The Hobbit: There & Back Again is a competitive adventure game where players draft dice to make pathways, collect resources, and perform actions that help them to reach their chapter goal. All players open their adventure books to the same chapter of the game and play in turn-order starting with the shortest player. Each chapter boasts unique goals and ways to utilize the resources in the game, but a round is typically started by rolling the pool of dice and selecting one, then the next player selects, and so on until there are no other dice. The player whose turn it would be next then rolls and the rounds continue.
Each player receives their own Adventure Board to play in. The Boards are made with thick dry-erase pages and bound together with a flat-binding (think those super thick books designed for toddlers). Players also receive a dry erase pen to mark their maps and score charts as the game progresses. The story takes players through the eight most iconic challenges faced by Bilbo and the Dwarves in The Hobbit, including overcoming Trolls, Goblins, Wargs, Giant Spiders, and an encounter with the dragon Smaug!
—description from the publisher