Ye Olde Inn

The Admiral wrote:I finally got round to finishing this quest. The Halls are very interesting and were a real delay to my Heroes, which is bad for them as I use Evil Wizard Cards, and the longer they take the more EW cards are drawn. In terms of BP's it wasn't a huge drain. It seemed I triggered a ghost every turn, but with the four Heroes having MP's of 7/4/4/3, it only resulted in a couple of lost BP's. The three henchmen that were picked up previously (2 Scouts and a Crossbowman) had little to no chance of getting through this quest alive. With only 2BP/MP's they all died. At least I will get a couple more in the next quest. The Halls of the Blind will be alot more interesting when I play this with my brother. They lost a little bit of the atmosphere playing solo.

Vivigor is very powerful, but he has no bodyguard, although I spawned an Elite Skeleton to help him, and Chaos Energy gave him a BP back during the battle. He got to play his Summon 2 Chaos Hounds, Chain Lightning and Shield of Thorns (it inficted 1BP) before he succumbed. My Wizard hit him with a Ball of Flame, which wasn't defended with the 2d6. Should I have allowed him an extra 2d6 for the Shield of Thorns?

Daedalus wrote:When should your Quest Pack be played? (I imagine after the original 14 Quests.)

Daedalus wrote:By the way, can a tomb trap be disarmed (perhaps sealed)?

Daedalus wrote:Also, I noticed that Quest 2 calls for 8 Coffin Tiles (tombs), but the tile download sheet only contains 4. That means a relatively expensive second printing of a color page will be needed. With some rearranging, it should be possible to fit the other 4 Coffin Tiles on pages 1 and 3. Of course, most will already have spare Coffin Tiles from RotWL.

Daedalus wrote:I have some feedback and questions about your Quests:

Quest 2: Does the evil Wisp, which can't be attacked and lacks a figure, prevent searches as a monster? (I guess yes.)
E) The Compendium states: "This door is obviously bolted and will not budge...." while Note E states: "...the door remains closed and no interaction through the door is possible..." However, spell casting Heroes often save Genie and Pass Through Rock spells for emergencies. It seems either spell, which are meant to work around impassable doors, could thwart this barrier and gain the Heroes access, even before the sentry is dispatched. I'd say more is needed, such as: "Any spell or artifact used to gain access to the room fails due to the magics within."
Quest 3: Published expansions include useful, in-game information about room tiles in the pertaining Quest Notes. As you've done a lot to emulate their formatting, I'd say the location with the Runic Room Tile could use is own note rather than needing a check of the introductory pages. It is possible to carve out enough page space with some reduction of text (let me know if you want my suggestions), but this is primarily my advice/opinion for any future Quest Packs.
E) While this entry works fine in conjunction with the Compendium, it fails to mention Vivigor's escape. If only the Quests are played (without the Compendium) the shaman is simply killed. The Parchment Text of the following Quest, "The vile Vivigor has managed to escape!..." would then match poorly. A fix could be to add to this note: "When defeated, he escapes by a hidden exit and can't be followed." This wouldn't help with making space for a Runic Room note, unfortunately. This is again guidance for future Quest Packs.
Quest 4: E) This note should mention the first Hero to search for treasure finds the Black Stone on Vivigor's body. Without the Compendium, there is no other way to make this crucial objective known.
Quest 5: As with Quest 3, I feel the Notes would benefit from entries for the Pit and Runic Rooms. You'd probably need 5 lines or more to pull it off. To do it, I'd number the doors and locks 1-3 and combine notes B-D as one entry. Entry F could also be shortened.
H) I'd change "Any Hero..." > The first Hero... because "Any" could be understood as more than one.
Quest 6: A) Without the Compendium, either the Parchment Text or this entry needs to explain how Sir Vardion takes possession of the Black Stone.
G) Sir Vardion is encountered both here and in room A, but with different stats. The Compendium makes it clear he is separated and then corrupted, but some kind of explanation is needed here if only the Quests are played. (Notes D and E could be combined to make the space.)

A lot of the comments are only relevant if the Compendium isn't used, but who would want to do that? Those story interludes make your Quests more immersive, unique, and in interesting. Rather than adding in all of the fixes, I'd say it would probably be best to make the Compendium necessary for play simpler to leave things as they are. Excellent work!

benvoliothefirst wrote:Pan, I am completely stunned by the amount of professional production work that has gone into this thing. I hope you're a graphic designer, otherwise you're depriving the graphics world of a true talent!

Having said that, I agree that "Barrow" has a more labyrinthine and treasure-hoardy connotation than "mound," which has been discussed. Now I'm torn between referring to it as Barrow of the Beastmen or Barrow of the Beastlord, which I think has a nice parallel to Return of the Witch Lord. No disrespect to the truly talented designer! Thanks to all involved.

Pan wrote:

Daedalus wrote:By the way, can a tomb trap be disarmed (perhaps sealed)?

Yes, but not with the usual way. You can "disarm" it by rolling both shield with a combat dice.

The Admiral wrote:

Pan wrote:

Daedalus wrote:By the way, can a tomb trap be disarmed (perhaps sealed)?

Yes, but not with the usual way. You can "disarm" it by rolling both shield with a combat dice.

in my opinion I see these as hazards. They are not traditional traps that have been set, but just dormant undead that noisy Heroes could awaken. So there is no mechanism to disarm in order to render them inert, and any fiddling with the tomb is just going to risk waking its evil inhabitant

thequester wrote:Throwing in my vote for this utterly fantastic production! (a vote that wasn't even asked for... sorry)
I'd vote for "Barrow of the Beastmen"
"Barrow" sounds totally awesome, and personally I think "Beastlord" is a little too close to the "Witch Lord"... it's OK with some variation to me...

The Admiral wrote:That actually raises a couple of questions on Rune traps:
1) I presume the Hero is blown back in the direction from which he entered the trap space?
2) Is the 2 square distance counted diagonally or as you would move i.e. in the picture in my previous post would the Beastman nearest to the bookcase be caught in the blast?