motrax's page

Hi everyone,

A couple clarifications are needed...

1. If Character A defeats a Henchman, and is then able to try and close the location the Henchman was in, can that player choose to wait for Character B's turn to come to that location and attempt to close it, without having to go through the entire deck?

2. Also, same question, but instead, assume Character A and B are at the same location when Character A defeats the henchman; can Character B then attempt to close on that same turn?

3. Last one; does the discard pile need to remain face-down, or can we cycle through it at our leisure, just to see what we've lost?

Thanks!

1. Nope. Person who defeated henchmen either attempts close, and if you choose not to it stays open until you empty the location and then you may TRY again to close it. Just FYI an empty location is not auto-closed.

2. Nope. Only the active player may attempt location closes. Other players may assist by adding blessing etc, but it is the person whose turn it is that must close.

3. Discard piles are supposed to be discarded faceup. So yes, you may look through it... but you shouldn't rearrange it, due to locations like the apothecary that care about the order it is in.

I invite any and all to help me create what I hope will be a simple and fair scoring method for any adventure regardless of the amount of players or the characters chosen.

While the game scenarios are cooperative play within your own group, I can see at least a little bit of a competitive nature of "this group" vs. "that group" or even "this party (Valeros, Lem, Kyra, Merisiel)" vs. "that party (Harsk, Seelah, Sajan, Seoni) and wanting to compare how they did vs. the same scenarios/adventures. I also see a potential for "organized play" tournaments based upon marathon sessions of several adventures put together by many different "parties" competing for a prize!

Ok lets gather some different pieces of info that could be used for scoring criteria. I'll start with the most essential at the top, least nearer the bottom. [x] will be the starting suggestion for scoring for this category

Did you WIN?: Yes = Set Bonus [+10]. No = Zero.

Blessing Timer turns left: This is core mechanic of the game, and the more turns left = the better you did. Faster game is usually a more successful game. But a two-player game is quite different from 6-player game, how do we make scoring system fair based upon party size? Answer may come in follow up items. [+1 per remaining blessing]

Number of closed locations: Perm Close > Temp Close, but Temp Close will happen with more players and save Timer blessings. So this can be balanced via number of players. [+3 per permanently closed location]

Boons acquired: This is easy enough to compute, and can scale to the number of players. Count your final card count (hand, draw, discard) and subtract your starting deck size. This number is how many cards your entire party gained. Divide this by number of party members, that gives you your Average Boons Gained. Note that buried cards end up counting against you, so character deaths will really be penalized here.
[+1 per Average Boon Gained]

Banes defeated: This one is harder since they go back to the box, but you can keep a tally or something. Again, divide by number of characters to get the average. I think you should get more for defeating banes than acquiring boons, as it is generally a little harder and less banes as well. Evaded summons will not count since they aren't defeated. Sorry Merisiel. +2 per Average Bane defeated]

Henchmen defeated: Perhaps overkill, but sometimes you beat the henchmen but then don't quite close the location. You should still get something for having dealt with the henchmen. [+1 per defeated location henchmen (not summoned henchmen)]

Character deaths: Not that there isn't enough of a penalty, but added incentive to run away and fight another day. [-3 per character death]

Ok, so lets see how this might score out. Just making up some numbers. 4 man party beats villain with 10 turns left. Beat 15 banes, 4 were henchmen, acquired 16 net boons. No char deaths. Closed 4/6 locations (the villain location counts as closed, so two were temp closed)

Win - 10pts.
Turns left - 10 pts.
Closed locations - 12 pts.
Boons gained (avg) - 4 pts.
Banes defeated (avg) - 7.5 pts.
Henchmen bonus - 4 pts.

Total: 47.5 points

Further thought for failed scenarios: You get your score above until you complete it with a Win, but lose 5 points for every retry.

Whew, this took longer than I thought... but what does everyone think? I want to go to some gaming CON's in the next few months and try and run some marathon sessions. Then I could score the different parties against one another. Be interesting to see how different party/character distributions affect the scoring. Luck will always be a major part though, that's just fine!

Motrax

Sajan stands in a corner, shadowboxing. Ezren flips through his dog-eared and well-worn spellbook, muttering the each incantation under his breath for the 1000th time. Kyra sits with eyes closed, in quiet contemplation and prayer, as the Sun slowly rises in the east spreading its warm glow.

Outside, Lini is tending to her animal menagerie, when Lassie comes bounding up to her, barking incessantly.

"What is it, girl? Did Timmy fall into the well, again?" Lassie looks her scornfully in the eyes, not appreciating the joke. She lifts a paw and then brings it down, forcefully. She turns to the north and puts her head low to the ground.

A slight tremor is felt. The vibrations increase and the dinner plates and flatware at the inn rattle. Loud cracks and splintering of wood is heard from the woods to the north. Townsfolk head indoors as the ground shakes more and more erratically.

Kyra finishes one last prayer for the people of Sandpoint. Ezren closes his spellbook and slowly stands, stretching his old bones. Sajan puts his fist in hand as he steps out into the morning sunshine.

"IT'S GO TIME!"

--My Stone Giants arrive tomorrow-- My party is pumped and ready to go!--

HungryJoe wrote:

I love that mental picture. The thought of Valeros just standing in front of a Hill Giant switching belts until the Hill Giant spontaneously combusts...

Could we make that a promo card?

Perhaps we could call it: Giant Belts of (L)ength.

Item. Reveal this card to add 1 to your pants size. You may play another (or even the same) item with this check.

Flavor text: "Insert loop A into Buckle B, insert loop B into Buckle C, insert loop C into buckle D... " -- Valeros reading the assembly instructions for his birthday present from Shayliss. Tee-hee!

My wife plays Lini in our main party, and she is awesome. But I'll add this to the discussion: Her nemesis isn't a boss... it's the TRAITOR... for obvious reasons. Sure, she can still usually beat it without an ally (backstabbing DOG!) but now her ally is gone. Unless she holds onto a spare animal, hard to justify... this monster always sneaks up and knocks the rug out from under her.

Anyone else agree?