by Kurgan » September 28th, 2022, 12:19 pm
Each expansion recommends playing earlier quests from the Game System. I think this is not not just to give the players experience playing "easier" quests to understand the mechanics of the game (since expansions tend to build upon this and add new stuff), but also so that they have saved up some equipment, gold, Artifacts, etc. which they will need in these harder quests.
If you're not going to play those quests, it would make sense to take some of the things they would have found earlier and place it into the early quests of the new expansion, so adding extra gold, possibly starting equipment, Artifacts that are found as special treasures early on, etc. If you don't do this, the new quests will be much harder. It's akin to the rule that says you can play with less than four heroes... you can certainly do this but it will increase the difficulty of the quests (that were written for at least four heroes).
The solo quests were a new thing, I presume they were added for the same reason we got new starting quests with this remake. New Beginnings was introduced as an easier introduction to the game than The Trial which many found too difficult for brand new & younger players. Or Into the Northlands because so many of us found the solo quests of Frozen Horror to be way too punishing for a new player!
Many of us have had the situation in which there weren't enough players to fill out all the roles and a new player didn't want to control four heroes (which is a lot more work than just controlling one, a lot more to keep track of, and hero turns can take much longer as a result). Or else cases in which there is a group who is adding a new player but they don't know the game yet and so this is supposed to get them up to speed (the designers just goofed up and made the solo quests of EQP/BQP ONE difficulty that was really more designed for veteran players... and oddly they gave them gear that a veteran player would most likely have already). So a better way would have been to have scalable difficulty... "if this is the hero player's first campaign then..." (and give them more stuff) vs. "if this is an experienced hero player.." (and give them less, or just give them gold). At a certain point it is assumed that unless the really gets into a tight spot and dies, losing all his stuff, he's going to have everything he needs, and then just spend his excess gold on stockpiling potions and/or hiring mercenaries.
Of course as Zargon you can handle the solo quests as you wish. The Solo Quests in Dave Morris' novels are pretty easy, "just right" for their purpose of a solo, inexperienced or lightly experience player, while the EQP and BQP quests (especially the first first in each of those serieses) is better for a small group, either a single hero with mercenaries (or animal companion as Avalon Hill suggested with Into the Northlands) or just flat out more than one hero.
= white skull, one "hit"
= black skull, one "hit"
= shield, cancels out one "hit"
