Solo Quests: What does the rest of the party do?

[Pancho1]

Edited by HispaZargon: thread title changed for better tracking. Original title was "What does the rest of the party do?

I’m curious as to how to work this quest pack into our regular gaming night? We have 5 players and then for 3 quests, 3 of them have to sit back and watch the barbarian play? How have others managed this?

[QorDaq]

Old man voice..."Back in my day..."

I scheduled separate 1 on 1 Sessions with the Barbarian player, (My brother), and the Elf Player, (My Wife at the time), to play the solo quests (all of which went terribly), so that the rest of the party for those sessions wasn't just sitting around.

I have not run the Solo quests since then. Were I to GM these quests today, I might let the other players play Mercenaries for those quests, but it hasn't come up yet as there are so many other quests available for group play.

[Karningul]

I converted them into group quests for exactly that reason - I expect it to be disruptive to the group dynamic to suddenly ask some of the players to stay home.

Also the solo quests are punishingly difficult, even with an experienced Hero. The group versions are (theoretically) more manageable. I'm happy to send you a link to the maps if you want.

[JJJ0]

Ideally you wouldn't even try to do the first three quests with just the Barbarian. They are stupidly difficult (due to being a straight reprint of the originals that were not adequately playtested, if they were tested at all...), and are flatly impossible for any starting character to survive.

When we get to the Frozen Horror, I will be ignoring those first three quests entirely (just as I am doing with Mage Of The Mirror), and giving the party a full set of gear and gold to represent them having already completed the base game, Kellar's Keep, and Return Of The Witch Lord (as well as Frozen Horror by that point). By full set of gear I mean free choice of all the artifacts from earlier in the game and 7500 gold to spend on equipment and mercenaries (well, I hope not to have to, that they will in fact come out of MOTM with gear and gold and be able to carry on straight into the next set of quests; however...). Even with starting like that, though, they (experienced players, all) struggled with the first full quest of MOTM, and I was forced to tone down some of the earlier parts (fewer body points, specifically for the sudden Ogres, omitting a handful of enemies, and so on).

Frozen Horror is really no different in terms of sheer bastard hardness.

[Kurgan]

I played the Solo quests with the Barbarian and one or two Guardian Knights. I've played the first Elf solo quest with a partner (either a second Elf or a Dwarf). They were challenging but fairly decent, while playing solo (rules as written) feels much more luck based, with the odds heavily in favor of Zargon.

More often then not, getting four people together to form a heroic party is a tall order. Even when we're on twitch it's an average of three. But if the person is okay controlling multiple heroes (granted, this makes the turns longer) we just play like that. A solo adventure is meant for 1 v 1, so I would suggest skipping it until you are in a situation where it's just the one, or as others have suggested, just bring the rest along for these since they do require a lot of adjustments to make them any fun as they were originally intended (with only one hero). I suggest adding more gold (at the very least) to compensate for the additional players. I've also dealt out random equipment cards to those starting heroes before but it's not strictly necessary.

Avalon Hill recognized the fan advice about the difficulty of the Frozen Horror solos and issued "Into the Northlands" which has some easy suggestions in it on those last several pages, so I recommend checking that out too. [And they have tweaked the Elf Solos to be a bit easier this time, at the very least by having more treasure to find]

[wallydubbs]

I never actually played it that far with a group, but I'd love to get there at some point.

I've playtested Frozen Horror by myself before and found without editing that the 7 group quests are playable if you add a 5th hero. This may not apply to you, but I feel by adding a 2nd Barbarian to the group they'll stand a better chance.
So for these first 3 single quests I'd run it with a new Barbarian hero to collect all her equipment before joining the other 4. For the party I play with I would handle this 1 of two ways:

The new Female Barbarian would be played by a new player before joining the rest of the group to complete the remaining 7 quests.
Since I currently have 3 people playing with the 4 characters (they each take turns rolling for the Elf), I would have each person in the group play one solo quest we with the female Barbarian each. When it comes time for her (the female Barbarian) to join the group, each would take turns controlling her in the group quest too.

You more then likely play it differently so this may not apply, but that's how I'd handle the situation.

[wallydubbs]

I absolutely agree, this quest packs needs a 5th hero and since it comes with an additional Barbarian I reason this is the current Barbarian's sister, love interest or childhood acquaintance, paving the way towards Ice Mountain before the rest of the heroes get there.

I've playtested this before and decided early on that the Female Barbarian would play a modified version of the first 3 quests to max out the character before joining the other 4.

Even with this additive the quest pack is still a bit difficult, you're bound to lose one hero in the bottomless pit cavern, so the Elf should utilize the Flashback spell.

Also let the Wizard have 4 sets of spells instead of 3, it'll give him more to do. It'll be easier if you give him access to the Wizards of Morcar spells too. Read around the forum to find modified versions to improve these spells.