Almost every game i play is 3 player with some house rules. We let the shadow players table talk (to some extent) to get the best result. Makes it very hard for the fellowship to survive. It is a bit like playing Risk because you need to use Diplomacy to win ... and it is not always the best deck that wins. We have a dozen or so decks to choose from and whichever deck wins the first game can't be played again on the same day by any player.