Difficulty

[Infje]

This seems to be the most appropriate forum for these questions so here we go

I own the Dutch versions of: HQ New Edition, Keller's Keep, Return of the Witchlord and Wizards of Morcar. I also have a custom US version of The Frozen Horror. Since we started playing a year ago, I noticed the random difficulty between sets. We always start with brand new characters and no additional armor or weapons. The game system itself is easy. Keller's Keep and Return of the Witchlord become increasingly more difficult when playing the last couple of quests. The Frozen Horror seems impossible with brand new characters.

Do you have any suggestions on how to make this difference in difficulty more balanced?

Thanks in advance.

[Sjeng]

don't play with new characters. The games are meant to be played with your old characters, who get increasingly more money / gear. That way they have better stats.

What you could do is write down the total amount of gold you manage to get after each quest, and note that on a sheet. Add it up, and if you want to play, say, quest 10 of the base set, just take your sheet, and check how much gold the heroes would have gathered after 9 quests, and buy equipment from that money, gear up, and then start a game.

[knightkrawler]

That's the way to go.

Or make up stats like:

Barbarian (with battleaxe, chainmail, helmet):
4 Attack, 4 Defend

Wizard (with wizard's staff, wizard's Cloak, bracelets):
2 Attack (also diagonal), 4 Defend
3 (or 4) spell sets*

Elf (with toolkit, Spirit Blade, chainmail, shield, crossbow):
3 Attack (also diagonal, 4 against undead), 4 Defend
3 Ranged Attack; may try to disarm traps
1 spell set

Dwarf (with broadsword, helmet, chainmail, shield):
3 Attack, 5 Defend
may try to disarm traps

If these are overpowered for the quests you intend to play, take away a number of equipment from each of them.

*You do have the WoM spells...

[Sjeng]

When I started playing with my current group, I had already played most of the base game, so we started with a fresh group on quest 9 of the base game.
The first few quests were relatively easy. Then we went on to Kellar's Keep, which was a bit tougher, so we quickly saved up for shields and helmets.
At some point, the wizard died in 3 quests, and the dwarf also died once. So on the following quests, we had recruited "new" heroes, meaning a new wizard/dwarf, without gear or gold. We didn't know that surviving heroes could pick up a dead hero's gear if they could get to his body before an enemy's turn, so we had to save up again for gear.

Now we're at RotWL, and we've bought chainmail as well, giving us +3 defense dice with the shields and helmets. The wizard has the bracers and cloak, giving him +2 defense.

As for special artifacts: our DM (my wife) simply hid the lost artifacts such as orc's bane and the talisman of lore in random places, so we'd eventually get them again.

I'm constantly adding stuff from the US games and fanmade material, to keep it balanced a bit.

But if you play with new people and heroes all the time, simply decide what gear the heroes should be able to use during a certain quest in the storyline, and allow them to choose and pick their items before entering the dungeon

[Infje]

That's great advice. Thank you!

I also noticed that the DM really doesn't have strong miniatures in the EU version because all of them have 1 life point. I could change that as well I suppose. So it basically comes down to making stuff up to balance it out a bit? The original rules didn't keep that in account I guess.

[Zenithfleet]

That's great advice. Thank you!

I also noticed that the DM really doesn't have strong miniatures in the EU version because all of them have 1 life point. I could change that as well I suppose. So it basically comes down to making stuff up to balance it out a bit? The original rules didn't keep that in account I guess.

If your players like to cooperate and act as a team, you might want to make the monsters tougher. You could use the US version's monster stats - I think it's 2 Body Points for Fimir and Mummies, and 3 Body Points for Chaos Warriors and Gargoyles.

On the other hand, if your players like to compete with each other (e.g. trying to get the most gold or the best equipment), you might want to keep the monsters at 1 Body Point each. This makes it easier for players to go off exploring on their own without instantly dying.

No matter what, though, I'd recommend giving the boss monsters (like the Witch Lord) more than 1 Body Point. It's pretty anticlimactic to fight all the way to the end of 'Return of the Witch Lord' only to kill him with a single Fire of Wrath spell from outside the door.

The bosses in 'Against the Ogre Horde' and 'Wizards of Morcar' have more than 1 BP, so you can use those as a guide.

Incidentally, Sjeng, we've been playing through RotWL for the first time with nearly new characters (thanks to everyone dying in the Spirit Rider quest). It's pretty hardcore. Skulmar took out the Elf in our last game, and he was holding the Spirit Blade at the time, so I think we'll have to do some kind of rescue mission before we go on. (As luck would have it, we accidentally skipped the Halls of Vision quest, so we might play a modified version of that.)

[Infje]

I'm currently looking into adopting the US rules. I've also gone through this forum (rules section) and I will try to come up with something more balanced (while still remaining as pure as possible).

Regarding the Armory in the US version: Can multiple players buy the same weapons?

[Fullork345]

Yes, or at least, there's no rule mentioning a limit.

[Fullork345]

Incidentally, Sjeng, we've been playing through RotWL for the first time with nearly new characters (thanks to everyone dying in the Spirit Rider quest). It's pretty hardcore. Skulmar took out the Elf in our last game, and he was holding the Spirit Blade at the time, so I think we'll have to do some kind of rescue mission before we go on. (As luck would have it, we accidentally skipped the Halls of Vision quest, so we might play a modified version of that.)

The US rulebook mentions that lost artifacts should be added in as treasure in later quests.

[Infje]

In that case, I don't understand the added value of having custom playcards for the armory as posted on this site by drathe. Not to offend his great work of course. But it would only be helpfull if you print more of them right? Normally you would allow your party to write down the weapons they have bought?