Ye Olde Inn

My players still have yet to genuinely REALLY be challenged except for the Pit of Chaos quest in Against the Ogre Horde. I looked through the quests last night in this expansion, and between the spell upgrade options, extra items, men at arms, and their existing loot, I don't think they will die from this expansion. They will have about 5000g coming into it, and I think they used 1 of their 20 full heal potions from Against the Ogre Horde for playing it as a series. Everyone I play with is in their 30s though, some engineers and computer sci guys.

It is worth reminding people that the "Wizard's of Zargon" found on Phoenix's site, is a fan CONVERSION of the original Wizards of Morcar to work with NA rules, and is presumably much harder overall. Yes it's true that the monsters are weaker in the EU edition, but I think the ability to save yourself from dying by use of a potion (or unused healing spell/artifact) in the NA edition is pretty helpful, just make sure you have some to go around! (for example, you could have saved the Armband of Healing and/or Elixir of Life from earlier adventures, while these items don't exist in the official EU editions... of course since we are homebrewing at this point, you could always add those things to the EU edition in turn and find some opportunity for the Heroes to find them before they face the big baddies!).

It's also worth a reminder that while Phoenix's conversions are awesome, there are a few errata in his conversions.

I still haven't played these yet. I think these were the last official releases for EU heroquest prior to the remake, so in theory the Heroes could have survived through KK, ROTWL and ATOH with any gear from there to bring to this final epic battle, but I'm sure from all reports and glimpses of the quest maps, that it is very hard indeed! And there are some unmarked treasure chests that also could be opportunities for Zargon/Morcar to throw them a bone...

Kurgan wrote:It is worth reminding people that the "Wizard's of Zargon" found on Phoenix's site, is a fan CONVERSION of the original Wizards of Morcar to work with NA rules, and is presumably much harder overall. Yes it's true that the monsters are weaker in the EU edition, but I think the ability to save yourself from dying by use of a potion (or unused healing spell/artifact) in the NA edition is pretty helpful, just make sure you have some to go around! (for example, you could have saved the Armband of Healing and/or Elixir of Life from earlier adventures, while these items don't exist in the official EU editions... of course since we are homebrewing at this point, you could always add those things to the EU edition in turn and find some opportunity for the Heroes to find them before they face the big baddies!).

It's also worth a reminder that while Phoenix's conversions are awesome, there are a few errata in his conversions.

I still haven't played these yet. I think these were the last official releases for EU heroquest prior to the remake, so in theory the Heroes could have survived through KK, ROTWL and ATOH with any gear from there to bring to this final epic battle, but I'm sure from all reports and glimpses of the quest maps, that it is very hard indeed! And there are some unmarked treasure chests that also could be opportunities for Zargon/Morcar to throw them a bone...

Any major noteworthy differences between Phoenix and the one in the box? I'm slightly overwhelmed with having to read the forum for errors found from others, the new rules, etc. with 2 weeks till game day as well as my typical narrative write up I do for my players of the last quest and player stats.

I have been playing with NA rules except where the UK rules make more sense. For example, we do Falling Block traps the UK way in Against the Ogre Horde, and will do them the UK way in Wizards of Morcar. I plan to adopt the "no backtracking" rule for Wizards of Morcar to make the Fireburst traps work. Other than that, the monsters still have NA levels of HP, and players can keep their portions between quests.

Been awhile, what's the fire burst trap issue?

From what I understand, the criticism is that Fire Burst Traps are "useless" or "too weak" because the Heroes can just run out of the room to avoid damage when they find one. I'm not sure that is always going to be the case (a Fire Burst can either be in the room based on the quest map, but also discovered by searching for Treasure... 2 cards in the deck are added by WOM).

Some speculated that the original "difficulty" was because the EU 1st edition didn't allow backtracking (so if there isn't another way out of the room you risk being hit... and you typically will only have one chance to neutralize it with a spell), but that the EU 2nd edition allows backtracking, hence a Hero could just move easily out of the room to avoid it.

I haven't played these quests yet so I can't say really whether it is super easy or not. I don't deny that there are errors in official quests, and it can be a bit overwhelming to catalog them all, but if you're Zargon, you can do research beforehand to find what they are so you're not caught off guard. Most people say WOM is very difficult, but maybe not because of the Fire Burst Trap. So if this particular Trap is "easy" maybe that's forgivable if the rest of it is so difficult.

Apart from that, some Empty chests and some vagueness over how to handle interactions with Pits of Darkness (the same icon is used from the Against the Ogre Horde which first introduced this new trap, but no explanation is given IN WOM, so it's Zargon's option whether he just treats them as normal pits or as they were probably intended, as this new type of trap) seem to be what people have found.

If you think the difficulty will be frustrating and kill the enthusiasm of your players, I would give them some more opportunities in the form of allowing them to hire mercenaries (already a feature of the pack), and maybe give them some more potions (if playing under NA rules they will be visiting the Alchemist Shop(s) anyway just like visiting the Armory) between quests.