Variant for more player interraction / cooperation

[Nathaniel Gousset]

Perhaps this could change the game balance or not, need to see.

When several character are at the same location, when someone explore he have the choice to:

- Encounter the card he draw.
- Put the card on another player in his location that have no cards on him. He then draw another card for himself. At his turn, the player receiving the card MUST explore and encounter the card put on him. It count for his exploration.
- Each Character can only have one card on him at any time.

Benefit :

Players act more like a party when at the same location. Rogue take care of traps, Warriors of Monsters. If the party found a book to decipher they give it to the one that could actually try to read it.

Cons :

Make the game a bit easier and predictable.
The player receiving a card cant move from the location.
Player have more incentive to stray grouped so they could have an harder time cornering the vilain.

[Ron Lundeen]

My initial sense is that this variant would make the game a LOT easier, even though it restricts some players' explorations. Characters that provide advantages for being apart (like Harsk) lose that a little bit with this variant, but seem to gain a lot more in predictability.

I'd like to hear how your win/loss ratio changes under this variant.

[austinmonster]

So far, from what I'm hearing, the game is DESIGNED for you to win if you are smart. I can't think that making it any easier would make it any funner. I can see the that increasing player interaction would be fun, but part of the fun of a co-op game is the risk of loosing, and this variant seems like it would take the idea of dying/loosing down to zero.

[Zendragon]

I do like this idea. I would not want this to become a standard practice during a game, but as a choice that has consequences. Some ideas to help reduce the usage and keep the game from becoming too easy.

Increasing the difficulty of the encounter by +4 for the receiving character. This goes along the same lines as increasing the difficulty from using a weapon without being proficient.

To pass an encounter to another character in the same location, the active player advances the blessings deck one card. This would help keep the time pressure intact since less encounters would probably be failed.

To pass an encounter to another character, the active player burys the top card of his deck or discards the top 2 cards of his deck. Less failed encounters means less damage taken overall in the game. This would help keep spells like Cure meaningful.

[Thrawn007]

austinmonster wrote:

So far, from what I'm hearing, the game is DESIGNED for you to win if you are smart.

I'd argue it's more "DESIGNED for you to win if you don't get some randomness that prevents it." There isn't much to it as far as playing smart.

[Myriade]

Thrawn007 wrote:

austinmonster wrote:

So far, from what I'm hearing, the game is DESIGNED for you to win if you are smart.

I'd argue it's more "DESIGNED for you to win if you don't get some randomness that prevents it." There isn't much to it as far as playing smart.

Well some of my loses were caused by bad luck, but a few of them were also caused by bad decisions.

[Akasma]

We have been fortunate. We have played through all of the current game several times now in various groups and have never lost a scenario. only one time did we come close (by close I mean we had 1 blessing card left...) and it was all a luck based thing, henchmen being near the bottom , etc.

Though I could definitely see poor choices costing you the game. I have certainly made my share of mistakes. And I have frequently found myself challenged to overcome my obstacles after helping save companions from poor choices.

Good gaming!

[Charles Scholz]

I played a solo advernture and a team adventure against Pillbug. I lost in the solo and the first team, but defeated him the second team game.

Also, I defeated Blackfang easily solo, but it was down to the very last blessing when Blackfang was defeated by my team.

Like any card game, it takes a combination of luck and smart playing to win.

[Nathaniel Gousset]

Playing solo is definitely harder.

But this game need a combination of bad luck and errors to be lost. While winning seems more the standard happening than a feat of skill.

I agreed my variant would make the game easier. I think using a blessing will be too rough on groups, but adding to the difficulty would do, for how much to add it need playtest. +4 sound a bit too harsh, 2x the adventure level could do.