Just was thinking that it seems odd all the times where you have only a few cards left in hand but come against a monster and don't bother using any cards to defeat it, because 'it can barely damage me anyway!' (if you have 2 cards, the most damage it can deal is 2)
Of course, failing to defeat the monster means it gets shuffled back in, so you do want to beat it, but it still seems odd that a dragon would be unable to damage you much more than you already 'damaged yourself'.
How about a variant where if you take more damage than you have cards in hand, the excess cards get discarded from your deck?
Clearly, its a 'hard mode', but just a thought..
Just was thinking that it seems odd all the times where you have only a few cards left in hand but come against a monster and don't bother using any cards to defeat it, because 'it can barely damage me anyway!' (if you have 2 cards, the most damage it can deal is 2)
Of course, failing to defeat the monster means it gets shuffled back in, so you do want to beat it, but it still seems odd that a dragon would be unable to damage you much more than you already 'damaged yourself'.
How about a variant where if you take more damage than you have cards in hand, the excess cards get discarded from your deck?
Clearly, its a 'hard mode', but just a thought..
I think you'll find that it doesn't change the game that much, since people rarely lose fights by large numbers. When things go badly, though, they'll go bad quickly. It'll also make healer characters more powerful. If you're the sort of group that plays `grim and gritty' RPGs, this sounds like a good way to do that.
If you're just looking for a hard mode, I'd suggest looking at the Blessings deck. For example: if you take damage, advance the Blessings deck by one. If you take damage beyond your current hand size, apply the extra to the Blessings deck.
Have fun!
Rather than specifically wanting a hard mode, it was just the times like where banishing armor to reduce damage was pointless because even though the enemy was dealing 8 damage, you'd only discard 1 card.
But I think a less-nasty version that still 'feels' odd less often would be:
When damaged, you can take damage up to your initial hand size, coming from your hand first and then from your draw deck (obviously, this wouldn't be quite so nasty on a huge hit as my original idea).
I guess another alternative would be: "if you take damage when your hand is empty, bury the top card of your deck". Thematically this is you pushing yourself to the limit of endurance and perhaps breaking/dropping one of your items in the haze.
Might switch exploring when exhausted from a no-risk, no-brainer to high-risk excitement.
@Fromper - devious!
Simply Burying cards from combat damage would make a big difference. That would make you think twice about going for one more explore.
That would make you think twice before doing ANY explore and make cure spell nearly useless.
The game will stop, people will grind and rather take a timer loss than risk perma death. Bad solution for a no problem.
Game easiness or lack of challenge dont came from combat lethality it came from too much randomness on location deck and repetitive scenario puzzle structure.
Let's not forget that this was a suggestion for a Hard Mode, not for general play.
I only see players taking damage two or three times in any one game, so I don't see it as such a problem. Generally only 2 or 3 cards will be buried and they are bound to have a heap of other cards in their discard for Healing anyway. It means that the damage will really hurt in that they lose access to those good cards that you try to keep in hand.