RISE OF THE DREAD MOON discussion

[The Admiral]

I suppose you could use it constantly in the quests it is allowed, but I found the weak weapons meant that once you'd achieved as much as you were allowed in the quest text it was better to ditch. My limited use in a few quests maybe tinted my glasses and someone else may have a different experience. The bits I did do though were interesting and quite exciting, sneaking up on monsters and despatching them swiflty was good fun.

[Kurgan]

We haven't gotten that far yet, but it would seem there's less need to spend money on potions if they keep finding re-agents (though only 4 per quest typically), that means more gold to spend on mercs after equipment is maxed out.

We're starting our campaign with a new set of basic heroes (only playing KnightFall first rather than the entire MOTM.... the latter party would potentially have a ton of excess equipment and/or gold to spend). Potions can be sold back for half value now too. Seems there would be no problem here, but now a reason to actually retain (or purchase if they've long ago been sold off) the lower level weapons.

Per Encarmine's statements about "consider what it doesn't say" you could upgrade your Mercs if desired to increase their effectiveness. Since they never lose their disguises (unlike the other heroes) it seems like a good investment, so long as they don't get killed alone (without a potion of lesser healing or two).

[Aki]

You mean we can equip mercs with weapons, armour and potions? Interesting........

[The Admiral]

You mean we can equip mercs with weapons, armour and potions? Interesting........

Not from what I can see in the rules?

[gootchute]

There was never really any discussion on mechanics of this sort (mostly about the Specters and Channel Dread spell), and you are probably the only one I know actually playing the quests, so you didn’t really miss anything.

It seems the mechanics for being disguised depends on the quest itself. The rules on page 9 only state conditions in which you can lose your disguise. So I assume if a quest note mentions a benefit for being disguised, it should only apply to that particular room or situation. Otherwise the monsters you encounter should probably move and attack as normal, and you as a Hero player decide if you want to keep your disguise and fight with a handicap, or get rid of your disguise.

For Quest 3, you need to attempt to open each door you find, not knowing if it is a house or a room full of monsters, so opening a door with monsters in it should result in them moving and attacking as normal on their turn.

Also in Quest 3, Room D, the note mentions you can silently kill the two Magus Guards by walking up to them while disguised to instakill them. The two guards have statues standing between them so you could say they don’t have line of sight to each other. The rules do not say if statues block line of sight or not, so this is up to interpretation. It does seem odd if the two guards just stand there as you walk up to them and kill them one by one.

So from the rules and the quests mentioned (I did not look through all the quests yet) I would say that disguises offer no benefit unless there is a quest note referring to a particular situation. Elethorn at this point is a lawless domain with minions of Zargon roaming about at will, so it makes sense if they were to attack random citizens (the disguised heroes) for fun, or get angry if a gang of disguised hoodlums burst into their house and start rummaging around for treasure.

In addition, in any quest where the Plaza tile is present, all monsters on the Plaza tile are inactive unless attacked or an undisguised hero (or active monster) enters the Plaza.

[Kurgan]

You mean we can equip mercs with weapons, armour and potions? Interesting........

Not from what I can see in the rules?

At the time we were discussing the new Mercs in the discord, Encarmine specifically pointed out that it doesn't say you can't. For comparison, the Men-At-Arms in the European "Wizards of Morcar" have quite a few rules disallowing them from doing or carrying various things, but this text is all missing from The Frozen Horror and Rise of the Dread Moon. It's true that "Into the Northlands" introduces some restrictions and limitations... but only for animal companions (not necessarily for any other type of allies). So Snowdasher can't do some things that Mercs an explicitly do (like open doors).


Hence by implication they're encouraging us to do that stuff. Of course you can do what you like. I would have kind of assumed they could never change their basic stats, but you can cast spells on them right? What happens if you hand them a Potion or Spell Scroll? What if you give them a piece of armor? You could say many of the same things about Sir Ragnar, but you're unlikely to have a lot of that stuff already by that point, and the notes specifically say he "can't fight" (no attack). Some might consider that it would dilute the use of the Mercs somehow if you could hand them a better weapon, better armor, some potions and spell scrolls, etc. but it would in a way increase their survivability (and also increase the loss if they should die).

[The Admiral]

I think if you start treating them like heroes and give them stuff then can you take stuff off them? Take their equipment if they die, sell it and recoup more than they cost to hire? I don't want them to have survivability, HQ gets too easy as it is. A hero can just buy more anyway and it's a good way for them to spend money.

Having said all that, I do allow spells to be cast on them.

[LucaRocks]

Just noticed that the Dread dice and scroll are listed as sold out on Hasbro Pulse. Not sure when this happened.

I would think they would restock but I'll keep an eye on it when it comes out.

[Kurgan]

As promised, here are the dice I bought off Etsy. I realize now that they show up differently on camera than real life. You can barely tell the green ones are green here

Hope someone finds this useful

Cross off Green, Orange, Blue...

[Aki]

I think if you start treating them like heroes and give them stuff then can you take stuff off them? Take their equipment if they die, sell it and recoup more than they cost to hire? I don't want them to have survivability, HQ gets too easy as it is. A hero can just buy more anyway and it's a good way for them to spend money.

Having said all that, I do allow spells to be cast on them.

I can't allow this, but with the rule: if they're dead all items are lost; the permission to give them weapons and potions seems fun!