Ye Olde Inn

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm reading up now, we're going to spend most of the weekend playing so I hope we can get through one of them at least.

Going to use the US rules, and was thinking I might give them the whole pile of Artifacts plus access to the extra spells from WoM(Z) regardless of which I end up running.

Would you consider giving them access to henchmen even if not running WoM(Z)? Are they so powerful they should be limited to the "final" Quest?

Allowing them to hire mercenaries will still cost gold. What they do with the gold is their business. Putting gold towards mercenaries takes away from armory equipment and potions.
Since they're new to it, i guess I'd allow it. But normally I wouldn't start rookie heroes in an expansion set anyway.

Personally I wouldn't allow access to henchmen or the new spells until WOM is played. It is all part of the flavour of that expansion. The actual story for WOM is a bit "meh"', and the worth of the pack comes from all the new additions (remember that it also comes with 8 new treasure cards that are specific to the new additions). Giving the Heroes all this stuff earlier takes away most of the pleasure of playing WOM, in my opinion.

It sounds like you time available for a proper session, so I would recommend Ogres. It comes earlier in the official chronology, it's slightly easier, doesn't require henchmen, and still introduces a number of new features.

If giving out the 5 artefacts, I'd give two to the wizard and one to all the others.

Pancho wrote:Personally I wouldn't allow access to henchmen or the new spells until WOM is played.

This is my take on the entire system. Content is unlocked gradually as you start each expansion. Henchmen, spells, potion shop...

When does the potion shop "unlock"?

Scipio wrote:When does the potion shop "unlock"?

Pretty sure Potions are NA only. They start in KK and RotWL and new Potions are introduced in FH and MitM.

Instead of giving the heroes money, give them all the artifacts, then give the warriors each a helmet, a choice of body armor, a main weapon, possibly shields if they choose a longsword or Spirit Blade as their main weapon, also give the group 1 crossbow.

This would make them almost fully decked out with room for tweaking as they gain money.

If you consider playing AtOH using the NA ogre stats, then give them extra money and let them hire mercenaries, and give them an NPC or two (maybe Sir Ragnar helps you for example). They will probably still die in this case, but it would still be fun to play test that situation.

Started off Ogre Horde with 600 gold each and 2 random artifacts each (they're allowed to trade), and access to the extra lores from WoM.

We have an Elf with spear, shield, helm, broadsword, Orc Bane and Ring of Return, Wizard with bracers, cloak of protection, staff, Spell Ring and Wand of Magic, Dwarf with helm, shield, Spirit Blade, crossbow and Elixir of Life, and Barbarian with Borin's Armour, Talisman of Lore, battle axe and helm. Equipment is a mix of Norwegian and US rules.

Just got through first level for the loss of 1 healing potion. The general agreement is that the difficulty is about right.

I would play them in the order they were published and only allow content to be used after it is unlocked.

Well, we've only got the weekend and we've all played the first three books a lot, so we jumped in a bit. If I were running a campaign I'd probably do the same. Might allow potion shopping earlier.