Collector’s Edition had arrived. Something had to give: either we would have to scale back the vision for the product, or we’d have to reimagine what a Collector’s Edition for the board game could really be.

The vision was not to be subdued: we would stay the course in making the Collector’s Edition something truly special—a thing for the ages.

With the weight of the casing and the size required to hold the 3D terrain and components, not to speak of height management, it became clear we were now talking about an integrated game table. This meant diving into a furniture-crafting world that was new to us, one that required different manufacturing partners from those making our traditional board and card games.

The Long and Winding Sculpting Road

In 2021, as every reader knows, the world was in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic which tragically put the world on its head.

In late ‘21, we managed to get the 3D sculpting of the board-diorama underway. To that end, I created a detailed map to act as a reference for portraying Middle-earth. This map provided not only landscape information to the sculptor, but more than 30 points-of-interest of various important locations in The Lord of the Rings.

The initial topography and point-of-interest map created for sculpting reference. The small circles denote the positions that will hold the character game pieces.

Given the vast distances between The Shire and Mordor that we looked to portray, it was clear we needed a very high “airplane view” of the landscape. If we were to showcase the many individual sites and locations from the story, we would be required to abstract the map and substantially cheat scaling.

We hired a third-party company to take on the huge sculpting project for us. In the world of 3D modeling for tabletop hobby games, the scale of this job was huge: roughly 24” wide by 24” tall, and more than 5” thick at the point of the highest mountain, all to be created in high-fidelity detail. The sculptors had to wrestle with a huge and complex 3D file—so large, in fact, that it had to be spliced up into many parts.

The initial sculpting progress seemed endless. Due to the complexity, the first iteration took more than a year to complete. The file size, the desired detail, the large number of specific locations on the board to be created, COVID-related delays, and communications issues with the contracted company all contributed to this being a very, very long process.

When the initial sculpt was finally delivered in early ‘23, we looked to create the first physical instance of the gameboard. To that end, we acquired two FORM-2 3D resin printers and began the process of printing the first prototype.

Photos of the early 3D prints of the gameboard

It quickly became clear that the quality, detail, and impact of the detailed locations such as Minas Tirith, Helm’s Deep, Bag End, etc., were simply not near the level of detail and excellence that we aimed for.

Fortunately, Ghost Galaxy had hired the talented Scott Schomburg a year earlier as our principal in-house artist. Not only is Scott an amazing illustrator, but, as it turns out, he’s also a great 3D sculptor. Scott had been a huge help in the 3D printing process, and he had many suggestions for sculpting improvements.

Scott Schomburg reworking details on the game board

Scott’s first refinement pass took several months, but the details were substantially improved. We fired up the 3D printers for another prototype. This time the location details were far better.

Minas Tirith: The White City (first prototype sculpt on the left;
Scott Schomburg’s more elaborately detailed sculpt on the right)

As the next step we hired a local miniatures painter, John Shaffer, to assemble and paint the 3D printed gameboard.

After a few weeks, John arrived with the board. While he’d done a good job with the painting, and while the detail of Scott’s new locations were striking, the whole piece felt flat, toylike. Not at all the striking lush landscape envisioned.

The first painted board prototype.

It wasn’t only the disappointing gameboard that weighed upon us. During the months in which Scott was updating the sculpting, we continued to work on the table-base, table-leg, the casing, and large lid that would house and support everything. Our talks with suppliers made it clear that the price we’d have to charge for the Collector’s Edition was no longer in the hundreds of dollars, but in the thousands.

How could we possibly offer a Collector’s Edition for that amount of treasure, if it was not spectacular?

Ghost Galaxy CEO Christian T. Petersen surveying
the first painted prototype.

After hours of conversation with Scott and Keith Hurley (our producer on the project, and likely the most patient man on earth), we decided that the principal problem of the painted board was its lack of detail in the sculpted landscape itself (i.e., hills, trees, rivers, etc.) Simply put, it was too simplified to give the piece an air of realism and richness. For the painting to shine, the terrain would require substantially more detail to bring out contours and personality.

Scott suggested a test overhaul of The Shire (including Bag End) to see what could be done. I agreed.

It took Scott several weeks to redo the small area around The Shire, as he had to experiment with new 3D brushes and techniques to create the desired textures.

Fortunately, the result was awesome. The area now popped with details of tilled fields, little rocks, groves of trees, and a more defined road leading from Bag End to the lands beyond.

Knowing it was going to be neither fast nor inexpensive, I gave Scott the green light to completely redo the terrain of the whole board, hoping he’d be able to replicate the effects he’d accomplished in The Shire.

Scott’s second round of sculpting took several additional months to complete. After Scott laid down his sculpting tools, we again proceeded to print a complete version of the gameboard on our 3D printers.

At that point, John Shaffer (our first painter) was unavailable for a second go. Luckily, Keith knew a great model-maker and painter (and special effects, and motion graphics master) Scott Wenner (https://www.wennerstudio.com/). Scott Wenner kindly agreed to assist with our mad project, and bravely took the fresh 3D printed pieces home to assemble and paint the next board instance.

Several weeks later, Scott Wenner finally arrived with our newly painted gameboard.

It was… marvelous!

Through careful iteration of both sculpted details and paint job, the board
was becoming the “living map” that Christian had originally envisioned
(first painted prototype on the left; revised painted prototype on the right).

The work that Scott Schomburg had put into re-sculpting terrain, combined with Scott Wenner’s clever brush, had paid off. The terrain was rich, the details striking.

Now this was the kind of centerpiece that would pull at the heart-strings of map-lovers like myself.

Needless to say, the Scott+Scott version was a huge relief for everyone at Ghost Galaxy. After almost two years of sculpting, we finally had the centerpiece of what we could proudly call a Collector’s Edition.

That’s no Moon… That’s a Collector’s Edition!

While the sculpting drama was unfolding, work continued on the table and hardware structure that would hold the game pieces and gameboard. We wanted not only a durable and solid piece of furniture, but something that embodied The Lord of the Rings. A table that would be at home in any cozy Hobbit hole or Gondorian palace.

Keith worked on prototyping the table design. After much work, we decided on a direction inspired by the image below.

Early visual concept of the Collector’s Edition

From that visual concept, work started to solidify not only its structural details, but also its artistic flourishes.

While structural details were being worked out, it was time to consider the Tolkien-inspired flourishes that would decorate the table, as well as other details such as the design of the drawer inserts, final hardware, and more.

It was decided the base of the table-leg should be embraced by a golden metal disk, a homage to the One Ring, and that a circular ring-script should be silk-printed on the wooden base.

Then there was the lid. In order for our customers to make practical use of the Collector’s Edition table, and to protect the beautiful gameboard, it was important for us to have a solid lid for the table which could act as an everyday tabletop.

I aspired for the top of the lid to be an homage to the original Tolkien-illustrated The Lord of the Rings book covers. To that end, we landed on a decorative metal disk depicting the One Ring and the Eye of Sauron to be embedded into the lid, surrounded by the three Elven Rings silk-printed on the surface. Much attention was paid to making the metal Eye of Sauron not only gorgeous and detailed, but also sufficiently flat so that the table could be used for normal table-duty (such as hosting a lamp, for example).

It was the sides of the table that would dominate most of our attention, however.

I’d originally imagined the table would be surrounded by a metal brace featuring the ring-script and other Tolkienesque filigree. Keith and Scott Schomburg had a different idea: what if we could display an illustrated low-relief sculpture on the sides of the table, depicting various characters and scenes of the books? Scott did a quick test of this idea, which he painted in a lustrous ink-washed gold.

It was gorgeous.

After deciding this was the way to go, I wanted to take it a step further and depict the entirety of The Lord of the Rings story in this low-relief silhouette format! It would be an awesome decorative girdle, one that would tastefully present the flavor of Middle-earth even when the table was closed and the gameboard hidden.

Scott donned his illustration-hat to craft the low-relief imagery, and we did many sketches to explore how the whole story of The Lord of the Rings could be told in a narrow 8-foot long silhouette.

The illustrations that form the central mosaic surrounding the table, telling a visual story of The Lord of the Rings in its entirety.

A Second Coming

In late ‘24 we received the final prototype of the table, as well as the factory-painted replica (which was wonderful, nearly identical to Scott Wenner’s painted prototype). The new table featured all of our requested improvements and flourishes, and is rock-solid to boot (weighing in over 50 kgs/100+ lbs, when including game components).

Here it is, in all its glory!

A Precious Thing…

Through all this work and investment, and in keeping with high expectations throughout the process, the creation of The Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation Collector’s Edition surely was a “tale that grew in the telling,” if ever one has been told. It has been one of the most lengthy, difficult, and precarious productions I’ve ever been part of.

The downside of such high standards and expansive vision, to be sure, has been the unavoidable fact that the manufacturing cost of the Collector’s Edition had become exponentially higher than our initial estimate.

We’d originally hoped to keep the price of the Collector’s Edition below a thousand dollars, but the sheer cost of the production (not to speak of the epic development investment) ultimately sent the price many times higher.

To emphasize the unique and extraordinary nature of this precious artifact, Ghost Galaxy will limit this edition to 500 copies, each individually numbered and certified.

If you have the means and interest, we hope you’ll consider picking up one of these treasures. While sadly we acknowledge that the price (and perhaps sheer bulk) of the artifact will be out of reach for many, we hope you’ll agree that the journey’s destination was worth the effort, and that this love-letter to Tolkien’s story deserves to be put into this world.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tale and peek behind the scenes.

Christian T. Petersen
CEO
Ghost Galaxy

The Lord of the Rings and the characters, items, events, and places therein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Middle-earth Enterprises, LLC, and are used under license by Sophisticated Games Ltd and Ghost Galaxy, Inc. All Rights Reserved.