Some thoughts after the First Scenario of Stone Giants


Rules Questions and Gameplay Discussion


Well I got to play the first scenario last night and it was quite hard.

There are enough really difficult monsters lying in wait now that you are always on your toes (one of them having a difficulty of 20 made life miserable for Merisiel)

I failed the first try only closing I think 3 locations (out of 8) before the 25 bless clock ran out. The ability of the giants to remove a boon or reshuffle a bane each turn really changed up gameplay. I shed a silent tear for the boons that got discarded, and cursed each time a henchman was shuffled down again.

Not complaining any of that at all, those aspects actually made the game quite fun for me, and claiming victory with one turn left was very satisfying in the second attempt.

But it raised a question that I am not sure has been addressed.

If at this stage of the campaign a character dies ~shudder~ How can we outfit a replacement? Many of the basic cards have been removed from the game by this stage. What are we to do, fish out basic cards from the cards removed or is there another option I am unaware of to bring a new character somewhat up to speed?


I cried aloud when Sajan was at a location with his turn coming up that was chosen at random for the scenario rule and the top card was Amulet of Fiery Fists.

There are rules covering the unfortunate potential occurrence of your character's demise.

Rulebook v3 p14 wrote:
If your character dies, start a new character for the next scenario. Choose a character card (it can be the same character who just died, though you do not get any of the feats that character previously earned) and build a new character deck as described in Build Your Character on page 4, choosing only cards with the Basic trait. If your party has begun the adventure The Hook Mountain Massacre, you may ignore the Basic trait restriction; instead, you may use any cards in the box from the base set and the Character Add-On Deck, as well as any cards from an adventure deck whose adventure deck number is at least 2 lower than that of the adventure you’re currently playing.

So if someone died during Fortress of the Stone Giants, you can construct a deck for a new character using cards B, C, 1, and 2 cards.


Hawkmoon269 wrote:

I cried aloud when Sajan was at a location with his turn coming up that was chosen at random for the scenario rule and the top card was Amulet of Fiery Fists.

There are rules covering the unfortunate potential occurrence of your character's demise.

Rulebook v3 p14 wrote:
If your character dies, start a new character for the next scenario. Choose a character card (it can be the same character who just died, though you do not get any of the feats that character previously earned) and build a new character deck as described in Build Your Character on page 4, choosing only cards with the Basic trait. If your party has begun the adventure The Hook Mountain Massacre, you may ignore the Basic trait restriction; instead, you may use any cards in the box from the base set and the Character Add-On Deck, as well as any cards from an adventure deck whose adventure deck number is at least 2 lower than that of the adventure you’re currently playing.
So if someone died during Fortress of the Stone Giants, you can construct a deck for a new character using cards B, C, 1, and 2 cards.

Ok Firstly that exact thing has actually happened to me twice already. Poor Sajan :)

Not to mention a Necklace of Fireballs, and a Shortspear +3 *meh*

Excellent, I totally missed all that extra stuff about character creation. Was that added later I wonder? (as I did read the first part for sure, but the last part re later adventures is new to me)


I think its always been in there, but I don't have the original rulebook with me to say for sure. I know it was in the November (v2) update.

Its something easy to forget since you never actually practice dying. There are way more relevant rules to remember than one you hope to never have to employ.


Hawkmoon269 wrote:

I think its always been in there, but I don't have the original rulebook with me to say for sure. I know it was in the November (v2) update.

Its something easy to forget since you never actually practice dying. There are way more relevant rules to remember than one you hope to never have to employ.

So true


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It took me two tries to get through the first scenario as well. The scenario felt like a reverse "Here Comes the Flood". I still used the same strategy I did for the Flood, which was explore, explore. I run a 3-char party, so for other scenarios I usually take it easy and try to get as much loot as possible. But for this one, I'm not outrunning the flood so much as outrunning the stupid Giants to keep them from stealing my loot!

However, my second scenario... that was very memorable for me. At the start of the campaign, I lost a couple battles, wiped Sajan and Seelah. I thought I would have to restart it again. But I regrouped with a couple timely cures, and with about 13 blessings left on the clock, I managed to corner the Villain in the last hideout, the caves. I took my time then, trying to prepare my guys for the final showdown. Amazingly, each character (Sajan, Lem, and Seelah) all had an armor, to block the arrows of the villain. Seelah's turn was up, and we decided to go all-out, in typical end-of-game fashion. Seelah blew him up pretty good, she threw everything at him, her sickle and even her newly-acquired spiked shield. High-fives were given all around. I was already planning on what card slots to take.

But, as I was looking at the scenario card... I saw the scenario power. Blood quickly drained from my face, as I shakily picked up the d6... I closed my eyes as I rolled, and I opened them to a... 1. Just like that movie cliche, a shadow fell over little Lem as he looked back to see.... the villain had rose up again! All my well-laid plans were completely blown as everyone had used up all their blessings, and Seelah was unlucky to re-draw crap... no weapon, no armor, just 2 blessings and 2 items.

Maybe because the villain was too hurt from the previous beatdown, but this time his arrows merely grazed everyone, and Seelah and Lem were relatively untouched. Since it was Lem's turn to go next, I debated a good 5 minutes on whether to use his death's bane x-bow, or risk losing his amulet of fireballs... In the end, he opted to use the x-bow, with nothing but his archer friend, Fluffy, and one of Seelah's blessings. Whistling a jaunty ditty to calm his nerves, he looked down the scope of his xbow at the charging Giant, and shot him in the chest, felling him once again. But this time, they were more careful and chopped off his head, just to be sure! (I rolled a 6 this time, using the very same die that rolled a 1. I figure all the bad luck was out of it by this time)

With only 2 blessings left, the party finally rested for their next adventure.


The First Scenario is awesome.

The Second I cleared with few problems probably ending it in less than 18 turns.

The Third? Wow. The ability of harpies to draw all your characters together can be so devastating. I finished this on the 35th Bless. That's right. I added 5 turns with consecrate. On that turn I had finally cornered the Undead Villain (again he escaped from Valeros earlier in the game) and Kyra unleashed a Holy Light with all the fixings. I think it was 6d12 + 1d4 once all the blessings got added in.

Greatness.

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