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Dwimm Profile
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Novice

Registered: 06-2015
Posts: 2
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Those very harsh adventures


Hey everybody,

After years of taking dust at home, I've rediscovered my WQuest box and found some friends to play some games again. How did I forget how fun this game is, I don't know.

Still, there are one or two things that I do not find that fun, but as often with old GW rules, it's easy to modify or house rule them slightly following your desires. I do not like that, nor do I do it often, but sometimes it's useful/necessary.

We've been confronted during two games with two specific adventures that we did not find fair, nor fun. We have no problem dying from an overload of monsters, or by an abundance of traps, but :

- There is that fighting pit adventure where the barbarian has to solo a 20 Wounds Minotaur with no help. Unless you get extremely lucky, this will simply not happen. Are you supposed to let the Barbarian die every time, and then let the 3 other heroes kill the minotaur and leave the dungeon ? How is it supposed to be fun ?

- Even worse, there is that fountain of light adventure where the warriors HAVE TO find the objective room or lose their soul definitively, and then even HAVE TO roll an arbitrary value to just survive the waters. I mean, after having carried your Elf in 6 consecutive dungeons, it's a bit harsh to get a "you die on a 1 or a 2" adventure.

How do you handle those kind of quests ?
29/Jun/2015, 8:05 pm Link to this post Send Email to Dwimm   Send PM to Dwimm Blog
 
OldWarrior Profile
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God

Registered: 04-2006
Location: USA, Western hemisphere, earth
Posts: 1283
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Re: Those very harsh adventures


You make some good points I think. I will give some of my ideas from my own experience of encountering these types of Adventures both with brand new Warriors and with Warriors who have some experience under their belts.

My first thought is that the Adventure Book is written mostly with the basic rules in mind. By this I mean that the players take their Warriors with the Starting stats -- using the Warrior info cards -- and the weapons and equipment that they begin with into the Adventure as a one-off game. The single Adventure is the entire game. Therefore, it is no great loss for the Warriors to die. It just means that those players lost this time. Maybe they will win next time they play. emoticon

I DO, however, realize that these Adventures were also intended to be used -- that they could be used -- with the advanced rules. I just think that they overall tend to be more appropriate for the basic game -- or at least seem to be designed so.

Then there is Luck. It is wise, if possible, to save it for the really mean Objectives in which the roll of the dice might kill the Warrior. Also, do not forget that Warriors can purchase Lucky Charms from the Pedlar Hazard (#16), which are useful for one Luck point per Adventure. There might also be some treasures that can help in a similar way.

A Barbarian versus a 20 Wounds Minotaur -- That does seem to be a bit over the top, especially if this is indeed the only (or first) Adventure in which this particular Barbarian has participated. But there is nothing preventing the Wizard from healing him, unless someone wishes to interpret "not helping" very strictly. Magic is not supposed to be used to hurt the Minotaur -- at least as I understand the Adventure.

However, see this part of the rules for the Adventure:

quote:

When the Warriors enter the objective room place a Minotaur in any square in the pit. The Minotaur will not climb out of the pit unless attacked by a Warrior with missile weapons or magic. The Minotaur attacks in the Monsters’ Phase as normal.



It seems to me that the writer(s) of this Adventure left some room for "bending the rules" a bit. Of course, if the Barbarian moves to where he pins the Minotaur, then the Minotaur would no longer be able to climb out of the pit IF the others did hurt it.

I think as long as the Barbarian performs the final blow to kill the Minotaur, then he will get all the gold (as per the normal rules), BUT, he could be a bit upset with anyone who assisted by shooting or casting magic at the Minotaur. emoticon So, I see here some room for the roleplaying aspect of the game, for those who so desire...

Again, if the Barbarian has been on other Adventures before this one, then he will be more likely to have better or more armour, better weapon(s), maybe something that can heal him... Then too, if he has gained at least one Battle-Level, he will have more Wounds. If lucky enough, he might have gotten something really useful during this same Adventure.

What to do if the Barbarian Dies? -- I have not thought of that much. Mostly, it does not happen in the games I play. However, yes, I do remember the Barbarian getting killed. I also faintly remember that my other Warriors killed it, usually in part by the Dwarf jumping into the pit to protect the Wizard and Elf.

Rerolling the Random Adventure -- For any Adventure that I find untenable for any reason, I think it is acceptable to reroll the random Adventure. I like to think of it as a sort of GM-like function of the dice. GMs in Warhammer Quest and probably most other types of games with GMs (or DMs), probably use their judgment on a fairly regular basis to avoid some of the really nasty and nearly or entirely impossible challenges for the sake of making the game more fun for the players. So, why not reroll the Adventure once in a while? I mean, the game is designed so that you can play without a GM, but not necessarily without some of the common sense that we would hope the GM would use.

I have a friend who says that "Warriors should never die outside the dungeon". That was his argument for not letting my single surviving Elf die in a combat just outside the next settlement. While I disagreed with him at the time, I recognized that as GM, he manipulated the story (including the combat in this instance) to get the result that agreed with his philosophy of how the game should run. Similar to Dwimm's statement about being overrun with enemies, this GM was willing enough to let the other three Warriors die in combat with the dirty daemons of Nurgle!

So, I guess I am proposing a little manipulation here, if the Adventure doesn't fit one's gaming style. I play Magic the Gathering a bit, and often use the Mulligan rule (shuffle and draw a new set of cards) to gain a better starting hand. Maybe my idea of rerolling the Adventure could be considered a "Mulligan". emoticon

Warrior Monk, another member here, says that his group is very methodical and actually chooses the Adventures they wish to embark upon. I would not necessarily have a problem with that if I were a part of such a gaming group.

Anyway, as some of us here are apt to say, Do what works for you and your group. The overall objective is to have fun! emoticon

Last edited by OldWarrior, 30/Jun/2015, 2:57 pm


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Old Warrior

Check out Bible Notes
It is one of my favorite places on the Internet.
God bless you, everyone!
30/Jun/2015, 2:56 pm Link to this post Send Email to OldWarrior   Send PM to OldWarrior Blog
 
Warrior Monk Profile
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Lord

Registered: 09-2013
Location: Northern Rockies
Posts: 281
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Re: Those very harsh adventures


Took a while, but I "heard" my name.

Dwimm, you are the one playing the game.
Not Andy, Gav, Ian or any of the rest of us that had anything to do with the development or the later permutations of the game.
YOU decide on what is going on.

Old Warrior is right - we do not roll up random adventures here or in our group in Maryland.
Our "group" in WHQ is an adventuring group - mercenaries in modern parlance.
We choose our contracts.

We, on occasion, roll up a set of of adventures as the list of currently available contracts, but we do not allow the dice to determine the one and only thing we can do.
That has to do with most of ours actual professions and the mindset from that.
Andy thought that "charming" 'once upon a time'.
Oh well.

Moreover Dwimm, there are only so few adventures in the book meanwhile there are a lot more things to do in the Olde World.
Come up with your own adventure to experience.

Dwimm, you are choosing your adventure with the choice of randomization.
You have to live with your choices.
You can make different choices.

Good luck on your future adventures!

Last edited by Warrior Monk, 7/Jul/2015, 6:26 am


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In service of Deity, the Latter-day Prophet, the de la Valette and mankind.
7/Jul/2015, 6:25 am Link to this post Send Email to Warrior Monk   Send PM to Warrior Monk Blog
 
Edquest Profile
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Lord

Registered: 09-2011
Posts: 318
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Re: Those very harsh adventures


it rankles a little bit that even at level 10 you can just fall into the firechasm potentially or the pulling stuff out of the fountain of life.

but with higher level games I just ignore that fluff and the objective room just has a roll on the monster objective room table, I worry little about the specifics.

---
most of my posts may run into essay length. I find that for a lot of queries/feedback context is important and that is why this happens more often than not.

have a great day :D
8/Jul/2015, 6:28 am Link to this post Send Email to Edquest   Send PM to Edquest Blog
 


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