Gotta say, I wasn't feeling this one. I can see how summons can be powerful, but it's a less interactive class and that's just not what I want from Gloomhaven. Went with a Vermling Mindthief instead.
To add this for people still looking to buy the game in the Chicago area, The Gaming Goat in Schaumburg had two giant stacks of Gloomhaven boxes last week. Probably a couple dozen copies.
Anybody think there would be any real problems with having multiple different people play the same character at different times? I have a lot of people I'd like to share the game with but I imagine most of them won't end up playing very often.
No I mean LITERALLY playing the same character. Not different characters of the same class. Just like, in one session Jim plays Lisa Stabmeister, scoundrel extraordinaire, and then at some later point Mike plays her. Obviously could have some issues if Jim and Mike ever end up in a group together, but that's just as true if they're technically playing 2 different scoundrels.
The only thing I've noticed so far that is SPECIFICALLY tied to player rather than character is how many extra perks a new character gets since it's based on how many times you've retired previously which could get... complicated... if there are multiple different people piloting the same character (and/or one person who has piloted a couple of different characters between retirements). My thinking is I'll just limit the number of "party slots" (probably to 6?) and keep track of which new character is replacing which retiring one. I'll have some time before that becomes a problem though, was just wondering if anything else would be wonky like that.
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
No I mean LITERALLY playing the same character. Not different characters of the same class. Just like, in one session Jim plays Lisa Stabmeister, scoundrel extraordinaire, and then at some later point Mike plays her. Obviously could have some issues if Jim and Mike ever end up in a group together, but that's just as true if they're technically playing 2 different scoundrels.
The only thing I've noticed so far that is SPECIFICALLY tied to player rather than character is how many extra perks a new character gets since it's based on how many times you've retired previously which could get... complicated... if there are multiple different people piloting the same character (and/or one person who has piloted a couple of different characters between retirements). My thinking is I'll just limit the number of "party slots" (probably to 6?) and keep track of which new character is replacing which retiring one. I'll have some time before that becomes a problem though, was just wondering if anything else would be wonky like that.
Oh, okay. Yeah, it advises something similar to your party slot option for if you're playing solo; should work fine.
Anybody have any thoughts or experience with the app that does fog of war for the scenarios?
We've tried it, but it ended up just being easier to ignore rooms past the starting one and use the book. You get out all your monster and terrain types at the start anyway, so you're only really risking knowledge of specific placements, and that stuff goes out of my mind about three seconds after seeing it. Occasionally I remember where a treasure tile is, but it's not like my Cragheart is ever quick enough to lead the way to it.
Scoundrel retired tonight. Scenario #60 spoilers, and we opened an envelope as a result. That mission is ridiculous.
Twelve turns to complete it, and from turn seven onwards you start taking two damage at the start of every turn? Nobody is allowed to exhaust until they get back to the entrance? Four tiles to loot, all buried in separate rooms? This was our first encounter with oozes, too, and they vaporized our Spellweaver on our first attempt. Succeeded the second time, albeit by the skin of our teeth; Cragheart exhausted on the doorstep, and the other two had one HP each and no cards to draw for the next turn.
At least it wasn't bears. Also, envelope X talk:
Have to admit I'm not terribly happy about this one. Player translated the text, and I guess we have to find ten letters... somewhere? We think we spotted one on the board when we were marking off the scenario, but it's pretty bloody vague, and what we actually do when we have them is a mystery. After that bonkers scenario, getting a riddle behind a code that seems to lead to another riddle is a bit frustrating.
There's some sort of ARG going on in celebration of Gloomhaven hitting #1 on BGG. I don't know a lot, but there's puzzle pieces being found and the creator is using #GloomhavenNumberOneCelebrationMarch31.
I just got spoiled on the Envelope X puzzle while looking for hints. If you want to avoid spoilers but want hints or other info (like if there's any reward), feel free to PM me and I'll do my best to help.
Vague "what am I supposed to do?" spoiler:
There are 10 letters hidden throughout the game. The first is in the letter itself, the rest are
mostly hidden in artwork and quests. There is at least one found
After having a victory in Scenario 4 denied to us last week on a technicality, we opted to venture out on a different path this week, heading all the way down to Scenario 65 since we had access to it.
The Sulfur Mine's layout and objective betrayed that we would have to split the party once again. As a Mindthief, I realized that I needed to head up the center because I lacked the movement to go down a wing and rejoin the party in a timely manner. Our Brute and Scoundrel thus took the first two wings while the Cragheart and I headed down the main lane. Fortunately Hounds and Vermling Scouts don't put up a big fight and eventually I opened the door to the main room containing a large army and an Inox Shaman. So of course I repeatedly turned invisible (I have both a Cloak and my Into the Night ability) and let them waste a bunch of their turns trying to get around the room's obstacles while my compatriots caught up/ran down one of the other wings, getting in my shots as I could — and at one point forcing one Scout to attack and poison a Hound before dying to the Hound's retaliation because that never gets old.
On one turn I had planned to do burn cards and inflict serious damage on the Shaman, but shockingly fast Hounds immobilized me instead and I had to audible into a pair of lesser actions. After recovering those cards, I was able to execute a Boots of Swiftness-assisted end run around a wall of boulders to Stun the Shaman, blasting him for 7 damage (of his 9 health) and poisoning him. On my next turn I finished him off and then looted everything within two hexes of me, including one of our goal treasures that was otherwise tucked behind two obstacles and a trap. The Scoundrel killed the last enemy and looted the final chest on the same turn I played my final two cards. Success, and nobody exhausted!
My combat goal for the scenario was to earn no more than 7xp. I overshot that slightly with 16 (the same amount of gold I looted, amusingly) but am now a mere 6xp away from level 3 so another perk is coming soon enough anyway. I have yet to achieve a single checkmark in 5 scenarios.
Temple of the Seer more like Temple of Bears We even picked it specifically because it sounded un-beary, but no, they still followed us. There was still one left when we all fell over from exhaustion, because the initial room full of high-shield, high-HP enemies drained our card pools. Frustrating. Oh well, at least my Cragheart got to retire.
Sawblade unlock:
This dude seems really powerful. Decent attacks, great at removing conditions, and he can pad out other player's decks with super buff healing cards. Our Tinkerer's on leave next week, so we'll probably try him on 13 again, because we were getting stun, muddle and poison all over the place.
Since it was the only one available we hadn't run yet, tonight we went into Scenario #3.
The prospect of having to pick off 20 Inox seemed daunting, but our Cragheart erected an impromptu wall to funnel the guards into a chokepoint. When they took a turn off moving to shield and poison up, two of the archers joined them in the killbox and fell victim to the AOE effects of the Cragheart and Brute. The spawns were gathering in front of their door. On the other side of the room, the Shaman and other two archers were stymied by my Mindtheif's stun effects while we picked off the remaining guards. I had to lose two of my discards to an untimely critical from on of them, but it didn't set me back too far.
My combat objective was to kill an elite, and the Shaman was the only one currently present. I set him up with a nasty strike that left him with 2HP and poisoned, but on the next turn he flipped his 8 initiative and was able to move before me, immobilizing me after he backed away one hex. He fell to one of my teammates instead. Damn.
Once we re-spawned all six Guards, we figured it was time to open the door and stop the spawning; we assumed there would be at least two enemies in the back room, and we were not wrong. I took some fire (and the Archers doubled up on the number of traps protecting the door), but a couple of lucky modifiers went my way and I was able to scurry away and regroup. We mopped up the respawned Guards, leaving us two kills short of the goal with three Archers remaining. The Cragheart decided that the treasure chest was his goal, barreling through one of the traps in the process and presenting me with a desperate opportunity. Using a Move 4/Stun an adjacent enemy to get behind the elite archer, I then unleashed my Fearsome Blade to strike him and then push him into two traps to finish him off and earn my first-ever check! These were my last two cards and I exhausted the following round, but we earned our 20th kill to complete the scenario and even opened the chest as a bonus.
The Scoundrel and I are now level 3 (again, I only needed 6xp to level up so that was all but inevitable), which mercifully let us add healing potions to our kit. I also added three muddle effects to my modifier deck, while the Scoundrel and Brute also perked (the former from leveling, the latter from checks). The Cragheart picked up some goggles to help him aim his ranged AOE effects, and our Brute has a shiny new helmet.
Not sure which path we'll take next time, since we once again have two (new) options. It feels like an important choice, and we're not likely to revisit Scenario 4 any time soon so looks like we won't be able to delay this.
Playing solo on TTS, still lvl 1 as a Scoundrel/Brute combo, having easily handled the Black Barrow, I went on to Scenario 3:
Where I lost by drawing a Miss on the Backstab that would have killed the last enemy I needed as both of my characters played their last turn. Would have won with any other card. Frustrating. I think I would have been better served by just chilling in the side room I opened for at least another round or 2 but with the relatively meager ranged and AoE options I have I was worried I wouldn't manage to get much accomplished before getting plinked to death by the Shaman and Archer. Especially since the Guards have 2 (or more?) cards without move so I couldn't really rely on them filing through the door for me to mow down safely. It's definitely an interesting tactical challenge but it left me dearly missing the characters I have going in my other campaigns (I play a Tinkerer in one group and a Cragheart in the other). Kind of a funny change since this pairing handled the first 2 scenarios so much better than my other groups.
You may have seen that opening envelope X is a possible result of achieving a character goal; it's my latest character's goal. I happened to notice a review of Gloomhaven on BGG titled "Six things Gloomhaven does wrong", which got me curious. Most of the things are meta-complaints that I don't necessarily disagree with, but one of them in particular seemed very interesting. Essentially, it was "the secrets in this game are incredibly obtuse and usually result in no effect for most groups of players." One of those secrets (the worst offender, you could say) is Envelope X. So I looked into it some more.
As it turns out, there are very few Google hits for "Gloomhaven Envelope X". This is because Isaac, the designer, has asked people not to talk about on the internet. There is however a relatively new thread on BGG that lays out the entire secret in a series of successive, nested spoilers. As you can imagine, it's caused some controversy over there.
Personally, having played the game for 18 months and come across or noticed none of these things, I think this particular secret is buried a little too deep. The payoff is pretty sweet, too, but I can guarantee without the spoiler thread there's 0% chance myself or anyone in my group would have ever unraveled it entirely.
That's all I'll say about it for now; I'm curious what you folks think. Is a secret in a boardgame that perhaps 1% of your player base will ever fully experience too obtuse? My first two retired characters unlocked new classes that I leapt into playing immediately, and that was a very rewarding experience. The "reward" for opening Envelope X is simply the start of a very complicated, objectively tedious process. I would probably wish I'd taken a different character goal.
Edit: Oh, and there's a typo in a part of the secret process that potentially breaks the process. If you don't consult the FAQ on BGG, you'd never know. :rotate:
Took a shot at painting the current characters in a 2 player game.
Brute:
Angry Face:
That's a great brute! (didnt look at the angry face because I haven't unlocked it yet )
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FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
Is a secret in a boardgame that perhaps 1% of your player base will ever fully experience too obtuse?
No. GLOOMHAVEN is so clearly the result of one guy's creative vision that if his vision entails a super-secret objective, I don't see any harm. It's certainly in keeping with the game's persona of layers upon layers of narrative that will only be unlocked slowly over multiple campaigns, if they are unlocked at all.
There's no issue with it, except that this particular one is part of a personal quest. Two of them, I'd guess, if I remember icon distribution right. And, as has happened with us, a player has opened that envelope and got something which might be cool, later, but right now has just left them choosing between the two remaining starter characters. If they'd added some sort of immediate benefit, even a small one like an item, I'd probably be much cooler with it.
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FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
Given this--
but right now has just left them choosing between the two remaining starter characters
, I would certainly not feel wrong in choosing another character class from one of the sealed boxes.
Is a secret in a boardgame that perhaps 1% of your player base will ever fully experience too obtuse?
No. GLOOMHAVEN is so clearly the result of one guy's creative vision that if his vision entails a super-secret objective, I don't see any harm. It's certainly in keeping with the game's persona of layers upon layers of narrative that will only be unlocked slowly over multiple campaigns, if they are unlocked at all.
That argument could absolve anything - "Well, I guess the creative vision is that the second half of the scenario book is just German Scientology pamphlets." Sometimes bits of creative vision kinda suck, that's why we invented the internet, so we could complain about them.
The puzzle isn't hard, it's just obtuse. I don't have a problem with the designer including it, but it's a crap retirement reward, and getting huffy that people were teaming up to solve it feels a bit sanctimonious. It could have made a good scenario reward - "you beat the game, now solve this puzzle to unlock the reward!"
Not sure which path we'll take next time, since we once again have two (new) options. It feels like an important choice, and we're not likely to revisit Scenario 4 any time soon so looks like we won't be able to delay this.
I was wrong. We kicked the can of that decision down the road a little and got our revenge on Scenario 4 tonight. That at least opened up another decision, although not really because one of those paths sounds like a giant party of unfun.
Not sure which path we'll take next time, since we once again have two (new) options. It feels like an important choice, and we're not likely to revisit Scenario 4 any time soon so looks like we won't be able to delay this.
I was wrong. We kicked the can of that decision down the road a little and got our revenge on Scenario 4 tonight. That at least opened up another decision, although not really because one of those paths sounds like a giant party of unfun.
We too are putting off this decision, and doing some side mission stuff for the moment.
I myself want to go after Jekserah, the implication that we either killed the kids, or at least left them parentless is not sitting well with my Scoundrel. One of the other players is happy to keep doing Jekserahs bidding, as long as we get paid. The last member of our party is undecided, so we're going to clear some crypts while we decide.
Still, Gloomhaven night tonight. We're going to try and get two scenarios done, starting with number 5 and seeing what we open up. I can't wait to use the new Battleaxe I've acquired to finally be able to melee more than one guy at a time (even if it's only once).
We were lucky with some blessing pulls, and my Battleaxe with Tricksters Reversal let me deal quite effectively with the flame demons. After a quick dash back to Gloomhaven we decided to jump into scary dark portal which lead to scenario 10.
Scenario 10 was a bit trickier
The earth demons seem scary, but they're just giant sacks of HP, don't get too close and you're fine. The return of the flame demons was annoying, but Sun Demons are the worst. Shield 1, and they get advantage? No thanks. Our Cragheart was really enjoying his new card that allowed him to create obstacles and damage things adjacent, but he went too far and made it hard for us to get to the monsters. We got into the last room, and assumed we weren't going to make it, so I just ran to the chest letting my Magma Waders help me with the lava. But then it turned out we could win, I could kill the last Elite Sun Demon, but the Cragheart begged me to let him do it. Luckily he did, and now he can retire. So we've got a few choices ahead of us.
Also, found out we've been playing Advantage/Disadvantage wrong in regards to rolling modifiers. We've just been making two attacks, and choosing the best/worst, but you only pull 2 cards total, and if one's a rolling modifier you can't choose it. So it's possible to null with advantage, or crit with disadvantage. This seems counter-intuitive, but we'll change and see how it goes. I've been leaning heavily on my Eagle Eye Goggles, but maybe it's time to get a different hat.
With both advantage and disadvantage, you draw two, and draw more if they're both rolling until at least one of them isn't. Then either add it all together for advantage, or ignore all the rollings for disadvantage.
This does mean that if you introduce rolling cards to your deck, you can now miss when you have advantage, which a lot of people seem unhappy about. The effects do still apply, though, if it's something like a stun or an element.
With both advantage and disadvantage, you draw two, and draw more if they're both rolling until at least one of them isn't. Then either add it all together for advantage, or ignore all the rollings for disadvantage.
This does mean that if you introduce rolling cards to your deck, you can now miss when you have advantage, which a lot of people seem unhappy about. The effects do still apply, though, if it's something like a stun or an element.
A lot of people houserule that one to avoid the whole "miss with advantage" thing. Most will draw whole stacks with rolling then create a 2nd stack when they hit non-rolling. I think that ends up pretty broken though. My personal houserule is to just draw again if I get a miss with advantage (and likewise with 2xs and disadvantage).
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
With both advantage and disadvantage, you draw two, and draw more if they're both rolling until at least one of them isn't. Then either add it all together for advantage, or ignore all the rollings for disadvantage.
This does mean that if you introduce rolling cards to your deck, you can now miss when you have advantage, which a lot of people seem unhappy about. The effects do still apply, though, if it's something like a stun or an element.
A lot of people houserule that one to avoid the whole "miss with advantage" thing. Most will draw whole stacks with rolling then create a 2nd stack when they hit non-rolling. I think that ends up pretty broken though. My personal houserule is to just draw again if I get a miss with advantage (and likewise with 2xs and disadvantage).
I'm one of those most-people; we've been playing "draw 2 complete stacks, keep the better / worse," for our entire play-time. Mostly what it does is create more shuffling with similar overall results, but I have to concede that as we've acquired characters that can seed blessings into our decks the results have been dramatic on occasion. Until you've got access to those (not just the temple-donation option), I don't think it makes a huge difference.
On the Goggles subject, and just items generally, a lot of the not-advantage-generating, later-appearing alternative items I've seen don't have enough uses per match to pay off to the degree one might hope versus Goggles and a few of the other starting items, notably Minor Stamina Potions and the Bow. There are definitely some that do, but the disappointing power-level of some of the item designs you can discover on random pulls, or you'll unlock over time, is a bit of a knock. I find myself wondering if the randomized character unlocks past the starting 6 hurt playtesting of the equipment-spread.
I can definitely say that some items we've found would've been a little crazy to start the game with, but they're the minority.
I just got finished organizing the game and taking everything apart via the Broken Token Organizer. I don't see how anyone could play this game without it, man, cause holy shit - putting that together then organizing it all in the box was pure sorcery. It all just fit so NEATLY together.
A few questions.
1. Suggested starting classes for a four player game?
2. How the hell do I put together the monster attack deck? I have the base labeled cards that are all labeled "M", but after that I'm confused.
I just got finished organizing the game and taking everything apart via the Broken Token Organizer. I don't see how anyone could play this game without it, man, cause holy shit - putting that together then organizing it all in the box was pure sorcery. It all just fit so NEATLY together.
A few questions.
1. Suggested starting classes for a four player game?
2. How the hell do I put together the monster attack deck? I have the base labeled cards that are all labeled "M", but after that I'm confused.
Posts
I didn't want to let my Craheart go either! I'm really digging Cthulhu, though.
PSN: ShinyRedKnight Xbox Live: ShinyRedKnight
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
The only thing I've noticed so far that is SPECIFICALLY tied to player rather than character is how many extra perks a new character gets since it's based on how many times you've retired previously which could get... complicated... if there are multiple different people piloting the same character (and/or one person who has piloted a couple of different characters between retirements). My thinking is I'll just limit the number of "party slots" (probably to 6?) and keep track of which new character is replacing which retiring one. I'll have some time before that becomes a problem though, was just wondering if anything else would be wonky like that.
Oh, okay. Yeah, it advises something similar to your party slot option for if you're playing solo; should work fine.
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
We've tried it, but it ended up just being easier to ignore rooms past the starting one and use the book. You get out all your monster and terrain types at the start anyway, so you're only really risking knowledge of specific placements, and that stuff goes out of my mind about three seconds after seeing it. Occasionally I remember where a treasure tile is, but it's not like my Cragheart is ever quick enough to lead the way to it.
At least it wasn't bears. Also, envelope X talk:
Vague "what am I supposed to do?" spoiler:
On one turn I had planned to do burn cards and inflict serious damage on the Shaman, but shockingly fast Hounds immobilized me instead and I had to audible into a pair of lesser actions. After recovering those cards, I was able to execute a Boots of Swiftness-assisted end run around a wall of boulders to Stun the Shaman, blasting him for 7 damage (of his 9 health) and poisoning him. On my next turn I finished him off and then looted everything within two hexes of me, including one of our goal treasures that was otherwise tucked behind two obstacles and a trap. The Scoundrel killed the last enemy and looted the final chest on the same turn I played my final two cards. Success, and nobody exhausted!
My combat goal for the scenario was to earn no more than 7xp. I overshot that slightly with 16 (the same amount of gold I looted, amusingly) but am now a mere 6xp away from level 3 so another perk is coming soon enough anyway. I have yet to achieve a single checkmark in 5 scenarios.
Scenario #13:
Sawblade unlock:
My combat objective was to kill an elite, and the Shaman was the only one currently present. I set him up with a nasty strike that left him with 2HP and poisoned, but on the next turn he flipped his 8 initiative and was able to move before me, immobilizing me after he backed away one hex. He fell to one of my teammates instead. Damn.
Once we re-spawned all six Guards, we figured it was time to open the door and stop the spawning; we assumed there would be at least two enemies in the back room, and we were not wrong. I took some fire (and the Archers doubled up on the number of traps protecting the door), but a couple of lucky modifiers went my way and I was able to scurry away and regroup. We mopped up the respawned Guards, leaving us two kills short of the goal with three Archers remaining. The Cragheart decided that the treasure chest was his goal, barreling through one of the traps in the process and presenting me with a desperate opportunity. Using a Move 4/Stun an adjacent enemy to get behind the elite archer, I then unleashed my Fearsome Blade to strike him and then push him into two traps to finish him off and earn my first-ever check! These were my last two cards and I exhausted the following round, but we earned our 20th kill to complete the scenario and even opened the chest as a bonus.
The Scoundrel and I are now level 3 (again, I only needed 6xp to level up so that was all but inevitable), which mercifully let us add healing potions to our kit. I also added three muddle effects to my modifier deck, while the Scoundrel and Brute also perked (the former from leveling, the latter from checks). The Cragheart picked up some goggles to help him aim his ranged AOE effects, and our Brute has a shiny new helmet.
Not sure which path we'll take next time, since we once again have two (new) options. It feels like an important choice, and we're not likely to revisit Scenario 4 any time soon so looks like we won't be able to delay this.
Brute:
Angry Face:
As it turns out, there are very few Google hits for "Gloomhaven Envelope X". This is because Isaac, the designer, has asked people not to talk about on the internet. There is however a relatively new thread on BGG that lays out the entire secret in a series of successive, nested spoilers. As you can imagine, it's caused some controversy over there.
Personally, having played the game for 18 months and come across or noticed none of these things, I think this particular secret is buried a little too deep. The payoff is pretty sweet, too, but I can guarantee without the spoiler thread there's 0% chance myself or anyone in my group would have ever unraveled it entirely.
That's all I'll say about it for now; I'm curious what you folks think. Is a secret in a boardgame that perhaps 1% of your player base will ever fully experience too obtuse? My first two retired characters unlocked new classes that I leapt into playing immediately, and that was a very rewarding experience. The "reward" for opening Envelope X is simply the start of a very complicated, objectively tedious process. I would probably wish I'd taken a different character goal.
Edit: Oh, and there's a typo in a part of the secret process that potentially breaks the process. If you don't consult the FAQ on BGG, you'd never know. :rotate:
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
That's a great brute! (didnt look at the angry face because I haven't unlocked it yet
No. GLOOMHAVEN is so clearly the result of one guy's creative vision that if his vision entails a super-secret objective, I don't see any harm. It's certainly in keeping with the game's persona of layers upon layers of narrative that will only be unlocked slowly over multiple campaigns, if they are unlocked at all.
That argument could absolve anything - "Well, I guess the creative vision is that the second half of the scenario book is just German Scientology pamphlets." Sometimes bits of creative vision kinda suck, that's why we invented the internet, so we could complain about them.
The puzzle isn't hard, it's just obtuse. I don't have a problem with the designer including it, but it's a crap retirement reward, and getting huffy that people were teaming up to solve it feels a bit sanctimonious. It could have made a good scenario reward - "you beat the game, now solve this puzzle to unlock the reward!"
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
I was wrong. We kicked the can of that decision down the road a little and got our revenge on Scenario 4 tonight. That at least opened up another decision, although not really because one of those paths sounds like a giant party of unfun.
We too are putting off this decision, and doing some side mission stuff for the moment.
Still, Gloomhaven night tonight. We're going to try and get two scenarios done, starting with number 5 and seeing what we open up. I can't wait to use the new Battleaxe I've acquired to finally be able to melee more than one guy at a time (even if it's only once).
Scenario 10 was a bit trickier
Also, found out we've been playing Advantage/Disadvantage wrong in regards to rolling modifiers. We've just been making two attacks, and choosing the best/worst, but you only pull 2 cards total, and if one's a rolling modifier you can't choose it. So it's possible to null with advantage, or crit with disadvantage. This seems counter-intuitive, but we'll change and see how it goes. I've been leaning heavily on my Eagle Eye Goggles, but maybe it's time to get a different hat.
Cool, so with advantage if you keep pulling rolling modifiers that becomes one attack, but you don't get a choice?
I beginning to think I'll add more rolling modifiers after I've done all the other perks.
This does mean that if you introduce rolling cards to your deck, you can now miss when you have advantage, which a lot of people seem unhappy about. The effects do still apply, though, if it's something like a stun or an element.
A lot of people houserule that one to avoid the whole "miss with advantage" thing. Most will draw whole stacks with rolling then create a 2nd stack when they hit non-rolling. I think that ends up pretty broken though. My personal houserule is to just draw again if I get a miss with advantage (and likewise with 2xs and disadvantage).
I'm one of those most-people; we've been playing "draw 2 complete stacks, keep the better / worse," for our entire play-time. Mostly what it does is create more shuffling with similar overall results, but I have to concede that as we've acquired characters that can seed blessings into our decks the results have been dramatic on occasion. Until you've got access to those (not just the temple-donation option), I don't think it makes a huge difference.
On the Goggles subject, and just items generally, a lot of the not-advantage-generating, later-appearing alternative items I've seen don't have enough uses per match to pay off to the degree one might hope versus Goggles and a few of the other starting items, notably Minor Stamina Potions and the Bow. There are definitely some that do, but the disappointing power-level of some of the item designs you can discover on random pulls, or you'll unlock over time, is a bit of a knock. I find myself wondering if the randomized character unlocks past the starting 6 hurt playtesting of the equipment-spread.
I can definitely say that some items we've found would've been a little crazy to start the game with, but they're the minority.
A few questions.
1. Suggested starting classes for a four player game?
2. How the hell do I put together the monster attack deck? I have the base labeled cards that are all labeled "M", but after that I'm confused.
2. Shuffle it. Done!