Other Uses for Black Shield??

[cynthialee]

There are many tools we can use to deal with power creep and imbalance issues.
One of the biggest imbalance issues I come across is my players are not schleps. They have tactical thinking and problem solving skills in spades when it comes to combat. {tricks, traps and puzzles are not however their strong suit.} When I run a HQ game by the book they are yawning and looking at the clock. Once I spruce it up and make some changes, including making it more difficult, they get excited to play and talk tactics and make plans all night long as we play.
They came to HQ with a solid grounding in RPG dungeon crawling. Adding in difficult Mind and Body checks satisfies their need for challenges. Making Boss monsters that are almost Raid Bosses is good stuff...

[timberwolf73]

Cimckay,
Actually I said critical miss not critical hit in regards to black shields...meaning if more black shields than skulls were rolled it would be an auto miss, no need for the target to roll defense dice.

[mitchiemasha]

Rolling three Skulls is a "critical hit". Let the odds of actually rolling multiple skull be your critical hit, not some one-off Black Shield. Altering existing rules that way is unnecessary.

Same here

I think using it as described for half ass dart traps is brilliant. I will be taking that

I'll be taking that too

I do have weapons break if all Black Shields are rolled in attack or defense. It becomes rarer the stronger the weapon, however if it has higher attack, I imagine higher quality so less chance to break.

The 'Higher Quality' is how i themed it when i first realised the ideas floors. I extensively playtested the mod and it has more errors. Rolling 5 black shields NEVER happens, it so rare. This becomes a huge problem in defence due to the weapons being +1, buying a helmet now reduces the chances of a shield breaking. I really wanted to hold on to it being all black, it fits perfectly with the simplicity of core HeroQuest, but it just doesn't work. It only takes up 1 line of text to be a new rule to the game, which is part of it beauty. I'd seen many other slightly similar mods but they over complicated it, needed more explination. It took me way longer than it should of to reach the version i have today.

A 4Ad6 would still only break on 4. Fitting the 'higher quality' aspect but lock the black shields to the weapons strength, not how many dice you actually roll, now using potions and magic increases the chance of damage, which fits theme perfectly. A +1 defensive weapon is seen as a 3. The rule writes simply as

"DAMAGE: Discard an equipped weapon when rolling black shields equal or more than it's strength (+1 defensive count as 3)"

I think that handing a spare potion here or there is a great way to keep an age appropriate person engaged. You don't cater to making them win but you don't let them just fail. I'd never do that for adult players, but without a doubt for kids, whose cognition is not the same as an adult. The goal fun. If it enhances the fun for the kids or even for me as the Zargon/dad, then screw it, I'm gonna throw that extra potion here or there to make the fun last longer.

This brings back memories of an amazing Quest In kellars. I had a hero die, only for the group to eventually find potions beyond a secret door, which was the next room but found many turns after death. I was hinting like mad, they believed i'd done it to wind them up, in the end showing them the map, "see 2 potions, they were there all along", priceless HQ moments.

[mitchiemasha]

Cimckay,
I said critical miss not critical hit in regards to black shields...meaning if more black shields than skulls were rolled it would be an auto miss, no need for the target to roll defense dice.

We can have something similar linked to an ancient artifact in the tomb or the sorcerers power, Specific to the Quest, in the QUEST NOTES. Now were not changing the game but spicing it up!

"Ancient magic enchants the Chaos Warriors armour through it's orb" Each black shield rolled against them in attack negates a skulls. Destroy the source of this power if you wish to survive...

Like Cynthialee said, i'm all for spicing up the game, in many cases it's essential. We have to get creative with these ideas, give them a reason in theme.

[kyrrahn]

Yeah, I like the idea of the black shield being a parry and removes one dice on your opponents next attack/defence.