Kurgan wrote:WOM, EQP, and BQP all add additional Treasure cards (both good and bad). It's up to the player to decide which ones they add if they own multiple quest packs.
Indeed. The plan is to add them when I cover them. For now, I am just focused on the GS itself.
Kurgan wrote:1st edition EU allowed treasure searches in corridors.
Both UK editions allowed the searching of treasure in corridors. This was why the UK editions of KK and RotWL didn't need to define those small corridors with chests as rooms, in order to allow them to be searched for treasure.
Kurgan wrote:But even in later editions, how many treasure searches are allowed per location? In the NA edition, each Hero may search each room once. It's not unusual for a quest to have anywhere from 8-13 rooms (with 10 being a very common number, in the GS anyhow) and any number of quest specified treasures in those rooms (including searches that merely reveal an empty chest with a trap on it too).
In the UK versions, a room or corridor could only be searched for Treasure once, and it was much more of a competition for who which player would have the opportunity to search for treasure. This meant either other players taking risks to be able to watch for treasure, or to work collaboratively splitting treasure and deciding who was best suited to search for it, became part of the game.
Kurgan wrote:A few rooms are designated as having no treasure (or only one treasure) but the effect for most situations is that the "first hero to search..." finds the quest specified treasure (I don't say "quest treasure" because that is the name that the EU applies to those special cards that are called "Artifacts" in the NA editions). So a "nothing card" only would apply to the Hero drawing it, not necessarily anyone else searching the same room... a treasure specified in the quest notes means up to three cards for that room, in theory.
The US version allowed each Hero to search a room for treasure. In most cases, any stated Quest Treasure was only found on the first hero to search, with the later Heroes searching, instead drawing a Treasure card. Thus, a quest with an average of 10 rooms, would allow up to 40 searches, of which, it was unlikely that more than 10 would be specified Quest Treasure. So, even if every such room had Quest Treasure, you were still looking at around 30 possible searches per quest.
Kurgan wrote:Even if gold treasures are cycled back into the treasure deck (and it is shuffled before every search, not just when a "bad" card gets drawn; with found potions either being in the hands of a hero or "discarded" until the next quest), there is a limited number of searches possible for each quest determined by the number of searchable rooms (and the number of quest specified treasures in those rooms) and further limited by the number of heroes in play.
In the 1st UK edition, the Treasure Deck behaved like an actual deck of cards, and was NOT shuffled between each search. However, with only 24 cards, it was relatively easy to use basic card counting techniques to determine whether or not it was worthwhile to consider searching for treasure at all.
Kurgan wrote:I'm curious how you will handle Command. It says "attack other heroes." Does that mean you'd limit Commanded heroes to only rolling attack dice? Or would you allow them to use offensive spells? Other types of spells? (Spell Scrolls from NA edition?) How about potions? Can they use pass through rock and trap themselves inside solid rock gray areas? Are they affected by traps (Zargon knows where they are, he could walk a Hero into them on purpose)? Is he still able to do his other functions like searching and opening doors... or again... only attacking and moving? I think all of us would agree (and assume) that despite being now controlled 'as a monster' he still rolls his standard movement dice (rather than fixed movement) and still defends with white shields.
I already covered how I would handle Command.
Command
This Spell will attempt to put a single, visible Hero under the Evil Wizard's control. The Hero may try to resist the Spell by rolling one Combat Die per Mind Point. If they roll a Black Shield, they are unaffected by the Spell. If they fail, the Hero falls under the Evil Wizard's control, and the Evil Wizard may immediately move, attack, and defend with the Hero as if he was a Monster, during the Evil Wizard's turn.
While under the Evil Wizard's control, at the start of their turn, starting from their next turn, a Hero may attempt to free themselves from the Spell, by rolling one Combat Die per Mind Point. If they roll a Black Shield, they free themselves from the Spell and may immediately move, attack, or defend as normal. If they fail, they remain under the Evil Wizard's control, and their turn ends.
While under the Evil Wizard's control, the Evil Wizard may continue to move, attack, and defend with the Hero as if he was a Monster, during the Evil Wizard's turn.
Basically, since move, attack, and defend, are specific activities (and attack and defend are specific actions), the Command spell will only allow the Evil Wizard to use these when controlling the Hero. The Evil Wizard cannot, for example, force a Wizard to waste spells, as Cast a Spell is a specific action that is not listed on the card. This limitation automatically avoids a lot of the more complex scenarios from occurring.
As for opening doors and triggering traps, these are not actions, but instead occur as part of movement, and thus the Evil Wizard can use these actions. Yes, the Evil Wizard can walk Commanded Heroes deliberately into traps, just as they can force the Barbarian to waste his attacks fighting Goblins, or have the Wizard move and attack Chaos Warriors.
Kurgan wrote:There's a similar sort of spell in ATOH "Dominate." But I suppose there are a lot more spells to think about across the various expansions (ATOH, WOM, EQP & BQP).
Yes, and I will look at them when I cover those expansions. For now, I am sticking with the GS.
Kurgan wrote:EU Edition allows Heroes to attack one another, but would you allow non-Commanded heroes to attack the Commanded Hero and do damage? What if they kill him?
I already follow the UK rules which allow Heroes to attack each other. Because of this, the Command spell isn't allowing the Hero to attack or be attacked against targets they couldn't already attack.
In general, the HQ CERB uses the UK rules as a base, so when in doubt, the UK rules have precedence.
I have done as little as possible to change the rules in any way, and the only notable exception is that by clarifying which Passage tiles are Junctions and Corridors, I appear to have introduced the "searching for traps on the other side of an open door" issue to the barriers between Junctions and Corridors. I haven't changed or removed this rule, just explicitly stated it so it's no longer ambiguous.
I haven't decided how I am going to fix this yet, but given the absurdity of the original rule, I am considering allowing the option of a Search for Traps to be either a single safe area (an entire room, section of corridor, or junction) or directed to a single specific adjacent space (beyond an open doorway, into an unexplored junction or corridor).
My thinking is that a "safe" area is one in which you can move around to search and return to your starting position without revealing any new areas of the map. If you cannot do this, then your search is "threatened" and you can only search one adjacent square, without moving, which is basically going to be the one in front of the way you want to move anyway.
I am considering allowing these directed "threatened" searches be allowed even if Monsters are visible, as might be the case if you open a door to search beyond it and reveal a monster at the back of the room. After all, if a Hero is willing to give up their attack in the middle of combat to confirm whether a space next to them is trapped or not, they've already given up enough, especially as Monsters don't spring traps...
