Monster patrol in the dungeon ?

[Pancho]

we use patrols in our game. they spawn after a set amount of rounds and typically follow a specific path unless a hero is near by performing an action such as fighting. The patrols spawn at set points in our game (a few different places deemed spawn points are pre set prior to the quest, that way the patrol spawns at a revealed portion of the map, although if you are tracking it on your own private quest map you can have them spawn at unrevealed locations).

Having them spawn every X amount of rounds helps to speed up play in our quests. If the heroes are spending tons of time searching, having unlucky rolls, playing conservative and jamming doorways for combat, they are more likely to spawn a patrol as they are having more rounds of play pass by. It makes them have to decide if it is worth it to do those slower play actions, especially if they are low on health and a patrol could mean their doom.

Interesting ideas there. Do you use an evil wizard deck too, which is what many of us use to try and speed up the Heroes, or do you find the patrol will do this on its own?

[Maurice76]

Did that. Or something similar.

"Similar" being the key-word here . In your quest, the entire board is revealed right from the start of the game. In such conditions, monster patrols will work quite well; however, most quests will start with just the parts revealed to the Heroes that are visible to them, nothing else.

[Anderas]

Only the doors. Furniture shows up in sight.

I once played a game where a new monster would always show up as soon as the old one was dead. That was quite a bit frustrating, I wouldn't do monster patrols in that frequency.

I have three or four monster patrol cards in my EWP deck. They spawn at the quest entry and will go hunting directly for the heroes. Those monster patrol cards use my four color system to adapt the number and type of monsters to the Hero equipment.

Even that would wear down the Hero BP way too fast, so I added a complicated trigger condition: if the quest was more than half over and they still had a potion of healing, the monsters may come.

Now it is a complicated card really, but it works.

528 Reinforcements Goblin Marauders.jpg

[DullandRusty]

Do you use an evil wizard deck too, which is what many of us use to try and speed up the Heroes, or do you find the patrol will do this on its own?

we use both patrols and the evil wizard deck. although I don't use the evil wizard deck the first half of the base game quests (the orc quests). once we get to the undead stuff we introduce it at that time and for all future quests (unless thematically its a homebrew quest that doesn't revolve around morcar's grand scheme).

They both work fine together as when you play test you can decided how often is too often for patrols to spawn. I vary the # of rounds each quest till they spawn so the players don't get comfortable thinking "ok, we have 8 rounds of play before another patrol spawns". One quest could be 8, another 6 rounds. You get the idea. If I am with my more advanced players, we have opted to have it vary during the quest itself. for example, the first spawn may happen after 8 rounds, but the next spawn may happen 5 rounds later (these spawn timers were preset prior to starting the quest, so its not just willy nilly). you can play with it to add spice based on your own ideas. We even tried doing a random spawn timer once by rolling 2 red dice 4 times. the numbers they showed each time were the # of rounds between each spawn. we ended up not liking that idea, but it was one we tried.

[DullandRusty]

i should say that patrols do speed things up on their own, however, we like the challenge of both them and the Evil wizard deck.
The patrols are less of a hard hitter than the evil wizard deck in my opinon, but they add more action as it is more combat. (of course, depending on how many and type of monsters in your patrol they can be very hard).

If you have patrols, there are also 2 ways you can place them. you can place them on the board when they spawn and heroes know about them even if not in line of sight, or you can move them on a secret evil wizard map only then place them when in line of sight. both have merits. I will tell the heroes that a patrol spawned (usually with narrative of the ilk of "you hear voices down the corridor searching rooms or you hear running footfalls of a group in haste" or something like that. That lets them know they spawn but not where. it creates a dread of the unknown...they know its coming but not how close it is.
if you show them the patrol when they are out of line of sight it works too as the heroes get a little panic as they see the patrol getting closer and closer, but they are able to strategize a little more.
We prefer to only place them when the heroes can "see them".

[Pancho]

Cheers DullandRusty.
I really like the idea of the Heroes knowing that there is a patrol moving around the dungeon but not knowing exactly where it is. Unfortunately if I, as Morcar, were moving a patrol around on an off-board map I think my players would accuse me of cheating!
I'm actually now toying with the idea of adding a monster patrol card to my evil wizard card deck. That way patrols won't be in every quest but will exist as one of the biggest threats in the EWC deck. When the card is drawn the patrol is placed at the start tile and they start chasing down the Heroes. Probably have the make up of the patrol the same as the wandering monster for the quest but X5 the size, or something like that.

[DullandRusty]

i like that idea of adding the patrol card to the EW deck. that could be a good way to do it because it would keep things to track to a minimum. You wouldn't have to track the number of rounds to spawn a patrol and instead it becomes a random thing pulled from something you already are tracking (the evil wizard deck mechanics). While my group is used to the way we do it now, for new groups I run I may have to try that out!

[tallyho]

The problem is that dungeons are mostly unexplored at the start of a game and get revealed gradually as the game progresses. Where would you start the patrol? When/where do you reveal it to the players? What parts can they travel, does that include sections that are yet unrevealed?

This is certainly a challenge.I would start on the other side of the game board in relation to the hero's entrance. And only movement in the hallways until they stumble upon the heroes. To keep patrol hidden from the players, use a small copy of the quest plan, thin metal plate and a magnet.
I guess the monster patrol is not smart enough to move around logical, a D6 and a direction dice will take care of that. First roll the direction dice to determine which direction and then the D6 to decide how far. I would mark a blank dice with Left, Left, Right, Right, Back, Forward.
The patrol leader will always go first and the rest will follow, in a line. The Game Master will roll some dice, and the heroes will not have a clue whats coming and from where.
Sorry for my bad English

[mitchiemasha]

A direction dice isn't really the right choice for a square based, corridor restricted game. That probably should be the first thing we think about forgetting.

[tallyho]

Found these.

Daedalus.
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=4068

Patroclus
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1710&p=20580&hilit=Evil+Wizard+Deck#p20580