Just wondering if the balance of the game would be disturbed if I added more locations when playing solo.
I do realize that the card count of the blessing deck would need to be increased, but how many cards to add?
Of course the duration of the game would be increased, but I don't mind that.
When playing solo, how many blessing cards would I need to add per location added?
Would the amount of added blessing cards per location added be the same when playing with 2 players?
When we play, we use one extra location deck if we're playing with less than 5 characters. It's never been a problem, just adds a bit more tension to the game (without adding any more blessings).
I suggest trying it without any extra blessings first, but if you find you need a couple of extra turns then treat it as a playtest and add a couple more. Let us know how it works out!
If you're adding extra locations, I'm assuming you're trying to increase the difficulty. If so, why would you want to make it easier by adding more blessings?
I would assume to mitigate how much the difficulty goes up by. Adding one location but only 2 cards to the blessing deck would still increase the crunch a little, unless you can somehow regularly explore several times a turn, or reliably always close the new location as soon as you find a henchman there.
To answer the original question, I think if I weren't trying to make the game harder, just bigger, I would probably add 4 or 5 cards to the blessings deck. Keep in mind, some games you'll get the henchman within the top couple cards, and close the location almost right away, other games, the henchman will end up near the bottom, you'll fail to beat a barrier the first time you find it, a monster will kick your butt, and you'll regret that last spot. Then you'll fail the check to close the stupid spot when you do beat the henchman, and it will take even longer! (Obviously this happens at times, but when you've got an extra spot, it's a bigger issue).
Also, long term, more spots means more chances to acquire boons, so you'll probably end up with a stronger deck, I know others have mentioned this in other threads but it bears repeating.
Adding a location when playing solo will work fine, and should give you a more challenging game. I recommend not adding blessings - the game should put you under a bit of time pressure (which solo play doesn't really, at the moment). This will make the game tougher for characters with no access to healing.
The game is meant to be different for the number of players. A single player game is not meant to have time pressure. It is meant to be a game where you have to deal with the ramifications of death if you take too much damage. That is pressure enough (in my opinion). In our 6 character games, there is almost always someone to help when you need it, and we've NEVER had a character die. If you play a single character game honestly and in strict accordance with the rules, death is a very real threat. (and isn't it odd that we simultaneously have a very vocal crowd arguing that the game is too easy but there is a recent thread talking about how to nerf death?)
Hey, I want to change death because I think it's simply frustrating. Combat is easy for me due to a combination of hero choices and luck getting a lot of good boons, but some of the barriers can actually be pretty nasty.
@markon - don't forget that barriers don't do damage due to the failed check, just whatever it says on the cards themselves. I can't think of many barriers off the top of my head that can cause a lot of (non-combat) damage... exploding runes? Falling bell?
But you're unlikely to hit a lot of those in one scenario and you ought to have either Thieves' Tools, Masterwork Tools or some kind of DEX available to deal with them.
Explosive runes is the worst offender, the blade trap, to a lesser degree the bell. I had a few games in a row where I was seeing explosive runes, almost always when I was low on blessings, without any tools in hand to handle it.
At least now most of my guys have either armor or the loot medalion to handle that card's damage, and with more blessings and bigger hand sizes it's less of a threat than before (due to a greater chance to have enough buff cards to succeed at the roll), but especially the first few adventures, it was brutal.
And to clarify, even barriers that deal combat damage can be bad if you're caught without armor. I feel like most of my characters just don't have the skills to beat most damage dealing barriers, without a buff or three. And of course, luck plays into this.
Hi ray here,
Without death or the threat of it at some point, the game loses tension which is the crucial element of RPG and strategy games. There needs to be your life at stake. You're an adventurer in a world of monsters! If you want avoid death play Monopoly-you only risk bankruptcy.
Just a thought.
Cheers Ray
Bah, I had a different thread for my thoughts on death, didn't mean to sidetrack this one, sorry!
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