Chief Technical Officer
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Let's start over.
The Dragon's Demand AP reward says "You may play your character in another Adventure Path starting with adventure 1. Build the vault with all of its level 0, 1, 2, and 3 cards, and treat # as 3 during adventures 1, 2, and 3." (Note that this overrides Curse's Build the Vault rules, which say "At the start of the Adventure Path, the vault should contain all level 0 and 1 cards from the Core Set and the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path.")
Curse of the Crimson Throne says "You may play this Adventure Path using starting characters at level 0, or bring in characters who have started The Dragon’s Demand Adventure Path first. If the latter, you should add one wildcard for every adventure in The Dragon’s Demand that the characters have completed; also, increase # by the # of the last scenario you completed, and treat encountered banes’ levels as higher by that same #."
If you want to start Curse with characters that started the Dragon's Demand but did not complete it, you must choose the second option.
If you want to start it with characters that completed DD, you can choose either option.
Using the DD reward, when you play Curse adventures 1 through 3, you have level 0, 1, 2, and 3 banes and boons in the vault, and you're treating # as 3 for everything (including your feat maximums). When you get to adventure 4, you're back to par (and can finally take your 4th feat in each type).
Using the Curse rule (assuming you completed DD):
• When you're playing adventure 1, the vault has level 0 and 1 cards, you're adding 3 wildcards, treating # as 4 (so you can gain those 4th feats right away), and treating level 1 banes as level 4 banes.
• When you're playing adventure 2, the vault has level 0, 1, and 2 cards, you're adding 3 wildcards, treating # as 5, treating level 1 banes as level 4 banes, and treating level 2 banes as level 5 banes.
• When you're playing adventure 3, the vault has level 0, 1, 2, and 3 cards (weeding out Level 0 non-veterans), you're adding 3 wildcards, treating # as 6, treating level 1 banes as level 4 banes, treating level 2 banes as level 5 banes, and treating level 3 banes as level 6 banes.
• And so on.
So each is really applying a very different difficulty curve. The DD reward is kind of hitting the "pause" button on difficulty adjustment, essentially giving you 3 more adventures worth of content while you remain at level 3, then letting you proceed at the standard pace. The Curse rule lets you play each of the Curse adventures with a difficulty "X" levels higher than standard, where "X" is the number of DD adventures you have completed (assuming you finished, that's 3).
Just a further clarification example question please.
Normal game for these monsters:
Goblin Troublemaker; Level 0; Check to defeat: 9
Skeleton; Level 0; Check to defeat: 10 +##
Using the Curse rule (completed DD):
Let DD = the # of the last scenario completed, so 3 in this case.
Playing Curse Adventure 1, # = 1 + DD, so 4 in this case.
So are these monsters now:
Goblin Troublemaker; Level 0+DD, so 0+3=3; Check to defeat: 9+DD, so 9+3=12?
Skeleton; Level 0+DD, so 0+3=3; Check to defeat: 10+DD +##, so 10+3+4+4=21?
Yeah I was referring to only the Curse rule as the DD reward will make it too boring, i.e. playing 3 Adventures before you can increase any feats.
So the "easy" monsters will be even easier using the Curse rule then as the characters are leveled up so much from DD.
Yeah I was referring to only the Curse rule as the DD reward will make it too boring, i.e. playing 3 Adventures before you can increase any feats.
So the "easy" monsters will be even easier using the Curse rule then as the characters are leveled up so much from DD.
I'm on 3-4 of Curse playing with the Curse rules for the same reason noted above. Its been interesting. The static Bane's level 1 & 2 are generally push overs (some barriers with specific skill requirements are an exception if a character doesn't have that skill.) If there is anything challenging from them it generally comes from their before and after acting powers.
Banes with a single # generally aren't much of a problem.
Banes with ## feel about the right level of challenge.
Boons with a # in their effect are very desirable. Looking at you Enhance, Aid, Good Omen and Magic Weapon. At Curse Adventures 3 the #=6. Enhance therefore gives a static +7 to a skill and only keeps getting better.
I also have a sword that can be discarded for 1d8+# which can generally auto most combats. I call it my finisher.
Thanks for the report :) We are about to start with this method and I was not sure how it would go. I guess the 3 wildcard effects will balance out the "easier" banes as well. I think we will randomly pick one from each Wildcard card and on the next scenario it has to be a different one from the previous one to keep things interesting :)
The three wildcards are supposed to shake things up a bit, yes.
I'd suggest using the Harrow wildcard that matches the adventure suit, for thematic reason. I'm going to make that very suggestion in a forthcoming blog, as a way to add additional flavor to Curse.
I do applaud the idea of one wildcard from each of the cards, though. That'll give you a nice mix.
RE: Wildcards. With 18 possible wildcards I've been using my d20 from Wrath and just randomly rolling them (rerolling 19-20).
I wouldn't say the wildcards do much to change the easier banes. Most wildcards feel like an annoyance to the characters while a few fundamentally change the way you play.
For instance one says (paraphrasing) you can only play one power on your turn that lets you explore. That's a game changer because it absolutely limits you to 2 explores per character.
Another forces you to bury a card in your discard pile at the end of the turn so you better be sure you keep you're best cards out of there.
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We are currently playing our first Core full adventure and decided to play both Dragon's Demand & Curse of the Crimson Throne at the same time, but with the following caveats:
A) We felt that only having 6 feats of each type at the end may be frustrating so we wanted to allow for more
B) We had to take into account that we would end up with a lot of Hero Points
C) To balance, we needed to add some difficulty at some points
D) We wanted that difficulty to be easy not to forget during play
E) We wanted to get some (low) penalty for losing a scenario
F) We didn't like the idea to get level 3 boons since the start as it would be frustrating not to be able to upgrade for a long period if we were lucky enough to acquire powerful cards very early.
G) If a card is supposed to be a potential at reward at some point, it shouldn't be in the vault before
H) Changes should mainly be all for between scenarios management in order not to impact during scenario play/rules
So we decided the following (seems a lot, but pretty much nothing to remember, just guidelines to read between scenarios and apply-and-forget)
A) Get rid of all the cards that are future rewards.
B) Get random 0 level boons to start characters
C) Mix 0-1 level DD & CotCC cards in the vault before starting first scenario
D) Lose 1 HP or 1 feat (your choice) each time you lose a scenario
E) Play the scenarios in the following order:
Your max number of feats per type (skill, power, card) is 1
Play all level 1 DD scenarios
Draw your level 1 Harrow
Play all level 1 CotCC scenarios
Return your level 1 Harrow to the vault
Your max number of feats per type (skill, power, card) is now 2
Add level 2 DD cards in the vault
Play all level 2 DD scenarios
Add level 2 CotCC cards in the vault
Return all Harrows of the level 2 suit to the vault so that players have a full set to Draw for
Draw your level 2 Harrow
Draw random blessings to complete deck if needed
Play all level 2 CotCC scenarios
Return your level 2 Harrow to the vault
Your max number of feats per type (skill, power, card) is now 3
Add level 3 CotCC cards in the vault
Remove level 0 banes (and selected boons) from the vault
Return all Harrows of the level 3 suit to the vault so that players have a full set to Draw for
Draw your level 3 Harrow
Draw random blessings to complete deck if needed
Play all level 3 CotCC scenarios, getting your role card after 3A (this is why we play that adventure before then end of DD)
Return your level 3 Harrow to the vault
Your max number of feats per type (skill, power, card) is now 4
To insure proper difficulty, from now on add 1 wildcard during each scenario.
- If the scenario already involves wildcards, use the Large location build (rather that the medium) for the 2 first locations in the location list instead.
- If also (very rare hopefully) the scenario has a special location built, add 2 monsters and 2 barriers to it instead.
Add level 3 DD cards in the vault
Play all level 3 DD scenarios except the random final scenarios (we'll keep that for later levels in order to get more play at levels 4-6)
Be happy you defeated the Dragon
Your max number of feats per type (skill, power, card) is now 5
Add level 4 CotCC cards in the vault
Remove level 1 banes (and selected boons) from the vault
Return all Harrows of the level 4 suit to the vault so that players have a full set to Draw for
Draw your level 4 Harrow
Draw random blessings to complete deck if needed
Play all level 4 CotCC scenarios
Return your level 4 Harrow to the vault
Your max number of feats per type (skill, power, card) is now 6
To insure proper difficulty, from now on add 1 wildcard during each scenario AND use the Large location build (rather that the medium) for the 2 first locations in the location list.
- If doesn't make sense for the scenario, do something similar that works (not getting into details here, you get the idea).
Play a couple of random level 3 DD scenarios considering #=4
Your max number of feats per type (skill, power, card) is now 7
Add level 5 CotCC cards in the vault
Remove level 2 banes (and selected boons) from the vault
Return all Harrows of the level 5 suit to the vault so that players have a full set to Draw for
Draw your level 5 Harrow
Draw random blessings to complete deck if needed
Play all level 5 CotCC scenarios
Return your level 5 Harrow to the vault
Your max number of feats per type (skill, power, card) is now 8
To insure proper difficulty, from now on add 2 wildcards during each scenario AND use the Large location build (rather that the medium) for the 2 first locations in the location list.
- If doesn't make sense...
Play a couple of random level 3 DD scenarios considering #=5
Your max number of feats per type (skill, power, card) is now 9
Add level 6 CotCC cards in the vault
Remove level 3 banes (and selected boons) from the vault
Return all Harrows of the level 6 suit to the vault so that players have a full set to Draw for
Draw your level 6 Harrow
Draw random blessings to complete deck if needed
Play all level 6 CotCC scenarios
Return your level 6 Harrow to the vault
Your max number of feats per type (skill, power, card) is now 10 (and won't go above)
To insure proper difficulty, from now on add 3 wildcards during each scenario AND use the Large location build (rather that the medium) for the 3 first locations in the location list.
- If doesn't make sense...
Play the last couple of random level 3 DD scenarios considering #=6
Remove level 4 banes (and selected boons) from the vault
Play the level 7 CotCC scenario
We'll tell you how it goes, we are half-way done (finishing 3 CotCC and starting 3 DD) and seems cool up to now.
Wow! Nice way to have an epic campaign