Ye Olde Inn

Last night I had a Hamlet-like doubt when reading the pit of darkness trap, as you may already know, damage is taken based on the armor worn, to get around the problem it would be enough for a Hero with plate armor to declare that you don't wear it at all at the moment or you only wear bracers to limit the damage.
But this doesn't seem very correct to me, in the sense that even if I'm carry plate armor but I'm not wearing it, its weight should have an impact, the other thing more drastic that comes to my mind is this: the various armor, but also weapons, must be chosen by the Hero at the beginning of the Quest and then he can no longer change them, what do you think Zargons out there?

If they are carrying the Plate Armor it should probably be considered the same as wearing it. I personally would not allow heroes to change body armor in the middle of a quest. I believe it takes a decent amount of time to put it on and take it off, and monsters are not going to stand around and let you do it.

Weapons on the other hand I think heroes can freely change within reason. If they are using a Battle Axe and want to switch to a Shield and one-handed weapon its fine as long as they don’t try to attack with the axe, then switch to a shield after their attack, before the monsters go. Ranged attacks I always allow, such as you attack with a Crossbow on your first turn, then the monsters run up to you, then switching to a melee weapon to attack the adjacent monster on the following turn.

I'm wondering if this was the original idea behind the game or not, switch weapons and armour in the middle of the Quest or not? Look at the Elemental Spells, Wizard must choose 3 of 4, probably he knows all the 12 spells in fact he can change between quests, but he can't bring it all

My approach to armor switching (as well as shields and other "worn" things like rings) has been to allow it in the middle of a quest, but I have always said it costs your action and can only be done during "safe" conditions where a monster can't attack you (i.e. the same conditions where you would allow a hero to search for traps or secret doors). Switching weapons is something I allow at any time unless you have already used your weapon that turn. That way you can't "share" weapons, such as firing your crossbow and then handing it off to a friend so he can fire it too.

After a weekend of brainstorming I decided to put this home rule: you can bring two weapons and switching on, but you can't modified you armour, most of the time battle axe or longsword and xbow (I think exp like MoM or FH are extremely too hard without xbows)

So at least you must choose to bring battle axe or shield, not both are allowed, is a sort of raw

Thanks for your sharing, I like your rule #18, otherwise I think Pits and Pits of Darkness are cleary explained, but are better when you fix carrying an armor is the same as wearing an armour

I know it was never formally addressed about the condition of changing weapons and what-not during a quest, so I just go with the houserule that a hero CAN change weapons during a quest, but this will require an action.
I've never really considered it with armor and changing it during a quest. But I can see how Bracers would totally change the dynamic of the Pit of Darkness, but that's up to the heroes if they want to buy bracers and trade them up. I'd just get the heroes to specify at the start of the quest what form of armor they're using.

Aki wrote:Thanks for your sharing, I like your rule #18, otherwise I think Pits and Pits of Darkness are cleary explained, but are better when you fix carrying an armor is the same as wearing an armour

I don’t agree that the rules for Pits of Darkness in Against the Ogre Horde (1990) are clear.

At the beginning of the section, it states that these new traps work in the same way as a normal pit trap with some exceptions
(1) The damage depends on the armour worn (I think it means body armour but doesn’t state that) - which has already been discussed
(2) A character may climb out of a Pit of Darkness on his next turn if there is a free space on any one side of the Pit of Darkness – stated as an exception, but this appears to be the same rule as the normal pit trap, “the character may move as normal on his next turn“ so not an exception unless the intention here is to prevent a character climbing out of Pit of Darkness through a square occupied by another hero, but whilst this is the logical conclusion it seems an unnecessary complication. Also how can you climb out of a 30ft deep pit without using any movement, 30 feet is equivalent to 5-6 squares of movement?
(3) Pits of Darkness may not be disarmed – not sure why the depth of a pit makes it impossible to disarm the mechanism that drops you into it but this is an exception as most other traps including pit traps can be disarmed.

Normal pits once placed affect monsters the same as heroes, (lose 1 BP if you fall in), no exception is made for Pits of Darkness so how do you tell what (body) armour a monster is wearing?

Characters and monsters may attack enemies that are in a pit and the occupant of a pit can attack enemies in squares adjacent to a pit, no mention of an exception for Pits of Darkness, so the rule must be the same but how do you attack into or from a 30ft deep pit?

The rules for pits make no exception for occupants of a pit in the rules around blocking LOS, so presumably they continue to block LOS as usual, no mention of an exception for Pits of Darkness, but how would a hero or monster in a 30ft pit block LOS, especially a 3ft goblin?

I also do something different for the Pit of Darkness as the rules as written don’t seem to work very well, both from a logical point of view and in actual game play, but to understand my house rules for the Pit of Darkness I need to first explain how standard pits work under my house rules which are based on the original UK ruleset.

Standard Pit

There is no searching for traps concept in my version of the game, so when a hero moves onto a square containing a pit, the EWP will reveal the presence of the pit and place a pit marker under the hero, the hero must then roll a number of combat dice equal to their move value*, if they roll two or more “hits” ( or ) then they have fallen into the Pit ending their turn but have successfully avoided the loss of any Body points, if they fail to roll enough “hits” then they have fallen into the Pit and will lose a Body point for each “hit” they were short of the 2 required.

*For monsters their move value is 50% of the original move value listed, for heroes their move value is based on their character type: Barbarian = 4, Dwarf = 3, Elf = 5, Wizard = 3

For example, the Barbarian falling into a Pit would roll 4 combat dice, if he rolls then he would fall into the pit and lose 1 Body point.

Once a pit has been revealed characters (both heroes and monsters) may attempt to jump the pit, if they have sufficient movement remaining, counting the pit square as a normal square, that the pit is empty and that there is an empty square on the other side to land on. To jump a pit you must then roll a number of combat dice equal to your move value, if you roll two or more “hits” then you have successfully jumped the Pit and may continue with your movement, if you fail to roll enough “hits” then you have fallen into the Pit, ending your turn and will lose a Body point for each “hit” you were short of the 2 required.

Pit of Darkness

These are pit traps with a nasty twist as they are occupied by some form of malevolent shadow hidden in the bottom of the pit, which resists attempts to avoid or disarm them by reaching out dark tendrils to ensnare their victim.

When attempting to jump, disarm or avoid damage caused by a Pit of Darkness you roll as usual but need at least 3 rather than the standard minimum of 2 hits to be successful. This means that Pits of Darkness can inflict a maximum loss of 3 Body points rather than the usual 2.

In addition to the usual rules around being in a pit, the Pit of Darkness will also attempt to hold and damage any character in the Pit, so that they are effective pinned and to escape they must make a successful move roll, again needing three hits to be successful, failure ends their turn and causes a further loss of Body points equal to the number of “hits” the character was short of being successful.