RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Yeah apparently I played this wrong as well - I was playing it as the scenario didn't change anything it didn't say it changed, so:
Defeat villain, check for escape - yes, there are other open locations.
Close the location the villain was at, banishing all the cards, as normal.
Villain escapes, but scenario sends him back to the same location deck. He's now at a closed location alone.
Then I went to the other villain location, beat him, he didn't escape, so he's displayed with the scenario. Go back to the final location and beat that guy one more time to display him as well.
This interpretation makes the scenario viable in solo play while also not completely nerfing it for multiple players either.
Even doing all this I had about four turns of just flipping blessings to get at Jemma, after all locations were closed.
There are other instances where we have cards present at closed locations, so I guess I don't see what's wrong with doing the scenario this way.
This will be short and sweet. Considering we were finally facing Jemma Redclaw after hearing about her for the past 6 weeks, we were a bit surprised about how easy the fight went.
Starting positions:
- Siwar at Merchant Marina
- Kyra at Festhall
- Arabundi at Alehouse
- Vika at Harbor
Kyra meets a Sea Hag in one of her first encounters. She's unable to beat the hag's magic resistance, and so is forced to use her brute strength. She swings her mace at the ugly hag, and by the grace of the gods, she lands a solid blow against the creature who disappears, never to return.
Meanwhile, Arabundi goes Pirate Hunting. He uses a blessing of the gods to defeat the Truewind.
We don't have much luck finding captain Redclaw's lieutenants. Siwar finally meets Jemma herself. The wily courtesan has limited means of attacking, and with the group's approval, she gladly lets our pirate ship get wrecked by Jemma before letting the pirate queen go. Siwar then encounters Master Scourge, but he promptly escapes back to the Merchant Marina.
Now that we know how to find Jemma, Kyra courageously heads toward our final foe. We dispense with the ship combat, since ours can't get in worse shape. Arabundi lends a blessing of the gods, and provides covering fire through his ability and a discarded longbow. Since Siwar is also at the marina, she recharges a potion of glibness to help out Kyra, and also calls on the support of Milani. Finally, Kyra discards her mace and uses a blessing of the gods. Final tally: 4d4+1d8+4d10+3 = 46! We are victorious, and in record time too (about an hour).
When Master Scourge or Mister Plugg is undefeated, do not check to see whether he escapes. If all locations other than the one he came from are closed, display him next to this sheet; otherwise, shuffle him back into the deck he came from.
When Master Scourge or Mister Plugg is defeated, do not check to see whether he escapes; display him next to this sheet.
We played this scenario tonight with two players, using this correction to the scenario instructions. It was a cakewalk.
We found Scourge and Plugg with time to spare. A blessing for the evade check and a blessing for the combat check made them not very difficult to beat (although we did lose one fight by 1).
Knowing exactly when Jemma would appear let us stock our hands. On our combat roll against Jemma we rolled a 50 against her 11 check (6d8 + 7 -- OK, it was a good roll).
Having to corner Scourge and Plugg would make this scenario more of a challenge. I understand that'd make it more difficult for a solo character, but as it is it's too easy for a party of two or more.
We never got anywhere near Plugg or Scourge, but we did close a few other locations by running into their henchmen.
When Kyra encountered Jemma, she had Holy Light and a Blessing of Pharasma. Throw in a blessing or two from the rest of the party, and even +10 difficulty wasn't much of a problem...
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We did the scenario last night as well. Just Kyra and Harsk. We managed to encounter and close the two locations with the henchmen relatively easily. Then found one villain then the other was the third to last card in the last location. We decided to run out the location since we had plenty of time. Harsk encountered Jemma ... encountered the pirate ship ... defeated ... Jemma back down to an 11 ... Harsk with a Returning Throwing Axe + 1 & Archer's Bracers ... it wasn't a contest.
I could see that the more people in this one, the worse it could be, though.
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A blessing for the evade check and a blessing for the combat check made them not very difficult to beat (although we did lose one fight by 1).
Yeah, that one was entirely my fault.
elcoderdude: Do you want my Blessing of Gorum?me: Nah, if you use your Ranger power i've got 2d8+2d4+1 vs an 11, with a reroll on two dice, should be cake.
<Rolls 1,2 the d8s and a pair of 3s on the d4s. Rerolls the d8s, and a 1,2 come up again>
elcoderdude: I should have insisted on that blessing
me: yeah, I was wrong
Knowing exactly when Jemma would appear let us stock our hands. On our combat roll against Jemma we rolled a 50 against her 11 check (6d8 + 7 -- OK, it was a good roll).
Yeah, that's the key. We both had blessings of Erastil that we could save for that combat, and we knew when Jemma would turn up so we knew who would fight her. (And even if it was randomized somewhat, we could sit one person at the Tower to keep peaking at the top two blessings and re-arrange them to suit or needs)
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I understand your pain on that roll First World Bard. My group was running the S&S path, when I found the villain (not for the win). Our Oloch offered me 5 revealed cards for a total of +10, with other bonuses it was an autokill. I said hold onto one so I'd have another assist when I used Potion of Flying to keep going, all I'd have to do was not roll a one. I give you one guess what I rolled.
It is a deck 1 loot for Skull and Shackles. It is an item, so check it didn't get mixed with the rest of your items or that one of your Skull and Shackles characters doesn't have it.
Chief Technical Officer
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Arg. We were working on this when my head got filled with Wrath, and now I've lost track.
There's a proposed fix to the rulebook that relates to this:
On page 16 of the rulebook, under If You Defeat the Villain, Close the Villain’s Location, change ".. the location is not permanently closed, but it is temporarily closed, and the defeated villain cannot escape to it" to "...the location is not permanently closed, but if there are no other open locations for the villain to escape to, banish the villain."
And then in this scenario we'd say that when you would banish a villain, display him next to the scenario instead.
But I have to be honest, I still can't quite wrap my head around some of your viewpoints. Does that make things better or worse?
There's a proposed fix to the rulebook that relates to this:
On page 16 of the rulebook, under If You Defeat the Villain, Close the Villain’s Location, change ".. the location is not permanently closed, but it is temporarily closed, and the defeated villain cannot escape to it" to "...the location is not permanently closed, but if there are no other open locations for the villain to escape to, banish the villain."
I know that the rulebook didn't say that before, but I felt that this was implied to be how it works when you are playing with non-goal villains based on the wording of Secret of Mancatcher Cove.
And then in this scenario we'd say that when you would banish a villain, display him next to the scenario instead.
But I have to be honest, I still can't quite wrap my head around some of your viewpoints. Does that make things better or worse?
If I'm the main one you can't wrap your head around, I'm sorry. I understand it just fine this way and that wording makes it clear to me that you have to corner the villains to move them to the scenario sheet. However, again, if the "sub-villains" still don't move around, this makes the scenario much more difficult for solo-character play than it should be since you can never corner the villains in this scenario by yourself. I still think the best solution to this issue is to just let them escape as normal and put the clause of blessings always coming from the box when villains escape into the scenario.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I think the main issue with solo play is that since you can never temp close locations in solo, there is no way to corner either villain if their locations can't be closed. At best you end up with two locations left, each containing a villain that always gets away.
So for a solo player the best approach to this scenario is to sift for upgrades until satisfied, then run out the timer waiting for the final villain as there really is no way for them to interact positively with the scenario text. In fact, it's not ever worth trying to fight Plugg and Scourge and you're better off doing your best to fail their initial checks to evade them so as to not risk damage.
My view of the rules as they currently stand is that defeating the villain without trapping him still closes the location he came from as normal - then the scenario puts him right back at that location, giving us the unique situation of a villain at a closed location. But, this version allows the other villain to be trapped and really defeated, closing his location. Then the player can go back to the first villain and defeat him for real as well.
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ryric, let's say you are working with three open locations, two of which contain Scourge and Plugg. (With the rewording ...) And you're playing solo.
You encounter Scourge. You defeat him. You close the location. But he's able to escape since the other locations are open. He goes back to his location.
You go to the next location. You encounter the henchman. You defeat her. You close the location.
You go to the last location. You encounter Plugg. You defeat him. Close that location. There are no other open locations; he can't escape. He gets banished and displayed next to the scenario sheet.
Go back to first location. Defeat Scourge. Close location. No open locations. He gets banished and displayed.
You wonder how you did this in 19 rounds.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Theryon, that's pretty much how I played it. I was trying to clarify a bit since Vic said he was having trouble grasping some of the viewpoints in the thread.
I think in my solo Meliski game I managed to do that procedure in 16 rounds or so, because I had to flip about three blessings with nothing else to do in order to get to Jemma.
