RISE OF THE DREAD MOON discussion

[HispaZargon]

New official details about Rise of the Dread Moon expansion have been published in Hasbro Pulse website. Here you have the related link:

https://hasbropulse.com/blogs/avalon-hi ... 76216665=1

[QorDaq]

New official details about Rise of the Dread Moon expansion have been published in Hasbro Pulse website. Here you have the related link:

https://hasbropulse.com/blogs/avalon-hi ... 76216665=1

Yeah, good stuff.

It looks like we may finally have a dedicated card back for Potions. And I'm very happy with the Specter and their new Ability/ Spell. If this is indicative of the sorts of innovations we can expect going forward, I'm pretty stoked.

[SirRick]

I wonder if the Ethereal property the Specter has is just for moving through obstacles, or if you will need magic weapons to hit them to be able to damage or hit them more reliably, giving items like the Orc’s Bane or Ice Queen’s spear a little more value.

Also I really hope the artifacts include another weapon or armor or two. I don’t mind if they have the same dice as the base item, but a cool ability of general use that isn’t only useful in one particular quest pack (like the Snowshoes of Speed :/).

[QorDaq]

I wonder if the Ethereal property the Specter has is just for moving through obstacles, or if you will need magic weapons to hit them to be able to damage or hit them more reliably, giving items like the Orc’s Bane or Ice Queen’s spear a little more value.

I'm curious as well. If not, it's a missed opportunity I think.

[HispaZargon]

I wonder if the Ethereal property the Specter has is just for moving through obstacles, or if you will need magic weapons to hit them to be able to damage or hit them more reliably, giving items like the Orc’s Bane or Ice Queen’s spear a little more value.

Yeah, I also like some idea about using magical weapons like Orc's Bane against spectres, not allowing the use of regular weapons against them. It is already a homebrew idea I use against this kind of creatures.

Hasbro has shared with us more extra information about RotDM which is cool. I think hasbro must do a good job with this expansion to ensure long life to their HeroQuest brand at shops, otherwise the franchise could be compromised if they do not demonstrate they can make good new stuff, but honestly I am not fully hyped according to what I observe on these leaks. Let's look to the new Potion of Frost Skin... it has exactly the same rules and gold price (300 gc) as the one included in the Barbarian Quest Pack, but now it may be used by anyone Hero, instead of Barbarian only. I don't like it, in my opinion it should cost at least a bit more than the Frozen Horror one, if not the Barbarian Hero will be downgraded in some way. For me its correct price should had been 350 gold coins, for example. These kind of design decisions for me are important to give the game the quality status I think should have, but unfortunately (for me) it does not look they will consider those details as important.

Moreover, they have also make cheaper the Potion of Restoration. Now it will cost 300 gc instead of 500 gc as per Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch Lord. Maybe they could be too expensive in the old expansions, yes, but these decisions become the game weaker from design point of view, in my opinion. Now what happen with KK and RotWL Alchemist's Shops? Where they wrong at all?

I wish Hasbro will justify well all these mismatching points in the new expansion, it seems they will do, in some way by linking the potion prices with the events in Rise of the Dread Moon. In that case, they will hopefully limit these new potion prices for just being used in this new expansion. Otherwise, if they wanted to make the game easier for the Heroes, I think there are better ways to do it instead of compromising already existing stuff from other questpacks. Lets see how they will finally solve it.

[Kurgan]

Thanks guys for getting things going... I come home from work and find THIS!

Undead are vulnerable to Spirit Blade, and even though the card doesn't explicitly say so, I'd say Holy Water should be a good tool against them as well. Even so, the card says nothing about any special protection from conventional weaponry, so unless they throw that into the monster description section of the quest book, it's likely we can just smash 'em with swords and fists anyway. As a kid I always wondered how ghosts were supposed to hurt you (other than scare you to death) since they pass through solid matter without incident (good thing nobody showed me "poltergeist"!). I'm guessing you won't need proto packs or energizer dots (imagine "pac-man in a box" as an item!) but maybe some type of ghost-b-gone gel to smear on your weapons or something could be fun. If only magical weapons (or magical characters) can harm them that might be a little too dangerous (unless they rig the quests such that you won't have those things too far away when you need 'em).

The Specter seems like a wounded fimir, until you realize that their spell is armor piercing, and depending upon how many are in the box (and in a quest; the cover art shows at least 3, assuming we aren't counting the "Sinestra" one and that "soul of sir ragnar" or whatever it is below her head) they could be highly damaging foes! I presume "ethereal" just refers to their ability to pass through walls (and doors) as well as heroes. Of course they could write whatever other things they wanted in the quest book too. At least they're pretty weak with only 1 BP (and the potential vulnerability to holy water/spirit blade).

I'm super excited about what (might turn out to be) the "Alchemy Deck." Now if it's just a deck of 12 cards (thinking all the alchemist shops we've gotten so far in official releases) packed up with a new back design and some adjusted prices (and not hero restricted) that's fine, but what if there are also brand NEW potions in there? Or even alchemist ITEMS? (hyrax cage? shellac & mortar? chinese rocket???? I can dream).

Elvyler had some good analysis (note: this plastic Specter mini is not official!): here.

[Maalicia_Ironhoof]

Looks like I don't have to custom make any icon, stats and rules for these guys now:

Untitled-1.jpg

[Maalicia_Ironhoof]

For those that want to jump right in with custom quests

Specter 2023.png

Specter 2023.ai

Specter 1989.png

Specter 1989.ai

[SirRick]

I hope if they are updating various potions, we get a full set of those released so far from the previous expansions with the new card backs. Maybe they will throw in a new Potion of Speed from the base game to match.

On a somewhat related note, I wish they had a supplement card deck you could buy with various goodies that never received a card in this reissue, or some new equipment to fill in some missing gaps. The Spear, real Raiment of the Ice Champion and Wolf cards, Elven Chainmail, bosses that didn’t receive a monster card, an Elven Longbow, a Greatsword, a Halberd, etc.

[cornixt]

Those spectre icons look a bit "ahegeo" (I think that is what it is called, the weird anime sex face).