Ye Olde Inn

by **Pancho** » Tuesday June 9th, 2020 4:36pm

Great artwork again, the Barbarian looks very tough.

How are you feeling about the strength of the Hammer of Thor? I’m OK with it being 3 combat dice because it still beats a crossbow (because it works as a equally powerful close combat weapon without needing a roll to equip it). I’m open to it being upgraded to 4 attack dice though.

I'd prefer 4. Also Wally's TPK was a proof they needed better weapons. I think the most interesting part of this questpack is the narrative.
Wally's palyed several quests and in many of them his heroes died (didn't really read ALL the reports in details, sometimes I skipped so I maybe missed something).
So the barbarian stories will probably be easier (but he's a mighthy warrior!) but will not change the balance for the other quests unless all the heroes team up. For sure the final quest is better to be played with the Barbarian as he will be equipped better than the others. But players don't know what is expecting for them so maybe they can still choose another hero.
Also (just a minor thing) if we do 4 dice for the Hammer in this questbook the same card can be used for the original quest without confusing players when speaking about it (example: US Talisman of Lore vs the EUR version, +1MP / +2MP; rock Sin: +1 DEF dice or +2 DEF dice...).
And as I sayd before.. it is the weapon of a God!

by **Pancho** » Tuesday June 9th, 2020 5:39pm

I agree. Let’s go with 4 then.

by **wallydubbs** » Wednesday June 10th, 2020 6:22pm

Very good job with the cards Lesto... but shouldn't the card picture of the hammer show depict the gloved hand holding it? It's otherwise impossible to pick to up.

Just the same, your friend did an amazing job with those pictures.

Anyway, I'm at a loss on how to proceed with the playtest... the entire party died, I don't think they can beat this quest with starting equipment. It's like every monster in this quest is a Fimir that's immune to the sleep spell.

by **Pancho** » Thursday June 11th, 2020 2:49am

wallydubbs wrote:Very good job with the cards Lesto... but shouldn't the card picture of the hammer show depict the gloved hand holding it? It's otherwise impossible to pick to up.

Just the same, your friend did an amazing job with those pictures.

Anyway, I'm at a loss on how to proceed with the playtest... the entire party died, I don't think they can beat this quest with starting equipment. It's like every monster in this quest is a Fimir that's immune to the sleep spell.

that’s a good spot about the Hammer needing a gloved hand. I’m OK with not changing the artwork if it’s too much trouble. Maybe the picture shows Thor himself, who has no need of gloves like us mere mortals...

For the playtest, we could say that the Dwarf survived quest 8, because I am going to change the avalanche rule to make it less deadly anyway. If you don’t mind you could replay the Fellowship of four with your four original Heroes? Or skip straight to Quest 10 and retry it with 3 or 4 of the original group, rather than just two? That way you won’t have to do Fellowship of Four a third time. It’s conceivable that your Elf would have survived Mt Anger if the Dwarf would have survived the snows of the Pillars of the Sky.

Hopefully I’ll get some time to make the necessary tweaks to quests 8-11 today.
I am slightly concerned that quests 8 onwards get a bit easy with the Hammer of Thor now at 4 dice.

by **wallydubbs** » Thursday June 11th, 2020 11:55am

Pancho wrote:Hopefully I’ll get some time to make the necessary tweaks to quests 8-11 today.
I am slightly concerned that quests 8 onwards get a bit easy with the Hammer of Thor now at 4 dice.

That's only 4 attack dice for the hero with the hammer. Skullcleaver and Woa are still 2 attack dice and the Wizard is next to useless in a fight.
Like you said, it's most likely heroes will get split up un this quest. So it's only a boost for the Barbarian.

by **Pancho** » Thursday June 11th, 2020 12:23pm

wallydubbs wrote:
Pancho wrote:Hopefully I’ll get some time to make the necessary tweaks to quests 8-11 today.
I am slightly concerned that quests 8 onwards get a bit easy with the Hammer of Thor now at 4 dice.

That's only 4 attack dice for the hero with the hammer. Skullcleaver and Woa are still 2 attack dice and the Wizard is next to useless in a fight.
Like you said, it's most likely heroes will get split up un this quest. So it's only a boost for the Barbarian.

Agreed. Quests 10-12 are Perry pretty tough anyhow, and will benefit from a stronger weapon for the Barbarian.

by **lestodante** » Thursday June 11th, 2020 2:00pm

Pancho wrote:Agreed. Quests 10-12 are Perry pretty tough anyhow, and will benefit from a stronger weapon for the Barbarian.

Or maybe the Barbarian can leave the gloves and the hammer to another hero and go on with his 3 dice broadsword. :skull:

As for the artwork I also thought the same thing but my idea was the same as Pancho's. It must represent the item, not a scene. It is actually representing the hammer and Thor's hand bearing it, you can recognize Thor's wristband in the pic too.
Like the Gauntlets (gloves), it is the barbarian wearing them in the pic but Elf or Dwarf can also wear them. So the image is just generic. The original sketch for the hammer was the weapon itself in the sky but I sent 2 old cards references found on the forum. Both images were taken by Thor's comic, with the Thunder's God bearing the hammer (none of them were featuring the goves). I post the concept sketch below just to share it.
It was slighty different in shape and size. Maybe more similar to the vintage images of the hammer but I preferred an easier approch to its shape (in Marvel movies they give the hammer a classic shape too).
*drawing by Luis Octavio

by **Pancho** » Tuesday June 16th, 2020 1:37am

It’s a fair bet that the player will choose the Barbarian to use in the final Quest (see page 20).
However, a Barbarian could be in serious trouble from the Chaos void spell in the Tomb room, because of his low mind score. I like Lestodante’s idea of giving the Hammer of Thor to another character. The Dwarf would be nice, because it was this character that has been chasing the treasure of Chungor Chan all this time, but it’s completely up to the player.
Are we OK with the Wizard having the gloves and Hammer? He could be quite formidable at this point with 4 spell decks, Wand of Recall, Faustus, Staff, maybe quite a few other items too, AND 4 combat dice from the Hammer!!!
I think this is OK. I designed the final Quest to be very tough. The player will need to use lots of strategy to complete it, and I think whichever Hero is chosen will need to borrow some items from the others (as well as spend some quality time in the equipment shop beforehand), to have any chance of completing it.