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Quick thought, though.

Yes, the OL loses a lot of people but is able to dredge the river as a result. If the heroes rest I bring out the guards to attack them and maybe the crows too. Spread everyone out so they have to pay to move and attack. I did originally have the Medallion reduce by 1.

If the heroes don’t go for the Xuthal’s Crown then it isn’t too hard but the point is they have to sacrifice a serious advantage later. I take it yours didn’t go for the crown?

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19 minutes ago, Neil Amswych said:

Which version were you using? 

 

I assume it's the most recent version. I downloaded it Friday night from the the scenario builder (following the link at the top of this thread).

 

 

Edited by Ken
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11 minutes ago, Neil Amswych said:

If the heroes don’t go for the Xuthal’s Crown then it isn’t too hard but the point is they have to sacrifice a serious advantage later. I take it yours didn’t go for the crown?

 

Yeah, they went for the crown, but at that point they controlled the board.

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19 minutes ago, drmauric said:

@Ken Another question: Did your group use Teleportation to move through the floors from level to level? When I re-read my scenario I realized that I didn't specify that there shouldn't be any movement like that, due to the magic seal.  My intention was that the only way to move between floors was via the Stairs.

 

No, they did not teleport through the floors, only walls. Although it seems obvious to me, it might not be a bad idea to clarify this to avoid arguments.

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7 minutes ago, Ken said:

 

Yeah, they went for the crown, but at that point they controlled the board.

So you’re saying they got the Medallion and the Crown and got out?!? That’s extremely rare. It’s almost impossible to do that. This could be the result

of the Medallion shifting from 1 to 2. But at 1, it was a choice of Medallion or Crown.

In theory, the crossbowmen should tear through the heroes. If not the heroes, then the Merchant himself.

Edited by Neil Amswych
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I could put the spell book in. I rather liked the idea of it having been damaged in the conflict alluded to in the blurb between scenarios 1 and 2. But if it’s in the subsequent scenarios then that doesn’t quite make sense.

Could someone test it with the spellbook and the Medallion at 1? My group can test that when I get back on the 17th.

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46 minutes ago, Neil Amswych said:

In theory, the crossbowmen should tear through the heroes. If not the heroes, then the Merchant himself.

 

The crossbowmen were killed immediately after the javelin throwers. The heroes did not start looking for the merchant until all other threats were eliminated and only the dark demon remained. 

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13 minutes ago, Ken said:

 

The crossbowmen were killed immediately after the javelin throwers. The heroes did not start looking for the merchant until all other threats were eliminated and only the dark demon remained. 

Then the Dark Demon should have murdered them.

Maybe the holder of the Medallion reduces but not the whole area effect.

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@Ken another question: If your group didn't like the idea of their weapons changing between scenarios, how are they going to take it when Yogah and (potentially) Shentu are replaced later in the campaign?  🙂

 

That is a reaction I just didn't expect.

Edited by drmauric
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2 hours ago, drmauric said:

@Ken another question: If your group didn't like the idea of their weapons changing between scenarios, how are they going to take it when Yogah and (potentially) Shentu are replaced later in the campaign?  🙂

 

That is a reaction I just didn't expect.

 

Good point. I didn't extrapolate that out. I guess it would be something like the chart below. Should we explain at the beginning that some players might not get to play the same character all the way through the campaign?

 

Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3 Scenario 4 Scenario 5a/Scenario 5b
Hadrathus Hadrathus Hadrathus Hadrathus Hadrathus
Ikhmet Ikhmet Ikhmet Ikhmet Ikhmet
Yogah of Yag Yogah of Yag Yogah of Yag Njord Njord/Conan
Shentu Shentu Shentu Shentu Conan/Shentu

 

Obviously, the Yogah change has to happen between 3 and 4, but for consistency we could keep Shentu throughout the campaign by eliminating Njord in scenario 5a. (I included Njord because his Block skill could be useful for the heroes in slowing the sorcerer stack, but I don't think it is a game-changing skill.) 

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1 hour ago, Ken said:

Should we explain at the beginning that some players might not get to play the same character all the way through the campaign?

 

....but for consistency we could keep Shentu throughout the campaign by eliminating Njord in scenario 4...
 

 

@Ken I have thought on this all day! And it just occurred to me that the Stygia expansion does the same thing that we do.  It uses Shevatas, Hadrathus and Ikhmet for 2 scenarios.  Conan, Shevatas and Hadrathus for 1 and Conan, Shevatas and Ikhmet for the last one. And the scenarios are thematically connected, though not a campaign in the usual sense.  

 

We are doing the same thing, we are trying to tell a story. We just called it a campaign and that implies certain things, like using your character all the way through.  Maybe a  brief word of explanation is in order. I mean, there should be an Intro anyway, to kind of state our intentions upfront.  I'll try to think up a brief explanation/intro.

 

But I don't think you should switch out Niord. I really like the different Hero combos for the 2 endings. To me that lends to replayability and a cool story with a great cast of characters.

Edited by drmauric
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5 minutes ago, drmauric said:

But I don't think you should switch out Niord. I really like the different Hero combos for the 2 endings. To me that lends to replayability and a cool story with a great cast of characters.

 

Sounds good. I have to admit, I love the fact that Conan doesn't enter the fray until the final battle. It is even more climactic. 

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Hey guys, so sorry I have been absent. I literally just finished with the Mythic Battles campaign and knew I needed to pop in. @Ken, the pdf looks awesome. I saw a few typos in mine. What's the easiest way to fix those? As for the changing of weapons and characters-- I don't think we need to get stuck on this. It's just how this game goes. We want continuity, but we also want the individual designers to be able to to do their thing. Conan doesn't have the same sword from story to story. So, personally, I see this as a non-issue. We are assigning XP to the side, not the individual, anyway. 

 

I let Monolith know about the pdf. They even mentioned perhaps having their own team doing some play testing. I'm not sure how realistic that is considering their schedule, but if that's something you guys would like, I could push for it. Otherwise, I'm going to see that we get this shared via their official channels. So, let me know when we've got the version absolutely where we think we want it, and then I'll promote it for further play testing. 

 

Thanks for keeping the standard raised! 

 

@drmauric @Primeval @Neil Amswych

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In the first adventure, the description of Hadrathus' Spellbook mentions blue gems. I'm assuming that was a direct copy from the original campaign but I'm guessing that should come out. Also "throughout" should be one word and "exertion" has a t, not an s (unless that's another weird American spelling I don't know about!)

 

Tomorrow, I'm going to test Fight or Flight with the spell book. Although I appreciate that there are differences in Conan stories between differing items, it is odd for every other adventure to have the book and not one. So I'll make some tweaks tonight and will post a version to test. Thanks.

Edited by Neil Amswych
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On 6/11/2018 at 5:45 AM, Ken said:

Scenario 2 – Fight or Flight

Since there is no timer or immediate pressure on the heroes, they began by resting. As overlord, I activated units so I could get the dark demon on the board, but there was nothing to actually do but try to recruit the pirates.

 

The heroes then proceeded to head as a group to the temple, kill all the guards, and retrieve the medallion. By the time the dark demon appeared, most of the heroes were already on their way to the boats. I decided to attack the straggler (Ikhmet) with a double activation from the dark demon - especially because he was the one carrying the medallion. I managed to deplete his entire reserve of gems, but not get any damage through.

 

At this point, the other heroes began systematically killing all the minions on the board - and the dark demon was too far away to impact anything. Realizing the game was lost for the overlord, instead of finishing the scenario we agreed to undo the dark demon's attack on Ikhmet and instead move to the center of the board for better positioning. I was able to lock down Yogah and Hadrathus this way, but then Ikhmet and Shentu proceeded to systematically kill all of the overlord's minions. The Dark Demon could not damage Hadrathus (he rolls an average of 6 hits, but  Hadrathus blocks 2 with Mitra's Halo and has enough gems to defend against the rest)  so I attacked Yogah. I managed to hurt Yogah, but Hadrathus healed him the next turn.  With so many minion tiles in the river, and no ability to call reinforcements, it was difficult to put pressure on the heroes. Eventually I was able to dredge the river enough to activate the dark demon twice every other round, but Yogah was in full passive mode with total defense with Hadrathus healing. I could have moved the demon to attack Ikhmet or Shentu, but that would have freed up Yogah and Hadrathus. 

 

When all the minions were gone and only the dark demon remained, the heroes found the merchant. Shentu ended his turn to flip the merchant token, and then Ikhment picked it up and left the board. Looking back, I am not sure if the merchant rule is for the hero (singular) to end their turn or all the heroes (plural) to end their turn before flipping the token. If the later, the overlord should have had one more turn, but I am not sure it would have made a difference. We discussed the game afterwards and could not figure out what I should have done differently to win. I could have moved the dark demon to the exit point, but with teleportation that would not have helped anyway.

 

Did we play this wrong, or is there an OL strategy I missed?

 

Question: 

Can we change the text for the medallion to reduce the demon's guard "by 1" rather than "to 2"? This could lead to confusion in later scenarios determining the order of applying bonuses.

"The Medallion of Zhangpau : The Medallion is in the space marked with the number 1. It can be removed from its holder with a complex manipulation with a difficult of 4. If the Dark Demon is in the same area as the Medallion, its Guard is reduced by 1."

 

 

 

 

So, I'm tweaking this anyway to add in the spell book, and I've made the change to the Medallion that I forgot to add, which is that it only reduces the Dark Demon's Guard value by 1 if it's facing a melee attack from the person carrying it. So, if the heroes want to share it around they have to attack, drop, spend to pick up, etc.

 

In terms of strategy, I'm afraid I think you got it all wrong. If the heroes rest on turn 1, ignore the pirates. The crows are the OL's friends. I always bring a crow into the Temple to make it really hard to get the Medallion out. Crows help with hindering so you can just fly them towards the Temple and stagger them. The heroes spending gems on crows is great. I sometimes put a crow by the southern-most treasure chest just to make that one trickier, too. You could even have brought out the Temple Guards from the Temple to attack the heroes while they sat there. But Temples Guards plus Crows is not a friendly combo for the heroes at all.

 

Moreover, if the Dark Demon is attacking Ikhmet with 3 rerolling reds, and Ikhmet can't reroll any dice due to Jinx, the heroes were CRAZY lucky that the DD didn't get any damage in. I find that almost totally incredible, especially with a double activation (although I appreciate that depending on where Ikhmet was, the DD may not have been able to get two attacks in. Nonetheless, three reds with rerolls should do serious damage).

 

The minions are nothing. Let them get slaughtered while the heroes spend gems. If they don't have enough to defend against the Dark Demon, they're not getting past him because of his Blocking ability. If the Dark Demon blocks the exit point, it doesn't matter who has Teleportation because they can't Teleport the merchant. They have to kill the DD or Hadrathus has to Push the DD so the others can get through. In the meantime, though, all the DD has to do is kill the merchant, which with a Guard of 1 and only 4 health is possible.

 

However, I'm aware that the Spell Book may change things dramatically, so we'll see in testing this weekend.

 

Thanks

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Me again. I've come up with a cunning plan, a plan so cunning that you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel.

 

"The muscles in Hadrathus' legs burned from running for three days and the dizziness of exhaustion brought about by an intolerable lack of food almost overtook him, despite finally reaching the port of Shu Chen. He and his colleagues paused to momentarily breathe in the evening air which, despite its frosty undertone, brought no comfort. As he did, he remembered the times since the Tower when they had so narrowly escaped death at the hand of Thoth Amon's diabolical assassin. His spell book, now badly damaged, was in desperate need of repair since their last encounter, but there is no time to address that now. He knew it would only be a matter of time before Thoth Amon's spies would bring back word of their location, and that time was rapidly running out.".....

 

Hadrathus' Spell Book: In this scenario, Hadrathus' spell book has been badly damaged and cannot be used at the present time. Hadrathus therefore has to choose whether to keep his now tattered spell book with him. If he chooses to keep it, he must end the scenario carrying it in order to use it in future scenarios. If he chooses to discard it, he may not use it again.

 

So, he has his damn book, which is good for consistency, but tough luck, Wizard, you can't use it this scenario. That puts Fight or Flight back on track without heavy modifications caused by adding the spell book and it puts pressure on Hadrathus during that scenario. It also nicely builds up the narrative to the final scenarios where he does have it and is therefore more powerful.

 

If everyone is okay with this, please put in all subsequent scenarios "If Hadrathus has the spell book...." before giving the relevant spell book rules. I can't imagine any heroes choosing to drop it, but it's nice for them to have the choice.

 

Thanks

Edited by Neil Amswych
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@Neil Amswych Thanks for catching the spelling errors. I fixed them in my original pdf.

 

I also clarified the wording around the blue gems. The red gems on the spellbook card can be combined with Hadrathus' blue gems to cast a spell. 

 

(I also appreciated the jab about weird American spelling and then you bringing up the colour... (pronounced "color")  of the gems...)  🙂

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On 6/15/2018 at 4:45 PM, Matt John S said:

@Ken, the pdf looks awesome. I saw a few typos in mine. What's the easiest way to fix those?

 

Everyone, just let me know when your scenario has been updated and ready. When everyone is ready, I will download the revised versions and update the PDF. 

 

On 6/15/2018 at 4:45 PM, Matt John S said:

I let Monolith know about the pdf. They even mentioned perhaps having their own team doing some play testing. I'm not sure how realistic that is considering their schedule, but if that's something you guys would like, I could push for it. Otherwise, I'm going to see that we get this shared via their official channels. So, let me know when we've got the version absolutely where we think we want it, and then I'll promote it for further play testing. 

 

@drmauric @Primeval @Neil Amswych

 

Love this idea! 

Edited by Ken
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8 hours ago, Neil Amswych said:

In terms of strategy, I'm afraid I think you got it all wrong. If the heroes rest on turn 1, ignore the pirates. The crows are the OL's friends. I always bring a crow into the Temple to make it really hard to get the Medallion out. Crows help with hindering so you can just fly them towards the Temple and stagger them. The heroes spending gems on crows is great. I sometimes put a crow by the southern-most treasure chest just to make that one trickier, too. You could even have brought out the Temple Guards from the Temple to attack the heroes while they sat there. But Temples Guards plus Crows is not a friendly combo for the heroes at all.

 

Good to know! I will definitely have to try these strategies.

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8 hours ago, Neil Amswych said:

If everyone is okay with this, please put in all subsequent scenarios "If Hadrathus has the spell book...." before giving the relevant spell book rules. I can't imagine any heroes choosing to drop it, but it's nice for them to have the choice.

 

 

@drmauric @Primeval @Neil Amswych @Matt John S 

Neil, I like you idea. I will update my scenario to include the "If Hadrathus has the spell book...." line and I would encourage everyone to do the same. I will look into adding this to spellbook section of the campaign rules as well. 

Edited by Ken
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7 hours ago, Primeval said:

I have amended mine to include the changes/edits mentioned above. Good stuff guys.

 

Any scenario that comes after Fight or Flight and has the Dark Demon (but not the Outer Dark Demon) in it also needs to have blurb for the Medallion from Fight or Flight... "If a hero engaging in a melee attack against the Dark Demon is carrying the Medallion of Zhangpau, its Guard is reduced by 1, to a minimum of 2."

Edited by Neil Amswych
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